A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF SPEECH ACTS OF GREETING IN TWO PERSIAN AND ENGLISH SOAP OPERAS WITH REGARD TO THE LEVEL OF FORMALITY, STRUCTURE AND FREQUENCY

Many people who communicate across linguistic and cultural boundaries have experienced communication breakdowns with interlocutors who are from different first language backgrounds. Sociolinguists recognize that such intercultural miscommunications are partly due to different value systems that underlie each speaker’s cultural background. In fact, different value systems are reflected in speech acts. This study attempted to explore the structure, formality level and the frequency of the greeting speech acts in two Persian and English soap operas in a contrastive way in order to find out probable differences in this particular type of speech acts. Searl’s (1979) classification of speech acts was applied to accomplish the purpose of the study. The study focused on the interactions among the characters and those interactions containing the speech acts under discussion were transcribed. In the end, the results were contrasted and the findings revealed that some significant differences exist in a way that speech acts of greeting are realized in two Persian and English soap operas in terms of the structure, formality and frequency. The findings of this survey can provide some insights into the importance of teaching culture as well as making learners aware of the functional roles of a language. Since culture, people and the history and their undeniable effects cannot be secluded from language, the maximum effort and perseverance must be invested while teaching them.