ІРАНСЬКА КОМУНІКАТИВНА КУЛЬТУРА ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ ТЕОРІЇ МОВЛЕННЄВИХ АКТІВ

Abstract

This article explores the specifics of the application of the theory of Speech acts (SAs) in the context of the study of communicative behavior of Persian native speakers in general, and the Persian system of politeness ta'ārof in particular. The history of formation and development of this theory, the structure and classification of SAs, proposed by researchers, are briefly described. The particularities of the use of the SAs theory in the linguistic theory of politeness by P. Brown and S. Levinson are also highlighted. In their conception, based on the principle of ‘face-work' by E. Goffman, they propose to distinguish two types of face: ‘positive' and ‘negative'. The positive aspect of the face is the want of an individual to be accepted by a certain group of people, the negative one is his desire to feel free and prevent other people from violating his privacy. Immediately after the concept of dividing the face into positive and negative aspects had been announced it faced a flurry of criticism from researchers of Eastern politeness systems. They questioned the importance of the negative face for Eastern cultures, arguing that in the East in social interaction the public interests prevail over an individual's, unlike Western cultures, where individualism is a cultural value. The article also analyzes the system of SAs the researchers proposed, which poses a threat to the interlocutor's face (FTA), and the specifics of the application of this system for the study of Iranian communicative culture. The analysis allows concluding that some SAs identified by American researchers as face-threatening SAs are not the ones in terms of the Persian system of politeness. These are suggestions, invitations, compliments, apologies, thanks, and denials. It is concluded that such SAs are perceived by Persian speakers as an integral part of polite communication, and failure to comply with the appropriate rules may result in the speaker's losing face before the interlocutor. Therefore, we may assume that in the context of Iranian communicative culture, these SAs showing a brilliant ethnic specifics, might be qualified not as face-threatening ones, but as those that promote harmonious communication.