Language Research

Critical Analysis of Bargaining

Ladan Javaheri; Ronak Moradi

Volume 10, Issue 2 , March 2020, , Pages 171-192

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2019.282199.666511

Abstract

Discourse analysis examines the impacts of human, gender and cultural interactions and social values on discourse, and studies the way these relationships are presented in the text. ... Read More Discourse analysis examines the impacts of human, gender and cultural interactions and social values on discourse, and studies the way these relationships are presented in the text. Hence, in this article, which deals with the phenomenon of bargaining in an Iranian culture, Kermanshah, the approach of critical discourse analysis is used to study the discourse of bargaining regarding the mind control process of the audience. According to Foucault, power has a non-predetermined structure, hence because of its elusive nature, participants in a discourse can play different roles. This research data is gathered utilizing a questionnaire (164) and recording some conversations (850 minutes), in three different social class areas in Kermanshah. The analysis of the data shows that discourse participants use different linguistic mechanisms to reach their goals in bargaining, such as topicalization, short single sentences, exclamatory, imperative and interrogative structures, besides prosodic prominence strategies such as changes in stress, intonation and juncture which can end in shifts in the focus of the information structure of the sentences. However, simple words with ideological connotative meanings have the highest frequency. Moreover, according to the findings, three highlighted behavorial strategies frequent in bargaining include the usage of religious beliefs, having ethnic tradition biases, and stating economic, social, and class problems. The results indicate that the various roles pertaining to the bargaining participants –buyers and sellers- put bargaining in the category of reverse discourse, as Foucault calls it. The seller, in the power hierarchy, is the superordinate through the ownership position, while the buyer is the subordinate. However, in mind controlling, the buyer’s attempt to control the seller secretly makes them the controller, the one who applies power in a bottom-up order. Given that it is impossible to control the seller's mind without persuading them or without changing their worldview, bargaining is categorized as a rhetorical task, and the buyer, in this discourse, is the rhetor.

Selection of the Request Speech Act Strategies in Kurdish Regarding two Social Factors: Gender and Power

Chiya Sheykhmohammadi; Nahid Yarahmadzehi; Amir Mohamadian

Volume 10, Issue 1 , June 2019, , Pages 183-202

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2019.72008

Abstract

This research, conducted in the field of pragmatics and sociolinguistics, aims at the describing and analyzing the type and number of request strategies in Kurdish, Mokri dialect, regarding ... Read More This research, conducted in the field of pragmatics and sociolinguistics, aims at the describing and analyzing the type and number of request strategies in Kurdish, Mokri dialect, regarding the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of social factors as the gender of user and the power of addressee. To this end, for data collection, a revised version of Discourse Completion Test (DCT) including 12 situations was distributed among 130 (65 males and 65 females) Mokri Kurdish speakers in Mahabad city located in the southern of West Azabayejan province. They were in the age range of 25 to 35, holding at least a bachelor degree. Besides the questionaire, direct observation consisting of 7 hours of everyday normal conversations in various situations and different contexts was employed to collect more natural and reliable data. As the main theoretical framework for the present study, Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP) coding scheme used by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989) was employed and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory was used as the peripheral framework. Results of the research showed a significant difference across genders in selection of the type of request strategis and the power of addressee had a significant effect on choosing the strategies. It was also shown that power and gender had an interactive effect on the selection of these strategies. According to supporting strategies of the "negative and positive faces" in Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory, it was found that Kurdish people as the members of one cooperative group mostly employed positive face saving acts in their communications and interactions. The research findings indicate that it is about time for linguists as educational planners to consider these sociolinguistic differences in teaching Kurdish language to non-Kurdish people in order to prevent any probable mishaps in their communications and interactions with Kurdish speakers.

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Keywords = power

Critical Analysis of Bargaining

Abstract

Selection of the Request Speech Act Strategies in Kurdish Regarding two Social Factors: Gender and Power

Abstract