scholarly journals Request Strategies in Everyday Interactions of Persian and English Speakers

SAGE Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401667947
Author(s):  
Shiler Yazdanfar ◽  
Alireza Bonyadi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Daily Interactions ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
American English Speakers

Cross-cultural studies of speech acts in different linguistic contexts might have interesting implications for language researchers and practitioners. Drawing on the Speech Act Theory, the present study aimed at conducting a comparative study of request speech act in Persian and English. Specifically, the study endeavored to explore the request strategies used in daily interactions of Persian and English speakers based on directness level and supportive moves. To this end, English and Persian TV series were observed and requestive utterances were transcribed. The utterances were then categorized based on Blum-Kulka and Olshtain’s Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Pattern (CCSARP) for directness level and internal and external mitigation devises. According to the results, although speakers of both languages opted for the direct level as their most frequently used strategy in their daily interactions, the English speakers used more conventionally indirect strategies than the Persian speakers did, and the Persian speakers used more non-conventionally indirect strategies than the English speakers did. Furthermore, the analyzed data revealed the fact that American English speakers use more mitigation devices in their daily interactions with friends and family members than Persian speakers.

Face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohreh R. Eslami
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
American English ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cultural Comparison ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Face Saving ◽  
American English Speakers

This paper discusses a number of differences between English and Persian in the area of speech acts and links them with different cultural values and norms. The Persian speakers’ use of face-keeping strategies in reaction to complaints was compared with American English speakers’ performance. The most frequent face- saving strategy used by both groups in reaction to complaints was the apology speech act. Therefore, a cross-cultural comparison in the realization patterns of the apology speech acts between the two languages was performed. A detailed analysis of the use of the illocutionary force indicating device (IFID) strategies and supportive strategies revealed important differences in communicative styles of the two groups which can give us insights into understanding different cultural values, norms, and assumptions concerning interpersonal use of language in a Western and a non-Western language. It is shown that Persian speakers are more sensitive to contextual factors and vary their face-keeping strategies accordingly whereas English speakers mostly use one apology strategy and intensify it based on contextual factors.

scholarly journals A Cross-Cultural Approach to Speech-Act-Sets: The Case of Apologies

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvie Válková
Keyword(s):  
Set Theory ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Corpus Data

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to contribute to the validity of recent research into speech act theory by advocating the idea that with some of the traditional speech acts, their overt language manifestations that emerge from corpus data remind us of ritualised scenarios of speech-act-sets rather than single acts, with configurations of core and peripheral units reflecting the socio-cultural norms of the expectations and culture-bound values of a given language community. One of the prototypical manifestations of speech-act-sets, apologies, will be discussed to demonstrate a procedure which can be used to identify, analyse, describe and cross-culturally compare the validity of speech-act-set theory and provide evidence of its relevance for studying the English-Czech interface in this particular domain of human interaction.

scholarly journals The Directness Levels of Criticism: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Korean and American Youtuber

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
Aan Anisah Agustini Safari
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Cross Culture ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Way

Background: Different countries may have different cultures that are influenced by their religion, traditions, or norms. These differences affect the way they speak, such as when they are commenting or giving opinions. Due to the way people express speech acts can be varied and lead to misinterpretation because of their differences, the researcher was intrigued to conduct this study. Methodology: This cross-cultural study was carried out to observe and compare the speech act of criticism between Korean and American YouTubers and to investigate the role of their cultural background in influencing the directness level they conveyed. First, the researcher selected three Korean Youtubers and Americans as well with food review content. Second, the researcher watched one video from each channel and took notes on every expression of criticism they used. Findings: The result of this study demonstrates that in American YouTubers speech, direct strategy emerges more frequently than the indirect one. Conversely, Korean YouTubers tend to use the indirect one. The finding also indicates that their speech behavior is related to their cultural norms, in which American culture encourages clear personal opinions, while Korean culture is a restraint to express their opinion or feeling clearly. Conclusion: Due to the considerable difference between Korean and American YouTuber speech, it can be concluded that culture takes a significant part in shaping one’s speech behavior. That is why people with different cultural backgrounds may have different ways of speaking.  Keywords: Criticism; cross-culture pragmatic; directness-indirectness.

scholarly journals A Cross-cultural Study of The Speech Act of Compliments in American English and Yemeni Arabic

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Najeeb Taher Almansoob ◽  
Yasser Alrefaee ◽  
K.S Patil
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Frequency Counts

Based on a cross-cultural perspective, the current study aims to compare the realization of the speech act of compliments among Yemeni Arabic native speakers (YANSs) and American English native speakers (AENSs). Samples of 30 participants of Americans and 30 other participants of Yemenis were involved in the study. The data were collected through a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) consisting of six hypothetical compliment scenarios. The corpus collected for analysis was 380 Arabic compliment semantic formulas and 338 English compliment semantic formulas. Data were analyzed in terms of frequency counts of 20 strategies and order of semantic formulas in the speakers' response utterances. The findings showed that there are some pragmatic similarities and differences between the two native groups. Some strategies seemed to be universal across the two cultures like Admiration whereas strategies of Exaggeration, Gratitude to God and Metaphor are culturally specific to Arabic. The findings also revealed that most of the speakers' utterances were in the two-fold order of semantic formulas. Moreover, the findings showed that American compliments were steady and formulaic in nature while Arabic Compliments were various in formulas and long.

