Request Strategies in Kazakh and Japanese: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Analysis

© Media Watch 11 (4) 648-667, 2020
ISSN 0976-0911 | e-ISSN 2249-8818
DOI: 10.15655/mw/2020/v11i4/204633

 

Request Strategies in Kazakh and Japanese: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Analysis

 

Takashi Ninomiya & Madina Shadayeva
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan.

 

Abstract

This study investigated how native speakers of Kazakh and Japanese realize the speech act of request. Ten native speakers of Kazakh and ten native speakers of Japanese participated in the study. Data was obtained using an open role play, consisting of nine request situations. The Japanese participants used indirect strategies for someone equal in status more than the Kazakh participants: mostly when the imposition’s ranking was high and when the social distance between a requester and the requestee was near. When this study compared the unspecified request strategies, the Japanese used the anonymous request strategies more frequently than the Kazakhs. On the other hand, the Kazakh participants made use of Imperative more than the Japanese participants. This result showed that the use of Imperative in Kazakh society is more allowable than in Japanese society. Benefactive auxiliary verbs of the Japanese language had a relation to request strategies. 

 

Keywords:    Benefactive auxiliary verbs, cross-cultural pragmatics, imperatives, request strategies, speech act

 

Correspondence to: Takashi Ninomiya, Department of the Far East, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 95a Karasai batyr, 050012, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan. 

 

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Takashi Ninomiya is an Associate Professor in the Department of the Far East at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Republic of Kazakhstan. His research interests are descriptive linguistics, Cross-cultural pragmatics, Semitic and Cushitic languages, and Kazakh.