A study on condolence strategies by Jordanian students at Irbid University College

Yasser Al-Shboul

Abstract


This study aimed to investigate the strategies of condolence speech act as expressed by Jordanian students at Irbid University College and identified the respective role of social power and social distance in offering these strategies. It employed qualitative and quantitative research methods, and the study participants included 100 university students ranging from 19 to 23 years old. The data were collected using an adapted version of the discourse completion test and coded based on the coding schema. The results of the study demonstrated that praying for God’s mercy and forgiveness for the deceased was the most frequent strategy used by the participants, and expressing sympathy was the least frequently used strategy. When the power and distance aspects of the relationship between the speakers are concerned, the results showed that some of the strategies such as ‘praying for God’s mercy and forgiveness to be with the deceased' and ‘offering condolences’ are low-risk strategies to threaten the face needs of the bereaved people. Moreover, the results showed that the use of these strategies was mainly attributed to the participants’ culture, religious orientation, social power, and social distance between the interlocutors. Finally, some pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are briefly discussed in this article.


Keywords


condolences; Jordanian students; speech acts; social distance; social power

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alfghe, A., & Mohammadzade, B. (2021). Realisation of the speech act of request, suggestion and apology by Libyan EFL learners. SAGE Open, 11(4), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211050378

Al-Issa, A. (2003). Sociocultural transfer in L2 speech behaviors: Evidence and motivating factors. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27(5), 581-601. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(03)00055-5

Al-Shboul, Y., & Maros, M. (2013). Condolences strategies by Jordanians to an obituary status update on Facebook. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 13(3), 151-162.

Al-Tammemi, A. B. (2020). The battle against COVID-19 in Jordan: An early overview of the Jordanian experience. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00188

Aston, G. (1995). Say “Thank you”. Some pragmatic constraints in conversational closings. Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 57–86. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/16.1.57

Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Harvard University Press.

Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words. Oxford University Press.

Barron, A. (2003). Acquisition in interlanguage pragmatics: Learning how to do things with words in a study abroad context. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.108

Behnam, B., Hamed, L. A. A., & Asli, F. G. (2013). An investigation of giving condolences in English and Persian via short messages. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70(25), 1679-1685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.240

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge University Press.

Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Sage.

Elwood, K. (2004). “I’m So Sorry”: A cross-cultural analysis of expressions of condolence. The Cultural Review: Waseda Commerical Studies Association Bulletin of Universities and Institutes, 24, 101-126.

Fernández, E. C. (2007). Linguistic devices coping with death in Victorian obituaries. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 20, 7-21. https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2007.20.01

Hamady, S. (1960). Temperament and characters of the Arab. Twayne Publishers.

Hidaya, M. O. (2016). Expressions of condolence in Algerian Arabic: With reference to English [Research report]. Yarmouk University.

Johnston, B., Kasper, G., & Ross, S. (1998). Effect of rejoinders in production questionnaires. Applied Linguistics, 19(2), 157–182. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/19.2.157

Jordan Tourism Board. (n.d.). Religion. https://international.visitjordan.com/page/14/Religion.aspx

Kasper, G. (2008). Data collection in pragmatics research. In H. Spencer-Oatey (Ed.) Culturally speaking – Culture (2nd ed., pp. 279-303). Continuum. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350934085.ch-014

Kone, N. (2020). Speech acts in UN treaties: A pragmatic perspective. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 10, 813-827. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2020.106051

Moghaddam, M. M. (2012). Discourse structures of condolence speech act. Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning, 4(10), 105-125.

Nurlianingsih, D., & Imperiani, E. D. (2019). An analysis of condolences speech act by Indonesian adolescents. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 430, 34-38. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200406.008

Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A. (1990). The learning of complex speech act behavior. TESL Canada Journal, 7(2), 45-65. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v7i2.568

Pishghadam, R. & Mostafa, M. M. (2012). Investigating condolence responses in English and Persian. International journal of research studies in language learning, 2(1), 39-47. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsll.2012.102

Putri, R. A., Sartini, N. W., & Al Fajri, M. S. (2020). The analysis of illocutionary acts of judges’ comments in America’s next top model and Asia’s next top model competitions: A cross-cultural pragmatic study. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 16(4), 1885-1898. https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.851015

Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and meaning: Studies in the theories of speech acts. Cambridge University Press.

Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (2003). Handbook of mixed-method in social and behavioral research. Sage Publications.

Williams, T. R. (2006). Linguistic politeness in expressing condolences: A case study. RASK: International Journal of Languages and Linguistics, 23, 45-62.

Yahya, E. M. (2010). A study of condolences in Iraqi Arabic with reference to English. Adab Al-Rafidayn, 57, 47-70.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v9i3.24546

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 0 times
PDF - 0 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Print ISSN: 2355-2794, Online ISSN: 2461-0275

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


View Journal Stats