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Revue des études humaines et sociales -B/ Littérature et Philosophie.N° 18, jui

Revue des études humaines et sociales -B/ Littérature et Philosophie.N° 18, juin 2017. p. 3- 15 3 A Cross-cultural Study of Speech Act Realisations in Arabic and English: A cultural-scripts approach :دراسة ثقافية مقارنة إلنـجاز األفعال الكالمية يف العربية واإلنـجليزية مقاربة النصوص الثقافية الوصفية Dr Boudjemaa DENDENNE Department of Letters and English Language,University of Constantine 1 dendenneboudjemaa@gmail.com Revue académique des études humaines et sociales امللخص هذا المقال يسلط الضوء على نتائج دراسة ثقافية مقارنة في مجال التداولية لكيفيات التماس طلب وكيفيات االعتذار في اللغة/الثقافة العربية واالنجليزية، وهما اثنان من أهم أفعال الكالم. ولهذا الغرض، تم توظيف اللغة الوصفية الداللية والنصوص/العبارات الثقافية. هذه المقاربة ترتكز على استعمال مجموعة من األلفاظ والعبارات الكلية والتي ال تحمل أي دالالت ثقافية (تدعى البنيات الداللية األساسية). هذه البنيات الداللية .األساسية تسمح بنقل المعاني الثقافية من لغة/ثقافة إلى أخرى من دون طرح مشكل معادلة المعاني وتكافئها تكمن أهمية هذه المقاربة في القدرة على وصف األساليب، السلوكيات والفروق الدقيقة للمعاني الثقافية في ّ ر ألصحاب هذه اللغة/الثقافة ولألجانب عنها كذلك. فالهدف األسمى من وراء َس ُ ي لغة/ثقافة معينة بأسلوب م .ّغة الوصفية هو التقليل من مسببات سوء التفاهم والتعارض الناتج عن الفروق الثقافية هذه الل ،األفعال الكالمية، العربية، اإلنجليزية، اللغة الوصفية الداللية، النصوص/العبارات الثقافية : الكلمات الدالة .البنيات الداللية األساسية Abstract The present article reports and describes the findings of a cross-cultural pragmatic study vis-à-vis the realisation of two main speech acts, requests and apologies, in Arabic and English. Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Cultural Scripts have been employed for this purpose. This approach makes use of a set of cultural-neutral universal words/expressions called Semantic Primes which can be transposed across languages/cultures without posing problems of translatability. The usefulness of this approach lies in the fact that it describes norms, behaviours and nuances of cultural meaning in a particular language/culture in a way which is accessible to both the insider and the outsider. The ultimate goal behind the application of such metalanguage is to reduce cultural misunderstandings and conflicts. Key words: Speech acts, Arabic, English, Natural semantic metalanguage, Cultural scripts, Semantic primes. Résumé : Cet article rapporte et décrit les résultats d’une étude transculturelle pragmatique vis-à-vis la production de deux plus fréquents actes de parole, requête et excuse, en arabe et en anglais. On a employé la ‘Métalangue Sémantique Naturelle’ et les ‘Scripts Culturels’ tant qu’un outil descriptif. Cette approche dépend notamment de l’utilisation d’une gamme des mots/expressions universelles et culturellement neutres, soi-disant, ‘Primitifs Sémantiques’ qui sont transférables d’une langue/culture à une autre sans l’inquiétude de problèmes de traduction. L’avantage de cette approche est de permettre à décrire les comportements, les normes et les nuances des sens culturels dans une langue/culture particulière d’une façon claire et rigoureuse au-delà des frontières linguistiques et culturelles. Le but ultime de telle métalangue est de minimiser les malentendus et les conflits culturels. Mots clés:actes de parole, arabe, anglais,la Métalangue sémantique naturelle,Scripts culturels,Primitifs sémantiques. A Cross-cultural Study of Speech Act Realisations in Arabic and English: A cultural-scripts approach 4 Revue des études humaines et sociales -B/ Littérature et Philosophie.N° 18, juin 2017. p. 3- 15 Introduction Our main concern in the present paper is to report and describe the most outstanding findings of a cross-cultural comparative study conducted earlier. This study has examined the production of requests and apologies in Arabic and English. Previously, the results have been interpreted in the light of individualism and collectivism/high-context and low- context dichotomies, politeness theory, conversational maxims and contrastive (cross-cultural) pragmatics research. Critiques targeted to such theories assume that culture-specific meanings cannot be captured by the ‘ethnocentric’ terminology (e.g. individual, collectivist, direct, indirect, polite, impolite, close, distant, high, low) employed by these fields for describing culture-related norms and behaviours (See 1.1.). In this perspective, the present article examines these findings from another point of view as conceptualised in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory and the Cultural-scripts approach. This article is divided into two parts. The first one is theoretical and, in turn, has two sections. In the first section, we will deal with Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Cultural Scripts; what are they and what they are good for? In the second section, we will review a sample of cultural studies which have used Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Cultural Scripts to describe and explicate cultural meanings. The second part is a practical whereby we will employ the cultural-scripts approach so as to describe and explicate areas of cultural divergence in requests and apologies realised in Arabic and English. 