Which one of the following passages can function as the Abstract of a research article?____________
A.A number of studies have demonstrated that there can be important cross-cultural differences in the speech-act performance between two different speech communities, especially in relation to the level of directness of their request realization.Such distinct cross-cultural differences have been found to exist between the Greek and the English interactional styles as well as between the Greek and the English verbal telephone behavior.
B.A total of 200 opening requests were randomly collected from the telephone service encounters produced by callers at the call center of a UK airline: 100 opening requests produced in Greek by GNSs and 100 opening requests produced in English by ENSs.Semi-structured interviews were also carried out in relation to the telephone operators who received the calls.These interviews were conducted in order to gain some qualitative insights into how the callers’ requests and telephone behavior. were perceived by the hearers (operators).Using the analytical framework of face-saving theory, each of the opening requests of the telephone observation data was coded and classified.The results were statistically tested in order to establish whether the differences found were statically significant.
C.This article examines whether there are marked cross-cultural differences in the level of directness of request realization between Greek and British speakers when ringing an airline’s call center.Using the analytical framework of face-saving theory, 200 opening requests were analyzed and statistically tested.Qualitative insights were gained from semi-structured interviews.Significant differences were found in the degree of requestive directness employed by Greek and British speakers in telephone business encounters, with the Greek employing a higher degree of directness.Further research is needed to establish whether such differences exist in socially different contexts and in different role relationships.
D.The present empirical study found significant differences in the degree of requestive directness employed by GNSs and ENSs when ringing an airline’s call center.The GNSs were found to employ a higher degree of directness as far as their opening telephone requests were concerned and this finding can be seen as being consistent with the ethos of directness, spontaneity and positive politeness orientation found to characterize the Greek language and culture.It additionally suggests that there is a need for the Greek callers to formulate their requests in the most explicit and shortest way possible in the business context examined particularly because directness seems to be motivated not only by spontaneity but also by their need for efficiency, urgency and pragmatic clarity.As the requests elicited from this data were exclusively elicited from an airline’s call center, they are context-specific.Further research is therefore needed in order to establish whether such significant differences are present in socially different contexts as well as in different role relationships.