The Pragmatic Functions of Apologies and Requests in Mobile-Based Role Play Scenarios

Abstract

Pragmatics defines language as the practice of language in social, cultural and contextual contexts. Speech acts—apologies (corrective, face-repairing acts) and requests (face-threatening acts)—are important for social harmony. While traditional pragmatic research has focused on face-to-face (FtF) interactions using static Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs), the popularity of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has led to the transition of humans to digitally mediated and gamified situations like mobile role-play situations. It is still not sure, however, how mobile platform affordances (e.g., fewer social cues, permanence of text and semi-authentic role-play identities) impact the performance, perception and strategic mitigation of apologies and requests. The study addresses this gap by using a mixed-methods approach with the quasi-experimental research design. In addition to traditional DCTs, the study investigates the pragmatic strategies used by participants in a mobile-based, dynamic role-play setting and the contextual factors such as social power (P), social distance (D) and absolute ranking (R) of imposition or infraction. It shows that although Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory is still applicable (participants still evaluate (P, D and R) about face-threatening acts (FTAs) in the mobile setting, the strategies themselves are re-mediated to a mobile context. The social variables are still relevant but the study filters their effects by text and the various constraints and affordances of text-based communication. The mobile setting, on the other hand, promotes hyper-mitigation for high-stakes FTAs, bringing extra complexity to the human-computer interaction in interpersonal communication.