External supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic as used by female speakers in the same gender and cross gender

This study investigates the types and frequency of supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic as used by female speakers in the same gender and cross gender. The respondents of the study were 336 undergraduate students from Sana’a University, aged 20-23. All of the participants are relatively homogeneous in terms of their cultural background. The data were collected by using Discourse Completion Test (DCT).The analysis of the data is based on Blum-Kulka et al’s (1989) CCSARP (Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project) coding scheme. The results showed that Yemeni females showed greater use of external supportive moves when interacting with females more than to males. Regarding the use of external supportive moves according to direct head act of requests and indirect head of requests, in general, female respondents in F-F, F-M interactions have a great tendency to employ external supportive moves with direct and indirect head act of requests. In other words, it was observed that female respondents convey polite request by using external supportive moves regardless of directness or indirectness.

used by the Greek learners present some deviations from native speakers' use. These deviations can be seen as being due to native influence and therefore to pragma-linguistic and sociopragmatic transfer, as well as to the different perception of politeness by the two language/cultural groups. Therefore, the current study is an attempt in this direction to examine this important aspect of their communicative competence in Yemeni Arabic through request as an important type of speech acts. The current study differs from previous studies because it investigates the kind of supportive moves and their roles in making polite request in Yemeni Arabic in the same gender and cross gender.

The Speech Act of Request in Arabic
According to Haron (2001) aŧalab (directive) falls under what is called alinʃaʔ 'initiating', as opposed to alχabar 'reporting'. alinʃaʔ cannot be described as true or false, while alχabar can be described as true or false depending on whether it agrees or disagrees with the reality of the world. aŧalab (directive) in Arabic has two types (1) al-amr that requires the addressee to do something. (2) al-nahiy that requires the addressee not to do something. aŧalab in Arabic is used to issue a command by someone of higher status to someone of lower status. For example, (1) ʔuktub darsak.
(2) la tuχa:lif wa:lidayka (al-nahiy) Don't disobey your parents In the example (1), it is clear that the speaker used al-amr (command) and it can be observed that al-amr (command) in Arabic used by someone of higher status to someone of lower status. In the example (2) it can be noted that the speaker use al-nahiy to make a command by asking someone not to do something. To make al-nahiy in Arabic, the speakers have to add the particle la (no) before the verb to change the verb to jussive.
However, meaning of directive in Arabic may change when the context change as will be seen in the following most common cases: A. Praying: a speaker of lower status addressing a person of higher status implies such a meaning.
(3) ja:rab sa:miħni Oh Allah, forgive me. B. Requesting: the directive is used here between equals. A friend is asking his friend to wait for him.
(4) la:taχruʤ min albait ħata ʔaʕu:d Don't leave home until I come back. C. Expressing a wish: here, the speaker expresses a wish for something hard to get, someone who has got tired of his life.
(5) ja:mautu: ʔqdim ʔinna l-hayata ðami:matun Oh death, come, life is unbearable. D. Advising: here, the addressee is not under any obligation to follow the directive. A father is giving advice to his son.
It can be observed from the examples above that Arabic makes use of the context to derive the meaning of the directive. In other words, in Arabic the kind of the topic and the status of the relationship between the speaker and the addressee determine the meaning of the directive.

Gender
Gender and speech behaviour are seen as interrelated variables. As a result, sociolinguistic research has been conducted on gender differences in speech act and politeness. However, empirical findings seem to suggest that gender differences do exist in politeness; women are considered more polite, less critical, and prone to using more softening devices than men (Lakoff, 1975;Tannen, 1990;Boxer, 1993;Holmes, 1995). Scollon and Scollon (1995) state that women use indirect strategies to communication, and men use direct style to communication. This observation is confirmed by Holmes (1995:2) who says that women generally more polite than men. She points out that "Most women enjoy talk and regard talking as an important means of keeping in touch, especially with friends and intimates. They use language to establish, nurture and develop the personal relationships. Men tend to see language more as a tool for obtaining and conveying information." Many researchers have reported that women are using politeness strategies in their speech more than men and women are more likely to apologize soften criticism or express thanks more than men (Holmes, 1998;Herbert, 1990;Pilkington, 1998;Tannen, 1994). According to the above discussion, it can be concluded that men and women use language differently and these differences can be observed in politeness.

Respondents
The respondents of the study consisted of 336 undergraduate students (male and female respondents) from Sana'a University. All of the respondents were native speakers of Yemeni Arabic, aged 20-23. They were relatively homogeneous in terms of their cultural background.

Procedures
The respondents were asked to fill out a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The DCT was written in Arabic language in order to obtain responses in Arabic. The DCT involves twelve written conversations that denote twelve different situations. In each situation, there is a brief description. The DCT was distributed to the respondents to complete each dialogue by writing a suitable request in Yemeni Arabic in Female-Female and Female-Male Interaction across twelve situations.

