Negotiating Turns in Conversation: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Linguistic Strategies in Iraqi Arabic and American English

Subject Areas :

Hind Mohammed Sami Aljanabi ¹ , Parivash Esmaeili ² , Ghanim Jwaid Idan ³ , Bahram Hadian ⁴

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Received: 2024-08-20 Accepted : 2024-09-28 Published : 2024-10-16

Keywords: turn-taking, linguistic strategies, Iraqi Arabic, American English, gender, age, politeness, cross-cultural communication, conversational analysis,

Abstract :

The present study attempts to find the linguistic strategies followed by speakers in negotiating a turn in Iraqi Arabic and American English, looking at how far age and gender will contribute in bringing about the variation in linguistic strategies. This study used a mixed-methods design, combining quantitative and qualitative methods in the analysis of conversational data from two corpora: the Iraqi Arabic Dataset, which contains recordings collected from Iraqi talk shows and university discussions, and the American English Dataset, a collection of recording sessions from TV shows that are broadcast through a national platform and casual conversations at universities. In general, this paper uncovers considerable cross-cultural differences regarding linguistic strategies. Iraqi Arabic speakers show a preference for indirect and mitigating forms, such as hedging (45%) and politeness markers (38%), reflecting a cultural emphasis on relational harmony and face-saving. American English speakers, on the other hand, prefer to use direct and assertive strategies, for instance, direct assertions, which make up 48%, and interruptions, which are 30%, reflecting a focus on clarity and efficiency. The study also investigates how gender and age influence conversational dynamics. The use of deferential strategies is distributed differently in Iraqi Arabic: much more frequently by younger speakers when addressing elders, while American English shows little variation due to age. The implications of such findings reflect a more hierarchical structure of Iraqi society, as opposed to an egalitarian approach to conversational participation in America. The paper contributes to the understanding of how cultural norms and social hierarchies shape linguistic behavior in conversation. It also provides practical implications for the intercultural communication training programs regarding the training on the differences in the strategy of cultural politeness, directness, and turn-taking. The findings strongly signal the inclusion of the factors of gender and age in studies pertaining to cross-cultural communication. There is a further evident need to extend the number of non-Western languages, such as Iraqi Arabic studied on conversational dynamics.

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