Sahragard, Rahman (2004). A cultural script analysis of a politeness feature in Persian. In Kyung-Ja Park & Michiko Nakano (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics (pp. 399-423). Tokyo: PAAL Japan. PDF (open access)
Many writers have identified the Iranian system of politeness with a complex concept called تعارف ta’arof. In fact, any description or analysis of the Iranian politeness system without reference to this concept will be deficient and incomplete. This study takes a cultural script approach to describe the Persian concept of تعارف ta’arof. As far as is known, this is the first attempt at analysing and accounting for a Persian concept using this approach.
This study demonstrates that تعارف ta’arof is a part of the culture of being polite in Persian (ادب adab). It is manifested in both verbal and non-verbal communication. The language and the strategies involved are controlled by تواضع tavaazo (humility), urging individuals to lower themselves in self-references and raise others instead. Power, distance, social class, and age are very important in its use. The direction of the frequency of use is from the lower to the upper for all of the above variables. This points to the fact that Persian culture places great emphasis on having احترام ehteraam (respect) for superiors. Having restraint and limiting one’s wants and wishes in front of others is another aspect of تعارف ta’arof usually referred to as رودربایستی rudarbaayesti. تعارف ta’arof is also shown in receiving guests warmly by being polite and respectful and serving them with the best possible refreshments (مهمان-نوازی mehmaan-navaazi). Thus, تعارف ta’arof can be seen as the manifestation of ادب adab, احترام ehteraam, تواضع tavaazo, رودربایستی rudarbaayesti, and مهمان-نوازی mehmaan-navaazi.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
