A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE SPEECH ACT OF COMPLAINT BY URDU SPEAKERS

Abstract

The present study is a corpus-based analysis of speech act of complaint for exploring the complaint strategies adopted by Urdu speakers. It is a stereotype, that male Urdu speakers are more annoyed and threatening as compared to female Urdu speakers in their linguistic behaviour. A convenient sampling technique was adopted and Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was formulated and used to gather data. We have used both methods of analysis i.e. qualitative method and quantitative method for the interpretation of the data. The percentage of female Urdu speakers performing a Directive Act of Request (DA/R) in complaining situations is more than males. The study imlies that efforts should be made to overcome illiteracy and real-life situations should be practised at institutes so that whole Urdu-speaking community may become eligible to behave politely in real life and use language in a polite and civilized way. 

Keywords: Speech act of complaint, ELF, CMC, TripAdvisor