STRATEGIC SPEECH ACTS IN TRANSACTIONAL DISCOURSES

Abstract

This article is on market discourse and thus, it explicates a cross section of persuasive trader-customer

speech acts in the sales transaction, a genre of discourse in which pragmatic speech acts stand out clearly. Given

that the transacting partners opt to use Kiswahili exclusively in the course of their transaction, it can be argued

that indeed Kiswahili seems to occupy a central place in the socio-economic life of the business community.

In this respect, this researcher examines the transactional encounter in Kiswahili between the trader and the

customer as mutual beneficiaries of the transactional exchange. The central concern underpinning this article is

cooperation. The two discussants deliberately maintain and sustain the flow of the discourse by using specific

speech acts in Kiswahili to the extent that either party could go to any length to ensure that the discourse does

not break down. In case there is a possibility of the discourse breaking down, then the two parties work out

the repair strategy including using various speech acts pertaining to politeness, greeting, promising, warning,

informing and cooperating. At the same time, they blame and complain about each other in a collaborative

way. They therefore transact business by talking in such a way as to display their concern and involvement

in the personal life of the co-interlocutor. In an attempt to persuade the trader to sell the goods at a low price,

the customer uses expressions that invoke his inability to pay as much. In this case, he uses various speech

acts that arouse the concern, sympathy and generosity that duty requires people to show to each other. Trader

customer Kiswahili discourse has a distinct speech act sequence that sustains the flow of the sales transaction

that uses a complex transactional speech act in form of greetings, questions and declarations. This article

therefore examines the market discourse by explicating a cross section of persuasive speech acts, which the

two transacting partners use in the course of their interaction.