Analyzing Discourse of Saudi Speakers Using the Integrative Approach (Goffman, Gumperz & Grice)

Approaches of discourse analysis, however, are at variance regarding their perspectives to discourse definition and its relationship with language and society. Based on such variance, each approach posits certain tools and applications consistent with its main principles. For instance, some approaches devote efforts to describing discourse itself and avoid accounting for underlying motivation and speakers' intentions such as "ISA"[1] developed by Gumperz and Goffman, Schiffrin (1994). On the other hand, Grice's theory devotes concerns to both speaker's intention and hearer's interpretation and gives no or little attention to the effect of societal factor on linguistic stereotype, Haji-Hasan (2010). This paper is an attempt to use the integrative approach in discourse analysis. The integrative approach mainly presents critical results of a contrastive analysis by which the two approaches are mutually used to discourse analysis. Thus, this paper attempted to make use of the repertoire stemmed from the integrative approach to data analysis. The outcomes showed that socio-linguistic level taken from ISA and pragmatic level taken from conversational implicatures provided a very good tool to discourse analysis.

Societal Factors and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Low Income Urban Societies in a Developing Country

This paper tested the influence of four societal factors, namely marital status, religion, age and gender on the life satisfaction of low income urban earners in a developing country. A survey was conducted using a sample consisting of 985 individuals drawn from three low income townships in Gauteng Province, South Africa. In order to measure life satisfaction the validated Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener et al. (1985), was utilised. Associations between each societal factor and life satisfaction were tested using multiple regression analysis. Marital status was statistically insignificant (β=0.058; P=0.170). All categories of religion were statistically significant, with Christianity (β=0.424; P=0.044) exerting the highest influence on life satisfaction. In terms of age, young adults demonstrated higher satisfaction with life than older adults, with young adults (β=0.369; P=0.019) exerting the highest influence on life satisfaction than other age categories. Gender was statistically insignificant (β=0.059; P=0.307) depicting that life satisfaction is not dependent on gender. The paper closes by drawing conclusions based on the results and suggesting several policy implications for improving the impact of each societal factor on life satisfaction.

The societal factor of political modernization

The authors analyze the role of the societal (generally systematic) factor of democratization and modernization of the political system of a society, as well as the relation of these processes to the nature of the societal identity and the socio-cultural development of countries. By the examples of the socio-historical development of the USA and Spain, the universal character of threats concer-ning with the nature of the societal factor in various aspects is proved, and their actuality for Ukraine’s political modernization is considered. A forecast of the development of societal properties of Ukraine’s socium which are an important precondition of the steady development of the country is given.

Individual, Organizational, and Societal Influences on Media Role Perceptions: A Comparative Study of Journalists in China, Taiwan, and the United States

This article reports a secondary analysis comparing media role perceptions among journalists in China, Taiwan, and the United States, based on three recent nationwide surveys in these societies. By comparing the goodness-of-fit of a series of loglinear models, we have found that the societal factor has the strongest impact on journalists' views about media roles, the organizational factor has a significant but weak impact, and the individual factor has virtually no impact. Within the societal factor, we have further contrasted two competing models: political determinism vs. cultural determinism. The study provides clear-cut evidence in favor of the former.