Manipulative Language and Loss of Identity in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party: A Pragmatic Study

The present paper reports a pragmatic study of characters’ conversation in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party to reveal how the use of manipulative language can result in destructive ends. It essentially uses Culpeper's (1996; 2003) and Spenser-Oatey's (2002) frameworks mainly to demonstrate how such strategies encode asymmetrical power relations between characters and the loss of their identity as a result of excessive verbal attacks on the face of those without power. By using the mentioned models, the researcher is going to answer the following questions: (1) What impoliteness strategies are used by primary characters to assert their power over the weakest character to attack his face? (2) What counter strategies are used by primary characters either to offend their addressees or defend themselves? (3) Which aspects of primary characters, specifically Stanley's face and sociality rights have been affected, leading to the destruction of his identity due to impolite behaviors?