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Refusal strategies in P ersian
Author(s) -
Izadi Ahmad,
Zilaie Farzaneh
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of applied linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.712
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1473-4192
pISSN - 0802-6106
DOI - 10.1111/ijal.12065
Subject(s) - gratitude , variety (cybernetics) , psychology , speech act , social psychology , linguistics , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy
This study investigates how Iranian speakers of P ersian realize the speech act of refusals to the initiating acts of offers, suggestions, invitations and requests. Two hundred and eight acts of refusals were naturally collected and classified according to the refusal classification scheme proposed by B eebe, T akahashi, and U liss‐ W eltz. The results showed that Iranian P ersian speakers employ indirect strategies and a combination of direct and indirect strategies more than direct ones in refusals, in communication with the interactants with whom they have ongoing relationship. ‘Reason’ and ‘gratitude’ were the most frequent strategies in the data. Returning the act was found to be a new strategy. Finally, the socio‐cultural implications of the variety in the production of refusals are discussed.