Cross-cultural variation in speech act realization : Moroccan Arabic versus English

Dissertant

Guza, Khalid

Thesis advisor

Lahlu, Munsif

Comitee Members

al-Rashidi, Linda Stump
Bin Jelloun, Wail
Hottel, Nansi
al-Almi, Najia
Ouaouicha, Driss

University

Al Akhawayn University

Faculty

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

University Country

Morocco

Degree

Master

Degree Date

1998

English Abstract

This paper calls into question the adequacy of some universal approaches to language usage in a cross-cultural context especially the claim that indirectness is a universal strategy.

The paper argues that being primarily based-on the English language, what linguists like Paul Grice, John Searle, Brown and Levinson, Geoffrey Leech, and others have discovered is the cultural logic underlying English ways of verbal interaction.

Problems arise when the rules and principles regulating the English use of language assume a status of universality and are used to analyze the linguistic behavior of other speech communities.

These speech communities are erroneously represented through these approaches and their ways of interaction are not that appreciated.

For, the models in question embody the ethnocentric bias of a culture in which autonomy of the individual is the pivotal value.

They fail to accommodate cultures, like Moroccan culture, whose social organization is different from that of the West.

Comparing the realization of the speech acts of requesting, offering, and apologizing across Moroccan Arabic and English gives overwhelming empirical evidence against the alleged universality of these approaches.

The use of interrogative and conditional expressions to realize requests and offers in English is linked to the value of individualism in Anglo-American culture.

While the abundant use of the imperative in Moroccan Arabic as a realization of requests and offers is linked to the centrality of the interpersonal contract as the basic feature of social organization in Moroccan culture. The paper does not adopt a rejectionist attitude toward these approaches, but it suggests that the variation detected could be best accounted for within what is socially acceptable within a society.

The paper concludes by propounding that the study of cross-cultural variations in speech act realization does not only have a theoretical significance, but an applied one as well, especially with respect to foreign language teaching.

Main Subjects

Social Sciences (Multidisciplinary)

No. of Pages

95

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-592542