AN INVESTIGATION OF GENDER BASED DIFFERENCES IN POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN PAKISTANI INDIGENOUS SPEECH COMMUNITIES

Abstract

Politeness strategies determine the daily communication and the manner of how social roles are negotiated based on language. This paper explores the gender difference in politeness strategies of speakers of five native languages of Pakistan, i.e., Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, and Balochi. Data were collected on three hundred native speakers by a scenario based questionnaire using a quantitative dominant mixed method approach and suppressed by thirty semi structured interviews. The scenarios were different in interlocutor age and kinship relation as well as social distance so as to find the context sensitive variations. Statistical analysis indicates that there is a high gender related variation between strategy frequency and strategy type. Women would have chosen an indirectness mitigation and positive politeness strategy and men would choose to use a direct and authority oriented strategy in a public and formal situation. Gender effects were moderated by age and kinship and gave mixed patterns of language. Qualitative data elucidated the influence of gendered pragmatic decision-making under the effects of cultural norms of respect modesty and honour. The research provides empirical input to the sociopragmatic theory as well as application to the multilingual Pakistan in language education and intercultural communication.