In this section, the frequency of using the verbal types of responses, which are called congratulations strategies, are presented in the order of the proposed research questions. The first research question of this study was asked:
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What are the basic categories of congratulation strategies employed by Pakistani ESL learners and British English speakers?
Table 3 shows the frequency and percentages of the 10 types of verbal responses found in the congratulations of the four groups. It is obvious that the “IFID” (congratulations) was the most frequent strategy used by PESL/M and PESL/L groups (28% and 29%) followed by the strategy of “overlapped strategies” (22% and 22%). In contrast, BritE speakers and PESL/E groups employed “the offer of good wish” strategies more often (25% and 25%), and PESL/M and PESL/L class speakers used these strategies with a percentage of (9% each). Likewise, PESL/M and PESL/L speakers, BritE also used “Overlapped” congratulations strategies quite frequently (19%).
Table 3
Frequency and Percentage of Congratulation strategies of BritE, PESL/E, PESL/M and PESL/L
Sr No. | CRs | BritE | PESL/E | PESL/M | PESL/L |
| | Freq | % | Freq | % | Freq | % | Freq | % |
1 | IFID | 30 | 17% | 28 | 16% | 50 | 28% | 52 | 29% |
2 | RFI | 25 | 14% | 16 | 9% | 3 | 2% | 11 | 6% |
3 | OoGW | 45 | 25% | 45 | 25% | 16 | 9% | 12 | 9% |
4 | EOH | 20 | 11% | 17 | 9% | 17 | 9% | 17 | 9% |
5 | EOS | 6 | 3% | 6 | 3% | 7 | 4% | 8 | 4% |
6 | EOV | 10 | 5% | 10 | 5% | 10 | 5% | 5 | 3% |
7 | EOE | 6 | 3% | 9 | 5% | 9 | 5% | 5 | 3% |
8 | SOC | 9 | 5% | 9 | 5% | 9 | 5% | 9 | 5% |
9 | UoE | 12 | 6% | 20 | 11% | 19 | 11% | 17 | 9% |
10 | Overlapped | 17 | 19% | 20 | 11% | 40 | 22% | 40 | 22% |
Total | | 180 | 100% | 180 | 100% | 180 | 100% | 180 | 100% |
Note: %= percentage value of the responses, RFI = Request for information, IFID = Illocutionary force indicating a device, OOGW = Offer of a good wish, EOH = Expression of happiness, EOV = Expression of validation, EOS = Expression of surprise, EOE = Expression of envy, SOC = Suggestion of celebration. |
In contrast, PESL/E speakers used less “Overlapped” congratulations strategies (11%). Moreover, table 3 indicates that BritE speakers used more strategies of “Expression of Happiness” (11%) than PESL/E, PESL/M and PESL/L participants (9% each). As regards other congratulation strategies, as can be seen in table 3, “Expression of Surprise”, “Expression of Validation’’, ‘’the Suggestion of Celebration’’, “Expression of Envy”, “Utterance of Encouragement”, all groups were found using these strategies quite rarely with pretty low percentage. |
Although the first (IFID) type was the most frequent strategy used by the four groups, the difference between them was statistically significant. In contrast, the last two strategies showed no significant statistical difference. It was expected to find “congratulations” used more frequently than the other strategies because the events were happy occasions or news. Also, it is usually the first expression to utter when hearing something good to express happiness and share the occasion with others. This result is supported by almost all the studies on congratulation in different languages and cultures that found “congratulations” is the most frequent expression. However, this differs from Makri-Tsilipakou’s results (2001) in Greek and Hernández’s (2008) in Peninsular Spanish. Makri-Tsilipakou explained that the use of the expression “congratulations” refers to formality or distance in the relationship between the speaker and addressee. Therefore, the use of “well wishes” is more than “congratulations” in Greek. Hernández (2008) found that “congratulations,” which was used only by women, was less common than expressing approval, happiness, and making celebration plans.
