University EFL Students’ Awareness of Negation as a Politeness Strategy in Requests (A Case Study of the Faculty of Education – Hantoub, University of Gezira, Sudan(2026)
Abstract
Politeness is one of the communicative aspects of language. Various strategies can be used for demonstrating politeness in interpersonal interactions. One of the key linguistic strategies of politeness is negation. Due to the fact that negation can effectively serve politeness in requests, this research paper aimed at investigating university EFL students’ awareness of negation as a politeness strategy in requests. The study followed the descriptive analytical method. The population included (54) students majoring in English, Batch (44), semester (6), Faculty of Education – Hantoub, University of Gezira, Sudan: (25) students out of (54) were chosen randomly as a sample of the study. A situation-based MCQ test was designed as a tool of data collection. The test was composed of (5) different everyday situations, each of which was accompanied with four responses representing requests with varying degrees of politeness: a polite request structured in a negative form (the required response) and three options structured in affirmative patterns of polite requests (demonstrating lesser degree of politeness). The students were required to identify the most polite response in each situation. The data was analyzed manually and then displayed in tables for discussion. The results obtained make it clear that more than (90%)of the respondents were unaware of the role of negation in forming polite requests. This research paper, therefore, recommends the necessity of raising university EFL students’ awareness of the role of negation as a politeness strategy in requests through the inclusion of lessons designed for this purpose in university.
References
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61. Watts, R; Ide, S; Ehlich, K(eds).(2008). Politeness in Language. 2nd edition. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin.
62. Article: ‘Introduction’ by the editors
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64. Universality’ by Watts, R
65. Article: ‘Linguistic Politeness Research: Quo Vadis?’ by Watts, R
66. Article: ‘Intercultural Tact versus Intercultural Tact’ by Jenny, R; Arndt, H
67. Xie, C(ed) (2021). The Philosophy of (Im) politeness. Springer. Switzerland.
68. Article: ‘Introduction: Approaching (Im) politeness Philosophically’ by the editor
2. Article:‘ Politeness’ by Diani, G
3. Austin, J.(1962). How to Do Things with Words. Oxford. OUP.
4. Blum- Kulka, s; House, J; Kasper, G(1989). Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex
5. Brown, P; Levinson, S(1978). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. CUP.
6. Carter, R; McCarthy; Mark, G; O’keeffe, A(2011).English Grammar Today. CUP. Cambridge.
7. Chejnova, P(2015). How to Ask a Professor: Politeness in CZECH a Cademic Culture. Karolinum Press. Charles University in Prague
8. Cole, P; Morgan, J(eds). (1975). Syntax and Semantics: Speech Acts 3. Vol.3. Academic Press.
9. Article: ’Logic and Conversation’ by Grice, H
10. Cowan, R.(2008). The Teacher’s Grammar of English. CUP
11. Crystal, D(2011). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Wiley Blackwell.
12. Dalrymple, M (ed) (2023). Handbook of Lexical Functional Grammar. Language Science Press. Berlin. Article: ‘Negation’ by Bond, O
13. Denecke, C; McCarthy, P; Lamkin, T. (eds) (2012). Cross-Disciplinary Advances in Applied Natural Language Processing: Issues and Approaches. Information Science Reference. USA
14. Article: ’Some Issues on Capturing the Meaning of Negated Statements’ by Blanko, E & Moldovan, D
15. Deprez ,V; Espinal, M (eds) (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Negation. OUP. UK.
16. Article: ‘Negation in Language and Beyond’ by the editors
17. Article: ‘Incorporated Negation’ by Moeschler, J
18. Downing, A; Locke, P(2002). A University Course in English Grammar. Routledge. London
19. Eelen G(2014). A Critique of Politeness Theory. Volume1. Routledge. USA.
20. Goffman.E(1967). Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. Pantheon Books. New York.
21. Gomez, L; Berger, L(eds) (2022). Politeness in Ancient Greek and Latin. CUP. UK.
22. Article: ‘Introduction’ by the editors
23. Hickey, L(ed)(1998). The Pragmatics of Translation. Multilingual Matters Ltd.
24. Article: ‘Politeness and Translation’ by House, J
25. Holtgraves, T(2008). Language as Social Interaction: Social Psychology and Language Use. Tylor & Francis e-Library
26. Horn, L(ed).(2010). The Expression of Negation. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin/New York
27. Article: ‘Introduction’ by the editor
28. Article: ‘Denial’ by Ripley, D.
29. Huang, Y.(2012). The Oxford Dictionary of Pragmatics. OUP. UK.
30. Ivenz, P; Reid, E(2021). Pragmatic Linguistics and Sociolinguistics: Culture vs Speech. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. UK
31. Jespersen, O(1917). Negation in English and other Languages. Kobenhavn.
32. Kadar, D; Mills, S(eds).(2011). Politness in East Asia. CUP. New York
33. Article: ‘Foreword’ by Bargiela - Chiappini, F
34. Lakoff, R.(1973). The Logic of Politeness: Minding your P’s and Q’s. Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago.
