The Impact of Gender Differences on the Expressions of Refusal in Jordanian Arabic
The present study investigates the use of the expression of refusal by native speakers of Jordanian Arabic (NSsJA) in different social situations (i.e. invitations, suggestions, and offers). It also investigates the influence of gender on the refusal realization patterns within the Jordanian culture to provide a better insight into the relation between situations, strategies and gender in the Jordanian culture. To that end, a group of 70 participants, including 35 male and 35 female students from different departments at the Hashemite University (HU) participated in this study using mixed methods (i.e. Discourse Completion Test (DCT), interviews and naturally occurring data). Data were analyzed in light of a developed coding scheme. The results showed that NSsJA preferred indirect strategies which mitigate the interaction such as "excuse, reason and, explanation" strategy more than other strategies which aggravate the interaction such as "face-threatening" strategy. Moreover, the analysis of this study has revealed a considerable impact of gender on the use of linguistic forms expressing refusal among NSsJA. Significant differences in the results of the Chi-square test relating the effect of participants' gender indicate that both males and females were conscious of the gender of their interlocutors. The findings provide worthwhile insights into the relation amongst types of communicative acts and the rapport between people in social interaction. They assert that refusal should not be labeled as face threatening act since it does not always pose a threat in some cases especially where refusal is expressed among friends, relatives and family members. They highlight some distinctive culture-specific features of the communicative acts of refusal.
[1] Morris, C. H. (1938). Foundation of the theory of signs. In International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. 2, No. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[2] Al-Khawaldeh, N. (2014). Politeness in the linguistic expression of gratitude in Jordan and England: A comparative cross cultural study. (Doctoral Dissertation). University Of Bedfordshire.
[3] Murphy, B. & Neu, J. (1996). My grade‟s too low: The speech act set of complaining. Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language,191-216. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
[4] Austin, J. (1962).How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[5] Félix-Brasdefer, J. (2006). Linguistic politeness in Mexico: Refusal strategies among male speakers of Mexican Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(12), 2158-2187.
[6] Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2001). Discourse and intercultural communication. The handbook of discourse analysis, 538.
[7] Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. London: Longman.
[8] Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell
[9] Žegarac, V. (2008). Culture and communication. Culturally speaking: Culture, communication and politeness theory, 48-70.
[10] Boubendir, F. (2012).Linguistic politeness in English and Arabic and its implications for translation. (Doctoral dissertation).The University of Petra).
[11] Fraser, B. (2010). Pragmatic competence: The case of hedging. New approaches to hedging, pp.15-34.
[12] Bardovi-Harlig, K., Hartford, B., Mahan Taylor, R., Morgan, M., & Reynolds, D. (1991). Developing pragmatic awareness: Closing the conversation. ELT Journal,45(1): 4-15.
[13] Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2): 91-112.
[14] Beebe, L., & Takahashi, T. (1989). Sociolinguistic variation in face-threatening speech acts. In the dynamic inter-language (pp. 199-218). Springer US.
[15] Ghazanfari, M., Bonyadi, A., & Malekzadeh, S. (2013). Investigating cross-linguistic in refusal speech act among native Persian and English speakers. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2(4): 49-63.
[16] Al-Shalawi, H. (1997). Refusal strategies in Saudi and American cultures. (Master’s thesis).Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
[17] Nelson, G., Carson, J., Batal, M., & Bakary, W. (2002). Cross‐cultural pragmatics: Strategy use in Egyptian Arabic and American English refusals. Applied linguistics, 23(2), 163-189.
[18] Hussein, A. (1995). The sociolinguistic patterns of native Arabic speakers: Implications for teaching Arabic as a foreign language. Applied Language Learning, 6, 65-87.
[19] Al-Eryani, A. (2007). Refusal strategies by Yemeni EFL learners. The Asian EFL Journal, 9(2), 19-34.
[20] Al-Issa, A. (1998). Sociopragmatic transfer in the performance of refusals by Jordanian EFL learners: Evidence and motivating factors. (Doctoral dissertation). Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania.
[21] Mulac, A., Bradac, J., & Gibbons, P. (2001). Empirical support for the gender‐as‐culture hypothesis. Human Communication Research, 27(1), 121-152.
[22] Al-Khawaldeh, N., & Žegarac, V. (2013).Gender and the communication of gratitude in Jordan. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 03(03), 268-287.
[23] Mills, S. (2003). Gender and politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[24] Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987).Politeness: Some universal in language usage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
[25] Archer, D., Aijmer, K., & Wichmann, A. (2012). Pragmatics: An advanced resource book for students. Routledge.
[26] Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[27] Chen, H. (1996). Cross-Cultural Comparison of English and Chinese Metapragmatics in Refusal. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED408860).