In the current study, “congratulations” was used most frequently in the event of “a candidate is newly selected as chief minister” (62 times) and the event of “being a chief guest, speaker congratulates the position holders” (58 times). Although there is more than one form for mubarkan “congratulations” in Urdu, mubarkan is the most frequently used one. The other form for mubarkan is Mubarak, and it was not used frequently because it is from Standard Urdu. Therefore, the simplest form was found frequently. Mubarkan was intensified in more than one way, often by using various numbers, such as a thousand, million, billion, and so forth, to intensify its meaning. In addition, it was intensified by repetition, such as by repeating its vowel (a), the expression “mubarkaan” itself, the number itself, or by adding other bigger numbers in the form. These various ways of intensifying “mubarakank” can be a result of the absence of prosodic strategies. Additionally, they emphasize Leech’s (2007) point of view that intrinsically courteous speech acts, such as congratulations, need intensification or gradable expressions. Face enhancing acts such as congratulation also need to be hardened and maximized (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 1997). Although congratulation strategies lack the physical dimension, the social dimension exists by interacting with friends on activities (Derks et al., 2008). Therefore, offering congratulations on emphasizes the fact that the goal of congratulation is not only to express a psychological state but also it has a social goal that is aimed at strengthening social relationship and intimacy (Makri-Tsilipakou, 2001) among individuals or just to satisfy the social expectation (Bach & Harnish, 1979). Results indicated that PESL groups congratulation strategies were influenced by their L1 culture-specific and language-specific semantic formulaic expressions. They were found using the English equivalent of congratulations (Mubakaan) in Urdu language, except PESL/E group participants who showed a progress towards developing pragmatic competence of the target language.
However, in this current study, the results showed that although “congratulations” was the most frequently used, it was not usually used alone. It was used as a single strategy only (160 times) and mostly in the event of “a candidate is newly selected as chief minister” and the event of “being a chief guest, speaker congratulates the position holders”. The comparison of “Overlapped” strategies among the events was conducted based on the top four compound strategies in each event. Therefore, “congratulations” is mostly used with “offer of good wishes”, which was statistically significant. This result refers to the importance of taking into consideration the patterns of polite compound strategies, and focus not only on the polite expressions alone based on their frequency. The compound strategy of “congratulations” with “offer of good wishes” was used mostly in the event of “ a secretory introduces the newly elected sports secretory to the participants”, and “a Chief Guest at the Annual Prize Distribution ceremony”. This compound strategy was followed by the use of “congratulations” with “offer of good wishes” and “Overlapped” congratulations strategies. This pattern of compound strategy was also used primarily in the event of “a family doctor got married who met five months ago”, “a friend got a job”, and “a friend got appointed as a surgeon in a government hospital”.
“Offer of good wishes,” as the second most frequently used strategy used by the BritE and PESL/E groups was among the other types of responses, is supported by research by Allami and Nekouzadeh (2011) in Persian; Kočovska (2013) in Latin; and Dastjerdi and Nasri, (2013) in Persian, American English, and Syrian Arabic. Some studies in Persian, such as Ghaemi and Ebrahimi (2014) found that “offer of good wishes” is the third most frequently used strategy, while other studies, such as García (2010) in Spanish, found it to be a common strategy in general. However, the different results that indicate a preference and frequency are usually affected by many factors, such as the background of participants, relationship, situation, the tool for collecting data, and so forth.
