Abstract:
The study sought to interpret Petrus Haakskeen’s plays titled ‘The Rotten Apples of Jabula High School’ (2001) and ‘Finders Keepers Losers Weepers’ (2000) through a pragmatic stylistics analysis. The study of pragmatic stylistics evaluates how language users interact, communicate and interpret linguistic behaviour. It was thus, the impetus of the present study to apply Politeness principle by (Leech, 1983) to the understanding of these two texts. Principles of politeness are also termed maxims. The principle of politeness assumes six maxims; tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy. A qualitative study approach was used for data collection and analysis. The findings of the study revealed that all the six principles were identified to be present in communicative events in the two texts. They have successfully been used in the two plays to project power struggles between characters. In the two separate texts, the characters engage in various exchanges of utterances that satisfy the politeness principles identified by the theory. The study findings also revealed that the proliferation of negative politeness principles as strategies were used in communication by the characters. Furthermore, the study found out that there were several occasions where the politeness principles were violated. The violated principles/maxims of politeness were the tact, approbation and modesty. These were used in manners that were in breach of the politeness theory. The findings assert that a violation of politeness principles is a condition that occurs when a speaker/hearer fails to avoid conflict, thereby breaching the principles of politeness (Leech, 2005). For this situation to occur, the speaker/hearer acts in the opposite manner from what is ordinarily expected of them. Based on the manner in which the subject of education is tackled in the play ‘The Rotten Apples of Jabula High School’, lessons can be learnt on how to improve the education system in present day Namibia. The study concludes that impoliteness can be avoided if the people that use language in their daily life conversations in places such as the market place and so forth understand what it means to be polite.
