Analysis of the Speech Act of Warning in Jordanian Arabic and American English
Chapter 1: Introduction
Background
There are differences in the use of words and strategies adopted by native speakers of different languages. Speech acts differ in different languages. A language has words and expressions for different occasions and purposes. There are words of happiness and anger while there are also words of love, empathy, and warning. This study is going to investigate and explain the strategies of warning employed by native speakers of Arabic and English. Native Arabic speakers from Jordan and Native English speakers from the United States have been included as participants of the study. The difference between native speakers of both countries has been explained in this thesis, and it has been explained that warning strategies have a direct and close link with the culture of selected countries. It also shows that language is used in daily life in different countries and its meanings and expressions differ concerning different cultures. Meanings are comprehended and conveyed naturally with the help of language. Many acts of speech can be formulated through this natural means of communication called language and warning is one act of speech which is under study in this thesis. Speech acts are communicative acts, and they are performed in written and oral forms.
Human communication does not take place through words and sentences, but it takes place with making statements and expressions for different specific acts. Searle (1980) has also taken this stance that particular acts are performed through communication that took place among human beings. Moreover, human cooperation takes place through communication and speech acts as a medium to make this happen. As communication gets something done between people, functional communication has been given an important place in language. Auditory and visual symbols are employed for communication and language adopts these symbols effectively.
Furthermore, it is also noted that similar words and sentence structure differ in their speech acts. There is no change in prepositions and structure of sentences, but they may have five different meanings. As an example, a declarative sentence can be taken such as “This is your house.” This short sentence or statement can have different speech acts, and meanings like it may be a simple statement to inform others. It may also be used to ask, and it may be an order to someone. The same sentence can be used as an exclamation. One more example is given here. There is another example that “I’ll see you in the evening.” Same statements with same structure can have meanings as warning, prediction, or promise. To know the actual meanings of a sentence, one should be familiar with the pragmatics of a sentence. Pragmatics of sentence includes the identity of the speaker and listener should be there, the utterance is used by the intention of the speaker, and the context of the sentence in which that statement or sentence has been made. In this context, the speech act of warning has been studied in this thesis for Jordanian Arabic and US English.
As the speech act of warning has been studied in this research; therefore, it should be defined. It is considered as advice through which someone is asked to be careful or is asked not to do something. There are different ways of expression of the speech act of warning in Jordanian Arabic and US English. Strategies of using warning in language would be focused and detailed, and these strategies would be discussed in chapter four.
Problem Statement:
This research has been done to solve a problem in linguistics, and it is not a problem itself, but it is the reason why this research is going to be conducted. There are little research studies which have been conducted on the speech act of warning for the languages of JA and AmE. Therefore, it is beneficial for adding to the literature so that there is rich literature on the variables. In so doing, this research has added to the literature, and the speech act of warning has been researched in this research for the two languages. Strategies adopted by people in both languages have been compared, and the utilization of strategies for issuing warning has been identified and found in this research.
Objectives of the Study:
- Following the objectives of the study have been formulated:
- To explain expressions used for speech act of warning in American English and Jordanian Arabic
- To explain the strategies used for issuing a warning by Warner
- To find the differences of different levels in issuing a warning
- To find the relationship between politeness and closeness among Warner and warned with the variable of warning
- To explain and highlight differences in Jordanian Arabic and American English
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Korta (2006) has researched speech acts and stated that speech acts are performed through oral and written use of language. In his view, it is possible that one speech act can be expressed and presented in different ways. If the speech act of warning is taken, then it is stated that some sentences express warning speech act and some sentences have been given as examples. “I guarantee that there is a dangerous animal there, “I warn you that there is a dangerous animal there,” and “I bet that there is a dangerous animal there” are three different sentences, and they are expressing warning.
Devitt (2003) has expressed that there is the fact that speech acts have different ways of expression, and these different ways are enough to express any specific speech act. There are some forms of words which are used as a standard to express certain speech acts. Devitt has included some of those forms in his research as for making a request, “It would be nice if you…..” is used, to advise, “Why Don’t you ….??” Is used, “Do you know….??” Is used for asking about information, “I am sorry…..” is used for apology speech act and “I would not do that ……“ is used for warning. Thus, there are certain words and expressions which are used for certain expressions.
