Investigating Bamanankan Corruption Euphemisms among the Malian Academic community

Abstract

This paper explores the use of euphemisms in the corruption vocabulary of Bamanankan language in Malian higher education. Research in the Malian context has paid little attention to the phenomenon. So this investigation is conducted to unveil corruption euphemisms among the Malian academic community. The study combines Goffman’s (1972) Face Work Theory and Brown and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) Politeness Theory. The qualitative method has been advocated for data collection and analysis. The findings have revealed seven euphemism typologies according to gender, the social status and occupation of the people involved. They have equally uncovered that Bamanankan is the preferred language for using those euphemisms for all the research participants.