Managing 'Face' in urban public transport: Polite request strategies in commuter omnibus discourse in Harare

This article examine the request strategies in commuter discourse invlovling the bus crew(conductors, touts and drivers) and passengers in Harare. The present study consider requests in commuter transport as face threatening acts (FTA), hence need for the commuter crew to strategically shape their communicative actions to achieve their overall discourse goal of getting passengers to perform actions that are in their own interest with minimun resistance or confrontation. The crew presented itself by using communicative devises that prompt the passengers to evaluate it positively as warm, frindly and modest and respectful. However,the passengers' responses to th request range from the compliance to resistance depending on their interpretation of the speaker's motive and the probable social consequences.