Speech Acts of Genuine Invitations in Iraqi Arabic: A Socio-Pragmatic Study

الملخص

     This study tries to investigate the speech acts of genuine invitations that Iraqi speakers are characterized with. The study will examine the linguistic and social context on which a genuine invitations are appeared.  Personal observation way by a researcher is used to collect the data which is regarded as a short social daily live conversation. Speech acts theory developed by Searle’s thoughts is adopted to analyze the selected data. Felicity conditions, as rules developed by Searle, are used to show a speaker observance of these conditions as a proof to show the sincerity of Iraqi genuine invitations. The study concluded that an Iraqi speakers use declarative and interrogative sentences to perform indirect illocutionary acts of genuine invitations. The study also found out that the invitations of Iraqi speakers were shown genuine (sincere) through the

observing of felicity conditions proposed by Searle.

Key words: invitation, genuine, speech acts, felicity conditions