“You’re wrong!” How Egyptians and Americans Correct Others in Everyday Conversations: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Abstract

The present study investigated the speech act of correction in Egyptian Arabic and American English, specifically examining how and why Egyptians and Americans modified the illocutionary force of their corrections through the use of mitigation and aggravation strategies in different situations. A Discourse Completion Task/Test (DCT) consisting of six situations was used to elicit corrections from 30 Arabic-speaking Egyptians and 30 English-speaking Americans. The situations represented different settings (e.g., classroom, restaurant, theater), different interlocutor relationships (i.e., lower, higher, and equal), and different types of correction (i.e., correction of misinformation and misbehavior). The results showed differences between the two groups in the frequency and type of mitigation and aggravation strategies used as well as in the effect of the contextual factor of status on these strategies. The results also showed differences between the two groups in their seriousness rankings of the correction situations. In addition, interesting gender-based differences were observed in the two groups in both the frequency and type of mitigation and aggravation strategies used.

Keywords

• speech act of correction
• Egyptian Arabic
• American English
• cross-cultural pragmatics