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<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" article-type="research-article" dtd-version="1.2" xml:lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">Russian Journal of Linguistics</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title xml:lang="en">Russian Journal of Linguistics</journal-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Russian Journal of Linguistics</trans-title></trans-title-group></journal-title-group><issn publication-format="print">2687-0088</issn><issn publication-format="electronic">2686-8024</issn><publisher><publisher-name xml:lang="en">Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba (RUDN University)</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">36171</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.22363/2687-0088-31702</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="edn">MZTMMH</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="en"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="ru"><subject>Статьи</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="zh"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="article-type"><subject>Research Article</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title xml:lang="en">The gentle craft of saying “No” in Persian and English: A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic slant</article-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Тонкое искусство говорить «нет» в персидском и английском языках: кросс-культурный и кросс-лингвистический аспекты</trans-title></trans-title-group></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1736-3310</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Kordestanchi</surname><given-names>Bahareh</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Кордестанчи</surname><given-names>Бахаре</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics at Urmia State University, Iran. She is interested in undertaking research projects in the realm of pragmatics and discourse analysis. She also teaches BA courses at the University of Urmia, Iran</p></bio><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>получила степень PhD по прикладной лингвистике в Государственном университете Урмия (Иран) и преподает там в настоящее время. Она занимается исследованиями в области прагматики и дискурс-анализа.</p></bio><email>b.kordestanchi@urmia.ac.ir</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2483-4662</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Sarkhosh</surname><given-names>Mehdi</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Сархош</surname><given-names>Мехди</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>has a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Tehran and is currently a faculty member (assistant professor) at Urmia State University, Iran. His main research interests include: pragmatics, and discourse studies. He also teaches MA and PhD courses at the University of Urmia, Iran.</p></bio><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>получил степень PhD по прикладной лингвистике в Тегеранском университете. В настоящее время он является старшим преподавателем в Государственном университете Урмия (Иран), где преподает ряд дисциплин магистрантам и аспирантам. Его исследовательские интересы сосредоточены в области прагматики и дискурс-анализа.</p></bio><email>m.sarkhosh@urmia.ac.ir</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3782-1561</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Moafian</surname><given-names>Fatemeh</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Моафиан</surname><given-names>Фатеме</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and is currently an assistant professor at Kosar University of Bojnord, Iran. She has co-authored several research articles in national and international scientific research journals such as Frontiers in Psychology, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, System, ELT, Asian EFL Journal, etc. She has also co-authored two books. Her research interests are pragmatics, educational psychology, mindfulness, and teacher education.</p></bio><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>имеет степень PhD по прикладной лингвистике и является старшим преподавателем в Косарском университете Боджнурда (Иран). Она соавтор нескольких научных статей, опубликованных в Иране и за рубежом, в частности в журналах Frontiers in Psychology, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, System, ELT, Asian EFL Journal, а также двух книг. В сферу ее научных интересов входят прагматика, педагогическая психология и педагогика.</p></bio><email>f.moafian@kub.ac.ir</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2"/></contrib></contrib-group><aff-alternatives id="aff1"><aff><institution xml:lang="en">Urmia State University</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="ru">Урмийский государственный университет</institution></aff></aff-alternatives><aff-alternatives id="aff2"><aff><institution xml:lang="en">Kosar University of Bojnord</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="ru">Косарский университет Боджнорда</institution></aff></aff-alternatives><pub-date date-type="pub" iso-8601-date="2023-09-30" publication-format="electronic"><day>30</day><month>09</month><year>2023</year></pub-date><volume>27</volume><issue>3</issue><issue-title xml:lang="en">VOL 27, NO3 (2023)</issue-title><issue-title xml:lang="ru">ТОМ 27, №3 (2023)</issue-title><fpage>592</fpage><lpage>614</lpage><history><date date-type="received" iso-8601-date="2023-10-01"><day>01</day><month>10</month><year>2023</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement xml:lang="en">Copyright ©; 2023, Kordestanchi B., Sarkhosh M., Moafian F.