Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

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“Hmoob Boy Meets Hmong Girl,” a short play, takes a more playful approach to the situation,
showing the young woman as preferring what is portrayed as an Anglo-American cultural
response to an invitation to dance, sarcastic refusal. The male character in the play, on the
other hand, takes an ultra-masculinist approach, which he presents as traditional Hmong. The
story and the play show that invitations from men may still constitute a face threat to
young Hmong women, and that the verbal tools available to them as responses are not so
different from those their grandmothers used.
References
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House and Gabriele Kasper. (1989a). Investigating Cross-
Cultural Pragmatics: An Introductory Overview. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House and G.
Kasper (eds.) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, pp.1-34. Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
Brown, Penelope and Stephen Levinson. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language
usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burt, Susan Meredith. (2005). How to get rid of unwanted suitors: Advice from Hmong-
American women of two generations. Journal of Politeness Research, 1 (2): 219-236.
Donnelly, Nancy. (1994). Changing Lives of Refugee Hmong Women. Seattle: University of
Washington Press.
Thoj, Va-Megn. (2002). Hmoob Boy Meets Hmong Girl. In Mai Neng Moua (ed.) Bamboo
among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans. St. Paul: Minnesota
Historical Society Press.
Vang, Ka. (2006). The Good Hmong Girl. Paj Ntaub Voice 11, 1: 89-107.
The expression of gratitude in IsiXhosa educational contexts
Dlali, Mawande
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
mdl@sun.ac.za
Expressing gratitude is a language function that has important social value in any language
including Xhosa. The expression of gratitude is commonly used and is influenced by the
relationship between the giver and the receiver. The language function of expressing gratitude
is used frequently and openly in a wide range of interpersonal relationship, i.e. among
intimates, friends, strangers and with superiors and subordinates. If properly used, the
expression of gratitude can engender feelings of warmth and solidarity. Inappropriate
expression of gratitude can have negative consequences, sometimes resulting in severing the
relationship of the speaker and listener.
The main aim of this paper is to examine whether Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness
theory would map onto another type of verbal behavior, namely expressing gratitude. This
study will look at the expression of gratitude consequent to an action. When a person (a
receiver) receives a benefit from another person (a giver), he or she usually says something to
express his or her feelings of gratitude. The expressions are diverse. They are considered to be
influenced not only by the relationship between the giver and the receiver, but also by the
characteristics of the giver’s benefiting behavior. It is thus expected here that the imposition is
on the giver.
Situations in which gratitude is expressed in response to receiving reward, gift, favor, service
and compliment will be investigated. The investigation here will analyze a range of gratitude
expressions in Xhosa.