Polite Requests in Non-Native Varieties of English: The Case of Ghanaian English

Abstract

Although Several Studies have been carried out on the theory of politeness , the definition of this notion varies among linguists and according to languages and cultures: what is polite and socially appropriate in one context or culture may be considered impolite or excessively polite in another. Further, rules of politeness may be transferred from a first language to a second language by learners who maintained hybridized usage due to these transfers. In this article we demonstrate the maintenance of some of these transfers in politeness strategies in Ghanaian English . This variety is influenced by the cultural norms of politeness of some Ghanaian languages whose speakers fuse native speaker conventions with English politeness conventions . We discuss herein some hybridized forms that result from cultural transfers from one Ghanaian language, Akan.