Verbosity and Politeness: External Mitigation of Request Speech Acts in Australian English and Iraqi Arabic

Abstract

This paper examines external modifiers that Australian English native speakers and Iraqi Arabic native speakers use to soften the force of request speech acts in everyday situations. Request samples were collected by means of role-play interview and external devices employed to mitigate the request acts were identified and classified using a framework based on CCSARP model. The results showed that external mitigating devices were pervasive in requests from both groups. The two groups have also been found to use different semantic formulae of some mitigating devices in specific situations. The occurrence of external mitigators in both groups’ requests is discussed in terms of verbosity as a politeness strategy. It is also suggested that the divergence between the two groups in their utilisation of request mitigations is related to cultural variations between the Australian and Iraqi cultures.