Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

Workshop 2 – Anc 153
Adjusting to communication in new contexts:
the use of compliments by Burundians in the Diaspora
Nizonkiza, Deogratias
University of Mons-Hainaut, Belgium
nizondeo@yahoo.fr
Theories of communication acknowledge that communication is a complex phenomenon
within the boundaries of universalism and relativism (Meunier & Peraya, 2004:31).
Communication is achieved by means of languages that are held to be vital factors for social
cohesion and social integration and each language has its own specificities that distinguish it
from others and that are characteristic of the people who use it. Thus, Levinson (1983:45)
rightly observes that interaction between members of a given linguistic community is subject
to ritual constraints, both social and cultural. In addition to these social and cultural
constraints that are peculiar to each language, there are language universals that are common
to most cultures if not all. In this respect, Levinson (1983:45-46) upholds that “there are pancultural
principles governing the production of polite or socially appropriate interaction, and
these can be shown to have systematic effects on the linguistic structure of many languages.”
The present paper analyses the attitude of Burundians of the Diaspora living in Belgium vis-àvis
compliments. The aim is to see if their attitude to compliments has changed given that
they now live in a foreign country (Belgium) and speak a new variety of the colonial language
French, different from the one spoken in Burundi. Burundians generally are repulsive to
compliments. Western cultures on the other hand are quite receptive to compliments.
Burundians in Belgium are faced with several cultural tensions between their indigenous
attitudes built on the African culture and their present experience in Europe. My assumption
here is that Burundians’ negative attitude to compliments is a preservation of their tradition,
but the more years they spend in Belgium, the more they become receptive to the
compliments. The second assumption that is corollary to the first is that Burundians tend to
praise others and generally stay away from self praise.
This study was conducted on four different groups of Burundians following the number of
years they have lived in Belgium. The preliminary tests revealed that those who have spent
over ten years are more receptive to compliments. This shows a process of cultural adaptation.
Politeness and requests in Xhosa drama
Nomsa Satyo
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
pns@sun.ac.za
Brown and Levinson (1978) explain that People at times engage in actions, which threaten
face, and they make three assumptions about how actions threaten face:
a. Face threats arise from individual speech acts and can be understood without
analysing larger discourse units.
b. Classes of speech acts threaten only one type of face. There are acts that threaten only
negative face and those that threaten positive face.
c. Any actions are intrinsic face-threatening acts which run contrary to the face wants of
the addressee and /or the speaker. To justify this assumption they rely on the analysis
of Searle (1969) of how speech acts are defined and created through constitutive rules,
such as sincerity conditions.