SPEECH ACTS

Requests and Apologies in Arabic & English Language: A Study of Speech Acts

Contents

Introduction2

Rationale2

Hypotheses3

Research Methodology3

Quantitative Approach4

Discussion & Analysis4

Case Study4

Requests12

Arabic and English Speech Acts13

Summary of the Results15

Conclusion16

References17

Appendix 118

Appendix II19

Content Analysis Questionnaire19

Second Case Study of Arabic Native Speaker and English Native Speakers21

Situations21

The Use of Conventional Indirectness22

Appendix III23

Strategy Use in Situation 123

Strategy Use in Situation 224

Strategy Use in Situation 426

Request and Apologies in Arabic & English Language: A Study of Speech Acts

Introduction

Politeness is often inferred to as having good manners and etiquettes of socialization. In other words, saying that somebody is polite actually means that the person is empathetic, considerate and caring towards others and has good manners and attitude. Surprisingly, some people find it to be negative i.e. they believe that it has a negative connotation such as an element of hypocrisy and diplomacy in it. People indulge in acts of lying or say and pose things that they do not actually feel or believe; rather just to show in public that they have good manners.

Regardless of the negative side of politeness, it is still widely practiced in every social situation and convention across different cultures and countries. As in every culture, politeness and request is regarded as an important act of speech, a necessary part of code of conduct and behaviour in every social setting and gathering.

Requests and apologies are an important part of every culture and involves not only linguistic realizations but also require undertaking the broad spectrum or external settings i.e. paralinguistic and kinetic details (Brown & Levinson, 1987, pp. 58). This implies that conversations are either polite or impolite. Talking at the wrong time or interrupting someone in the middle of conversation, remaining silent when expected to respond are all impolite acts of behaviour. Politeness and request not only helps to avoid conflict and clash between the involved parties but also enhances the overall relationship between them through mitigating the disagreement and exaggeration of agreement (Alaoui, 2011, pp. 7).

Rationale

The major aim of this case study is to conduct a “content analysis” on the aspects of politeness in different cultures i.e. Arabic & English. Many studies have been conducted on the use of speech acts i.e. requests and politeness in different cultures and languages, but have lagged behind in researching the Arabic language. The major aim of this study is conduct a content analysis and to assess “the importance of request and politeness in general and in Arabic and British English language cultures and; how they use the two elements differently in distinct cultures. For instance, what might be considered polite in one might be regarded as an offense in another. Also, different requests and elements of politeness and their strategies would be discussed to shed light on the cross cultural differences on the issue (Tawalbeh & Al-Oqaily, 2012, pp.85).

Hypotheses

In pursuance of the study, we hypothesized the following:

H1: Arabs prefer directness and English people prefer indirectness as an important part of their social interaction but politeness exist in different forms in both the ...