Im/Politeness in Advertising Herbal Medicines in Cameroon

The use of politeness and/or impoliteness strategies can hardly be standardized across cultures and communication settings. The present paper aims to examine the pragmatic use and functions of (im) politeness in advertising herbal medicines in Cameroon. Data were collected, mostly on-bus, from twenty-three herbal medicine sellers through recording, observation, interview and note-taking. The elicited discourses are analysed based on the brown-levinsonian politeness theory and Culpeper’s taxonomy of impoliteness. The results show that positive politeness (greeting, wish, thanking, and endearment expression), negative politeness (apologising, use of please and indirectness) and bald on record politeness are the main politeness strategies used in the herbal medicine sellers’ advertisement discourse. Besides, mock impoliteness speeches like teasing and jocular expression of power over H, and Meta impoliteness strategies including sarcasm are used to draw the attention of the potential customers. A number of interlanguage pragmatic features (like the odd use of apology) are observed in the herbal medicine sellers’ discourse. The paper concludes by highlighting the important function of certain impoliteness characteristics that have been identified. However, the impoliteness present in the speech acts of advertisers does not manifest as aggressive or confrontational behaviour, as one might infer from the impoliteness taxonomy. Instead, it is characterized as playful abuse intended to foster a sense of camaraderie.