[28] Searle, J., & Vanderveken, D. (1985).Foundations of illocutionary logic. England: Cambridge University Press.
[29] Searle, J. (1977). A classification of illocutionary acts. In: Rogers, A., Wall, B., Murphy, J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presupposition, and Implicatures. Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC, pp. 27-45. Iraq Country Handbook.
[30] Beebe, L., Takahashi, T., & Uliss-Weltz, R. (1990). Pragmatic transfer in ESL refusals. Developing communicative competence in a second language, 5573.
[31] Khwaileh, F. (2005). A pragmatic analysis of Jordanian Arabic and American English refusal strategies. (Master's Thesis). Yarmouk University, Jordan.
[32] Al-Shboul, Y. and Huwari, I. (2016). A comparative study of Jordanian Arabic and American English refusal strategies, British Journal of English Linguistics 4 (3), pp.50-62
[33] Gass, N., & Houck, N. (1996). Non-native refusals: A methodological perspective. Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language, 45-63.
[34] Hedayatnejad, F., & Rahbar, B. (2014). The effect of gender on realization of refusal of suggestion in formal and informal situations among Iranian EFL learners. Voices, 4 (6), 20-43.
[35] Tashakkori, A. & Creswell, J. (2007), Editorial: The new era of mixed methods‟. Journal of Mixed Methods Research. 1, 3-7.
[36] Greene, J., Caracelli, V., & Graham, W. (1989). Toward a conceptual framework for mixed-method evaluation designs. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, 11(3), 255-274.
[37] Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (2003). The past and the future of mixed methods research: From „methodological triangulation ‟to mixed methods designs‟. Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research, 671-701.
[38] Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (2010). Sage handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research. Sage.
[39] Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks.
[40] Grainger, K. (2011). First order' and 'second order' politeness: Institutional and intercultural contexts. Discursive approaches to politeness, 167-188.
[41] Sattar, H., Lah, S., & Suleiman, R. (2011).Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 11(3), 69-81.
[42] Hassani, R., Mardani, M., & Dastjerdi, H. V. (2011). A comparative study of refusals: Gender distinction and social status in focus. The International Journal-Language Society and Culture, 32, 37-46.
[43] 2Al-Shboul, Y., Maros, M., Yasin, M., & Subakir, M. (2012).An intercultural study of refusal strategies in English between Jordanian EFL and Malay ESL postgraduate students. 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 18(3).
[44] Valipour, S., & Jadidi, S. (2014). Study of Iranian English language teachers' familiarity with language functions in request, apology, refusal, and greeting. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 4(1), 13-30.
[45] Lakoff, R. (1990). Talking power: The politics of language in our lives. New York: Basic Books.
[46] Brown, L. (2008). The Korean honorifics system and politeness in second language learning. (Doctoral dissertation). University of London, London.
[47] Urban, G. (1993). The represented functions of speech in Shokleng myth. Reflexive Language, 241-86.
[48] Van Dijk, T. (2001).Discourse, ideology and context.Folia Linguistica, 35(1-2): 11-40.
[49] Coupland, N., & Jaworski, A. (2004). Sociolinguistic perspectives on metalanguage: reflexivity, evaluation and ideology. In Metalanguage, A. Jaworski, N Coupland Metalanguage: Social and ideological perspectives, 15.and D. Galasinski (eds.). 15-51. Berlin: Gruyter de Mouton.
[50] Berry, J., Poortinga, Y., Segall, M., & Dasen, P. (2002).Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[51] Abdel-Jawad, H. (2000). A linguistic and sociopragmatic and cultural study of swearing in Arabic. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 13(2): 217-240.
[52] Bentahila, A., & Davies, E. (1989). Culture and language use: A problem for foreign language teaching. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 27(2), 99-112.
[53] Hetherington, K. (1998).Expressions of identity.London: Sage publications.
[54] Golato, A. (2003). Studying compliment responses: A comparison of DCTs and recordings of naturally occurring talk. Applied linguistics, 24(1), 90-121.
[55] Nwoye, O. (1992). Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variations of the notion of face. Journal of Pragmatics, 18(4): 309-328.
[56] Hofstede, G. (1991). Organizations and cultures: Software of the mind. McGrawHill, New York.
[57] Morkus, N. (2009). The realization of the speech act of refusal in Egyptian Arabic by American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. (Doctoral dissertation). University of SouthFlorida.
[58] VonCanon, A. (2006). Just saying “no”: Refusing request in Spanish as a first and second language. (Doctoral dissertation).University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
[1] Morris, C. H. (1938). Foundation of the theory of signs. In International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. 2, No. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[2] Al-Khawaldeh, N. (2014). Politeness in the linguistic expression of gratitude in Jordan and England: A comparative cross cultural study. (Doctoral Dissertation). University Of Bedfordshire.
