Apologies in Akan discourse

“Mama Zimbi, pls help me!” – Gender differences in (im)politeness in Ghanaian English advice-giving on Facebook

“…Although Brown and Levinson's politeness theory claims to be universal and applicable to different cultures, it has been criticized for being Anglocentric (see, for example, Watts 2003). Speech acts such as requests, which are regarded as intrinsic FTAs in politeness theory (Brown and Levinson 1987: 65 f.), do not necessarily threaten the face of the addressee in the collectivistic Akan society in Ghana (Obeng 1999). 3 Similar findings have been reported about the Igbo of Nigeria (Nwoye 1992).…”

“…While scholars from Asian countries such as Japan and China have reacted to this by proposing analytical frameworks to account for the specific notions of politeness in their cultures (e.g., Gu 1990;Ide 1992), studies on politeness in African contexts mostly draw on Western frameworks Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University Authenticated Download Date | 6/10/15 4:40 AM (e.g., Obeng 1999, Kasanga 2006. 4 Anchimbe and Janney (2011) note that these might be insufficient to account for "interactional patterns in collectivistic African societies because important concepts that would be required to explain them are simply filtered out" (2011: 1453).…”

“…4 Anchimbe and Janney (2011) note that these might be insufficient to account for "interactional patterns in collectivistic African societies because important concepts that would be required to explain them are simply filtered out" (2011: 1453). Research on address terms as a salient aspect of language use in African countries (also in the context of gender, see Atanga et al 2013b) has provided insight into politeness in postcolonial societies (e.g., Obeng 1999;Anchimbe 2008). Kinship terms in particular can be used to show respect and may function as politeness strategies.…”

On historical Chinese apology and its strategic application

“…Works that study apology regularly touch on routine/ritualised formulae. Consider Matsumoto (1988), Obeng (1999) and others for examining apology formulae in given languages; Cohen and Olshtain (1981), Olshtain and Cohen (1983), Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984), Blum-Kulka et al (1989), Suszczyń ska (1999 or Trosborg (1995) for formulae in cross-cultural apology; Holmes (1990; or Suszczyń ska (2005) for the relation between gender and apology formulae. 4.…”

Apology routine formulae in Hungarian

“…Value systems are not monolithic but dynamic and variable. In practice culture-specific concepts are explained on the basis of researchers' own knowledge of a particular culture (Obeng 1999), supported by the works of recognized philosophers (for instance, Gu's 1990, 238 reference to Confucius) or sociologists, but are also derived from interviews with community members (Bharuthram 2003) or arrived at with the help of procedures used in social psychology. Okumura and Wei (2000), who investigated apology strategies of British and Japanese women, asked the respondents to provide 20 answers to the question "Who am I?…”