</copyright-statement><copyright-statement xml:lang="ru">Copyright ©; 2023, Кордестанчи Б., Сархош М., Моафиан Ф.</copyright-statement><copyright-statement xml:lang="zh">Copyright ©; 2023, Kordestanchi B., Sarkhosh M., Moafian F.</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2023</copyright-year><copyright-holder xml:lang="en">Kordestanchi B., Sarkhosh M., Moafian F.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="ru">Кордестанчи Б., Сархош М., Моафиан Ф.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="zh">Kordestanchi B., Sarkhosh M., Moafian F.</copyright-holder><ali:free_to_read xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"/><license><ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0</ali:license_ref></license></permissions><self-uri xlink:href="https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/36171">https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/36171</self-uri><abstract xml:lang="en"><p style="text-align: justify;">Refusals have proven to be problematic since they are the source of so many cross-cultural misunderstandings in that they are face threatening acts, which require that the speaker utilize redress, mitigation or politeness markers. The present study’s goal was to investigate the realization of the speech act of refusal in the Iranians and Americans contexts to identify the similarities and differences. It also explored the effect of social status on the choice of refusal strategies. Two well-known popular family drama film series were selected as the sources of the data. Totally, 455 refusal words, expressions, and utterances were collected from the two series. The collected data was coded using Beebe et al.’s (1990) taxonomy of refusal strategies. Descriptive statistics, Binomial, and Chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. The frequency of the refusal strategies and also the frequency of utilizing these strategies with respect to the interlocutors’ social status were analyzed. The results revealed no statistically significant differences between the two cultures with respect to the prevalence of refusal strategies, shift, and content of semantic formulae used in refusals. However, there were statistically significant differences in the frequency of the two major refusal categories, namely, Direct and Indirect strategies. Furthermore, concerning social status, the differences were statistically significant in the frequency of the refusal strategies utilized by the three social levels as regards the main categories in both cultures. The findings enhance intercultural understanding and provide valuable insights into the realization of refusals in different cultural contexts, the influence of social status, and the implications for intercultural communication. It highlights the significance of pragmatic issues and cultural awareness in promoting effective communication and mutual understanding across cultures, hence, ameliorates mutual cross-cultural communication and warrant teachers and material developers about the significance of pragmatic issues in developing the learners’ communicative competence.</p></abstract><trans-abstract xml:lang="ru"><p style="text-align: justify;">Отказы создают сложности в коммуникации, поскольку они нередко являются источником межкультурного непонимания и могут восприниматься как угрожающие действия, требующие от говорящего извинений, смягчения речи или использования маркеров вежливости. Цель настоящего исследования - рассмотрение реализации речевого акта отказа между иранцами как представителями коллективистского общества и американцами, относящимися к индивидуалистическому обществу. Также исследовалось влияние социального статуса на выбор стратегии отказа. В качестве источников данных были выбраны два популярных сериала в жанре семейной драмы. Из двух сериалов в совокупности было отобрано 455 слов, фраз и высказываний, выражающих отказ. Собранные данные были закодированы с использованием таксономии стратегий отказа (Beebe et al. 1990). Для анализа данных использовались описательная статистика, биномиальные тесты и тесты Chisquare. Анализировалась частотность использования стратегий отказа с учетом социального статуса собеседников. Результаты не выявили статистически значимых различий между двумя культурами в отношении распространенности стратегий отказа, смещения и содержания смысловых формул, используемых при отказах. Однако наблюдались статистически значимые различия в частотности двух основных категорий отказов, а именно с использованием прямой и косвенной стратегий. Кроме того, учет социального статуса коммуникантов позволил выявить статистически значимые отличия в частотности стратегий отказа, используемых на трех социальных уровнях в обеих культурах. Результаты исследования способствуют межкультурному взаимопониманию и могут быть полезны для учителей и разработчиков дидактических материалов, направленных на развитие коммуникативной компетентности учащихся.</p></trans-abstract><kwd-group xml:lang="en"><kwd>speech act</kwd><kwd>refusal strategies</kwd><kwd>social status</kwd><kwd>film series</kwd><kwd>Persian</kwd><kwd>English</kwd></kwd-group><kwd-group xml:lang="ru"><kwd>речевой акт</kwd><kwd>стратегии отказа</kwd><kwd>социальный статус</kwd><kwd>сериалы</kwd><kwd>персидский язык</kwd><kwd>английский язык</kwd></kwd-group><funding-group/></article-meta></front><body></body><back><ref-list><ref id="B1"><label>1.</label><mixed-citation>Allami, Hamid &amp; Amin Naeimi. 2011. 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