[3] Murphy, B. & Neu, J. (1996). My grade‟s too low: The speech act set of complaining. Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language,191-216. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
[4] Austin, J. (1962).How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[5] Félix-Brasdefer, J. (2006). Linguistic politeness in Mexico: Refusal strategies among male speakers of Mexican Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(12), 2158-2187.
[6] Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2001). Discourse and intercultural communication. The handbook of discourse analysis, 538.
[7] Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. London: Longman.
[8] Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell
[9] Žegarac, V. (2008). Culture and communication. Culturally speaking: Culture, communication and politeness theory, 48-70.
[10] Boubendir, F. (2012).Linguistic politeness in English and Arabic and its implications for translation. (Doctoral dissertation).The University of Petra).
[11] Fraser, B. (2010). Pragmatic competence: The case of hedging. New approaches to hedging, pp.15-34.
[12] Bardovi-Harlig, K., Hartford, B., Mahan Taylor, R., Morgan, M., & Reynolds, D. (1991). Developing pragmatic awareness: Closing the conversation. ELT Journal,45(1): 4-15.
[13] Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2): 91-112.
[14] Beebe, L., & Takahashi, T. (1989). Sociolinguistic variation in face-threatening speech acts. In the dynamic inter-language (pp. 199-218). Springer US.
[15] Ghazanfari, M., Bonyadi, A., & Malekzadeh, S. (2013). Investigating cross-linguistic in refusal speech act among native Persian and English speakers. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2(4): 49-63.
[16] Al-Shalawi, H. (1997). Refusal strategies in Saudi and American cultures. (Master’s thesis).Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
[17] Nelson, G., Carson, J., Batal, M., & Bakary, W. (2002). Cross‐cultural pragmatics: Strategy use in Egyptian Arabic and American English refusals. Applied linguistics, 23(2), 163-189.
[18] Hussein, A. (1995). The sociolinguistic patterns of native Arabic speakers: Implications for teaching Arabic as a foreign language. Applied Language Learning, 6, 65-87.
[19] Al-Eryani, A. (2007). Refusal strategies by Yemeni EFL learners. The Asian EFL Journal, 9(2), 19-34.
[20] Al-Issa, A. (1998). Sociopragmatic transfer in the performance of refusals by Jordanian EFL learners: Evidence and motivating factors. (Doctoral dissertation). Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania.
[21] Mulac, A., Bradac, J., & Gibbons, P. (2001). Empirical support for the gender‐as‐culture hypothesis. Human Communication Research, 27(1), 121-152.
[22] Al-Khawaldeh, N., & Žegarac, V. (2013).Gender and the communication of gratitude in Jordan. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 03(03), 268-287.
[23] Mills, S. (2003). Gender and politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[24] Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987).Politeness: Some universal in language usage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
[25] Archer, D., Aijmer, K., & Wichmann, A. (2012). Pragmatics: An advanced resource book for students. Routledge.
[26] Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[27] Chen, H. (1996). Cross-Cultural Comparison of English and Chinese Metapragmatics in Refusal. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED408860).
[28] Searle, J., & Vanderveken, D. (1985).Foundations of illocutionary logic. England: Cambridge University Press.
[29] Searle, J. (1977). A classification of illocutionary acts. In: Rogers, A., Wall, B., Murphy, J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Texas Conference on Performatives, Presupposition, and Implicatures. Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC, pp. 27-45. Iraq Country Handbook.
[30] Beebe, L., Takahashi, T., & Uliss-Weltz, R. (1990). Pragmatic transfer in ESL refusals. Developing communicative competence in a second language, 5573.
[31] Khwaileh, F. (2005). A pragmatic analysis of Jordanian Arabic and American English refusal strategies. (Master's Thesis). Yarmouk University, Jordan.
[32] Al-Shboul, Y. and Huwari, I. (2016). A comparative study of Jordanian Arabic and American English refusal strategies, British Journal of English Linguistics 4 (3), pp.50-62
[33] Gass, N., & Houck, N. (1996). Non-native refusals: A methodological perspective. Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to communication in a second language, 45-63.
[34] Hedayatnejad, F., & Rahbar, B. (2014). The effect of gender on realization of refusal of suggestion in formal and informal situations among Iranian EFL learners. Voices, 4 (6), 20-43.
[35] Tashakkori, A. & Creswell, J. (2007), Editorial: The new era of mixed methods‟. Journal of Mixed Methods Research. 1, 3-7.
[36] Greene, J., Caracelli, V., & Graham, W. (1989). Toward a conceptual framework for mixed-method evaluation designs. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, 11(3), 255-274.
