الفهرس 
Chapter One IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study investigates similarities and differences between Cairene Arabic (CA) and American English(AE) refusals ,greetings and apologies using a modified discourse completion test (DCT) consisting of 12refusals, 9 greetings and 10 apologies. Each situation includes a speech act directed to a person of higher status, one to a person of equal status, and one to a person of lower status. Interactions were written. The refusals, greetings and apologies were categorized and analyzed socio-pragmatically by formula and analyzed for order, directness, and frequency of semantic formulas. Findings suggest that both groups use similar semantic formulas with similar frequency in making the situations and use a similar number of direct and indirect formulas, although Caireene Arabic interviews used more direct formulas in the equal-status situations. In some situations, however, the order of semantic formulas varied and the American respondents used more expressions of gratitude. The data obtains by the DCT was categorized into a number of strategies. An attempt was made to provide a comprehensive description of the nature of refusal, greeting and apology strategies used by the subjects. The refusal strategies identified were categorized following the Beebe et al (1990) scheme of refusals. Apologies collected from the subjects are analyzed, based on the analytical framework of Blum-Kulka et al.’s (1989) and Olshtain and Cohen’s (1983) taxonomy for apology. The results also indicate that the choice of refusal, greetings and apology strategies reflects characteristics of Cairene Arabic versus American English culture. These results are as follows:
1. The results of the study showed cross-cultural differences and similarities between the groups in performing the speech act of refusal, greeting and apology with regard to the choice and frequency of strategies.
2. The analysis of the data for the status of the interlocutors and the content of the semantic formulas as well as the directness/indirectness, revealed divergence in the use of refusal, greeting and apology strategies across the groups.
3. Certain strategies employed by the speakers of Cairene Arabic were nonexistent in the data of the speakers of American English and vice versa.