Maulana Tariq Jameel’s supplication for safety against COVID-19: A Pragmatic analysis

Supplication, the symbol of man's humility, is at the core of all religions, with Allah regarded as the Supreme Being who listens to people's prayers and rewards them accordingly, regardless of religion. The purpose of this qualitative research is to look into the unique service provided by Maulana Tariq Jameel to God for protection from COVID-19, which is currently wreaking havoc on people's lives. On April 21, 2020, the program was broadcast live on the ARY News Channel's Shab-e- Meeraj programme, hosted by Waseem Badami, and was available to watch online. Devout Muslims from all over the world gathered for a specially organised 'Dua' to demonstrate their heartfelt humility and unwavering faith in Allah, who they believe will alleviate their deathly affliction as a result of their prayers. The video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSRuAo14NEI provided the data. The data was assessed using Aristotle's three modes of persuasion. The researchers paid close attention to the supplication during the study and coded the most relevant phrases before translating them from Urdu to English and analysed them from a pragmatic standpoint. The discussion section included references to prayers from a variety of religious traditions from various countries to integrate the study's findings. The study's findings show that when individuals, societies, or nations of any faith face a major calamity, they are more likely to be prone to Allah for protection than to other sources of protectionKeywords: Du’a, Persuasion, Religion, Staunch Faith, The sovereignty of Allah

A Pragmatic Analysis of Illocutionary Act in a Selected Presidential Speech on COVID-19

This paper aims at studying the illocutionary speech acts: direct and indirect to show the most dominant ones in a presidential speech delivered by the USA president. The speech is about the most critical health issue in the world, COVID-19 outbreak. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted by observing the first speech delivered by president Trump concerning coronavirus outbreak and surveying the illocutionary acts: directive, declarative, commissive, expressive, and representative. Searle's (1985) classification of illocutionary speech acts is adopted in the analysis. What are the main types of the illocutionary speech acts performed by Trump in his speech?; Why does Trump perform illocutionary acts?; and What is the purpose behind using the most dominant acts? The study is of significant value as it displays how the USA's leader addresses his people linguistically using the illocutionary acts. It helps to understand how language is used to deal with certain actions and how it affects the hearers’ viewpoints. The study concludes that two types of illocutionary acts show a significant frequency of occurrence: representatives and declarative. Such result appears due to the purpose behind the discourse under analysis. The other three types of illocutionary acts are of very low frequency. The purpose of the speech and the identity of the figure who delivers it significantly influence the choice of the illocutionary acts. Since the figure who delivers the speech is the president, he has the authority to declare the issue, give instructions concerning the actions that will be taken in the light of this issue and clarify the situation.

Tag Questions in English Spoken Discourse: Corpus-Based Linguistic and Pragmatic Analysis

Based on an integrative methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative methods of linguistic research, the authors consider grammatical forms, syntactic types and pragmatic functions of the tag question in British spoken discourse. The research material included samples of dialogues with tag questions taken from British contemporary fiction and the Spoken BNC2014. Drawing on the theory of linguistic metarepresentation and using corpus analysis tools the authors presented the model under study in structural-syntactic and functional-pragmatic perspectives and obtained reliable data on discourse realization of tag question models, specified their standard and common usage polarity status, distinguished bi- and monopolarity variations. An analysis of the tag question types that are distinguished as the combinations of the predicative and auxiliary parts shows that the most frequent type of tag question is the one formed with an affirmative predicative part and a negative tag. The corpus-based approach allowed obtaining quantitative data on frequencies of tag questions in British spoken discourse, retrieving the repertoire of tag questions with their grammatical representation. It is shown that in the corpus under study the most frequent form of the tag question is the form isn't it?. The least frequent forms of tag questions are the ones formed with the have verb, as well as the modal verbs will, may, can, which supports the thesis that tag questions are losing ground in British spoken discourse. Discourse-pragmatic analysis of utterance contexts with tag questions highlighted its discourse value in the British tradition of conversation, as they perform the following communicative functions: informational; etiquette; interpersonal-relation-corrective (focus-positive or focus-negative).

