Making complaints in Ghanaian English: An analysis of senior high school students.

Complaints are bound to occur in our daily interactions while seeking a remedy to that which has directly or indirectly affected someone unfavourably, thus, threatening the face of the addressee and may eventually engender social relationship breakdown if not done appropriately. This study examined complaints by speakers of Ghanaian English in three public second cycle schools in Ghana to ascertain the politeness strategies invested in expressing their dissatisfaction with an unacceptable act in Ghanaian English. The Brown and Levinson (1987) politeness theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. A case study design was adopted with data elicited from ninety-four (94) participants role-playing four complaint-provoking situations and analysed thematically. The findings revealed that eleven strategies are used in producing different complaints in Ghanaian English. The findings further indicated that Ghanaians are indirect and tend to have a high inclination toward positive politeness strategies as they try to reduce the effect of the face-threatening act of complaining on the addressee’s positive face. It was also found that this complaint behaviour is influenced by the cultural norms of politeness in Ghanaian languages.