Socio-pragmatic aspects of condolence in English and Arabic : a contrastive study

العناوين الأخرى

الجوانب التداولية و الاجتماعية للتعزية في اللغتين الإنكليزية و العربية : دراسة تقابليه

مقدم أطروحة جامعية

al-Dulaymi, Muhammad Abd al-Qadir Ajaj

مشرف أطروحة جامعية

al-Rawi, Sabah Salibi Mustafa

الجامعة

جامعة بغداد

الكلية

كلية الآداب

القسم الأكاديمي

قسم اللغة الإنجليزية

دولة الجامعة

العراق

الدرجة العلمية

دكتوراه

تاريخ الدرجة العلمية

2005

الملخص الإنجليزي

Condolence is the combination of verbal and non-verbal behaviours which help someone to get relief on sad occasions.

The subject is very interesting and important in socio-pragmatics for it is associated with some cultural and religious conventions.

Moreover, it occupies a wide and magnificent position in literary and linguistic studies because it is a very humanitarian and social subject.

The present study deals with the performative function of condolences in English and Arabic.

Discussing the different traditions and rituals which accompany the condolence ceremony in both languages.

It tackles the cultural recognitions which lead to the differences in the process of decoding and encoding condolence in these languages.

In a more comprehensive sense, it concentrates on some cultural nonverbal behaviours which accompany the statement of condolence in English and Arabic like shaking hands, hugging the bereaved, etc.

The study hypothesizes that there are differences in cultural and religious conventions which shape condolence in English and Arabic and that each society supports different means of communication (written or spoken) and this variation corresponds to different social and cultural obligations.

The study was divided into six chapters.

Chapter one is an introductory one which deals with the methodology of the study through giving an overview discussion about the problem, aims, hypotheses, limits , procedures, and value of the study.

Chapter two deals with the theories of pragmatic analysis relevant to the subject under discussion.

It tackles three major theories which are necessary for the explanation of condolences : the cooperative principles of Grice's theory(1975 ), the politeness principles of Brown and Levinson(1978),and the speech act theory of Bach and Harnish(1979).

Chapter three tackles some cultural differences between English and Arab people which are relevant to the offering of condolences.

It pays a very considerable attention to some cultural behaviours and social recognitions which are related to the concepts of funeral, burial , patience and grief.

Chapter four discusses condolence in English through giving the common procedures of writing condolences.

It also explicates the reasons behind adopting written over spoken forms of condolence.

Chapter five concentrates on the interpretation of some Arabic condolences as used in written and spoken media of communication.

It gives a comprehensive explanation of both prosaic and poetic condolences in terms of socio-pragmatic theories.

These condolences are chosen on the basis of their common use by native speakers of the language.

Chapter six presents a contrastive analysis of the conclusions of the study in terms of the data analysis.

It illustrates the differences in cultural conceptions and linguistic interpretations of English and Arabic condolences according to the three theories mentioned above.

The major conclusions arrived at in this study can be summed up as follows; (1) The condolence ceremony is mostly served by official institutions in the West while in Arabic it is served by close relatives, (2) English people are less obliged to perform condolence than Arabs because for the latter there are religious thoughts which order them to make consolation,(3) English people usually remind the bereaved of his loss after a long time as this stems from a social habit known as memorial services.

Arabs do not have such a thing in their culture because this act may regenerate the grief of the bereaved , (4) The content of condolence varies in these cultures; English people make use of some religious thoughts in Christianity like talking about Jesus’ sacrifice while Arabs usuall talk about the death of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) (henceforth: PBUH) in their condolences, (5) English people depend on emotional statements in their condolences while Arabs depend on religious sources, (6) English people highly depend on written forms in consolation like written messages and sympathy cards while Arabs make use of spoken forms of consolation.

التخصصات الرئيسية

اللغات والآداب المقارنة

عدد الصفحات

219

قائمة المحتويات

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

لغة النص

الإنجليزية

نوع البيانات

رسائل جامعية

رقم السجل

BIM-755510