Data Analysis
The coding scheme applied in the current study was mainly based on the coding manual developed by Blum-Kulka et al., (1989) in the Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP). They were coded depending on the following types of supportive moves: As shown in Table 2, the findings indicate that the female respondents employed external supportive moves with direct and indirect strategies in order to mitigate their requests with different frequencies and percentages. Furthermore, the Chi-square test was conducted to investigate the differences or similarities in the use of external supportive moves in F-F and F-M interactions with regard to direct head act of requests and indirect head acts of requests. The results of the Chi-square test indicates that there is no significant difference in the use of external supportive moves in F-F and F-M interactions in situations 1, 2, 3 and 4. The p value in situations 1, 2, 3 and 4 in F-F interactions is 0.932, 0.953, 0.999 and 0.990, p<0.05, respectively. Furthermore, the p value in situation 1, 2, 3 and 4 in F-M interactions is 0.988, 0.838, 0.997 and 0.992, p <0.05, respectively.
Referring to the use of external supportive moves, it can be observed that the female respondents have a great preference to employ various external supportive moves in F-F and F-M interactions. The female respondents consider the external supportive moves important parts in making requests and polite markers that help to mitigate and soften their requests.
Regarding direct head act of requests and indirect head of requests, the female respondents in F-F and F-M interactions have a great tendency to employ external supportive moves with direct and indirect head act of requests. It can be noted from Table 3 that the use of external supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic with direct and indirect head act of requests is obligatory to mitigate and soften the request and to make it polite and tactful request. Table 2 shows that the female respondents seem to be aware of that the degree of politeness does not affected by directness or indirectness. They are aware that the degree of politeness is affected by the external supportive moves. They consider the head act of requests that proceeds or follows by external supportive moves as polite request. Therefore, they consider as obligatory element in making polite requests in Yemeni Arabic. Furthermore, the Chi-square test was conducted to examine whether F-F and F-M interactions differ in their use of external supportive moves according to directness and indirectness in situations 5, 6, 7 and 8. As shown in Table 3, the results indicate that there is no significant difference in the use of external supportive moves in F-F and F-M interactions according to the degree of directness or indirectness. The p value in situations 5, 6, 7 and 8 in F-F interactions is 0.785, 0.984, 0.974 and 0.979, p<0.05, respectively. Furthermore, the p value in situation 5, 6, 7 and 8 in F-M interactions is 0.940, 0.991, 0.995 and 0.703, p <0.05, respectively.
With regard to the use of external supportive moves, the findings show that the female respondents in Yemeni Arabic used various external supportive moves to mitigate and soften the harshness of requests and make it polite. The external supportive moves are employed by the female respondents to show their requests as polite request. It seems that the external supportive moves are very important in Yemeni Arabic and it is consider as the source of politeness in request in Yemeni culture. It seems that the use of supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic with direct and indirect head act of requests is compulsory.  The analysis was also carried for situations 9, 10, 11 and 12 to examine if the F-F and F-M interactions differ in the use of external supportive moves according to direct head act of requests or indirect head act of requests. As shown in Table 4, the findings of the Chi-square tests indicate that there is no significant difference in the use of external supportive moves in F-F and F-M interactions according to directness or indirectness. The p value in situations 9, 10, 11 and 12 in F-F interactions is 0.948, 1.000, 0.932 and 0.986, p<0.05, respectively. Furthermore, the p value in situation 9, 10, 11 and 12 in F-M interactions is 0.981, 0.982, 0.826 and 0.926, p <0.05, respectively.
From the Table 4 it should be noted that the female respondents in F-F and F-M interactions tend to use the external supportive moves to mitigate and soften their requests. It seems that the degree of politeness is reflected in the use of the external supportive moves instead of direct strategies or indirect strategies. It is interesting to observe that the male respondents in F-F and F-M interactions convey the polite request by using the external supportive moves regardless of directness or indirectness. It seems that the use of external supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic with direct and indirect head act of requests is very important to convey polite request. Supportive moves S9 S10 S11 S12

Types of External Supportive Moves Used in F-F and F-M Interactions
The external supportive moves were used in F-F and F-M interactions as mitigators for requests in Yemeni Arabic. The most frequent external supportive moves found in the data in F-F and F-M interactions are as follows: (refer to Table 5).

