Socio-pragmatic Transfer in Egyptian Refusals

Abstract

Producing accurate and comprehensible language requires grammatical and syntactic knowledge; however, language accuracy does not ensure avoiding miscommunication which arises from the inappropriate use of speech acts. Thus, speech acts are among the prominent areas that have been investigated in the field of Inter-language pragmatics (ILP). Hence, the current study examines the realizations of the speech act of refusal by young adult Egyptian students in their L1 (Egyptian Arabic) and L2 (English). The study also explores the socio-pragmatic features of Egyptian refusals in terms of power and distance. 2270 cases of refusals were collected by means of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and field notes. The sample consists of 200 DCTs and 60 instances of refusals extracted from field notes collected by the researcher from natural observations. The data are analyzed according to an adaptation of the taxonomy of refusal strategies (RS) by Beebe et al. (1990). The findings reflect a great amount of positive pragmatic transfer as most of the participants’ refusals are indirect refusals. The main strategies that are used include statements of explanations, statements of alternatives, and statements of regret. In addition, adjuncts to refusals such as gratitude and positive opinion are used in refusals to interlocutors of equal and higher power. Furthermore, the results reveal an amount of negative pragmatic transfer in the participants’ L2 refusals. Finally, practical implications and future recommendations are suggested based on the given results.