How Impoliteness Is Portrayed in a School Context: The Marva Collins as a Case Study

Abstract

The present study attempts to examine verbal/nonverbal impoliteness in the classroom interaction and outside it in one of the movies, namely, The Marva Collins. Impoliteness, which is significantly studied within pragmatics, is a negative attitude towards particular behaviors. It always presumes to have emotional concerns for at least one participant who has caused it. This study is an attempt to examine verbal/nonverbal impoliteness in The Marva Collins movie. The study aims to investigate the different types of impoliteness strategies used in the four selected scenes and find out whether the speaker's status has anything to do with the types of impoliteness. Besides, the functions performed are also examined by following a qualitative method of research. To achieve the aim of the study, the researchers adopt Culpeper's model of impoliteness (1996, 2005). The study has concluded that positive impoliteness is the most dominant type of impoliteness, followed by withholding politeness. Moreover, the characters in The Marva Collins mostly employ affective impoliteness rather than the other functions of impoliteness. It is indicated to let the speaker imply the duty of the hearer to produce a negative emotional state. As a final point, Culpeper is the workable model used in analysing the data of this study.