Investigation of Speech Acts of the Provisional Agreement of Intent

Abstract

This study investigated the provisional agreement of intent or the so called (Atwa) as a means of reconciling tribal disputes and conflicts from a socio-pragmatic perspective. The data consisted of forty provisional agreement documents on car accidents occasions, three video-recorded interactions and information collected via personal contacts with twelve interlocutors. The video-recorded materials and documents were categorized in accordance with politeness speech acts. The interviews concentrated on the personal details of the interlocutors in order to specify the main characteristics of those people and why they were chosen for this mission. This research finds out that frequently exchanged politeness strategies in the provisional agreement interaction include request, apology, honorifics, offering, compliment and thanking. Additionally, the researchers also found out that age, level of education, social rank, religion and socio-economic status were the sociolinguistic variables behind choosing the interlocutor.