Impoliteness and Face-Threatening Acts as Conversational Strategies among Undergraduates of State Universities in Southwest Nigeria

This study investigates the specific patterns and functions of impolite and face-threatening acts (imp/FTAs) among undergraduates of state universities in the southwestern part of Nigeria in order to find out whether imp/FTAs necessarily lead to a disruption and breakdown of conversations. The study is further concerned with investigating the hearer’s response to imp/FTA and reasons for such response. Subjecting some recorded conversations of the undergraduates under study to descriptive analysis using Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory and Watt’s relational work, the study notes that despite the profusion of imp/FTAs in the conversations, they did not lead to a disruption or breakdown of conversations as hearers often disregarded the tokens or made mild comments to show that they noticed the imp/FTAs while they still sustained the conversations. The study concludes that imp/FTAs among undergraduates are discursive and context-bound since interactants regard imp/FTAs as conversational strategies.