Wiezrbicka (1996) has stated that there are many verbs which can form a together, coherent, and self-contained field and these fields can be used to denote to a certain type of speech act. According to the research, each verb denotes one field and one speech act. For example, there is one group of words which is there for a warning speech act. She has included certain words in this group like warn, threaten, point, and alert. However, it should be noted that these words are part of different speech acts, but they have been made part of this group.
Wierzbicka (1987) has taken another perspective, and she has presented double illocutionary purposes of the speech act of warning. In Jordanian Arabic, a native speaker would say that /diir baalak tit?axxar willa btixsar kuli which means that “Beware of becoming late else you lose everything.” It means that it has been made sure to the addressee that it is not allowed to be late. This statement in native Jordanian Arabic and native US English is both warnings as well as a threatening statement, and both verbs are part of groups in which earning and threatening have been made the part.
Wunderlich (1980) has noted that there are sequences in speech acts and there might be elementary speech acts in a complex speech act as a component. In this case, one of the perlocutionary objects of one illocution might be taken as equal to another. One of the examples of warning speech act has been presented by Austin (1962) as he uses this act as the meaning of deterrence, and it leads to aiming for deterrence. Alertness and alarming elements or speech acts are also in line with this. The level of alertness would be low when there is politeness between the two people, and both are close with each other.
Obeidat (2006) has conducted a study in which agreements have been found regarding the Jordanian English and US English. In the study, he included those examples which are similar in both native languages. On the other hand, Khwaileh (2005) has conducted a study on Jordanian Arabic and US English on the speech act of refusal. There are studies on refusal speech act in other languages, and comparison of languages as Nelson and Al-Batal (2002) have studied the strategies employed in Egyptian Arabic and US English. Hammouri (1997) has conducted a study on the strategies employed in the speech act of apology for the Jordanian Arabic and US English. Abu Hantash (1995) has conducted a research study on the politeness speech act in response to complaints, and he has taken the languages of Jordanian Arabic and British English in his research. It shows that a comparison of differences and agreements between different speech acts of different languages have been studied by different researchers. Notably, studies about Arabic and English have been included in this paper where Jordanian Arabic and US English have been emphasized.
There are traditional and modern research studies on the topic of warning by researchers, and they have taken it as a grammatical topic. Some of the notable studies are Nahr (2004) and An-Nadiri (1995). They have studied the warning speech act in light of its definition, types, and the way the structure is governed. Wright (1986) has taken a detailed discussion on the speech act of warning, and he defines that warning is a speech act which is employed by the speaker to keep him protected and safe. He has taken a detailed insight into warning and includes different types of warning. He has also included different examples of the speech act of warning. Again, the variables of closeness and politeness can be linked with a warning. In the case of more closeness and politeness between two persons, there would be less warning level. On the other hand, the level or sections of participants also define the warning level. It is because social distance plays a major and crucial role in issuing the warning between the two participants.
There are some other research studies as well which can be included in this literature review. A more detailed review of literature can be done as there are research studies on different speech acts and ways of expressing these speech acts. Based on the literature above, the following hypotheses have been developed:
H0: There is a negative relationship between politeness and warning speech act.
H1: There is no negative relationship between politeness and warning speech act.
H0: There is a negative relationship between closeness and warning speech act.
H2: There is no negative relationship between closeness and warning speech act.
H0: There are differences in strategies to express warning in American English and Jordanian Arabic.
H3: There are no differences in strategies to express warning in American English and Jordanian Arabic.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter lays down the methodology used in this thesis as the research has been conducted using research methods. The population and sample of this study, data collection, and data analysis parts have been made part of this chapter.
The population of the Study:
The population for this study consists of adults’ native speakers of Jordan and Americans. Adults from Jordan are native Arabic speakers; those speak Arabic of Jordanian variety. On the other hand, adults from America are English speakers those speak English of American variety. Thus, the population of the study consists of JA native speakers and AmE native speakers.
A sample of the Study:
Sample of the study consists of Jordanian sample and American sample.
Jordanian Sample:
100 participants participated in Jordan to this study as 200 questionnaires were distributed among Jordanians. The sample selected for this study belonged to Yarmouk University and the Irbed College for Girls. This college is also called Al Balqa University. Qualification of the participants was graduate or undergraduate. So far as other biographical details of participants are concerned, the following table may help.