[37] Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (2003). The past and the future of mixed methods research: From „methodological triangulation ‟to mixed methods designs‟. Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research, 671-701.
[38] Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (2010). Sage handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research. Sage.
[39] Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks.
[40] Grainger, K. (2011). First order' and 'second order' politeness: Institutional and intercultural contexts. Discursive approaches to politeness, 167-188.
[41] Sattar, H., Lah, S., & Suleiman, R. (2011).Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 11(3), 69-81.
[42] Hassani, R., Mardani, M., & Dastjerdi, H. V. (2011). A comparative study of refusals: Gender distinction and social status in focus. The International Journal-Language Society and Culture, 32, 37-46.
[43] 2Al-Shboul, Y., Maros, M., Yasin, M., & Subakir, M. (2012).An intercultural study of refusal strategies in English between Jordanian EFL and Malay ESL postgraduate students. 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 18(3).
[44] Valipour, S., & Jadidi, S. (2014). Study of Iranian English language teachers' familiarity with language functions in request, apology, refusal, and greeting. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 4(1), 13-30.
[45] Lakoff, R. (1990). Talking power: The politics of language in our lives. New York: Basic Books.
[46] Brown, L. (2008). The Korean honorifics system and politeness in second language learning. (Doctoral dissertation). University of London, London.
[47] Urban, G. (1993). The represented functions of speech in Shokleng myth. Reflexive Language, 241-86.
[48] Van Dijk, T. (2001).Discourse, ideology and context.Folia Linguistica, 35(1-2): 11-40.
[49] Coupland, N., & Jaworski, A. (2004). Sociolinguistic perspectives on metalanguage: reflexivity, evaluation and ideology. In Metalanguage, A. Jaworski, N Coupland Metalanguage: Social and ideological perspectives, 15.and D. Galasinski (eds.). 15-51. Berlin: Gruyter de Mouton.
[50] Berry, J., Poortinga, Y., Segall, M., & Dasen, P. (2002).Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[51] Abdel-Jawad, H. (2000). A linguistic and sociopragmatic and cultural study of swearing in Arabic. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 13(2): 217-240.
[52] Bentahila, A., & Davies, E. (1989). Culture and language use: A problem for foreign language teaching. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 27(2), 99-112.
[53] Hetherington, K. (1998).Expressions of identity.London: Sage publications.
[54] Golato, A. (2003). Studying compliment responses: A comparison of DCTs and recordings of naturally occurring talk. Applied linguistics, 24(1), 90-121.
[55] Nwoye, O. (1992). Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variations of the notion of face. Journal of Pragmatics, 18(4): 309-328.
[56] Hofstede, G. (1991). Organizations and cultures: Software of the mind. McGrawHill, New York.
[57] Morkus, N. (2009). The realization of the speech act of refusal in Egyptian Arabic by American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. (Doctoral dissertation). University of SouthFlorida.
[58] VonCanon, A. (2006). Just saying “no”: Refusing request in Spanish as a first and second language. (Doctoral dissertation).University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:80131", author = "Hanan Yousef and Nisreen Naji Al-Khawaldeh", title = "The Impact of Gender Differences on the Expressions of Refusal in Jordanian Arabic", abstract = "The present study investigates the use of the expression of refusal by native speakers of Jordanian Arabic (NSsJA) in different social situations (i.e. invitations, suggestions, and offers). It also investigates the influence of gender on the refusal realization patterns within the Jordanian culture to provide a better insight into the relation between situations, strategies and gender in the Jordanian culture. To that end, a group of 70 participants, including 35 male and 35 female students from different departments at the Hashemite University (HU) participated in this study using mixed methods (i.e. Discourse Completion Test (DCT), interviews and naturally occurring data). Data were analyzed in light of a developed coding scheme. The results showed that NSsJA preferred indirect strategies which mitigate the interaction such as "excuse, reason and, explanation" strategy more than other strategies which aggravate the interaction such as "face-threatening" strategy. Moreover, the analysis of this study has revealed a considerable impact of gender on the use of linguistic forms expressing refusal among NSsJA. Significant differences in the results of the Chi-square test relating the effect of participants' gender indicate that both males and females were conscious of the gender of their interlocutors. The findings provide worthwhile insights into the relation amongst types of communicative acts and the rapport between people in social interaction. They assert that refusal should not be labeled as face threatening act since it does not always pose a threat in some cases especially where refusal is expressed among friends, relatives and family members. They highlight some distinctive culture-specific features of the communicative acts of refusal.
", keywords = "Speech act, refusals, semantic formulas, politeness, Jordanian Arabic, mixed methodology, gender.", volume = "15", number = "1", pages = "36-9", }
