ADVICE-GIVING STRATEGIES IN JORDANIAN SPOKEN ARABIC: A SOCIO-PRAGMATIC STUDY

Abstract This study investigates advice-giving strategies and their frequencies among Jordanian Arabic speakers, using Hinkel’s (1997) taxonomy and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness framework. A questionnaire featuring everyday contexts was distributed to 100 Jordanian speakers, yielding 1,500 instances of advice. The study identifies direct, indirect, and hedge strategies as the main forms of advice-giving. Direct strategies, constituting 34% of the data, include the imperative form (57.8%), the verb “advise” (27.7%), and mitigation (14.5%). The imperative form is the most dominant, often used respectfully but still posing a face threat. Conversely, using “advise” minimizes face-threatening acts (FTAs), while mitigation softens direct advice. Indirect strategies were used the most, at 44.7%, with questions (20.15%) and insults (1.19%) being the least frequent. Questions allow the advisee to reflect and reduce face threats, while insults occur in contexts of close social bonds. Hedge strategies include modal verbs as the most prevalent method, while generalizations are rarely used. Politeness strategies reveal negative politeness as the most frequent (30.66%), followed by bald-on-record (26.67%), off-record (22%), and positive politeness (20.67%). Gender, age, geography, and education significantly influence strategy selection. Women and younger speakers favor negative politeness, while men and rural residents prefer bald-on-record strategies. The findings highlight Jordanian speakers’ sensitivity to social hierarchy and face-saving mechanisms in advice-giving.