Congratulation Strategies of Crown Prince Hussein’s Wedding: A Socio-pragmatic Study of Facebook Comments

This study aimed to explore the most frequently used congratulation strategies as well as positive politeness strategies used by Jordanian Facebook users during the royal wedding of Prince Hussein. Moreover, it sought to find out the similarities/differences between the congratulation strategies used in this royal wedding event and other non-royal happy occasions. To achieve these goals, a sample of 600 comments were collected from three posts related to three official Facebook pages. The comments were categorized and analyzed based on Elwood’s (2004) classification of congratulation strategies and the positive politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). The results of the study revealed that the most frequent congratulation strategies used by Jordanian Facebook users in congratulating Prince Hussein and his bride was the employment of the illocutionary force indicating device (IFID), represented by ‘congratulations, in combination with other strategies, followed by IFID as single strategy, and the offer of good wish (OoGW). Furthermore, the analysis showed that the most politeness strategies employed was intensifying interest to the hearer in combination with other politeness strategies, followed by giving gifts to the hearer and intensifying interest to the hearer as a single politeness strategy. Religious expressions and invocations to Allah were dominant among the congratulatory comments.