Abstract

The present study explores the nature of invitation making and acceptance in Jordanian society from a pragmatic point of view. It attempts to systemize the various strategies used for the purpose of inviting in Jordanian society; and to highlight the socio-pragmatic constraints governing their use. Three major aspects of inviting were examined: inviting, accepting an invitation and declining it. The sample is composed of 120 informants. The data was studied and analyzed following Austin (1962), Searle (1967, 1976) concepts on speech act theory, and Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) notion of politeness and face threatening acts. The study has shown that the process is patterned, functional and rule-governed. Furthermore, it shows that social distance in relation to sex and age of the individual speaker is important factor in determining the type of strategies used for inviting, accepting an invitation or refusing it. It has also been argued that Jordanian Arabic has a special patterning of inviting that can be understood and appreciated only by people sharing the same socio-cultural background. The results of the study have implications for intercultural communication, and applied linguistics as well as for a possible theory of foreign/second language teaching.