Loading...
Linguistic politeness in Ireland and Algeria: a cross-cultural analysis of invitation realisations and refusals
Date
2025-06-30
Abstract
The present investigation concentrated on the speech acts of invitation realisations and refusals in Irish English and Algerian Arabic. Although extensive research was carried out on speech acts in Irish English and, to a lesser extent, in Algerian Arabic, the linguistic and perceptual patterns of invitations and refusals were not examined in both contexts. Given the interplay between micro-social variation and linguistic variation in the dynamic process of interaction, the existing accounts, however, did not treat the impact of micro-social factors on making and refusing invitations in much detail. Hence, this study sought to contribute to understanding the conversational practices and the linguistic patterns involved in making and declining invitations in the Irish and Algerian contexts. Data was collected from 40 Irish English and 40 Algerian Arabic female native speakers, using open roleplays and corroborated by retrospective verbal reports. The study findings indicated that invitations among Irish English informants were predominantly realised using a query preparatory strategy. The Algerian Arabic informants in contrast showed a strong preference for a want statement strategy. The similarity that stands out is that both groups were inclined towards the want statement when inviting a person of higher status. Again, the conventional patterns for refusals differed noticeably, with the Irish prioritising reason/explanations and mitigated refusals, whereas their Algerian counterparts favoured reason/explanations and negative ability strategies. It was noted that the preferences for and use of strategies in realising or responding to insistence were conditioned by speakers’ constellations and sociopragmatic constraints. The results of the retrospective verbal report revealed that Irish English individuals had a strong inclination towards optionality and tentativeness as opposed to Algerians who displayed a marked predisposition towards explicitness and truthfulness when issuing or declining invitations. Despite this, the Irish and Algerian groups considered insistence in invitation interactions an expected practice, with both noting its dependency on context. The findings of this study offered several implications for future research and pedagogical recommendations.
Supervisor
Description
Publisher
University of Limerick
Citation
Files
Keywords
ULRR Identifiers
Funding code
Funding Information
Sustainable Development Goals
External Link
License
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International