Most of the expressions used in the current study in “offer of good wishes” are religious expressions, which are prayers/blessings rather than nonreligious wishing expressions. “Offer of good wishes” was also used primarily in the event of “a secretory introduces the newly elected sports secretory to the participants”, and “a Chief Guest at the Annual Prize Distribution ceremony”. However, the way of congratulating others in the event of “the birth of a baby,” for example, can vary or differ based on the medium of communication. For instance, Willer (2001) found that different words are used to describe emotions and physical characteristics of the newborn boy or girl in congratulation greeting cards. Unlike BritE speakers, PESL speakers were found using socio-religious expressions in their congratulation strategies indicating the operation of pragmatic transfer in their congratulation strategies, and an inclination towards adhering to their L1 cultural norms. This way of congratulating is affected by the different genre in the way of expressing congratulation. It was also observed that PESL users tend to employ more than one prayer/blessing or wishing expression in a comment. The use of prayers/blessings as well-wishing is a result of Islamic principles in Pakistani society. Blessings are used by people who believe in the power of words (Wierzbicka, 1987); however, this power is believed to come from Allah, not from the words by themselves. The use of prayers in the situations of congratulation also were found by Emery (2000) and Bataineh (2013) in Arabic, and by Ghaemi and Ebrahimi (2014) in Persian because they are influenced by the same religion, Islam. This influence was also observed in the other studies of speech acts by Saudis, such as greetings and leave takings (Hassanain, 1994; Turjoman 2005), compliment (AlAmro, 2013), thanking (Altalhi, 2014), refusal (Al-Shalawi, 1997), and invitation (Alfalig, 2016). However, the use of religious expression is also used in “Overlapped congratulations” in the current study. Although various expressions were used in overlapped congratulations, the religious expression such as mashaallah/Jazakaallah “as Allah wills/ as Allah wills, Allah blesses” was used more frequently than the other praising expressions. It was also used more frequently in the event of “a family doctor got married who met five months ago”, “a friend got a job”. It is usually used by Muslims to express praise or happiness when someone hears good news or sees something he/she likes. It is believed that Allah protects the good news/object of jealousy and the evil eye (AlAmro, 2013).
In the current study, some strategies were used infrequently, and most of those were supported by Elwood (2004) and Allami and Nekouzadeh (2011) who found the strategies used with a low frequency. For instance, “expression of validation” was used only on a few occasions by the four groups, mostly in the event of “getting a new position” and “winning an election.”
“A suggestion to celebrate” was used in the current study only on a very limited occasions by the four groups and mostly in the event of “getting a permanent job” In contrast, Al-Hour (2019) found that it is common in Palestinian society. However, it was interesting to find that some of the respondents employed some emojis (though it was not included in the scope of the study), such as party popper, confetti ball, red balloon, and so forth to celebrate the occasion.
The strategy of “expression of envy” was used only at certain occasions by the four groups, especially in one of the events, that of “getting a new position” (i.e., The position of “university professor”), However, the use of this strategy was not expected because people usually express their feelings positively and use courtesy in happy events and avoid negative comments. Therefore, it was not used frequently in the data because of the nature of responsibilities in the position of “professor” in university.
“Expressing of surprise” was used at some occasions such as in the event of “family doctor got married” and “getting a new position” to express surprise, and/or that the occasion was not expected. It was used on a few occasions by both male and a female respondents from the four groups. However, Unceta Gómez (2016) found that expressing surprise as a strategy of congratulation was not used by women in Latin.
“Requesting information” was used by both BritE and PESL/E speakers more often than the PESL/M and PESL/L class groups and mostly in the event of “family doctor got married” However, this result was not supported by a number of studies in which it was found that it is one of the most frequently used strategies (Elwood, 2004; Al-Hour, 2019; Dastjerdi & Nasri, 2013; Nasri, Dastjerdy, & Ghadiri, 2013; Mahzari, 2017). Nevertheless, people feel more comfortable asking questions about the personal news of occasions in face-to-face communication.
The second research question of this study asked:
2. How do social distance variable effect the use of congratulation strategies of British English speakers, Pakistani ESL/Elite, PESL/Middle, and PESL/Lower class learners?
Results regarding social distance variables show that the respondents of BritE, PESL/E, PESL/M and PESL/L groups used more strategies of IFID (9.4%, 8.3%, 16% and 17%) when interacting with distant level interlocutors. It can be noticed that both PESL/M and PESL/L class participants used comparatively more IFID strategies than the other two groups while interacting with distant level interlocutors.
