Impoliteness on Social Media

A Case Study of Offending Situations in Facebook Interactions in Kenya

Abstract

Research demonstrates that impoliteness does not just happen in normal circumstances. What triggers the onset of an impolite utterance is any perceived aggressive antecedent occurrence that provokes, threatens, or damages the face of the addressee. These perceived aggressive antecedent occurrences are referred to as offending situations, and, according to Jay (1992, 2000), they have salient features. This study, therefore, sought to determine the offending situations evident in Facebook interactions and their salient features. The study was qualitative in nature. It used two qualitative approaches: observational studies and textual analysis. The study employed purposive sampling to select eleven Facebook posts for analysis. Bousfield’s (2007) model of impoliteness was used to determine the salient features of the offending situations. Our findings indicate that offending situations on Facebook include childish remarks, gender-biased remarks, anonymity-motivated derogatory remarks, body-shaming remarks, ethnic-laced remarks, presumptuous remarks, inflammatory remarks, aggravating remarks, self-reproachful remarks, vulgar language, and unsolicited posts/comments. Our study also found support for Bousfield’s (2007) proposed salient features of offending situations, namely age, sex, status, behaviour, social-physical setting, language, ethnic group, damage, physical appearance, intentionality, and self as the wrongdoer.