Deconstructing verbal and nonverbal accommodation in Arabic cross-dialectal communication

Abstract

Aims and objectives: This study examines language accommodation in cross-dialectal encounters. It demonstrates how speakers of different Arabic varieties use (non)accommodation strategies that include both verbal and embodied actions. Approach: The study uses qualitative data from Arabic cross-dialectal communication. In the course of their interactions, participants draw on linguistic and nonlinguistic resources to achieve either convergent or divergent accommodation. Using the theoretical frameworks of discourse analysis (DA) and communication accommodation theory (CAT), the study investigates natural conversations for insight into qualities of Arabic cross-dialectal communication. Data and analysis: The data were collected in the United States. In this study, the participants originate from four major geographical areas in the Arab world, including the Maghreb, Egypt and Sudan, the Levant, and the Gulf. Findings/conclusions: The analysis demonstrates that successful accommodation requires a verbal and nonverbal collaborative construction of meaning to achieve co-participation. Participants linguistically converge while they display a shared Arab identity. The data also show that when a sense of shared Arabness is deemphasized and the positive social image to a group’s variety is violated, divergence as a nonaccommodative strategy is used. Originality: This is the first study that demonstrates how different modes of accommodation are expressed, not only through speech but also through embodied actions. The study shows that accommodation as a process is not complete at the verbal level; it must be orchestrated at multiple semiotic levels, including nonverbal ones. Significance/implications: Scholars have paid less attention to nonverbal accommodation. This study seeks to bridge this gap by analyzing both verbal and nonverbal accommodation, whether convergent or divergent, in Arabic cross-dialectal communication. It shows how speakers of different dialects use accommodation to signal intergroup relations and negotiate different social identities.