Politeness of nonverbal hospitality in Saudi and British female interactions
-
Inas I. Almusallam
Inas I. Almusallam is an assistant professor of applied linguistics at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. She has presented and published several papers that have explored politeness and spoken language by Saudi women. Almusallam is the author of
EFL instructors’ & learners’ attitudes to authentic reading materials (2015). Her main research interests centre on cross-cultural pragmatics, interlanguage pragmatics, politeness, nonverbal behaviour, and women’s talk.
Abstract
Although linguistic politeness has been extensively theorized about, the role of nonverbal behaviour in managing politeness in interactions has been neglected until recently. In this analysis of natural conversations between female friends in dinner settings, I show how nonverbal hospitality can influence rapport management and the constructionist nature of politeness among Saudi and British female friends, and I compare the two cultures. I show how these nonverbal acts can be observed by looking at the sequences and turns taken in talking, exploring metapragmatic evaluations, and using second-order politeness concepts in interpreting politeness as situated in discourse. The combination of these analytical tools allows for an explanation of what is going on rather than a mere description of the interaction. The analysis demonstrates that nonverbal hospitality plays an important role in the management of rapport and discursive relations. I find that, although the motivation and role of nonverbal hospitality in the management of interactions in young female friendship groups in the two cultures are similar, there are remarkable differences in frequency, reactions, and complexity in the negotiation of nonverbal hospitality.
Funding source: King Saud University
About the author
Inas I. Almusallam is an assistant professor of applied linguistics at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. She has presented and published several papers that have explored politeness and spoken language by Saudi women. Almusallam is the author of EFL instructors’ & learners’ attitudes to authentic reading materials (2015). Her main research interests centre on cross-cultural pragmatics, interlanguage pragmatics, politeness, nonverbal behaviour, and women’s talk.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research and RSSU at King Saud University for their technical support.
Appendix 1: The SRQ
Do you consider X behaviour in item no. X a display of hospitality? ____Yes ___No
If so, how would you evaluate her behaviour on the following two scales:
| A. Politeness degree: | ||||
| __Very polite | __ Polite | __Neither polite nor polite | __ Impolite | __Very impolite |
| A. Appropriateness degree: | ||||
| __ Appropriate | __ Neither appropriate nor inappropriate | __ Inappropriate | ||
Appendix 2: Interview questions
Why do you rate the behaviour that way?
Why did you do that action? (this question is addressed to the performer)
If you were not the performer, answer the following question: What would you do if you were in that context? And why?
Appendix 3: Transcription conventions (from Du Bois et al. 1992)
| [OK] | Speech overlap |
| -- | Truncated intonation |
| = | Lengthening of sounds |
| .. | A short pause (3 s or less) |
| … | A medium or very long pause (4 s or more) |
| @ | Laughter |
| 0 | Immediate latching of turns |
| <@ words @> | Laughing quality |
| ((COMMENT)) | Transcriber’s comments |
Appendix 4: IPA Arabic symbols
|
Arabic letter
|
IPA symbol
|
Sound description
|
English approximation
|
| أ | ʔ | Voiceless glottal plosive | Uh-/ʔ/oh |
| ب | b | Voiced bilabial plosive | Bike |
| ت | t | Voiceless dental-alveolar plosive | Tall |
| ث | θ | Voiceless dental fricative | Thin |
| ج | dӡ | Voiced post-alveolar affricate | Joy |
| ӡ | Voiced post-alveolar fricative | Genre | |
| ح | ћ | Voiceless pharyngeal fricative | No equivalent |
| خ | x | Voiceless uvular fricative | Loch (Scottish English) |
| د | d | Voiced dental-alveolar plosive | Dog |
| ذ | ð | Voiced dental fricative | This |
| ر | r | Voiced alveolar trill | Run |
| ز | z | Voiced alveolar fricative | Zero |
| س | s | Voiceless alveolar fricative | Sun |
| ش | ʃ | Voiceless post-alveolar fricative | Ship |
| ص | sˤ | Voiceless emphatic alveolar fricative | No equivalent |
| ض | dˤ | Voiced emphatic dental-alveolar plosive | No equivalent |
| ط | tˤ | Voiceless dental-alveolar plosive | No equivalent |
| ظ | ðˤ | Voiced emphatic dental fricative | No equivalent |
| ع | ʕ | Voiced pharyngeal fricative | No equivalent |
| غ | ɣ | Voiced uvular fricative | French ‘r’ e.g., r ue |
| ف | f | Voiceless labiodental fricative | Fan |
| ق | g | Voiced velar plosive | Gas |
| q | Voiceless uvular plosive | No equivalent | |
| ك | k | Voiceless velar plosive | Car |
| ل | l | Voiced alveolar lateral | Lamp |
| م | m | Voiced bilabial nasal | Man |
| ن | n | Voiced alveolar nasal | Net |
| هـ | h | Voiceless glottal fricative | Hat |
| و | w | Voiced labial-velar approximant | Water |
| ي | j | Voiced palatal approximant | Yes |
| i | Short close front unrounded | Happy | |
| i: | Long close front unrounded | Need | |
| a | Short open front unrounded | Fat (but shorter) | |
| a: | Long open front unrounded | Father | |
| u | Short close back rounded | To | |
| u: | Long close back rounded | Food | |
| e: | Long mid front unrounded | Play | |
| ә | Mid-central “schwa” | About | |
| au | Diphthong | Mouth | |
| әu | Diphthong | Goat |
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Multimodal mitigation: how facial and body cues index politeness in Catalan requests
- “I look with deep gratitude and admiration…” – praising and complimenting in papal speeches
- Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
- The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: an experimental approach
- (Im)politeness as a tool to categorize interactive discourse markers of Arabic in radio shows
- The embodied enactment of politeness metapragmatics
- Politeness of nonverbal hospitality in Saudi and British female interactions
- Borrowing of address forms for dimensions of social relation in a contact-induced multilingual community
- (Im)politeness on Facebook during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Book Reviews
- Mugford, Gerrard. 2019. Addressing Difficult Situations in Foreign-Language Learning. Confusion, Impoliteness, and Hostility
- From speech acts to lay understandings of politeness: multilingual and multicultural perspectives
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Multimodal mitigation: how facial and body cues index politeness in Catalan requests
- “I look with deep gratitude and admiration…” – praising and complimenting in papal speeches
- Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
- The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: an experimental approach
- (Im)politeness as a tool to categorize interactive discourse markers of Arabic in radio shows
- The embodied enactment of politeness metapragmatics
- Politeness of nonverbal hospitality in Saudi and British female interactions
- Borrowing of address forms for dimensions of social relation in a contact-induced multilingual community
- (Im)politeness on Facebook during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Book Reviews
- Mugford, Gerrard. 2019. Addressing Difficult Situations in Foreign-Language Learning. Confusion, Impoliteness, and Hostility
- From speech acts to lay understandings of politeness: multilingual and multicultural perspectives