Number, Sex, and Age of Jordanian Sample
| Level of Education | Male | Female | Age |
| Graduate | 22 | 10 | 22-40 |
| Undergraduate | 33 | 35 | 18-24 |
| Total | 55 | 45 |
The American Sample:
Same, 100 respondents were taken from the American population, and the sample was 100 in response to the distribution of 250 copies of questionnaires. They were also qualified as Jordanians subjects were, i.e. graduates and undergraduates. The following table has their biographical details.
Number, Sex, and Age of the American Sample
| Level of Education | Male | Female | Age |
| Graduate | 17 | 15 | 22-60 |
| Undergraduate | 30 | 38 | 18-30 |
| Total | 47 | 53 |
Data Collection:
Data has been collected from both populations of the study using discourse completion test (DCT) which was developed by Beebe et al (1990). The instrument is useful for the nature of this study because of its ability to get enough examples of speech acts from speakers of any language. The test taken from respondents is written which has enabled the researcher to have responses from the respondents in speech situations which are predetermined. Moreover, the tests in AmE and JA have exactly the same content, and situations are also the same. In the result, the researcher can analyze and compare the warning strategies employed by participants of both countries. The researcher has also taken help from available data of English warning from different sources so that the way of earning by people can be understood.
Data Analysis:
Three sections of the questionnaire have been developed to analyze the data. These sections are high to low, equal to equal, and low to high. There are twenty strategies classified as warning strategies in this paper, and these strategies are going to be written in the following table.
| 1. Requesting | 2. Showing surprise | 3. Alerting | 4. Threatening |
| 5. Suggesting | 6. Begging | 7. Swearing | 8. Advising |
| 9. Frightening | 10. Blaming | 11. Expressing sorrow | 12. Flouting |
| 13. Offering alternatives | 14. Amplifying | 15. Apologizing | 16. Anticipating |
| 17. Reminding | 18. Wishing | 19. Disallowance | 20. Encouraging |
The underlined strategies are universal strategies, and they are used in Jordanian Arabic and American English. The bold strategies are used only in American English. The italics strategies are not used by Americans when they issue warnings. Moreover, the syntactic structures for each strategy differ from another strategy. Moreover, the data has been collected from the questionnaire, and the SPSS test has been applied to the data as well. The use of SPSS would apply the tests of correlation and ANOVA on the responses of the respondents. The dependent variable of the study is a warning speech act while independent variables of the study are politeness and closeness.
The statements used in the questionnaire have roles of Warner and the warned. The relationship between the two has been given in the following table.
| Status | Item Number | Relationship |
| Higher to Lower | 1, 2, 3 | Professor – Student
Taxi driver – Mechanic Boss – subordinate |
| Equal to Equal | 4, 5, 6 | Friends, class fellows, peers |
| Lower to Higher | 7, 8, 9 | Child – Mother
Common Man – Government Official Student – Teacher |
Chapter 4: Results, Discussion and Findings
Results:
Correlation:
| Warning | Politeness | Closeness (Between Warner and Warned) | |
| Warning | 1 | ||
| Politeness | -0.1914 | 1 | |
| Closeness | -0.00034 | 0.100022 | 1 |
Summary:
| Groups | Count | Sum | Average | Variance |
| Warning | 200 | 290.3 | 2.9 | 0.67453 |
| Politeness | 200 | 292 | 2.92 | 1.3478 |
| Closeness | 200 | 297 | 2.97 | 1.86363 |
ANOVA:
| Sources of Variation | SS | Df | MS | F | p-value | F Crit |
| Between Groups | 0.10177 | 2 | 0.123877 | 0.132245 | 0.78031 | 3.03344 |
| Total | 303.6055 | 300 |
Above SPSS results show that the relationship between the variables does not show any significant variance and it is also noted that there is a negative relationship between the variables used in the study. The dependent variable is the speech act of warning, and it has a negative relationship with politeness. It means that there would be a higher and higher level of warning if there is no or little politeness among the people communicating. On the other hand, there is a negative relationship between warning speech act and closeness between Warner and the warned. It means that if there is more closeness, then there would be less warning and vice versa.