Table 4
Congratulation Strategies Distribution interacting with Social Distance
Sr No. | | BritE | PESL/E | PESL/M | PESL/L |
| N | CL | NL | DT | CL | NL | DT | CL | NL | DT | CL | NL | DT |
IFID | N | 5 | 8 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 28 | 6 | 6 | 30 |
| % | 3 | 4.4 | 9.4 | 3.3 | 4 | 8.3 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 16 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 17 |
RFI | N | 17 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 3 | - | - | 7 | 2 | 2 |
| % | 9.4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 2 | - | - | 4 | 1.1 | 1.1 |
OoGW | N | 28 | 9 | 8 | 31 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| % | 16 | 5 | 4.4 | 17.2 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 6 | 1.1 | 2 | 4 |
EOH | N | 12 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 3 |
| % | 7 | 3 | 1.1 | 5 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 6.1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
EOS | N | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| % | 2.2 | .5 | .5 | 2 | 1.1 | .5 | 3 | .5 | .5 | 3 | .5 | .5 |
EOV | N | 6 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 1 | - | 4 | 1 | - |
| % | 3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 3 | 2 | 1.1 | 5 | .5 | - | 2.2 | .5 | - |
EOE | N | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 2 | - | 5 | - | - |
| % | 2.2 | .5 | .5 | 3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 4 | 1.1 | - | 3 | - | - |
SOC | N | 6 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | - | 4 | 5 | - |
| % | 3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 3 | 2 | .5 | 3 | 2.2 | - | 2.2 | 3 | - |
UoE | N | 11 | 1 | - | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| % | 6.1 | .5 | - | 5 | 4.4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6.1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Overlapped | N | 14 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | 8 | 7 | 23 | 9 | 8 |
| N | 7.7 | 1.1 | .5 | 6.6 | 4 | .5 | 14 | 4.4 | 4 | 13 | 5 | 4.4 |
Similarly, as can be noticed in the table 4, the four groups used less congratulations strategies while interacting with close and Neutral level interlocutors. The Request for Information (RFI) strategy was not favoured much by PESL/M class speakers at all. The other three groups (9.4%, 6%, and 4%) were found using some RFI strategies while interacting with close level interlocutors. As regards Offer of Good Wish (OoGW) congratulation strategy is concerned, table 4 shows that BritE (16%) and PESL/E (17.2%) groups used more strategies of OoGw when they were interacting with interlocutors of close social distance. In contrast, both PESL/M and PESL/L class participants did not use these strategies more often as can be seen in the table 4 and Fig. 2. Regarding Expression of Happiness (EOH) congratulations strategies, table 4 shows that BritE (7%), PESL/E (5%), PESL/M (6.1%) and PESL/L (5%) groups used more strategies of EOH for close social distance interlocutors as compared to other two variables (neutral and distant).
Another difference among the four groups can be observed in the use of the Utterance of Encouragement strategies. Both BritE (6.1%) and PESL/E groups used more strategies for close level interlocutors. In contrast, both PESL/M (6.1) and PESL/L (5%) groups were found using UoE strategies more often for distant level interlocutors. Regarding Overlapped Congratulations strategies, the four groups used this strategy with a percentage of (BritE 7.7%), (PESL/E 7%), (PESL/M 14%) and (PESL/L 13%) when interacting with close level interlocutors. Nevertheless, the four groups did not favour the use of EoS, EoV, and SoC congratulation strategies more often, as can be noticed in table 4 and Fig. 2.
