CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC: AN ANALYSIS OF IMPOLITENESS STRATEGIES BY NIGERIAN FACEBOOK USERS

Abstract

Comments on Facebook provide a rich source of qualitative data that reflect public opinion as well as shed light on how people make decisions and build beliefs. In the world of pragmatics, there is a notion of politeness and impoliteness. Everybody has a public self –image and or faces which they hope that other people will appreciate. Studying impoliteness can be of help to people to understand unacceptable manners and impolite languages to help them regulate their actions when interacting with others. The aim of this study is to look into impoliteness strategies used by Nigerian Facebook users in relation to corona virus pandemic. To achieve this, a well thought-out methodological approach will be used to investigate how impoliteness strategies are implemented on Facebook comments. The descriptive method is used for this study. The data is extracted from Facebook users’ comments in Nigeria. The researcher finds out that impoliteness strategies were used to vent negative feelings, show frustration, display disappointment ridicule the writer of the posts as well as explain something on their mind. The researcher recommends to use this study as a reference for understanding the application of impoliteness in Facebook and social media in general for people in conveying their opinion.