A Pragmatic Analysis of Ostensible Invitations among Moroccan Arabic Speakers

Abstract

Unlike genuine invitations, which are extended with a sincere intent to get the invitee to attend or participate in a specific event, ostensible invitations are insincere invitations that the speaker extends not to be taken seriously. Such invitations are characterized by a number of properties that set them apart from genuine ones, allowing the interlocutor to recognize their insincerity. The present paper aims to determine the functions of ostensible invitations in the Moroccan context, examine if Moroccan Arabic speakers use the same strategies suggested by Clark and Isaacs (1990) for extending ostensible invitations and assess whether the ostensible invitations extended by Moroccan Arabic speakers draw on the properties proposed by Clark and Isaacs (1990). To this end, data for the current study were collected from 30 Moroccan Arabic speakers residing in Meknes city, comprising 18 females and 12 males, who have managed to participate in semi-structured interviews. Phenomenological and descriptive designs were used for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The collected data were analyzed on the basis of Clark and Isaacs’ (1990) model. Accordingly, the present study came up with three primary conclusions. First, Moroccan Arabic speakers use ostensible invitations mainly to show politeness and maintain social ties. Second, invitations in the Moroccan context align with the five properties of ostensible speech acts suggested by Clark and Isaacs’ (1990) model. Last but not least, Moroccan Arabic speakers draw on the same strategies of ostensible invitations proposed by Clark and Isaacs (1990).