Egyptian advice in casual conversations: A deep dive with corpus-based insights

Recent studies suggest that Egyptians perceive advice-giving as social cooperation and solidarity, deeply rooted in their collectivist culture. These studies indicate that Egyptians tend to employ direct advice more frequently than individuals in individualistic cultures, where advice-giving is often regarded as face-threatening. However, these conclusions have primarily been drawn from role-play scenarios and multiple-choice questionnaires, which may not fully capture the cultural and linguistic nuances of Egyptian Arabic. This study builds on previous research by analyzing the CALLHOME Egyptian Arabic corpus, a collection of unscripted phone conversations among friends and family, to provide a more nuanced understanding. The findings confirm previous conclusions, revealing that direct advice constitutes 58.3 % of cases, with no significant influence from interlocutors' social status or advice level of imposition. Notably, 15.5 % of this direct advice consists of emotionally supportive phrases such as “don't worry” and “take care” rather than practical guidance. A distinctive form of hedged advice also emerged, marked by hedging imperatives, such as “try” (e.g., “try to find reasons” instead of “find reasons”). Additionally, the corpus highlights how indirect advice is embedded within other speech acts, including requests, prayers, opinions, questions, and wishes. The results, which align with prior conversation analysis research on advice in British and American cultures, suggest that Egyptians exhibit similar behaviors when giving advice. This indicates that conversational expectations, beyond the collectivist-individualist cultural dichotomy, play a critical role in shaping advice-giving strategies.