Comparison Between Politeness in Arabic and English
Descripción
Table of Content:
INTRODUCTION……………………….……………………………………….…..3
WHAT IS POLITENESS?…………………………………………………………..4
POLITENESS OF GREETINGS IN ENGLISH…….……………………………..5
POLITENESS OF GREETINGS IN ARABIC……………………………..…..….6
POLITENESS OF ADDRESSING IN ENGLISH…………………………………8
POLITENESS OF ADDRESSING IN ARABIC……………………………….,…9
REQUESTING IN ENGLISH………………..…………………………..….…….10
REQUESTING IN ARABIC……………………………………………………….12
COMPARISION AND DATA ANALYSIS……………………………………….13
POLITENESS AND GENDER…………………………………………………….14
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………...15
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..16
Introduction
Olshtain and Cohen (1991) report that languages do not only differ
in general linguistic areas such as phonology, syntax and lexicon, but also
in the rules of speaking and the patterns of interaction which vary from
one speech community to another.
When talking about politeness formulas in Arabic and in English and
how they are different, it is crucial to take into account the cultural
differences and religious differences as well, so is gender difference.
Politeness in the Arabic language is more elaborated than in the English
language in some aspects while English is richer in other.
This research will show us how Arabic and English are different in
politeness at greetings, addressing and requesting.
What is Politeness?
Politeness is best expressed as the practical application of good
manners or etiquette. It is a culturally defined phenomenon, and therefore
what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or
simply eccentric in another cultural context. Showing regards for others,
in manners, in behavior and in speech.
Politeness is an expression of concern for other people's feelings.
Being linguistically polite involves a highly complex mix of appropriate
words, grammar, intonation and tone of voice.
Linguists start from the assumption that nobody wants to sound
impolite when talking to one another because we might get hurt in return.
When thinking about how politeness is related to language, we found that
without politeness there won't be language. We will look at the different
polite forms in both Arabic and English, and see the similarities and
differences between them too.
Politeness of Greetings in English
There are two types of greetings in English:
1-Formal greetings.
2-Informal greetings.
1-Formal Greetings:
-Greeting that is used anytime during the day:
Hello and good day (sir or ma'am).
-Greeting that is related to timing:
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.
-Greetings to end a conversation with someone:
It was a pleasure seeing you and it was a pleasure meeting you.
2-Informal Greetings:
-Greeting that is used anytime during the day:
Hi, hey and what's up.
-Greetings that are related to timing:
Morning, evening and nighty.
-Greetings to end a conversation with someone:
Bye bye, see ya and later.
Most young males and females tend to use informal greetings when
talking to each other. Yet, they tend to switch to formal greetings when
talking to an elder or in formal situation. While adults from both genders,
use formal greetings more often in their normal daily speech regardless to
who they are talking to and no matter what their age is.
Politeness of Greetings in Arabic
Elaborate greetings are often used in Arabic more than in English.
There are three types of greetings in Arabic:
1-Religious related greetings.
2-Formal greetings.
3-Informal greetings.
1-Religious Related Greetings:
-Greeting that is used anytime during the day:
Assalamu Alaikum (which means peace be upon you).
السلام عليكم
-Greeting to end a conversation:
Fe aman Ellah, fe hefth Ellah and fe re'ayet Ellah (which means God
protects you).
في أمان الله، في حفظ الله، في رعاية الله
2-Formal Greetings:
-Greeting that is used anytime during the day:
Ahlan wa sahlan and marhabban bekom (which means Hello and most welcomed).
أهلاً وسهلاً، مرحباً بكم
-Greetings that are related to timing:
Emmta sabahhan (good morning) emmta masa'an (good afternoon and good
evening)
عمتم صباحاً، عمتم مساءً
Tossbeh ala khair (goodnight).
تصبحون على خير
-Greetings to end a conversation with someone:
Wada'an, araka lahekan, ela al-leqa'a (which means goodbye, until we meet
again).
وداعاً، نراكم لاحقاً، إلى اللقاء
3-Informal Greetings:
-Greeting that is used anytime during the day:
Merhaba, ahlan and ahlain (means hi).