Findings and Discussion
The findings and discussion would follow three levels, and the first level is higher to lower, second is Equal to Equal, and third is lower to Higher.
Higher to Lower:
All twenty strategies have been analyzed and discussed for this level of higher to lower. The analysis of responses shows that requesting strategy in both languages is brought in through imperative sentences. Moreover, requesting may be impolite as well as it is usually considered only polite. The strategy of showing surprise shows that both languages are the same in this strategy as it is for interrogation. The strategy of alert is also a warning while it may be declarative or not. The strategy of threatening is found to be having similar as well as different use in both languages. Threatening might be friendly and unfriendly while it may also be protective and threatening at the same time. The suggesting strategy is found to be the politest strategy to warn, and it is considered to be opposite to requesting. However, suggesting may be taken as a question in Jordanian Arabic.
The strategy of begging is used in both languages and the Jordanian Arabic, it is considered as polite way of warning. It is because of using words in Arabic which means, please. However, in American English, begging strategy is not used for issuing the warning. The strategy of swearing for the warning is used in JA, but it is not used in AmE. The data finds that searing is used in JA in three different ways and purposes. To strongly affirm, to warn, and to threaten are how swearing is used. The strategy of advising for the warning is used, but it needs deeper discussion. The advice as a warning is used in JA as an imperative present or comment and topic structure while it is used in AmE as declarative sentence only.
The strategy of frightening is not used in the AmE, and there is not much evidence that it is used in JA as well. The strategy of blaming is linked with emotional blaming towards the person who is warned. This strategy is also only specific to be used in Jordanian Arabic, and it is noted that Warner and warned are in good relationship with each other. There is the strategy of expressing sorrow and in JA; it is used to express the future or past. The difference between expressing sorrow and blaming is based on usefulness or uselessness. The strategy of flouting shows that there is not a specific structure which is followed by respondents in both languages. It is also used in languages, but it has different uses in languages.
There is a strategy of offering alternatives, and it may be considered as giving advisory suggestions. It is an advisory type of using this strategy where two options have to be chosen. This strategy is used in both languages. The strategy of disallowance has been found in the American English only, and it means that something is not accepted at all.
Lower to Higher:
The strategies employed in the level from lower to higher are going to be discussed in the following:
The strategy of requesting is used in an imperative format in AmE, and it is used with reasoning in both languages. The strategy of begging at this level is polite as has been discussed in the above section as well. In this level of lower to higher, the use of begging is only used in JA, and it is not used in AmE at this level. The strategy of amplifying is used at this level, and it is specific to JA only. In this strategy, Warner amplifies an issue, and it acts like warning for the warned.
These are the strategies which are used for warning from lower to higher level. The reason for using a few strategies is because a person at the lower level cannot warn a person at a higher level. Moreover, it is also noted that mostly the use of strategies at this level is done by JA.
Equal to Equal:
Requesting is the strategy which is being used for warning, and they are imperative. The combination of alertness and requesting is there, and it is used in JA often. The second strategy is showing surprise, and it is taken as interrogative in the equal-to-equal level. Alerting is another strategy of warning, and they are declarative statements to make someone alert. In AmE, the word dangerous is used to issue a warning, and it also shows alertness. Threatening as a strategy of warning is used often in JA, and there is unfriendly threatening in AmE as well where future-oriented and hypothetical threatening is given to the warned person.
Suggesting is a polite strategy of warning, and it is common in the equal to the equal level of persons. However, the responses show that AmE does not use it as a warning, and it is more common in JA. Begging as the strategy of warning is also employed, and different impressions can be derived from this strategy like advising, protecting, and earning to a person at an equal level. The blaming strategy is used in the same manner as it has been used in the higher to a lower level, but at the equal level, the way of blaming is not usually harsh. The flouting strategy and offering alternatives strategies are used in the equal to an equal level as they are used in higher to lower level in the above sections. Apologizing is another strategy which is used between two persons for warning in both languages, but the anticipating strategy is only specific to JA.
The use of reminding strategy for the warning is also specific to JA only while it is not used in AmE. Reminding may be noticed as a warning when a friend reminds his friend about any punishment or meeting deadline. This strategy is utilized at the equal-to-equal level. Moreover, wishing is also specific to JA only that wish is used for warning.
