The realization of the speech act of suggestion in Alexandrian and Najdi Arabic: a variational pragmatic study

Abstract

The current study adopts a variational pragmatic approach to compare the realization of the speech act of suggestion in two Arabic dialects: Alexandrian, spoken in an important coastal city of Egypt, and Najdi, spoken in the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from 240 participants, half of whom were Alexandrians while the other half were Najdis, through the use of a discourse completion task consisting of six situations. The data were coded following a well-known taxonomy of suggestion strategies, and external and internal modifiers were also explored. The results showed a general preference for the use of direct suggestions among the participants. The results of statistical tests showed that Najdis produced a significantly higher number of direct strategies than Alexandrians who tended to use more conventionalized strategies than Najdis. The analysis of the DCT also showed a clear influence of gender, social distance, and social dominance on making suggestions among both Alexandrians and Najdis. The results are discussed in light of relevant theoretical models and the existing literature.