Abstract:
Every human society has linguistic means to express or demonstrate respect for each
other. This study aims to explore the differences and similarities between the Changana spoken in
Mozambique and the one spoken in South Africa regarding the use of personal deixis as a marker
of respect but on the basis of data obtained from written material. We start from the assumption
that in Changana, because it is a cross-border language, there may be differences in the way the
speakers handle personal deictical expressions to express respect in communication - social
deixis. We agree with Crystal (1997) when he advocates that in every language in the world there
are strategies for marking respect and what is distinctive is the way in which the differences in
social levels of the speakers are codified in the grammar and vocabulary of each particular
language. The data analyzed comparatively were taken from two Changan novels, one
Mozambican and the other South African. These data revealed that there is a disparate use of
respect markers between the two communities, and that there are contexts in which the two
express the same characteristics, thus concluding that the range of devices that members of these
communities described in the two works analysed (novels), use in expressing respect and courtesy
comes from the appreciation of the social relationships they establish between them, the social
roles they play, age, and gender.
