PRAGMATICS OF POLITENESS AND COMMUNICATION: A STUDY OF PRAGMATIC FAILURE IN KP'S CROSS-CULTURAL SETTINGS

Abstract

The study examines the issues of politeness, power, and pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan, where the native inhabitants are mainly Pashto people, tribal structures and relations between the Pashto, Urdu, and English speaking communities. The study is based on the application of the pragmatic theories including the Speech Act Theory and Politeness Theory and can be considered as the main reasons of pragmatic misunderstanding in the educational, professional, and social contexts that might occur due to cultural norms, dominance, and language transfers. Patterns of pragmatic failure were determined through an ethnographic method based on semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis and culturally sensitive mitigation strategies were advised. These results indicate the impact of Pashtunwali on the development of the behaviors of directness and hierarchy, which conflict with the English norms, causing speech-act failure, such as requests and apologies. This study not only brings contributions to the field of linguistic pedagogy, but also to cross-cultural training policy recommendations to help in developing intercultural competence within the KP, towards social harmony and development.