The pragmatics of street hustlers' English in Egypt

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A frequent source of irritation for tourists or foreign residents in Egypt comes from their interaction with street hustlers of different kinds. Simple, well intentioned greetings or offers of services or even offers of help often give offense inadvertently and are negatively perceived by the visitor. This paper proposes to characterize how some of these hustlers’ routines operate and to provide a pragmatic analysis of what makes them surprising or unusual from an American English speaker's perspective. Results of the study indicate that cross‐cultural pragmatic failure between vendors and foreigners stems from different perceptions about such factors as who may speak and when, the degree of personal involvement, what constitutes an imposition, and such matters as privacy and sincerity.