Congratulation Strategies by Jordanians on a Royal Birthday Facebook Status

Abstract

The current paper investigates the congratulation speech act among Jordanian Facebook users in terms of patterns and linguistic forms with reference to the congratulation strategies adopted in response to a birthday Facebook status posted on the occasion of the 60th birthday of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein. The types of positive politeness strategies attested in these congratulatory forms are also tackled in this study. The comments posted by Jordanian Facebook users on this occasion formed the data necessary for the purpose of this study. The data analysis revealed that the dominant congratulation strategy among Jordanian Facebookers is Illocutionary force indicating device, and the use of proverbs and sayings is the least used strategy. As for the strategies of politeness in the congratulatory forms among Jordanian Facebook users, the data analysis revealed that the dominant strategies are giving gifts to the listener and in-group identity marker (usage of address forms); exaggerate and seek agreement (safe topic) strategies are the least used ones. These results were discussed in light of the theory of speech act (Austin, 1962) and the theory of politeness (Brown & Levinson, 1987). The religious beliefs, cultural values, and social norms of the Facebook users appeared to be influential with respect to these politeness and congratulation strategies. The study also touches upon several aspects related to the pragmatic competence of Jordanian Facebook users.