Investigating Impoliteness Strategies in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons

Authors

  • Nariman Hamdoun Younis Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Mosul, Iraq, Iraq
  • Ashraf Abdulwahid Dhannoon University of Mosul, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70036/cltls.v2i3.132

Keywords:

Impoliteness Strategies, Culpeper’s model of impoliteness, All My Sons, Conflict

Abstract

Background: Arthur Miller’s All My Sons (1947) is considered a landmark of modern American drama that discusses the themes of morality, family conflict, and moral responsibility, in addition to the consequences of immoral choices. Aims: This study discusses the use of the strategies of impoliteness in this play. The heated exchanges that employ impolite strategies aren’t just dramatic additions, but they are essential to understanding the story's conflicts and the characters' inner worlds. The study aims at revealing the ways wherein is intentionally used to amplify the prevalent conflict among the involved characters. It also presents the way in which each character is given a specific quality in order to expose their roles throughout the events of the play. Methods: Culpeper’s model of impoliteness (1996) has been adopted to identify the impolite speeches employed by the characters. Result: Three hundred and three impolite speeches have been identified. These speeches are frequently used among the Keller’s family. Thematic analysis has been followed to analyze the data. The findings prove that bald-on-record impoliteness is the most suitable strategy, which accounts for 81.52% of the selected data and emphasizes the raw and the direct nature of the characters' conflicts. Implication: These linguistic strategies shed light on the prominent themes of the play, in addition to showing the role of drama in expressing these relationships among the characters. Furthermore, the study provides a deep insight into how language can be used as an active tool for both the conflict and resolution in drama.

Author Biographies

Nariman Hamdoun Younis, Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Mosul, Iraq

Asst. Lect. Nariman Hamdoun Younis is a faculty member in the Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Mosul, Iraq. Her academic interests include literary pragmatics, discourse analysis, and modern American drama. She is the first author of the research paper titled Impoliteness Strategies in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, which explores the pragmatic functions of impoliteness in literary discourse.

Ashraf Abdulwahid Dhannoon, University of Mosul

Ashraf Abdulwahid Dhannoon is a lecturer in the Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Mosul, Iraq. He holds a PhD in English Language and Linguistics from the University of Mosul, where he also earned his MA in Linguistics and English Language Teaching. His research interests primarily focus on linguistics, with a special emphasis on pragmatics. Dr Dhannoon has published several peer-reviewed articles on topics such as the use of KWL and semantic map strategies in teaching idioms, the pragmatic functions of speech acts in Arabic, and the application of Leech's politeness maxims in Arabic interactions. He is actively engaged in academic activities and regularly participates in international conferences.

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Published

2025-08-26

How to Cite

Nariman Hamdoun Younis, & Dhannoon, A. A. (2025). Investigating Impoliteness Strategies in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Comparative Linguistics Translation and Literary Studies, 2(3), 132. https://doi.org/10.70036/cltls.v2i3.132

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2025): Agustus 2025

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Articles

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