Analysing politeness strategies in Maltese English : a focus on requests

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the construction of requests in Maltese English in relation to bilingual speakers’ dominant language. Participants were all students reading for a degree at the University of Malta. The sample data was taken from recorded conversations in which the participants were assigned tasks they must achieve through the production of requests. The construction of said requests was analysed in terms of syntax, intonation and pragmatics. The findings showed that dominant language has a statistically significant effect on syntax but not on intonation. However, the findings also highlight several influences that the Maltese language has on Maltese English, particularly in the case of intonation.