Sorry, Democracy, and the Director: The Sociopragmatics of Foreign Borrowings and Facework in Burmese Communication

This paper examines English loanwords in Burmese through a decolonial sociopragmatic lens. It argues that terms like "sir", "sorry", and "problem", adopted during the British colonial period, are not neutral borrowings but specialized tools for navigating power and performing politeness. Analyzing their use in hierarchical interactions, the study reveals how colonial-era linguistic impositions persist in modern facework and political discourse. By contrasting this with voluntary loanwords in Japanese, the paper demonstrates that the sociopragmatic function of borrowed lexicon is fundamentally shaped by historical power dynamics, offering a critical perspective on language and postcolonial identity in Myanmar.