THE USE OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE EDO LANGUAGE

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the Use of Politeness Strategies in the Edo language. It identifies and analyses the use of euphemisms, idioms, proverbs and kinship terms as politeness strategies and how they help the Edo speakers in communication.

Data for this work was collected from interactions with native speakers of the language, it uses descriptions from native speakers on the use of politeness strategies as well as already published works on the Edo language. Politeness strategies in this work are based on Brown and levinson’s politeness theory, although this works utilizes different politeness strategies from Brown and Levinson it shares the same fundamental idea that politeness strategies are used to manage or mitigate risks we face in every conversation. This paper uses the standard variety of the Edo language spoken in the Oredo Local Government area of Benin city, Edo state.

This study found that the Edo people use politeness strategies mostly as a way of showing respect to elders and those in authority like the Oba (king).