| Abstrakt: |
This paper addresses variability in (im)politeness perceptions in Syrian Arabic by looking at four naturallyoccurring apologies, based on Haugh and Chang's (2019) study. It aims to investigate whether variability, if any, is related to perceptions of the (in)sincerity of the apology and the severity of the offense. The data were collected through an online survey, in which 77 native speakers of Syrian Arabic were asked to listen to four apology recordings and rate them on three 5-point Likert scales. The results of the statistical analysis show that there is variability in the participants' perceptions of (im)politeness in only one of the recordings. Furthermore, it was noted that this variability in (im)politeness perceptions was paralleled by variability in terms of evaluations of the speaker's sincerity in apologizing. The results also show that there is a positive correlation between perceptions of (im)politeness, (in)sincerity, and the severity of offense in all but one of the recordings. The overall results confirm Haugh and Chang's (2019) observation that variability in (im)politeness perceptions is not limited to intercultural settings but can be found in intracultural discourse events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