scholarly journals Speech Act of Greeting for American Native Speakers of English and Saudi Native Speakers of Arabic: A Comparative Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 243
Author(s):  
Rehan Almegren
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Saudi Arabic

This study focuses on comparing the speech acts of native Arabic speakers of Saudi region and English speakers of America, which help depict the impact of the variables involved, namely status, setting, social distance and situation formality. This paper makes a significant contribution for future researchers, as it is of help to researchers in the speech act area specifically in terms of Saudi Arabic and American English. It will be also of help to those learning Arabic or English and those who teach it in these two countries. Thus, the outcome of this research will contribute to depict the differences and the similarities in the use of greeting strategies between two different groups of respondents from diverse linguistic and cultural domains. Data was collected using the discourse completion test (DCT), developed by Cohen, Olshtain & Rosenstien (1985). Fifty female respondents within the age group of 20-25 years were selected from each group to participate in research procedures. Although the inclusion of male respondents would have made the process complex, it would have provided with comparatively more accurate outcomes if managed properly. The findings showed that linguistic and cultural differences, variables of social distance, social status, settings and situation formality greatly influenced the decision-making of Saudi Native Speakers of Arabic and American Native Speakers of English, pertaining to their usage of greeting strategies as part of their speech acts. For example, differences can be observed between these two speakers in terms of their greeting strategies; American English speakers attach less significance to social and physical distance and hierarchy compared to Saudi Arabic speakers. Similarly, both the groups attach almost equal importance to their initiation words when greeting others. These differences and similarities help determine social status and the relationship between speakers. 

A Deeper Look into Requests: Insight from Jordanian Speakers of Arabic Vis-À-Vis American English Speaker

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Rula Tahsin Tarawneh ◽  
Riyad F. Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Indirect Requests ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Request Strategies

This study sought to investigate the differences between the request strategies used by Jordanian and American speakers. Data for this study were collected via a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) questionnaire, incorporating 16 real-life scenarios in the form of short descriptive statements. In accordance with the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Patterns, participants' responses (n= 30) divided into three groups (Jordanian Non-English Majors, Jordanian English Majors and American participants). The data were analyzed and further classified into three types based on their level of directness: (i) direct (D), (ii) conventional indirect (ID), and (iii) non-conventional indirect requests (NID).The results of this study indicate that the act of requesting is performed differently by the three groups of participants. The results also showed that strategy (Reference to Preparatory Cond.) was ranked the highest in percent (87.5%, 67.5%) for the two groups American and Jordanian “Male”) respectively, and (86.3%, 76.3%) %) for the two groups American and Jordanian “Female”) respectively. Also, results showed that the strategy (Locution Deliverable) was ranked the lowest by the Jordanian females sample, just (1.9%).

Shame as a Culture-Specific Emotion Concept

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 274-292
Author(s):  
Dolichan Kollareth ◽  
Jose-Miguel Fernandez-Dols ◽  
James A. Russell
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Emotional Reaction ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Cross Cultural Research ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
American English Speakers

AbstractOn the assumption that shame is a universal emotion, cross-cultural research on shame relies on translations assumed to be equivalent in meaning. Our studies here questioned that assumption. In three studies (Ns, 108, 120, 117),shamewas compared to its translations in Spanish (vergüenza) and in Malayalam (nanakedu). American English speakers usedshamefor the emotional reaction to moral failures and its use correlated positively withguilt, whereasvergüenzaandnanakeduwere used less for moral stories and their use correlated less with the guilt words. In comparison with Spanish and Malayalam speakers’ ratings of their translations, American English speakers ratedshameandguiltto be more similar to each other.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Mitigating Devices of Request Used by Saudi EFL Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Fadi Al Khasawneh
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Cultural Study ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Request Strategies ◽  
English Program

This study aimed at exploring the linguistic mitigating devices of requests used by Saudi EFL learners. The participants of this study were 97 students enrolled in the English program at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. The data of this study were collected by Discourse Completion Test (DCT) questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study. The questionnaire contained five different situations of request and the factor of Social Distance (SD) was incorporated to investigate any differences of the learners’ request strategies attributed to this factor. The data were classified according to the Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984). The findings of this study revealed that the participants preferred to use internal mitigating devices more frequently than external ones. They also were more direct when making requests and it seems that social distance does not play a significant role in the students’ modification strategies of requests.

New Work on Speech Acts

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
New Work ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Relationship

The essays collected in this book represent recent advances in our understanding of speech acts-actions like asserting, asking, and commanding that speakers perform when producing an utterance. The study of speech acts spans disciplines, and embraces both the theoretical and scientific concerns proper to linguistics and philosophy as well as the normative questions that speech acts raise for our politics, our societies, and our ethical lives generally. It is the goal of this book to reflect the diversity of current thinking on speech acts as well as to bring these conversations together, so that they may better inform one another. Topics explored in this book include the relationship between sentence grammar and speech act potential; the fate of traditional frameworks in speech act theory, such as the content-force distinction and the taxonomy of speech acts; and the ways in which speech act theory can illuminate the dynamics of hostile and harmful speech. The book takes stock of well over a half century of thinking about speech acts, bringing this classicwork in linewith recent developments in semantics and pragmatics, and pointing the way forward to further debate and research.

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