A Comparative Study of Speech Acts used in the Lullabies of Two Persian and English Verbal Cultures

The present study has aimed at comparing different types of speech acts in Persian and English verbal cultures. The results obtained by comparing data revealed different speech acts were present in lullabies of both languages with the frequency sequence of directive (explicit and implicit), expressive, representative, commissive, and declarative types. In both languages, expressive acts are stated in different forms of praises, wishes, prayers, fears, and threats. In Persian language, however, comparison between child and different flowers in the form of simile is very common. Likewise, the elements of fear and threat have had more expansion and variety in Persian lullabies. Being worried over the husband’s remarriage is the characteristics of Iranian women in the past. Moreover, English lullabies were found to be void of the element of mother’s tiredness. Expressing belief attachments and social concerns in the form of representative speech acts were also common in lullabies of both Persian and English verbal cultures. Commitment to fulfill promises made to the child, as well as expressing conditions that the child is forced to accept, namely commissive and declarative acts were also found in both languages, especially in Persian.