ERIC Number: EJ1039568
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 45
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 34
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0379-0037
A Study of Pragmatic Functions of Silence in Colloquial Jordanian Arabic
Al-Harahsheh, Ahmad Mohammad Ahmad
Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics, v39 n1 p5-49 Jan-Jun 2013
The pragmatic study of silence has not got much concern in the Arab world in general and in Jordanian Arabic in particular. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the perception and practice of silence in casual conversation in Jordanian society from a pragmatic point of view. This study adapts Volosinov's notion of "multiaccentuality." Twelve dyadic conversations were conducted for 30 minutes each. The participants were 24 university students at Yarmouk University (Jordan-Irbid): twelve males and 12 females. They were categorised into two main groups: friends and strangers. Ninety seconds were analysed from the beginning, the middle, and the end of each conversation; these extracts were chosen systematically. The theoretical framework of this study draws on Conversation Analysis, Turn-Taking system, ethnography of communication, Politeness Theory, Speech Act Theory and some basic statistics. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that silence is functional and meaningful in Jordanian society. It also has different interpretations in different contexts depending on the relationship between the interlocutors, the context of situation and the topic. Silence has off-record politeness functions.
Descriptors: Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Ethnography, Speech Acts, Linguistic Theory, Foreign Countries, Semitic Languages, College Students, Classification, Friendship, Interpersonal Relationship, Language Research, Qualitative Research
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: Jordan

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