On the other hand, there are two strategies which are specific to AmE only, and they are disallowance and encouraging. Disallowance is used at the higher to lower level as well while encouraging is used only at the equal to the equal level in AmE.
Findings:
Above discussion has shown that there are some strategies which are being used in both languages, but some strategies of warning are being used in one language, and they are not being used in another language. In the communication of warning statements, the social distance between Warner and the warned plays an important and critical role. The warning statements are affected by the social distance between the two parties. The role of social distance can be assessed in the context of the discussion of results where politeness has a negative relationship with a warning in both languages. Warning also has a negative relationship with closeness. It has been established as a relationship between the variables in the result of SPSS. The correlation between the variables has been calculated, and it is found that there is a negative relationship between warning and politeness and here is a negative relationship between warning and closeness.
However, findings on the responses of respondents have been detailed further as well. The use of strategies to communicate and warn between parties at the level of high to low has been more direct and threatening. There is more surprise and unfriendly aspect in the warning ways when a person from a high level warns a person at a low level. Both languages, AmE and JA, have considered that fourteen strategies have been employed by native speakers at this level. These strategies are requesting, threatening, frightening, disallowance, alerting, advising, offering alternatives, surprising, blaming, flouting, suggesting, expressing sorrow, swearing, and begging.
Moreover, this section of high to low level also indicates that Warner has authority over the person warned. It is because of the social distance, and there is a lack of closeness and politeness in this section. In the result, the social distance between the two parties leads to a direct and threatening relationship between them. At this level, the words like “You cannot do” remind that the person in authority is directing the person at lower authority not to do things at all. At this section, the strategy of begging has also been used which does not mean that the Warner is begging before the warned. But it is because Warner is using emotions to get things done at this stage.
There is another finding regarding the reasoning of warning that from the section in which warning is being given from high to low, there is a direct warning and there is no reasoning. However, in the section from low to high, the person at the lower rank has to give reasoning of the warning. It also shows the importance of social courtesy as a warning is communication which takes place in a social setting. Similarly, the role of social distance is highlighted in all strategies and closeness as well as politeness play their role in communication and giving warning. In all of the sections, there is the use of showing surprise, and it is present in warning from high to low, equal to equal, and low to high. However, the way of showing surprise is harsh and more direct and threatening in high to the low section as compared to any other section.
Both languages have also been found in terms of their attributes. Jordanian Arabic is more emotional as compared to American English. JA has some strategies of warning which are not present in AmE like swearing, blaming, and frightening as these strategies are not present in AmE. On the other hand, disallowance is only present in AmE, and this strategy does not reflect any emotion at all.
The findings of high to low can be compared with the strategies used in the section of low too high in which indirect and more polite strategies have been used. The use of strategies has been protective, and there has been a justification of issuing a warning from this section of low to high. It is because of the social distance in this section. There are nine strategies which are found to have been used in this section, and they are requesting, showing surprise, offering alternatives, flouting, alerting, begging, giving advice, and amplifying.
Moreover, there are different strategies found in the section of equal to equal in which both Warner and the warned are peers, and their social status is equal as well. They may be polite with each other without any pressure or consideration of social pressure and social distance. Moreover, there is an ideal closeness in this section as well. It is found that requesting, alerting, disallowance, encouraging, showing surprise, suggesting, offering advice, threatening, flouting, blaming, apologizing, giving alternatives, wishing, anticipating, and reminding are the strategies which have been used in this section and the largest number of strategies have been used in this section.
As per the findings of the study, all null hypotheses have been accepted that there is a negative relationship between warning and politeness. It is also found that there is a negative relationship between closeness among Warner and the warned and the warning variable. It is also found that there are differences in employing strategies in American English and Jordanian Arabic as there are only nine common strategies. It shows that in nine instances, both languages are similar in expressing warning. On the other hand, there are 11 instances where both languages differ. Thus, all null hypotheses have been accepted.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
Conclusion
The speech act of warning is important and used in all languages. The issuance of a warning is done in all languages because it is a common way of stopping someone from doing things in the way in which people are doing. However, the strategies used for issuing warning may be different in different contexts and cultures. For this purpose, twenty strategies have been used to examine this speech act, and the comparison of Jordanian Arabic and AmE has been made to highlight the difference in both languages for issuing a warning. The speech act of warning is an utterance as well as it has an instantaneous effect on the warned person. The paper has found that there is a negative correlation of warning with closeness and politeness.
