NEGATION AND HOW TO SOFTEN IT IN SINGAPOREAN ENGLISH

Abstract

This paper attempts to investigate what it is in a negative utterance that affects its perceived politeness. Data collected on the Singaporean English common forms of negation in revealed certain characteristic features. Based on these features, five hypotheses concerning length, grammatical markedness, extensions, particles and intonation were postulated with regard to politeness of various negative discourse forms, and tested for subject reaction. In this study, the responses of four types of social groups were studied. They include the sexes (male versus female), ethnicities (Chinese versus Malay versus Indian), nationality (Singaporeans versus foreigners) and working status (NUS undergraduates versus working adults). The findings show several patterns in the subjects' responses to the various discourse forms (a total of 29 typical Singaporean discourse forms were tested). Based on these findings, several means of softening a negation were proposed. These findings also suggest that the extent to which a negation need to be softened depends partly on the type of negation (whether it is a Refusal, Negative Answer, Denial and Prohibition) it is performing. Lastly, the findings also suggests that generally, formality was seen to be more closely linked to politeness than friendliness.