Resumen de ˝In future if l buy a dog, l'll call it ´Okyeman-is-ungrateful´.˝: Indirect response to potentially difficult communicative situations: the case of Akan dog names

Samuel Gyasi Obeng

• The Akan of Ghana, like other African peoples, sometimes dislike direct verbal confrontation in view of the dangers such confrontations pose to the "face" ofinteractants äs well äs to socialharmony. Due to the capacity ofthe spoken word to making or breaking an individual on the spur ofthe moment, discourse participants take protection under afacade of verbal indirectness.

  Hence in addressing a face-threatening act, the Akan prefer to do so indirectly. The face-threatening act (FTA) may be addressed to a pseudoepicenter, usually a dog, a cat, or any pet, rather than to the real addressee.

  The real addressee or society at large is then left to react. Since the actual addressee is an animal, the real addressee will, under normal circumstances, not responddirectly. This communicative strategy isgovernedby the nature of the relationship between the interactants äs well äs by their statuses and act s äs a social control measure, helping to prevent social disorder. Given the important wie of indirectness in a society such äs that of the Akan, an appropriate theory of communication shouldinclude it äs an essentialfeature