A Pragmatic Study of Nagging in Samuel Beckett's Endgame

Abstract

The term nagging is often used in conversations to describe, or accuse the behavior of a person. Nagging behavior can be annoying to the receivers of nags; however, individuals who nag believe their behavior is a demonstration of their concern (Tannen, 1990:13). The miscommunication that occurs  when an individual uses nagging behavior can be problematic for interpersonal relationships (Dunleavy, 2007:1).

Intimacy is a key in a world of connection where individuals negotiate complex networks of friendship, minimize differences, try to reach consensus, and avoid the appearance of superiority, which would highlight differences. In a world of status, independence is a key, because a primary means of establishing status is to tell others what to do, and taking orders is a marker of low status. Though all humans need both intimacy and independence, women tend to focus on the first and men on the second. It is as if their lifeblood ran in different directions (Tannen, 1991:10).

The present study aims at  Pointing out the pragmatic structure of nagging in the data under analysis; finding out the types of nagging that are used in the nagging episodes; highlighting the pragmatic functions triggered by  the use of each type of nagging; identifying the pragmatic strategies that are used in each of the stages of nagging in the nagging episodes; and developing an eclectic model for analyzing nagging. It is hypothesized that nagging is a pragmatic process with certain identifiable strategies and that it comes in sequences of different formats according to the degree of intimacy between  naggers and naggees.

In order to achieve the aims of this study and verify or reject its hypotheses, the following procedures are taken on board such as surveying the pragmatic phenomenon of 'nagging' in the related literature to highlight its meaning, strategies and functions in the data under analysis; Explicating the criteria by which we can differentiate nagging from other related attitudes such as 'gossiping' and 'begging'; designing an eclectic model for the analysis of the selected data, based on Boxer's (2000) work on the stages of 'nagging', and Kozloff's (1988) work on the description of the nagging exchange. As such, this study is limited to the investigation of nagging in a number of exemplary illustrative examples taken from Samuel Beckett's one act paly of Endgame.