Politeness Strategies in Declining Invitations: A Cross-Cultural Analysis between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the politeness strategies used by Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds when declining invitations from superior interlocutor positions to understand their refusal strategy’s similarities and differences. Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT) were employed among 40 fourth-year undergraduate Iraqi students (Arabs and Kurds). Three contexts are included in the WDCT where contributors of higher social status declined invitations from interlocutors with lower social status concerning close, familiar, and distant societal distances. The study used descriptive analysis from WDCT, which drew upon Beebe et al.'s (1990) classification of semantic formulas, including Brown and Levinson’s (1987) categories of politeness strategies. The main findings demonstrated that Iraqis (Arabs and Kurds) utilised positive and negative politeness strategies. The findings might be utilised to raise awareness across the two groups concerning the differences and similarities in realisations of the speech act of invitation refusals, as well as enhance solidarity between them. Further research can be carried out to examine other factors such as gender, education level, formality, age, and region, which might also impact invitation refusals. An investigation into invitation refusal by Iraqi Turkmen in the Iraqi Arabic dialect might better be conducted; as the third primary group in Iraq, they speak Arabic as a second language and have different languages, cultures, and ethnicities.

Keywords: declining invitation; Iraqis (Arabs and Kurds); societal and cultural norms; societal position and distance; strategies of politeness