مرحبا، أهلاً، أهلين
-Greeting related to timing:
Sabah al-khair, masa'a al-khair, tesbeh ala khair (morning, evening and
goodnight)
صباح الخير، مساء الخير، تصبح على خير.
-Greeting to end a conversation:
Ma'a al-salama, neshofek ala khair (bye and see ya later).
مع السلامه، نشوفكم على خير
*In Arabic, speakers tend to use plural form instead of singular to sound
more polite.
Politeness of Addressing in English
There are two types of addressing in English:
1-Formal addressing.
2-Informal addressing.
1-Formal Addressing:
Sir (adult male of any age)
Ma'am (adult female - North American)
Madam (adult female)
Mr + last name (any man)
Mrs + last name (married woman who uses her husband's last name)
Ms + last name (married or unmarried woman; common in business)
Miss + last name (unmarried woman)
Dr + last name (some doctors go by Dr + first name)
Professor + last name (in a university setting)
2-Informal Addressing:
Casual or very close relationships require an informal form of address:
First name (friends, students, children)
Miss/Mr + first name (sometimes used for teachers)
Titles of Affection
When addressing a child, a romantic partner, or a close friend or family
member (usually younger) people often use these terms of endearment, also
known as "pet names":
Honey (child, romantic partner, or younger person)
Dear
Sweetie
Love
Darling
Babe or Baby (romantic partner)
Pal (father or grandfather calls male child)
Buddy or Bud (very informal between friends or adult-to-child, can be
negative)
*The phrase "Yes, Sir!" (or "Yes, Madam/Ma'am!") is sometimes used by
native speakers in a sarcastic way. For example when a young child tells
his father to "close his newspaper" the parent might say, "Yes, sir!" and
laugh. You might also hear a mother saying, "No Madam/Ma'am" to her
daughter's request for something unreasonable.
Politeness of Addressing in Arabic
There are two types of addressing in Arabic:
1-Formal addressing.
2-Informal addressing.
3-Impolite addressing.
1-Formal Addressing:
No use of last names in Arabic, people are addressed by their first names
-Alsayyed (Mister)
السيد
-Alsayyeda (Ma'am)
السيده
-Ostath (male teacher)
الأستاذ
-Ostatha (female teacher)
الأستاذه
-Al-anisa (ms)
الآنسه
-Doctora (female docter)
الدكتورة
-Doctor (male docter)
الدكتور
2-Informal addressing:
-First name.
-Alshaikh (rich male or Imam in the mosque)
الشيخ
-Alshaikha (rich woman)
الشيخه
-Ostaz (male teacher)
أستاذ
-Ostaza (female teacher)
أستاذه
-Ahlana (means family or wife)
الأهل – أهلنا
-Ya A'mm (any old man we don't know his name).
يا عم
-Ya khalaa (any old woman we don't her name).
يا خاله
3-Impolite Addressing:
-Ya Mohammed (any male if we don't knows his first name).
يا محمد
-Ya Hajj (any old male we don't know his first name).
يا حج
-Ya Hajeyya-Hajja (any old lady we don't know her first name).
يا حجيه
*The addressing titles in Arabic have somewhat less significance use than
English.
Requesting in English
There are many different ways of making polite requests in English. If
you don't want to sound rude when speaking English, then you need to know
how to make a request in a polite way. Requests in English are usually made
in the form of questions.
Asking to do things – asking for permission:
The polite way to ask for something in English and other European
languages would be by using the subjunctive mode of verbs.
Using could and would, is more polite that using can.
"Can I use your computer, please?"
"Could I borrow some money from you, please?"
"Do you mind if I turn up the heating?"
"Would you mind if I turned up the heating?"
*When you're using these two sentences, don't use please. It's already
polite enough!
Requesting in English
Asking others to do things – making requests:
"Can I help you?"
"Shall I open the window for you?"
"Would you like another coffee?"
"Would you like me to answer the phone?"
"I'll do the photocopying, if you like."
Shall is particularly British English and is more formal than can. Would
you like to.
