The sequential organisation of offers and acceptances in Saudi Arabic

This thesis investigates the sequential organisation of offers and acceptance in Saudi Arabic talk-in-interaction. This investigation is implemented through the use of the methodology of Conversation Analysis. Through analysing Saudi Arabic naturally-occurring data, I look at offer sequences as a whole, and not just the offer and its initial response. The data suggest that, mostly, Saudi offers are not immediately accepted; the acceptance happens only after turns of vigorous rejection and negotiation between the offerer and his/her recipient. As this is the first conversation analytic study of offers in Arabic talk-in-interaction, its aim is to investigate, through the use of naturally-occurring talk, the interactional significance of the delayed acceptance and how this action is ultimately accomplished in Saudi Arabic interaction. Through the analysis, I examine these initial rejections that come as a response to Saudi offers, and how they are usually produced immediately and without delay. Furthermore, I investigate when offerers treat these initial rejections as just mere pro forma rejections that require negotiation compared to when they treat it as a definitive rejection. This ultimate outcome of the offer sequence is usually projectable due to the different use of offer formats: declarative, imperative or interrogative. Also, this outcome is related to the offerers’ and their recipients’ orientation to identity, such as membership categories and authority, and the role played by these in the recognisability of action.