Politeness and Power Violations in the Arabic Version of Gumball: What Sociopragmatic Competence is Introduced to Arab Children in the Contexts of Family and School?

Document Type : Original Article

Author

English Language Department , Faculty of languages and Translation, Sadat Academy For Management Sciences

Abstract

In cartoons, it is acceptable that context elements are out of proportion since time, space, and participants are reduced, augmented, mutated or even given superpowers to suit their imaginary worlds. However, cartoons may carry inappropriate sociopragmatic skills by introducing language that lacks politeness and distorted power relationships that could be internalized by the highly perceptive minds of children as acceptable. Harlow (1990) defined sociopragmatic competence as the ability to manipulate and vary language use in different contexts. Language context includes "physical location and social circumstances in which a particular example of language use occurs" (Mayor & Allington, 2012, p. 6). The present study examines some inappropriate elements of politeness and power relationships that the Arabic version of the popular American cartoon The Amazing World of Gumball carries. The selected episodes sample some interactions within the Family and school contexts. This particular cartoon was chosen because it carries violations of politeness and power relations that would not be accounted for as impolite or inappropriate even in its most censored version. These violations are introduced in a comic, attractive mode and are passed to children as favorable sociopragmatic practices.

Keywords

References

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