1. Literature Review 1.1. Natural semantic metalanguage and cultural scripts Wierzbicka and colleagues laid the foundation to the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (henceforth NSM) theory (e.g. Bouguslawski, 1989; Wierzbicka, 1989, 1991 [2003]; Goddard, 189). The assumption underlying this theory is that there is a need for a language so as to present and explicate differences across cultures in a way that should be intelligible and at the same time accessible to the outsiders as well as members of the culture(s) under question (Wierzbicka, 1991 [2003]; Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2004; Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2007, among others). Stating it differently, NSM focuses on ‘minimum vocabulary’ and ‘minigrammar’ which construct a crossroad where all languages meet. That is, they constitute a sort of ‘conceptual lingua franca’ across and within languages and cultures (Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2007, p. 109). This goal can be achieved by means of certain words and expressions which are ‘hypothetically’ universal (Wierzbicka, 1991 [2003]), cultural-neutral and, ideally, translatable to all languages (Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2007). These linguistic elements are labelled Semantic Primes (henceforth SPs) that can be defined as ‘a small set of basic concepts’ carried through linguistic exponents, words and word-like elements available in all languages and have universal characteristics (e.g. grammatical properties and patterns of combination) and which serve in explicating other words and concepts ( ibid, p. 107-108). Added to SPs, other patterns like sayings, proverbs, frequent collocations, conversational routines, formulaic speech, discourse particles, interjections, terms of address and references also reflect cultural norms and values (ibid, p. 112). Table 1 displays SPs of English which are the results of accumulating research during the last decades. Substantive: I, YOU, SOMEONE, PEOPLE, SOMETHING/THING, BODY Determiners: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER Quantifiers: ONE, TWO, SOME, ALL, MANY/MUCH Evaluators: GOOD, BAD Descriptors: BIG, SMALL Mental/experiential predicates: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR Speech: SAY, WORDS, TRUE Actions, events, DO, HAPPEN movement, contact: MOVE, TOUCH Location, existence, BE (SOMEWHERE), THERE IS/EXIST possession, specification: HAVE, BE (SOMEONE/SOMETHING) Life and death: LIVE, DIE Dr Boudjemaa DENDENNE Revue des études humaines et sociales -B/ Littérature et Philosophie.N° 18, juin 2017. p. 3- 15 5 Based on the above SPs, syntactic frames can be produced. For example, the syntactic frame of the verb ‘to do’ is as follows (ibid, p. 108): DO: X does something X does something to someone [patient] X does something to someone with something [patient + instrument] Such syntactic frames help researchers mould cultural values of speech practices in the so-called Cultural Scripts (henceforth CSs). This technique articulated cultural norms, values and practices using the NSM of SPs as a medium of description (Wierzbicka, 1996; Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2004). To have a concrete example, the Malay concept hormat if rendered into English as respect or even via a list of words: respect, deference and proper politeness; the meaning of this cultural value is distorted as such presentation does not convey the culture-specific connotations (Goddard, 2000, cited in Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2007, pp. 110-11). In this regard, framing cultural- dependent concepts by means of the language of CSs would help capture ‘small nuances of cultural meaning’ (ibid, p. 112). Furthermore, according to Wierzbicka, an attempt to capture culture-specific assumptions, for instance, directness as a way of speaking, in two cultures (let it be the Anglo- American and the Japanese) is hampered by the use of the words direct and indirect which fail to signal differences in the perception of directness as a cultural value (Wierzbicka, 1991[2003], pp. 91-95). Whereas, by means of CSs we can achieve that. In this respect, directness in Anglo-American English and Japanese are portrayed in [A] and [B] respectively: [A] I think: I can say: ‘I want this’, ‘I think this’ I know: other people don’t have to want the same/think the same No one can say: ‘I want you to want this’, ‘I want you to think this’ [One can say freely what he wants/thinks, but as long as he acknowledges the other’s right to independence and personal autonomy] (ibid, p. 91) [B] I say: I would want something like this I don’t want to say: ‘I want this’ [no-specific reference] (ibid, p.95) Wierzbicka and Goddard (e.g. Wierzbicka, 1991[2003]; Goddard and Wierzbicka, 2007) reacted to what they describe as a ‘universalist approach’ to cultural behaviours and styles studies: politeness theory (Brown and Levinson, 1987), conversational maxims (Grice, 1975) and contrastive pragmatics (Blum-Kulka et al., 1989; Kasper and Blum-Kulka, 1993). According to them, the issue this approach raises is one of terminology. They apply a totally- ethnocentric terms like polite, formal, indirect, power, distance which do not seem to have equivalents in other languages. In this respect, the uploads/Societe et culture/8-study-of-speech-act-realisations-in-arabic-and-english-a-cultural-scripts-approach.pdf