Persian Speakers' Use of Refusal Strategies across Politeness Systems

This study aimed at investigating the preferred refusal strategies in Persian. 3047 refusals collected by 108 field workers as well as 376 refusals collected through face to face interviews were analyzed and classified according to the descriptions proposed by Liao (1994) and Liao and Bresnahan (1996). The frequencies of the resulting direct and indirect refusal strategies were then used as the data for the current study. Politeness systems as suggested by the model proposed by Scollon and Scollon (2001) as well as refusers' demographic characteristics (i.e., their age, sex, and education level) were used as the independent variables of the study. Kruskal-Wallis H Test and Mann-Whitney U Test results indicated that teenagers and low-education Persian speakers prefer non-performative refusal strategies. Power relations can also determine whether non-performative strategies are preferred to performative refusals. It was concluded that politeness is a dynamic concept that changes through time and with human generations. The following are appended: (1) Refusal Strategies [Adapted from Al-Eryani (2007) with permission]; and (2) Guide to Persian Transcription Symbols.