Politeness Strategies in Selected Nollywood Movies
Abstract
This study examined the functions of politeness strategies in managing face and interpersonal relationships in selected contemporary Nollywood films. The study addressed a gap in existing research, which had given limited attention to the pragmatic functions of politeness in recent Nigerian cinematic discourse. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the politeness strategies used in the selected films and analyse their functions in managing face and relationships. The study adopted a qualitative descriptive research design and purposively sampled 12 dialogue excerpts from Brotherhood, A Tribe Called Judah, and Love in Every Word. Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory provided the theoretical framework. The study found that positive and negative politeness were the most frequent strategies, each accounting for 33.33%, followed by off-record politeness at 25.00% and bald-on-record politeness at 8.33%. It also found that strategies varied according to genre and relational context, serving functions such as conflict management, solidarity, face repair, and emotional intimacy. The study concludes that politeness was a dynamic resource for negotiating interpersonal relationships in Nollywood dialogue. The study contributes to scholarship on intercultural and cinematic pragmatics by showing how politeness strategies reflected Nigerian relational and cultural contexts.