Pragmatic Analysis of Impolite Speech Acts and their Verbal Responses in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Abstract

This study attempts a pragmatic analysis of impoliteness strategies utilized by Hamlet in his interactions with other characters in the play. It aims at examining other characters' verbal responses to Hamlet’s impolite speech acts and identifying which response strategies are more frequently associated with which impoliteness strategies. To achieve these objectives, the study collates (32) impolite speech acts along with their responses from Hamlet to represent its data for analysis. Out of these data, (15) examples are randomly selected to analyze the impoliteness strategies utilizing Culpeper’s (1996/2011/2017) and Culpeper, Bousfield and Wichmann (2003) models. Moreover, Bousfield’s (2008) model was adopted to account for the interlocutors' responses to impoliteness. The findings of the study show that mock impoliteness, bald on record impoliteness and positive impoliteness are repeated in the play, of which mock impoliteness is the most frequently used strategy. Concerning the response strategies, the defensive and defensive-offensive strategies are frequently used by the characters in Hamlet, but the most frequent one is the defensive strategy. These impoliteness strategies and their responses have adversely affected the relationship amongst characters in the play and its general atmosphere. Keywords: Impoliteness, Impoliteness Strategies, Response Strategies, Speech Acts.