AN ANALYSIS OF NORMAL: A POLITENESS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This thesis explores how impoliteness is realized within the boundaries of a Singaporean play, Normal, in two key ways. Firstly, I examine various types of impoliteness employed by both the teachers and students through four relationship pairs – Teacher-to-Teacher, Teacher-to-Student, Student-to-Teacher and Student-to-Student. Secondly, I examine the functions of impoliteness in literary plays like Normal. This thesis is also the first to explore the link between impoliteness and the use of Singlish. Singlish can be impolitely used when interlocutors intentionally employ it in situations that do not demand for it. I argue that such a strategy threatens the interlocutor’s positive face wants and thus this suggests that impolite use of Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) or Singlish can serve as a new sub-strategy under Culpeper’s (1996) positive impoliteness super-strategy. This thesis demonstrates that on a broader level, positive impoliteness is the most popular strategy employed in Normal, though the degree of frequency varies across relationship pairs. The Teacher-to-Teacher relationship pair employs mostly indirect impoliteness strategies in the forms of positive and negative impoliteness. Meanwhile, the Teacher-to-Student relationship pair employs mostly negative impoliteness while the Student-to-Teacher relationship pair employs mostly positive impoliteness. Notably, the Student-to-Student relationship pair employs a variety of impoliteness strategies. These findings contribute to the literature in forming a better understanding on how different relationship pairs in a Singapore school setting determine the type of impoliteness strategy selected.