COMPLAINT STRATEGIES AND FORMULAS IN CAMEROON FRENCH: A CASE STUDY

The present study examines the realization of complaints by Cameroonian French speakers. The data were collected, by means of discourse completion tasks (DCT) that was administered to 228 participants in Yaoundé and Douala, Cameroon. The examples were analyzed according to the following aspects: head act strategies (direct and indirect complaints) and external modifiers. With respect to head act strategies, the results show that the informants mostly preferred direct complaints in the form of expressions of disapproval and accusations, and indirect complaints in the form of expressions of disbelief and requests for repair. It was also found that the participants mostly used complex complaint utterances with a wide variety of pragmatic strategies and linguistic realizations. The analysis also reveals that the participants employed different types of external modifiers to soften or aggravate their complaints. These include preparatory acts such as exclamations, attention getters, address terms, etc., and supportive acts such as expressions of regrets, insistence acts, sarcasm, suggestions, etc. The strategies and formulas attested in the data seem to reflect the way in which Cameroon French speakers voice complaints in naturally occurring situations involving peer equality.

 

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