35. Leech, G.(2014). The Pragmatics of Politeness. OUP
36. Leech, G(1983). Principles of Pragmatics. Longman. London & New York
37. Lukyanenko, C; Blanchette, F(eds) (2025). Perspectives on Negation: Views from across the Language Sciences. Walter de Gruyter GMBH. Berline.
38. Article: ‘Perspectives on Negation: Views from across the Language Sciences’ by the editors
39. Maitra, I; Mc Gowan,M(2025). Words in Action: an Introduction to the Social Philosophy of Language. OUP. USA
40. Mantero, M; Miller, P; Watzke, J.(eds)(2021). Language Across Disciplinary Boundaries. Emerald Publishing Limited. USA.
41. Article: ‘When Interpreters Intrude: The Use of Politeness in Immigration Proceedings’ by
42. Zambrano-Paff,M
43. Marquez-Reiter, R.(2000 ). Linguistic Politeness in Britain and Uruguay: a Contrastive Study of Requests and Apologies. John Benjamins Publishing Company
44. Moxam, C; Riches,N.(2026). Introductory Linguistics for Speech and Language; Clinicians and Practitioners. John Wiley and Sons. USA & UK.
45. Pearce, M(2012). The Routledge Dictionary of English Language Studies. Routledge.UK.
46. Quirk, R; Greenbaum,s; Leech, G; Svartvik, J. (1985).Comprehensive English Grammar. Longman Group. USA
47. Rasmussen, S(2010). To Define and Inform: An Analysis of Information Provided in Dictionaries Used by Learners of English in China and Denmark, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. UK.
48. Riemec, N(ed) (2016). The Routledge Handbook of Semantics. Tylor and Francis.
49. Article: ‘Negation and Polarity’ by Penka, P
50. Ruytenbeek, N(2021). Indirect Speech Acts. CUP.
51. Savic, M(2014). Politeness through the prism of Requests: Apologies and Refusals(a case of Advanced Serbian EFL Learners). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
52. Searle, J(1969). Speech Acts: an Essay in the Philosophy of Language. CUP. UK.
53. Searle, J; Kiefer, F; Bierwisch, M(eds) (1980). Speech Act Theory and Pragmatics. D. Reidel Publishing Company. Holland
54. Article: ‘Introduction’ by the editors
55. Sifianou, M (1999). Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: a Cross-Cultural Perspective. OUP.
56. Sifianou, M; Bayraktaroglu, A(ed) (2001). Linguistic Politeness Across Boundaries: The Case of Greek and Turkish. Benjamins.
57. Article: ‘Preface’ by Sachiko, I
58. Trosborg, A(1995). Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints and Apologies. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin.
59. Urmson, J(ed) (1962). How to Do Things with Words: The William Games Lectures Delivered at Harvard University by Austin, L in 1955. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
60. ‘How to Do Things with Words’ by Austin, L
61. Watts, R; Ide, S; Ehlich, K(eds).(2008). Politeness in Language. 2nd edition. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin.
62. Article: ‘Introduction’ by the editors
63. Article: ‘Linguistic Politeness and Politic Verbal Behaviour: Reconsidering Claims for
64. Universality’ by Watts, R
65. Article: ‘Linguistic Politeness Research: Quo Vadis?’ by Watts, R
66. Article: ‘Intercultural Tact versus Intercultural Tact’ by Jenny, R; Arndt, H
67. Xie, C(ed) (2021). The Philosophy of (Im) politeness. Springer. Switzerland.
68. Article: ‘Introduction: Approaching (Im) politeness Philosophically’ by the editor
Published
2026-07-27
How to Cite
MOHAMMAD, Mona Elsayed Abd-Alwahhab; ABU ZURGA, Musa Adam Mohammad.
University EFL Students’ Awareness of Negation as a Politeness Strategy in Requests (A Case Study of the Faculty of Education – Hantoub, University of Gezira, Sudan(2026).
Gezira Journal of Educational Sciences and Humanities, [S.l.], v. 21, n. 2, p. 94-106, july 2026.
ISSN 1858-5477. Available at: <http://37.60.236.48/index.php/gjesh/article/view/2603>. Date accessed: 29 july 2026.
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