A Sociopragmatic Study of the Offer Speech Act in Persian

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify strategies used to realize the speech act of offer<br />in Persian. To do so, 195 male and female native Persian speakers were selected from<br />diverse age ranges, educational backgrounds, and social classes, and were assigned a<br />36-item Discourse Completion Task (DCT) to elicit the speech act of offer. Thirty<br />field workers also recorded naturally occurring interactions containing the speech act<br />of offer. The responses were coded using 12 categories to determine the strategies<br />used. Factors of age, gender, offer type, social distance, and relative power did not<br />prove to be significantly effective in the choice of the offer strategies. It could be<br />concluded that Persian speakers tend to be more indirect and Locution Derivable,<br />Query Preparatory, and Hedged Imperative are favorite strategies among them.