دراسة اجتماعية تداولية لأفعال الشكوى في أفلام انجليزيه مختاره

RP-A Sociopragmatic Study of Speech Acts of Complaining in Selected English Movies .pdf

This study conducts a sociopragmatic analysis of the speech acts of complaining as represented in two English-language films: the American The Pursuit of Happyness (sic) and the British Pride and Prejudice. It addresses a remarkable gap in theoretical and practical research on complaints within cinematic discourse, with a focus on how speech acts of complaints are linguistically structured and pragmatically performed across various social and narrative contexts. The study attempts to identify the most common strategies that characters employ to express complaints and to examine how social variables such as power dynamics, social distance, and gender influence the selection and effectiveness of these strategies.
The research is guided by some questions: (i) How do contextual factors shape the formulation and performance of complaints in The Pursuit of Happyness and Pride and Prejudice? (ii) What are the complaint strategies that are applied by the characters in the data? (iii) How are social variables reflected in the characters’ choices of speech acts and complaint strategies? (iv) What role do presuppositions play in complaint dialogues, and which type of presuppositions is most prevalent in the selected data?
Accordingly, the study seeks to (1) examine the impact of contextual factors on the formulation and performance of complaints in the selected films; (2) exploring how and why characters construct and utilise different complaint strategies, and identifying the most frequently used strategy; (3) analysing how characters’ choices of speech acts and complaint strategies are influenced by and reflect social variables such as power dynamics, social class, and gender; and (4) explore the role of presuppositions in outlining the effectiveness of complaint interactions within cinematic discourse and identify the most prominent type of presupposition in the data.
A qualitative approach, supported by quantitative elements (frequencies and percentages), is employed to offer a comprehensive and coherent analysis. The dataset comprises eighteen carefully selected scenes (nine from each film) that contain explicit complaint instances. The eclectic analytical framework draws on Hymes’ (1974) SPEAKING model for sociolinguistic contextualization, and it includes key sociological variables (social distance, power, gender, class, and education), Searl’s (1969) speech act classifications related to complaints, felicity conditions, presupposition types, and Trosborg’s (1995) taxonomy of complaint strategies. This solid methodology enables a nuanced examination of complaint behaviour and the socio-cultural forces that shape it.
The study uncovers several key results. First, contextual factors—such as physical settings, interlocutor relationships, and narrative developments—play a substantial role in complaint expression. Second, participants use many complaint strategies from Trosborg’s (1995) taxonomy, with frequency and form changing by social and contextual factors. Third, social variables matter: direct forms occur more in financially strained interactions, while indirect forms appear more in formal or polite settings. Fourth, presuppositions shape how complaints are interpreted and how effective the interaction is by guiding listener responses.