The Closing Sequences and Ritual Expressions of Informal Mobile Phone Calls Between Saudis: A Conversational Analysis

Abstract

Although much work has been conducted on studying conversational openings of telephone and ritual expressions, conversational closings and ritual expressions have received less attention by researchers due to the complexity and difficulty of identifying the beginning of closings in telephone conversations. The parts of closing and ritual expressions on telephone have been examined in some languages, but Arabic has not been studied in landline telephone or mobile phone. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the sequences and ritual expressions between Saudi friends and relatives to explore the strategies of closing informal mobile phone calls by using a conversation analysis approach. Thirty audio-recorded and transcribed mobile phone conversations served as the data source for this study. The results found that the majority of mobile phone closing conversations include three parts: pre-closing, leave taking, and terminal exchange that are similar to many languages such as English, Japanese, and German. Also, various expressions were used in pre-closing and leave taking sequences, but the expressions of using prayers were used more frequently in the sequences. Finally, closing conversation is affected by various external and internal social factors in the sequences and the use of ritual expressions.