A Study of the Speech Act of Apology Addressed to God ( Repentance') in Persian and Russian

The verbal style of repentance is classified under the speech act of apology. To apologize to the highest authority in the religious hierarchy is called repentance. The purpose of this study is to identify the linguistic tools used to express repentance in both Persian and Russian. In this respect, we have attempted to understand the linguistic similarities and differences in repentance that lead to the diversity of this verbal style in the two languages. The research methodology is based on contrastive linguistics. The result shows that in both verbal environments, speakers use the single pronoun ‘you’ to address God. Moreover, the implication of imperative structure in the formulas of repentance is ‘request’ rather than ‘order’ and it includes begging and pleading with the addressee. In both languages, the singular imperative form is used to express repentance. Examples are Прости! (Forgive me) in Russian language, and dargozar (Forgive me) in Persian language. The characteristic of this verbal style in Persian is that some of these forms have been borrowed from Arabic: astaghfirullah and al’afv. In addition to the singular imperative form in Persian language, such borrowed forms – that are the morphological forms of the verb – as well as the phrasal form xodaya tobe tobe [=God, repentance, repentance] are used to express repentance. None of these grammatical structures are used in Russian language.