Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews eISSN: 2395-6518, Vol 9, No 3, 2021, pp 1514-1520 https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2021.93152 1514|https://giapjournals.com/hssr/index © Saeed et al. THE GENDER-BASED DIFFERENCE IN THE USE OF SPEECH ACTS OF REFUSAL: A STUDY OF THE KHOWAR LANGUAGE Abdul Saeed 1* , Shahzad Karim 2 , Sajid Hussain 3 , Zakir Hussain 4 1* Assistant Professor of English, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration University, Pakistan; 2 Assistant Professor of English, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan; 3 Assistant Professor of English, Karakoram International University Gilgit, Pakistan; 4 M.A. English Linguistics, Karakoram International University Gilgit, Pakistan. Email: 1* saeedabdulskr@gmail.com, 2 shahzadaps@gmail.com, 3 sajid.turi@kiu.edu.pk, 4 zakirhussainshah902@gmail.com Article History: Received on 18 th June 2021, Revised on 27 th June 2021, Published on 30 th June 2021 Abstract Purpose of the study: Language, culture, and gender affect the ways one refuses an offer, suggestion, request, or invitation. Moreover, what we say and how we say may change the contextual meaning. Therefore, a study was conducted to examine the use of speech acts of refusal by the Khowar language speakers to know whether there is any gender difference. Methodology: The undergraduate level students, aging between 15 and 25, participated in the study. An open-ended questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire contained four hypothetical situations and each situation required the use of speech acts of refusal by the participants. A refusal classification format devised by Beebe (1990) was used to analyse the data. Main Findings: The findings showed that both males and females used almost similar refusal strategies in all four situations. Direct and indirect refusal speech acts with pre-and post-refusal strategies were used in nearly the same quantity. The study also revealed that language, culture, and social status did not play an important role in realising refusal strategies. Application of the study: The study will help linguists, language teachers, and anthropologists to understand the nature of male and female Khowar language speakers. It will also add valuable literature on the use of language and gender differences. The originality of the study: The study is significant being the first of its kind that addressed the gender difference and language use in Khowar language speakers. The study is also vital as it will preserve a minor language spoken in one of the remotest areas of Pakistan. Keywords: Speech Acts of Refusal, Pragmatics, Gender, Language Preservation, Direct and Indirect Speech Acts, Discourse Analysis. INTRODUCTION The distinction between ‘sentence meaning’ (the literal meaning of a sentence) and ‘intended meaning’ makes the modern linguists think that ‘what is said is not enough to comprehend a message completely unless the aspect of ‘how it is said’ is also focused. The explanation for this is that words do not appear on their own; rather, they are combined with other linguistic features (such as tone, pitch, and stress), which make communication effective. This realization bifurcated grammatical competence (sentence meaning) from pragmatic competence (intended meaning). This is why during the last few decades, linguists have shifted their direction of research from grammatical theories of language learning to communicative learning studies (Al-Zumor, 2003 ). Major progress in this regard was made by Austin (1975) , who propounded speech act theory. According to speech act theory, language is not just a tool to share information; instead, we perform many actions in our daily life through language/utterances. For example, we make promises and requests and refuse suggestions. Among these verbal actions, the speech act of refusal is deemed especially important as it involves the risk of face-threatening. The users of different languages practice different refusal strategies in line with their socio-linguistic norms to mitigate the face-threatening effect of refusals. The difference in the use of refusal strategies is found in both inter and intra socio-linguistic contexts. For example, the difference in the use of refusal strategies may occur because of some other factors, such as age, relationship, and gender. Eckert (2019) indicates that due to the difference in nature (as women are more other-oriented and collaborative than men), women are more likely to use polite words than men. Baker (2013) asserts that women are shy and polite in speaking, whereas men are authoritative and power-seeker. Baker (2013) further says that, in general, the word ‘women’ is not considered as mature as the word ‘men’. In the literature, we find many studies such as Giyoto et al. (2020) and Ang (2003); that have investigated the use of speech acts of refusal by different genders in different languages. However, we (the researchers) did not find even a single study that has investigated the gender-based difference in the use of speech acts of refusal in the Khowar language. Khowar is a language that is widely spoken in the northern mountainous region of Pakistan which includes the districts of Gilgit, Ghizer, and Chitral (more information about the Khowar language is given in the literature review section). Therefore, the present study was conducted to explore the