SPEECH ACTS FEATURES OF KIMUTHAMBI UTTERANCES USED FOR PERSUASION

Abstract

Abstract

Persuasion is inherent in everyday communication and is very important in relationships, leadership, peace building and success in virtually every area of livelihood. The objective of this study is to describe the speech acts features of Kimuthambi utterances used for persuasion. The study is guided by the relevance theory by Sperber and Wilson and Searle’s speech act theory. It utilizes qualitative and quantitative research designs and is carried out in Muthambi Division, Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya. The population includes all the Kimuthambi communicative events. The researcher purposively sampled ten real life communicative events conducted in Kimuthambi which involved forteen speakers. Data was collected using a digital audio recorder and an observation schedule. The recorder captured conversations in Kimuthambi in the selected communicative events and the observation schedule was used to record the contextual information. The researcher transcribed utterances from the data collected that utilizes stragetegies used for persuasion. The transcribed utterances are one hundred and thirty six. Then guided by the communicative principle of relevance, the researcher identifies and discusses eighty four utterances used for persuasion in Kimuthambi. The study establishes that the speech acts features of Kimuthambi utterances used for persuasion are mainly directives. This study enhances the analysis of Kimuthambi as a language variety and adds to the existing knowledge on pragmatic analysis of persuasion in various languages of the world. In addition it enriches knowledge on the tenets of the relevance theory and adds to the analysis of speech acts of languages spoken in the world. Thus it contributes to crosslinguistic studies from the perspective of a unique cultural orientation. Key words: Persuasion, Kimuthambi, Pragmatics, Speech acts, Relevance