A cross-linguistic investigation of language apology speech act: A case of Persian and Kurdish Children

This study aims at exploring the similarities and differences among strategies used in performing speech act of apologizing in Southern Kurdish (Kermanshahi Kurdish) and Persian children. The first goal is to find out whether Kurdish and Persian apologies are formulaic in pragmatic structure as in English apologies or not. The second goal of this study is to investigate the effect of the values assigned to the two context-external variables of social distance and social dominance on the frequency of the apology intensifiers. To this end, Kurdish and Persian apologetic utterances are collected via a DCT [Discourse Completion Test] and oral interviews. The research findings indicate that Kurdish and Persian children's apologies are formulaic in pragmatic structures and there are some significant differences between Kurdish and Persian. Furthermore, the values assigned to the two context-external variables are found to have a significant effect on the frequency of the intensifiers in different situations.   Key words: Apology speech act, socio-pragmatic, CCSARP, status, dominance, Kurdish/Persian.