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Article published In:
Language and Dialogue
Vol. 8:2 (2018) ► pp.235–260

Saying “Yes” and “No” to requests

Is it the same in Egyptian and Saudi Arabic?

| Prince Sultan University (Saudi Arabia)

The current study adopts a variational pragmatic approach to compare the dialogic sequence of the directive speech act of request and its reaction of consent versus refusal in Egyptian and Saudi Arabic. To this end, 413 Egyptian and Saudi undergraduate students completed a Discourse Completion Task (DCT). Data analysis indicated more differences between Egyptian and Saudi Arabic in request consent strategies than refusal strategies. Among the noted differences in consent strategies were Egyptians’ stronger preference for direct strategies and elaborate responses than Saudis who displayed more varied combination patterns and exhibited stronger gender differences. In refusal strategies, however, a general similarity between Egyptians and Saudis was obvious at the level of strategies, combination patterns and the influence of social factors.

Keywords: request refusals, request consent, speech act, pragmatic variation, Arabic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Variation pragmatic studies on consent and refusal
    • 2.2Consent and refusal studies in the Arab world
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Instrument
    • 4.3Data collection
    • 4.4Data analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1How similar is request consent in Egyptian and Saudi Arabic?
    • 5.2How similar are request refusal strategies in Egyptian and Saudi Arabic?
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Pedagogical implications and research directions
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
Published online: 12 October 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00014.eld
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