The pragmatics of requests in digital communication: A study of Francophone Cameroonian English speakers’ interactions
Downloads
Abstract
This study sets out to investigate request strategies used by some Cameroonian francophone speakers of English across major social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger to see how these strategies shape digital illocutionary behaviour. Drawing on a corpus of 230 authentic social media posts collected within 2020-2022, the work is grounded on Austin (1962) and Searle (1969) Speech Act Theory. Findings shows that Yes / No questions with 97 occurrences, Wh- questions with 76 occurrences, Enquiry about family or one’s health which stands at 56 occurrences and Tag questions used once by the users are the request strategies used on Cameroon social media interactions. This research is an important contribution to the pragmatics of online discourse. It has also increased awareness of Cameroon francophone English in online context.
Keywords:
digital pragmatics francophone cameroonians request strategies speech acts social mediaReferences
Alsalem, N. (2024). Request Strategies in Saudi ESL Learners’ Email Communication: A Pragmatic Analysis. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1502.22
Apuge, Michael E. and Warda, Faissam. (2021). The Speech Acts of Requests in Cameroon Francophone English (June 1, 2021). International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research 2021, Vol.9, No 4, pp. 27-37, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3857546
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford University Press.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Cahyaningrum, D., D., & Nurkamto, J. (2025). Interlanguage Pragmatics of Requests in Informal Digital Contexts: Insights from Indonesian EFL Learners. ELE Reviews: English Language Education Reviews. https://doi.org/10.22515/elereviews.v5i2.13557
Chintawidy, P., & Sartini, N. (2022). A cross-cultural pragmatics study of request strategies and politeness in Javanese and Sundanese. Journal of Pragmatics Research, 4(2), 152–156.
Dozie, C. P., Chinedu-Oko, C. N., Anyanwu, P. N., Egwim, F. O., & Otagburuagu, E. J. (2022). Requests and Linguistic Politeness Strategies: A Case Study of Igbo English Speakers in Nigeria. Advances in Language and Literary Studies. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.13n.1.p.23
Echu, G. (2004). The Language Question in Cameroon. Linguistik Online, 18(1).
https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.18.765
Esambe, A. (2021). Linguistic hybridity and developmental perspectives in Cameroon. International Journal of Research - GRANTHAALAYAH, 9(4), 501–521. https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v9.i4.2021.3852
Essossomo, S. M. (2013). The teaching of English to French-speaking Cameroonian learners: A phonological appraisal. Lambert Academic Publishing.
Farenkia, B. M. (2023). Socio-pragmatic variation in request refusals in Cameroon French. Journal of Pragmatics, 205, 174–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.01.007
Farenkia, B. M. (2024). Responding To Requests In Cameroon French. European Journal of Applied Linguistics Studies. https://doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v7i1.495
Farenkia, B. M. (2024). Socio-Pragmatic Variation In Cameroon French Requests. European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies. https://doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v8i1.494
Hofweber, J., & Jaworska, S. (2022). Polite impoliteness? How power, gender and language background shape request strategies in English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) in corporate email exchanges. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 11, 223 - 253. https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2022-2085
Jarrah, M., Almashour, M., & Aldamen, H. (2026). Reweighting Please: Requestive Bridging Devices in Arabic–English Spoken and Digital Requests. Contrastive Pragmatics. https://doi.org/10.1163/26660393-2026002
Kachru, B. B. (1986). The alchemy of English: The spread, function and models of non-native Englishes. Pergamon Press.
Kachru, B. B. (1992). The other tongue: English across cultures (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press.
Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005
Kouega, J. (2019). Request Realisations in Cameroon Pidgin English. Journal of Linguistics and Education Research. https://doi.org/10.30564/jler.v1i1.226
Kouega, Jean-Paul. (2017). The Production of the Sequence -UI- by Francophone Learners of English. Sino-US English Teaching. 14. 10.17265/1539-8072/2017.04.009.
Kouega, J. P. (2019). The English of Francophone speakers in Cameroon. GRIN Verlag.
Kulyagina, A., & Sánchez-Hernández, A. (2026). Second language pragmatic competence in digitally mediated communication: Exploring requests and refusals. Porta Linguarum. Revista Interuniversitaria de Did´áctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras. https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi45.33005
Li, Q.-Y. (2023). Investigating Second Language Request Strategies by a Chinese Undergraduate Student Majoring in Business English. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1304.27
Malabarba, T. (2022). Requesting on WhatsApp: The interplay of interactional competence and deontics in English as an additional language. TESOL in Context. https://doi.org/10.21153/tesol2022vol30no2art1516
Mesthrie, R. (2010). New Englishes and the native speaker. Language Sciences, 32(6), 594–601.
Mochamad, R. F. (2015). A pragmatic analysis of speech act of requests expressed by the characters in Office Space [Doctoral dissertation, Yogyakarta State University].
Nwokolo, B. O., Ngwoke, F., & Ezeh, N. G. (2026). Linguistic representation of humility in request discourse: a pragmatic study of Nigerian teenagers’ use of English. African Identities. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2026.2720498
Ogiermann, E., & Bella, S. (2020). An Interlanguage Study of Request Perspective: Evidence from German, Greek, Polish and Russian Learners of English. Contrastive Pragmatics. https://doi.org/10.1163/26660393-bja10003
Peng, Y., & Lei, Y. (2025). Investigating pragmatic learning opportunities and outcomes in different SCMC modes. Language Learning & Technology. https://doi.org/10.64152/10125/73654
Qin, W.-J., Jia, R., & Ren, W. (2024). Pragmatic Competence in an Email Writing Task: Influences of Situation, L1 Background, and L2 Proficiency. Written Communication, 41, 726 - 755. https://doi.org/10.1177/07410883241263543
Shams, R., & Afghari, A. (2011). Effects of culture and gender in comprehension of speech acts of indirect request. English Language Teaching, 4(4), 279–287. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v4n4p279
Safont, P. (2023). Multilingual cyberpragmatics in instructional settings. Exploring gender and age effects in Catalan, Spanish and English email requests. International Journal of Multilingualism, 21, 1494 - 1516. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2023.2187811
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J. R. (1976). A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society, 5(1), 1–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4166848
Sufyan, A., Katja, L., & Madeline, L. (2013). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests’ use of strategy and level of directness in Palestinian Arabic and British English. An-Najah University Journal for Research—Humanities, 27(5), 1110–1144.
Sulistyowati, N. (2012). A pragmatics analysis on speech act of requests used by the main character in The Pursuit of Happiness [Undergraduate dissertation, State University of Yogyakarta].
Tabe, C. A., & Dieudonné, S. M. (2026). A Pragmatic Study Of Thanking Strategies In Cameroon Social Media. International Journal of Language, Linguistics, Literature, and Culture. https://doi.org/10.59009/ijlllc.2026.0213
Thuruvan, Phanithira & Yunus, Melor. (2017). The Speech Act of Request in the ESL Classroom. 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 23. 212-221. 10.17576/3L- 2017-2304-16.
Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints and apologies. Mouton de Gruyter.
Wu, Jihong. (2022). Request Strategies in BELF Emails. Int. J. on Studies in English Language and Literature, 10(6), pp. 23-39. https://doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.10060023
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Sawalda Maïna Dieudonné
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
