The gentle craft of saying “No” in Persian and English: A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic slant

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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.

作者简介

Bahareh Kordestanchi

Urmia State University

编辑信件的主要联系方式.
Email: b.kordestanchi@urmia.ac.ir
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1736-3310

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

Urmia, Iran

Mehdi Sarkhosh

Urmia State University

Email: m.sarkhosh@urmia.ac.ir
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2483-4662

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.

Urmia, Iran

Fatemeh Moafian

Kosar University of Bojnord

Email: f.moafian@kub.ac.ir
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3782-1561

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.

Bojnord, Iran

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