Strategies of Apologizing in Bakhtiari Dialect: A Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

The present article investigates strategies of apology speech act in Bakhtiari dialect and its relationship with gender as a social variable. In this study, we use Brown and Levinson's theory to answer such questions as “In what situations Bakhtiari speakers use the apology speech act in social interactions? And how gender as a social variable influences the choices in vocabulary and applying apology strategies?” To collect the research data, the DCT questionnaire was used. The results indicated that the speakers tend to combine different apology categories and gender does affect selection of categories and apology strategies. Key words: Sociolinguistic, Pragmatics, Speech act, apology, Bakhtiari dialect.

Keywords

• sociolinguistic
• pragmatics
• speech act
• apology
• bakhtiari dialect