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Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 34:2 (2021) ► pp.712–738

Revisited interpretation of Ta’ārof

Towards a model of analysing meta-implicatures of Persian offers in Iranian films

| University of Ottawa

Speech acts used in doing ta’ārof (Iranian system of politeness) have been conceptualized in terms of both positive (i.e. sincere or genuine) and negative (i.e. ritual or ostensible) meanings. This study aimed to revisit the interpretation of the negative meaning by concentrating on ta’ārof (ritual) offers produced by characters in Iranian films. First, these items were identified and distinguished from their genuine counterparts based on the strategies used in their structures and analysing their contextual features respectively. Then, the researcher proposed a model in which she adopted the notion of Leech’s (1983) meta-implicature (indirect implicature) to explicate the negative meaning of ta’ārof offers. She grouped a series of effective factors in working out these meta-implicatures. Finally, a tentative hierarchy of stages for identification and interpretation of ta’ārof offers in Iranian films were proposed.

Keywords: Persian, ta’ārof , offer, politeness, meta-implicature, adab , shaxsiat, ehterām , Iranian films
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Studies on Persian Offers
    • 1.2Cultural concepts relevant to Ta’ārof
    • 1.3Notion of Meta-Implicature
  • 2.Method
  • 3.Results and data analysis
    • 3.1Offer of money
    • 3.2Compliment response
    • 3.3Other features
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • References
Published online: 15 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.19017.yaq
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