It is found that Jordanian Arabic takes warning as subfunction which comes under the word of threatening. The comparison of JA has been made with AmE, and both languages belong to two different language families. Despite this fact, they share nine strategies to express warning. It shows the relationship between the two languages in the speech act of warning. However, it is also found that some strategies are exclusively used in one language which shows the differentiation of the two languages.
Recommendations
This research recommends that the speech act of warning has been studied between the JA and AmE, but this speech act should be compared with other languages as well. Then, it would be very useful research to find the differences in the speech act of warning in other languages and JA. The research also recommends that other speech acts other than warning like threatening, promising, and inviting should be researched like they have been studied in this research so that any difference in any two languages can be assessed in terms of the use of speech acts. Moreover, it is recommended to use these findings in universities so that teaching process can also get help from this research on speech acts.
It is also recommended that the use of this research should be employed in teaching training module because the use of language affects communication between persons very much. It is recommended taking benefits of this research and more research studies should be conducted on this topic so that the differences and similarities between different languages and speech acts can be found.
References
Beebe, L.M, Takahashi, T., and Uliss- Weltz, R. (1990). “Pragmatic Transfer in ESL Refusals.” In R. Scarcella, E. Anderson and S. D Krashen (Eds.), On Developing Communication Competence in a Second Language. New York: Newbury House. 55- 73.
Devitt, M. (2003). Language and Reality: an Interaction to the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Bradford Book.
Hammouri, M. (1997). A Contrastive Study of Apologizing Strategies between Native Speakers of Jordanian Arabic and Native Speakers of American
Khwaileh, F. (2005). A Pragmatic Analysis of Jordanian Arabic and American English Refusal
Korta, K. (2006).”Pragmatics.” http//www.kepakorta@ehu.es.
Nelson, G. and Al-Batal, M. (2002). ”Cross Cultural Pragmatics: Strategy use in Egyptian Arabic and AmE Refusals”. Applied Linguistics 3: 163- 189.
Obeidat, M. (2006). A Sociopragmatic Analysis of Agreement in Jordanian Arabic and American
Wunderlich, M. (1980). “Securitization in a Totalitarian Regime.” Online. http://valt.hesinki.fi.htm
Wright, W. (1986). Grammar of the Arabic Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wierzbicka, A. (1987). English Speech Act Verbs: A Semantic Dictionary. New York: Academic Press.
Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Appendix
Questionnaire
Dear Participant,
This questionnaire has been developed to test warning as a speech act in Jordanian Arabic and American English. It comprises of 9 statements. First three statements are related to higher to a lower position, statements from 4 to 6 are related with equal to equal position, and statements from 7 to 9 are related with lower to a higher position. Following objective is going to be achieved through this research.
The objective of the study is to compare and contrast the speech act of warning in Jordanian Arabic and American English.
Sex: __________ Age: _____________ Level of Education: ___________________
- You are teacher and you warn your student not to cheat in exams. How would you do so?
- You are taxi driver and you go to mechanic. He does not perform the job as he had promised before. How would you warn him that you are not going to make payment in this case?
- You are project manager and one of experts in project team is not working professionally. He is valuable for the completion of project. How would you warn him?
- You and your friends are going to have a swim in a swimming pool. You dive first and feel that water is so deep that some of your friends cannot swim because they are not good swimmers. How would you warn them?
- You are playing with your class fellows in the football ground. You find two of your class fellows are not following rules of the game. You warn them that you are going to complain before the teacher for their behavior. How would you warn them in this situation?
- You love a friend very much and she also loves you very much. However, she usually disturbs your studies and you give very importance to your studies. How would you warn her so that she cannot disturb you during studies?
- You are with you mother in a market. Your mother is going to buy product which you have experienced to be not good at all. Your mother is interested in buying that product. How would you warn her not to buy that product?
- You have some issues with local government and you meet with local representative along with your likeminded people. You want to warn him not to take decision against your desire. How would you warn him?
- You go to your teacher and ask for some suggestions related to general knowledge but not directly related with coursework. He takes little or casual interest in your questions despite of university’s policy to support out of the box discussion. How would you warn that teacher while he does not feel odd?
