'Bebaxšid' (Excuse me) as a multifunctional speech act in Persian

Abstract

This study, based on the modified version of Brown and Levinson's model of Theory of Politeness (1987), examines and analyzes 'bebaxšid' (Excuse me) speech act in Persian language to come up with the functions it serves in the Iranian Persian-speaking community for those non-Persian speakers who want to speak or learn Persian. For this purpose, some native speakers of Persian language from different ages and different social groups were observed in such natural settings as markets, shops, the streets, and parties and their speech was recorded; then transcribed and translated into English; finally, the data was analyzed qualitatively. The results show that, there are ten major functions of 'bebaxšid' in Persian which are as follows: apologizing, phatic communication, as a kind of address term, mitigating request, giving a present or offering services, thanking, turn-taking, complaint, refusal, and asking questions. Finally, it is worth noting that using such politeness expressions as 'bebaxšid', are not just for mitigating face threatening act (FTA) and many speakers use them in different contexts to have a more polite and successful interaction and communication. This would be incompatible with general characteristics of politeness strategies defined and described by Brown and Levinson (1987) who consider politeness simply as a means of mitigating FTA. © 2014 Academy Publisher Manufactured In Finland.