Contrastive Stress as an off-Record Politeness Strategy: An Analysis of Swahili and Lubukusu Languages

Interpretation of the intended meaning is an important factor to be considered by the interlocutors in any communicative event. Although a speaker chooses a strategy that enables the communication of the message in a well-interpreted manner, there by eliminating ambiguity, the same does not arise in the use of contrastive stress. Contrastive stress is a strategy that communicates off record politeness by giving out hints. This paper discusses contrastive stress as an off-record politeness strategy with reference to Kiswahili and Lubukusu languages. The Politeness theory founded by Brown & Levinson (1978) and later developed by them in 1987 was adopted for this study. Manguliechi’s oration from the Babukusu community and Bi. Msafwari’s oration from the Swahili community were the basis for analysis. This study relied on library recordings of Manguliechi’s orature and YouTube files of Mawaidhana Bi. Msafwari (Bi. Msafwari’s counsel). Analysis indicates that contrastive stress can function as an indirect politeness strategy through it’s characteristic use of free stress. Contrastive stress changes the intonation of the word in use thus giving a basis for more than one interpretation of meaning. The unusual emphasis is a hint which the speaker deliberately gives to the hearer in a given context. The paper concludes that identifying the intended meaning in contrastive stress is complex. The complexity arises due to the fact that contrastive stress has opposing functions within the same statement. This paper recommends that detection of the presuppositions in contrastive stress can reduce ambiguity and direct the hearer’s interpretation toward the intended meaning.