Circumlocution in Iraqi EFL learners’ written contexts

Abstract EN

The study deals with circumlocution as a used speech- figure by Babylon and Al- Qadisiya EFL university learners, at the third stage, in written contexts.

It aims at finding the reasons behind their use of circumlocution, finding out which learners of these two universities utilize circumlocution more, pinpointing the most frequently utilized type of it and finding out which one(s) of Griceon- maxims is(are) violated when circumlocution is present.

Hence, it is hypothesized that Babylon and Al- Qadisiya learners make use of circumlocution to overcome the gaps found when writing, Al- Qadisiya learners use more circumlocution than Babylon ones, complex over simple circumlocution is the most used type of circumlocution and the quantity and manner maxims are violated when using circumlocution.

To achieve the study- aims, a literature review about circumlocution would be presented.

Also, the study follows the literature review as a model with Grice‟s (1989) Studies in the Way of Words whereby circumlocution is analysed pragmatically.

At the end, the conclusions verify the hypotheses.