A Pragmatic Analysis of the Language of Romance Used by Kipsigis Youth in Bomet Sub-County

Abstract

This study is a pragmatic analysis of the language of romance among the Kipsigis youth. The study is based on the observation by the researcher that Kipsigis youth tend to be indirect when communicating at the courtship stage. This study, therefore, sought to, first, identify the forms of indirect speech acts evident in the language of romance among the Kipsigis youth. Second, analyze semantic shifts involved in the indirect speech acts in the language of romance among the Kipsigis youth and third, account for the indirect speech acts in the language of romance using the Cooperative Principle. The study was guided by the Lexical Pragmatic Theory and the Cooperative Principle. A descriptive research design was adopted. Purposive sampling was used to arrive at the respondents to participate in the study. Focused group discussions were used to elicit data. The discussions were audio recorded coupled with note taking. The data was then transcribed, and, thereafter, presented in tables and the emerging patterns were discussed thematically. This study reports that first, the language of romance as used by the Kipsigis youth uses indirect speech acts such as metaphors, euphemisms, proverbs and hedges. Second, there occur semantic shifts in the form of lexical pragmatic processes and lastly the different forms of indirect speech acts can be accounted for using the Gricean Cooperative Principle.