Abstract:
Avoiding the current terminology debates in the literature on politeness research and following a variational pragmatics approach, this study attempted to illuminate how appropriacy/ inappropriacy is realized in Persian language in light of five speech acts of introduction, apology, refusal, congratulation, and condolence. Additionally, it was aimed to see to what extent appropriacy/ inappropriacy is a function of variables such as age, gender, job, and level of education. In order to achieve this aim, 300 participants (m=150, f=150) completed an Open-ended Production Test (OPT) consisting of twenty situations. Analyzed within a two-component part variational pragmatics framework; namely pragmatic level and social factors, the data revealed that the variables in the study in quite different forms guide the expectations, perception, and performance of the participants in the study. Giving an appropriacy (Marked/unmarked) taxonomy of the study speech acts in Persian, it is illustrated how in most cases, the norms of appropriate verbal behavior seem to be subject to the variables of the study. It was further shown that talk and acts between speakers at a social situation are governed by converging and diverging norms in different communities of practice in Persian. Thereupon, the study can highlight the significance of including variational perspective on conventions of language use for language teaching.
Machine summary:
"Thus, this study aims to first see how appropriacy/ inappropriacy is realized in Persian language in light of five speech acts of introduction, apology, refusal, congratulation, and condolence.
The Analysis of Appropriacy/ Inappropriacy in Light of Age, Gender, Job, and Educational Level In this part of the study, effort was made to see whether the realized appropriate/ inappropriate behavior of Persian speakers (see 2.
Besides, the results of the study shows raise hope-hearten as the most appropriate verbal behavior, about three-fifths of all condolence realization types, among Persians in this speech act.
Frequency of Marked Appropriate Behavior(s) Realized in Persian in Light of Five Speech Acts among Different Job Groups Speech Act Realization Types Public Private Approach *32% 25% Disclose identity *26% *28% 1) Introduction Acknowledge predicting meeting 21% *30% Express happiness 17% 15% No introduction 4% 2% Explain situation.
By and large, based on the observed results of the current study, the appropriate verbal behavior is a function of educational level for introduction, apology, refusal, and congratulation while it is independent for condolence speech act in Persian language.
As Table 3 shows, young adults’ realization of appropriate behaviors in refusal situations differs from adults’ given they prefer to use regret-reason-explanation (44%) strategy as their first choice in this speech act.
000 Conclusion This study has been conducted from a variational pragmatics (VP) perspective, exploring how appropriacy/ inappropriacy is realized in Persian language regarding five speech acts of introduction, apology, refusal, congratulation, and condolence."