Noticeably, social distance is found to have great effect on congratulations strategies behaviors in all four groups. In general, as scholars argue (Avazpour, 2020; Lect & Abdulkhaleq, 2020; Wardat & Alkhateeb, 2020), the greater the social distance between the speaker and the hearer, the more frequently IFID expressions (direct and/or indirect) are employed. More specifically, people almost always utter IFID (directly and/or indirectly) when they are using congratulation strategies for strangers as in the following situation “a passenger is sitting beside you became very excited and happy for being appointed as a surgeon in a government hospital”, and very often, they use “Congratulation/Heartiest congratulations” (BritE) “Bundle of Congratulations” (PESL/E), “Congrats” (PESL/M), and “Congratulations” (PESL/L) in their expressions. With friends, as Avazpour (2020) states that IFID (directly and/or indirectly) is also very frequent but less than with strangers; “Request for Information, and The Offer of Good Wish” expressions are used in some scenarios as in “a friend gets a permanent government job” but these appear to be situation-specific. With intimates, “Expression of Happiness” terms are found in all “intimate interlocutor” situations investigated, and the number of responses with these Expression of Surprise strategies is nearly equal to that of the responses with the Suggestion of Celebration strategies in the events like “a family doctor gets married”. The findings are acknowledged by Wardat and Alkhateeb (2020) who argue that when there is interaction with the distant level interlocutors in congratulation scenarios, more politeness is displayed and there are more chances of using IFID, and the Offer of Good Wish strategies than any other strategies. The findings are also consistent with Lect and Abdulkhaleq (2020) who state that social distance determines the choices of congratulations in different social scenarios. The four groups’ participants, especially PESL/M and PESL/L tend to use more Overlapped Congratulations strategies with the respondents of close level interlocutors and prefer to use less Overlapped Congratulations strategies with neutral and stranger level respondents. In contrast, BritE and PESL/E speakers tend to use less Overlapped Congratulations strategies and prefer to use more Request for Information and Utterance of Encouragment strategies. These findings illustrate that speaker in these situations tend to be quite interactive and prefer to keep harmonious relation with each other by using “Request for information” and “Encouragment” strategies. Saleem et al. (in press) argue that speakers using these strategies show that they wish to be pretty cordial and amiable with their interlocutors (acquitance and stranger level social distance). Here, the evidence of pragmatic transfer is quite clear, as PESL/M respondents and PESL/L class respondents almost tend to use the similar type of congratulations strategies. They are found exactly translating the Urdu expressions into the target culture.
Though this transfer is not negative in nature, PESL/M and PESL/L groups lacked pragmatic competence of the target culture, and could not comprehend the situation as the British English and PESL/E speakers did, and they adhered to their native cultural norms. Further, a positive development can be observed as regards PESL/E learners were concerned, unlike PESL/M and PESL/L groups, PESL/E group used almost the similar congratulation strategies as BritE speakers were found using. Nevertheless, the results are in line with (Al-Shboul & Huwari, 2016; Avazpour, 2020; Elwood, 2004; Al-Hour, 2019; Nasri et al., 2013; Tsoumou, 2020) previous studies who argue that ESL learners are found quite competent in grammatical competence and are less aware of pragmatic competence. At most of the occasion, especially while interacting with the social distance phenomenon, ESL learners prefer to utilize their cultural-specific responses which are inappropriate and can lead to miscommunication or breakdown with the target culture speakers. Nevertheless, the speakers of this study tend to use more IFID strategies with the strangers in events like “a passenger sitting beside you became very excited and happy for being appointed as a surgeon in a government hospital” than the close friends or colleagues and intimate relations. This might be because speakers often tend to look more caring and cordial with the distant interlocutor and use more positive politeness strategies. Furthermore, it is supported by past studies (Al-Qudah, 2001; Bataineh, 2013; Can, 2011; Dastrjerdi, 2013), who found the use of more detailed strategies with interlocutors of distant level and less with close friends and intimates.
Notwithstanding, the findings acknowledged the past studies (Chen, 2020; Dawson, 2020; Ezzaoua, 2020) who argue that the negative pragmatic transfer occurred in the production and comprehension of politeness strategies of advanced ESL learners because it is sometimes challenging to perceive and understand social distance scenarios in the target culture. The findings also illustrate the PESL/E participants’ progress towards approximation and development ofthe target culture’ss sociopragmatic knowledge, recognizing the judgments of earlier studies in which Saleem et al. (2021) and Dawson (2020) claim that ESL assessed the social distance of their interlocutors in the same way as the American native speakers and British English speakers, showing ESL learners’ development towards the target language sociopragmatic knowledge. Although there is found the negative transfer of sociopragmatic knowledge to the target language in a situation “a friend got a job”, yet we can find some development as well. Hence, it may be concluded that unlike PESL/M and PESL/L groups. PESL/E group to some extent approximated the target culture’s sociopragmatic knowledge in their production and perception of social distance variable.