Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 13. Number1. March 2022 Pp. 300 -312
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol13no1.19
Saudi Politeness: Request and Apology in the Context of Study and Work
at King Abdulaziz University:A Pragmatic Study
Nahed Moussa Farrag
English Language Institute
King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, KSA
Email: nfarrag@kau.edu.sa
Received:12/30/2021 Accepted: 2/15/2022 Published:3/24/2022
Abstract:
The present study investigates the frequently used speech acts related to positive and negative politeness techniques employed in requests and apologies by faculty members at King Abdulaziz University. Social interaction on University Campus reflects Hejazi culture located in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. The significance of the study arises from its focus on university-life interaction between faculty members as it provides an investigation of positive and negative politeness strategies. The paper tries to answer two questions: 1) Is there a relationship between the faculty’s years of experience and the request strategies employed? 2) Is there a relationship between the faculty years of experience and the apology strategies used? To answer these questions, a Discourse Completion Test was developed and given to 30 faculty members. The findings of the study show that social power, which is derived from having more years of experience, affects the request and apology strategies used among Saudi female faculty members. Faculty members of an older generation tend to use syntactically more extended sentences in requests compared to their younger colleagues, to alleviate the sense of their social power and save others’ sense of face. In contrast, the more youthful faculty members tended to use syntactically longer sentences in apologies compared to their older colleagues to show more respect. The study was conducted in Women Campus, and it is recommended to implement it on a larger scale with more participants to get more complete results.
Keywords: apology, face, mitigation, politeness strategies, softeners, syntactic down graders, request, speech acts
Cite as: Farrag, N. M. (2022). Saudi Politeness: Request and Apology in the Context of Study
and Work at King Abdulaziz University- A Pragmatic Study. Arab World English Journal, 13 (1) 300 -312.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol13no1.19
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