Linguistic politeness in job applications in Cameroon

This paper uses Brown and Levinson's and Kerbrat-Orecchionni's politeness models to examine how semiliterate speakers of French in Cameroon encode linguistic politeness in written job applications. Analysis of the data suggests the politeness strategies used by semiliterate job-seekers can be classified into three categories, namely explicit addressee-oriented “face flattering acts” (henceforth FFAs), explicit addresser-oriented “face threatening acts” (henceforth FTAs), and implicit addresser-oriented FTAs. The paper contends that while the explicit FFAs and FTAs appear to be discourse strategies entrenched in the applicants’ culture, the implicit FTAs on the other hand are ascribable to the applicants’ poor mastery of the French language. The study intersects between discourse analysis, pragmatics and sociolinguistics.