Requests in Brazilian Portuguese via Email Communication:

Usage, Strategies, and Politeness

 by
 Melissa Kuhn Fornari
   Linguistics Program
   FIU

                                      The aim of this study is to investigate what types of requests are produced in Brazilian Portuguese via        

                                email communication. In order to do so authentic data was collected and the analysis focused initially on

                                content, what the requests are about, and form or strategy used to perform them. Based on these findings,

                                a discussion on what constitutes high imposition and politeness in Brazilian Portuguese is proposed.The

                                relationship between politeness and indirectness is also analyzed, according to Brown and  Levinson’s             

                                politeness theory. The results are then confronted with cross-linguistic studies, such as the investigation

                                carried out by Blum-Kulka (1989). The findings reveal a negative correlation between  indirectness  and

                                politeness in Brazilian Portuguese and by picturing the results in a cross-linguistic framework it is sugges-

                                ted that the representation of politeness among languages follow a culture specific pattern.

                                                         Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008

                                                                       Time: 11:00 a.m.
                                                                         Place: PC 438