Saying No: An Encounter in between the Desire of Being Socially Approved and Gaining Self-esteem

Abstract

This investigation aims at exploring the various ways by which members of Tiaret Speech Community (TSC) express their disapproval and/or rejection to offers, invitations, suggestions, and request, besides revealing the different factors influencing this diversity. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection are used including Participant Observation and Discourse Completion Tests/Tasks (DCTs), directed to a sample of eighty - randomly chosen- English language students at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret. The results obtained from the collected data show that speakers of TSC adopt both direct and indirect refusals by inserting more than one strategy among the same sequence including pre-refusals, head acts, and post refusals to soften their speech, which is functioning as Face Saving Acts (FSAs). Particularly, as the results illustrate, they use more than one refusal strategy such as expressing gratitude and/or prayers, showing regret, providing excuses and/or explanations, suggesting an alternative, and set promises of future acceptance. Factors affecting this variation, according to the data, include gender differences sometimes, but mainly the social distance between the speakers and their status.