Preparator
Preparator is a kind of external supportive move that is used to introduce the request to prepare the hearer for an upcoming request and draw the hearer's attention. The data of the current study identifies different external supportive moves of preparators, which often occur at the beginning of request. An external supportive move of preparators is the first preferred utterance among the respondents in female-female interactions and female-male interactions. It occurs across the twelve situations with different frequencies. From the examples above, respondents use external supportive moves in order to prepare the hearer for the ensuing request. The speaker usually announces that he/she will make a request either by means of checking the hearer availability for carrying out the request or by asking the hearer permission to make the request. It also can be found that the head acts are modified by external supportive moves. For example, 'Law samaħti' (excuse me) for male in (11), 'ʔiða takarramt' (please) for male in (12), 'ʔiða takaramti' (please) for female in (13) and 'ʔiða ma:fi: ʔizʕʤ' (If there is no bother) for male or female in (14). External supportive moves, which mentioned above are in excess of the politic behaviour that can be expected during the interaction, and can thus be open to a polite interpretation. The respondents also used religious plea as external supportive moves to mitigate and soften the upcoming requests such as 'aallah jʊba:rik fi:k' (Allah blesses you) for male in (15) and 'allah jaħfðak' (Allah preserves you) in (16).

Grounders
Grounder is another example of external supportive moves. It can be observed from As shown in the examples above, external supportive moves used by the respondents with head acts to prepare the hearer for request and prepare the addressee for what could be as a favour. They are devices used at the beginning of the head act to help the speaker feel that he/she has a safer ground for uttering his/her request. For example, all requests, which mentioned in the examples above, can be interpreted as face threatening acts (FTA). Therefore, the speakers use the external supportive moves in excess of the required politic behaviour of the interaction and are open to an interpretation as polite utterances that help to protect the speakers' faces and hearers' faces, such as 'mʊmkin ʔŧlʊb manic χidmah' (can I ask your help) for female in (20), 'ʔiða ma:fi: ʔizʕʤ mʊmkin χidmah' (If there is no bother can you help me) for male or female in (21) 'baammkanak tsaʕdni' (can you able to help me) in (22).

Apology
Apology is another type of external supportive moves. External supportive move of apology is the fourth preferred utterance among the respondents in F-F interactions and F-M interactions. It occurs across the twelve situations with different frequencies. The overall use of external supportive move of apology across twelve situations in F-F interactions is (9% [n= 195]), whereas, the overall use of external supportive move of apology across twelve situations in F-M interactions is (10% [n= 206]). The function of apology is to minimize and mitigate the impact of request and to attract the hearer's attention. It also helps the requester to save his face and the addressee's face. As can be seen from the examples above, the respondents use external supportive moves devices, which disarm hearers from the possibility of refusal. In other words, the respondents try to remove any potential objections the hearer might raise upon being confronted with the request. External supportive moves of disarmers may include clauses that express speaker's awareness that the request deemed as an imposition on the hearer. They are considered as part of politic behaviour, which classify as polite and appropriate utterances that save the speakers' faces and hearers' faces. The respondents use these disarmers as mitigators and tactful strategy to remove potential objection of refusing the request, such as 'ʔiða ma:fi: ʔizʕʤ' (If there is no bother) for male or female in (27), 'ʔana dari ʔnish maʃʁu:lah' (I know you are very busy),for female in (28)  From the examples above, the respondents use the external supportive moves as an attempt to reduce the negative effects of imposition. It also make request smooth and acceptable, and to convince the hearer to accept the requests by making it very smooth request such as 'almakan qarib' (the place is not far) in (30), and 'χams daqa'aq bass' (just five minutes) in (31). Thus, 'almakan qarib' (the place is not far) in (30), and 'χams daqa'aq bass' (just five minutes) in (31) are aimed to support the hearers' faces. They are considered as a part of politic behaviour and they are a form of politeness payment for the negative impact of the request.

Gratitude
Gratitude is another type of external supportive moves. It is the least preferred utterances among the respondents in F-F interactions and F-M interactions. It occurs across eleven situations with low frequencies. From the examples above, it can be observed that external supportive move of gratitude is used as a part of the required politic behaviour to mitigate and soften the request by weakens the negative effect of the requests head act. Gratitude were used with head acts such as 'wmaʃku:ri:n ʕala χadamatakʊm' ( and thank you for your service) in (32) and 'maʕa ħtrami lakʊm' (with my respect) in (33). The use of external supportive moves of gratitude show solidarity between the interlocutors and decrease the negative effects of requests.

Conclusion
As illustrated in Table 5 that female respondents generally showed greater use of external supportive moves to mitigate their requests. Seven external supportive moves were identified in the data of the present study in F-F, F-M interactions. However, in the F-F interactions, the number of external supportive moves that identified in the data was 2016. However, in F-M interactions the number of external supportive moves was 2008. The findings showed that Yemeni females showed greater use of external supportive moves when interacting with females more than to males. Regarding the use of external supportive moves according to direct head act of requests and indirect head of requests, in general, female respondents in F-F, F-M interactions have a great tendency to employ external supportive moves with direct and indirect head act of requests. It seems that the use of external supportive moves in Yemeni Arabic with indirect head act of requests is obligatory to mitigate and soften requests and make it polite request. In other words, it is interesting to observe that female respondents convey polite request by using external supportive moves regardless of directness or indirectness. S9 S10 S11 S12 Total