Interrogative Sentences as Indirect Speech Acts in Arabic and English: A Contrastive Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31150/ajshr.v5i1.2656Keywords:
interrogative sentences, indirect speech acts, similar, different, pragmatic functionsAbstract
This study endeavours to provide a contrastive analysis of English and Arabic regarding the use of interrogative sentences as indirect speech acts. It is concerned with offering an account of how similar and different Arabic and English interrogative sentences are with respect to their use as indirect speech acts. Furthermore, this study aims at finding out the extent to which Arabic and English interrogative sentences are used in pragmatics to indicate indirectness.
In this respect, it is hypothesized that both Arabic and English languages indirectly make use of interrogatives to carry out a variety of pragmatic functions. It is also hypothesized that different and various types of interrogative sentences in both English as well as Arabic express different instead of identical speech acts.
Thus, a contrastive analysis of representative examples from both languages has been conducted with a demonstrably successful application of Speech Act Theory as a model of analysis. The study has proved its hypotheses and has shown noticeable differences and similarities between English and Arabic interrogative sentences with respect to the indirect speech acts and functions performed.
References
The Holy Quran.
Al-Hashimi, M. (1999). Jawāhir al-Balāghah fi al-Ma ‘ānī wa al-Bayān wa al-Badī ‘[The Jewels of Rhetoric in the Science of the Meanings, Eloquence and Rhetorical Figures]. Beirut, Lebanon: al-Maktabah al-‘Aṣrīyah.
Ali, A. Y. (trans.). (1987). Roman Translation of the Holy Qur'an. Dutsekano: Alh.Sani Muhammad Danjiri.
Al-Jarim, Ali and Amin, Mustafa. (n.d.). Albalagha Alwadhiha: Albayan, Almaany, Albadia [The clear rhetoric: clarity, the meanings wonders]. London: Dar al-Ma'arif.
Al Samara’ee, F. S. (1990). Ma’ani Al-Nahu, Vol.4, Baghdad: Dar Al Hikma Press for Printing and Publishing.
Austin, J. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Aziz, Yowell (1989) A Contrastive Grammar of English and Arabic. Mosul: University of Mosul.
Downing, A., & Locke, P. (2006). English grammar: A university course. Routledge.
Eastwood, John. (1994). Oxford Guide of English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fayad, Suleiman. (1995). An-nahw Al-Asri [Modern Grammar]. Cairo: Al-Ahram Center.
Grundy, P. (2008). Doing Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huang, Y. (2007). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leech, Geoffrey (2006). A Glossary of English Grammar. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Levinson, S. (1997). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Omar, Ahmed Al-Mukhtar, Zahran Mustafa Al-Nahhas, Abdel-Latif, Mohamed Hamasa. (1994). An-nahw Al-Asasi [Basic Syntax]. Kuwait: That Al-Salasil.
Searle, John R. (1975). A Taxonomy of Speech Acts. In Gunderson, K. (ed.) Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science 9: language, mind and knowledge. 344–69.
Searle, John R. (1979). Expression and meaning: studies in the theory of speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stubbs, M. (1983). Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Thomas, J. A. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. New York: Routledge.
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
