CULTURAL NORMS AND MITIGATION OF FACE-THREATENING ACTS IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES OF PAKISTAN: A PRAGMATIC AND SOCIOCULTURAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Face-threatening acts (FTAs) are also a part and parcel of human interaction especially where the speakers carry out communicative functions namely requests, refusals, instructions, and criticisms. The way of how such acts are alleviated is entrenched in cultural norms and sociolinguistic conventions. This paper explores the mitigation measures used in acts of face threat in four native Pakistani languages that include the Pakistani Punjabi, Saraiki, Urdu, and Sindhi on a pragmatic and sociocultural context. The study is based on the politeness theory and face theory to understanding the influence of cultural values like respect, hierarchy, collectivism, and solidarity on linguistic decisions in spoken everyday communication. The data were gathered using a qualitative research design in form of naturally observed conversations and discourse completion tasks (DCTs) of native speakers of the four languages. It has been found that mitigation strategies are similar and language specific such as honorifics, indirectness, hedging, use of kinship terms and religious expressions. The paper emphasizes the role of culture in developing pragmatic competence and adds to the emerging literature of indigenous pragmatics study in Pakistan.