Requesting in Arabic
There are several formulas for request, and several of them employ
the subjunctive mood of verbs as well.
One of the most common phrases for request in Arabic is the following:
1-Lw samaht (if you allow me)
لو سمحت
-Etha samaht (if you may)
إذا سمحت
-En samaht (if you may)
إن سمحت
-Halla samaht (would you mind)
هل لا سمحت
This formula is not a question. It uses the subjunctive mood of the
verb "allow," though in the form of a perfective, or past, verb rather than
a subjunctive imperfective, or present, verb. Perfective verbs are often
used as subjunctive verbs in Arabic.
2- Min fad-lik (if you please)
من فضلك
This phrase does not use any subjunctive verbs. It will be followed
often by a direct command, like the previous one. It is also usually
translated to "please" or "excuse me."
3-Rajaa'an
رجاءً
This is more urgent than the previous two. It also means "please" or
"excuse me" and it is used just like the formulas mentioned above. However,
it does not have other conjugations than this one.
4-Hal mn al-momken an (would you, could you)
هل من الممكن أن
5-Hal-laa (can – would)
هل لا
Comparison and Analysis of Data
After collecting the data, we came to find that Arabic is richer than
English in using Polite forms in the language because of the cultural
reasons, religious reasons and many synonyms (each word has not less than
10 other word that conveys the same meaning). When it comes to greetings,
native speakers of both languages tend to use informal polite greetings in
their speech. Same goes with addressing, but Arabic native speakers rarely
use titles in their society when addressing each other unlike English
unless they are addressing someone from the royal family. And finally, when
it comes to requesting, Arabic has uncountable forms in polite requesting,
unlike English, to sound polite, the use of (could and would) is enough.
Politeness and Gender
Gender and Politeness challenges the notion that women are
necessarily always more polite than men as much of the language and gender
literature claims no matter what their language is Arabic, English or
French. There are circumstances when women speakers, drawing on stereotypes
of femininity to guide their behavior, will appear to be acting in a more
polite way than men, there are many circumstances as well where women will
act just as impolitely as men. General speaking, females all around the
world nature is soft and polite, that's why females tend to use more polite
forms when communicating in their daily life and speech because of their
feminism. While men's nature is aggressive and most likely careless, that's
why they tend to sound rude while they don't intend to because it's just in
their nature. Males would sound polite only when they are talking to
someone from the other gender just out of respect or affection or in order
to impress the person, while men among each other are into using informal
forms in their daily speech and communication unless they are as well in a
business meeting.
We all think women are more polite than men but, in fact, both are
polite, the only difference is that females' nature is so be polite all the
times and care what other may think about them, while men tend to speak as
they please without keeping in mind how would they sound and what others
might think of them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Arabic and English both have many politeness forms in
them. As it is clear in the analysis and discussion, the Arabic and English
examples are to some degrees, different concerning the concept of
Politeness. Arabic language is richer than English in some forms. When it
comes to politeness in requesting, greeting and addressing, similarities
between the two languages are more than the differences. A difference
between them is the absence of certain cultural politeness in a language
and the existing in another, as well as the religion plays a huge part in
Arabic. On the other hand, both languages have a form of politeness that
died or either not used nowadays by young individuals.
This research concludes that English and Arabic are not as different
as people think. And no matter what gender you are, it is the person
himself/herself who determines how to speak, whether to sound polite or
not.
Bibliograph
Dr.Zackria. English Club. .
English Exchange. 2011.
.
Ibraham, Ahmed. UQU. 2009.
.
Jackson. Politeness. 2012. .
Linda. Cambridge . 2004.
.
Wacewics, S. "Gender and Politeness ." ELTS Journal (2012).
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LING308 Contrastive Linguistic
Second Semester 2013-2014- 132
B.Sc in Applied Linguistic
Final Project
>Politeness in English and Arabic<
Contrastive research
Lecturer: Miss Sahar Deknash
Student name and ID:
Najla Hassan
11127005
Submission date:
Thursday 08-05-2014
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Royal Commission – Yanbu
University College
Women Campus
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