Impoliteness Strategies Based on Culpeper’s Model: An Analysis of Gender Differences between Two Characters in the movie Mother

Abstract

In the field of Discourse Analysis, specifically in analyzing impoliteness strategies, based on Culpeper’s (1996) model, no study has been conducted into Iranian movies. Hence, the current study is a new trend in analyzing the discourse between two characters (male and female) in the movie by Ali Hatami under the title of “Motherâ€. In this study, eight extracts of the movie have been chosen for investigation of impoliteness strategies which have been employed by the male and the female characters. Culpeper’s model of impoliteness includes five super-strategies as follows: 1) Bald on-record Impoliteness, 2) Positive Impoliteness, 3) Negative Impoliteness, 4) Sarcasm or Mock Politeness, and 5) Withhold Politeness. The findings of this study indicate that the male character has used more impoliteness strategies than the female character in their interactions in the movie. In other words, it explores that the male character has used all Culpeper’s super-strategies with the total numbers of 58. It is worth mentioning that the most frequent strategy that has been employed belongs to positive impoliteness. However, the findings of this study reveal that one cannot draw a clear-cut border between Culpeper’s super-strategies of impoliteness since some of them overlap with each other. Moreover, the significant impacts of intonation and self-insulting have been ignored in Culpeper’s model. Accordingly, Culpeper’s model may not be considered as a comprehensive one. In this respect, it can be inferred that the difference between the male and the female characters in this movie regarding impoliteness strategies has rooted in Iran masculism society in which women are secondary status and have fewer power in comparison with men. One may conclude that impoliteness is interwoven with the power of the male speaker. Therefore, power is represented in the language in the form of using impoliteness strategies. The possible implications of the present study would be applicable for sociologists, literary writers, literary critics, playwrights, film critics, feminist literature, and those who may concern.