A pragmatic analysis of humour strategies and functions in 'Jenifa's Diary' and 'Professor JohnBull'

Studies on humour in Nigeria have been extensively carried out from the perspectives of stand-up comedy and computer-mediated communication. There is a dearth of scholarly enquiries on humour in situation comedies (sitcoms). This paper investigates humour in the interactions of characters in Jenifa’s Diary and Professor JohnBull, with a view to accounting for the manifestations of humour, the humour strategies deployed and the functions that the humorous utterances serve in the sitcoms. The work is situated in Culpeper’s Impoliteness Theory. Eight excerpts from the sitcoms were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Two discourse functions of amusing and castigating are discovered in the data. The former serves the function of facilitating discourse and changing presumed power and status, while the latter serves the function of maintaining one’s own space and autonomy, and demanding respect. Allusion, parody, retort, tease, banter and putdown are the humour techniques employed in the sitcoms. The study corroborates the claim of earlier studies that humour in every sphere of language use serves certain functions beyond the interactional need to create amusement.

Principal stages of speech pragmasemantic sense formation and methods of its analysis

The article is devoted to peculiarities and differences of two linguistic fields semantics and pragmatics. The objective of the work is to state the extent of participation of semantic and pragmatic parameters in the process of sense formation. The relevance of the study is beyond doubt, since the pragmasemantic analysis of discourse functional space helps to identify the potential of linguistic means in the process of forming meanings and their transformation into integral sense under the influence of contextual factors, and to determine optimal ways of expressing communicative intention of the author of the discourse and of providing adequate understanding of the sense by the referent. The author also describes main features, differences and similarities of the concepts text and discourse. The specificity of semantic and pragmatic meanings, their correlation and the degree of participation in formation of discourse functional space are analyzed. On the basis of this, the algorithm for pragmasemantic sense formation is deduced. The author emphasizes that the initial meaning is formed by a semantic meaning, in the process of speech actualizing it is supplemented with a pragmatic meaning, which is further transformed into a pragmatic and semantic and communicative-pragmatic sense. This process is illustrated by fragments from works of fiction by contemporary English-speaking authors. The research uses semantic and pragmatic analysis and discourse analysis as the principal methods. The author describes their features, and proves the viability of their application to the object of the research. The author comes to the conclusion that the pragmasemantic analysis of English discourse makes it possible to understand the mechanisms of formation of meanings and sense of a speech work. The contribution of both semantics and pragmatics to the overall communicative interaction is undeniable, since any communication is necessarily analyzed taking into account semantic and pragmatic aspects.

‘Get in touch with yourself’: The Structure of Relationship Advice in Women’s Magazines

This study investigates the way sex and relationship advice articles are structured in four English language women’s magazines. Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire were selected from the US, and Female and Her World from Malaysia. Forty articles were selected for the analysis. The study adopts Machin and Van Leeuwen’s (2003) problem-solution structure, besides using discourse pragmatic analysis. By studying this genre in the two different contexts, one of the main things that emerged is that this particular genre is more complex and diverse than what other researchers have found. The writers of the advice resort to various strategies and techniques to attract women to read these articles. They also have to balance social and cultural sensitivities with their message of freedom and liberation for women as appeared in the Malaysian data. Thus, studying this genre gives useful insights on how culture affects the texts and vice-versa.

A Speech Acts Analysis of English COVID-19 News Headlines

News headlines are key elements in spreading news. They are unique texts written in a special language which enables readers understand the overall nature and importance of the topic. However, this special language causes difficulty for readers in understanding the headline. To illuminate this difficulty, it is argued that a pragmatic analysis from a speech act theory perspective is a plausible tool for a headline analysis. The main objective of the study is to pragmatically analyze the most frequently employed types of speech acts in the news headlines covering COVID-19 in Aljazeera English website. To this end, Bach and Harnish's (1979) Taxonomy of Speech Acts has been adopted to analyze the data. Thirty headlines have been collected from Aljazeera English news website. The findings have shown that constatives and directives occur more frequently than commissives. Other types, like acknowledgments, effectives and verdictives are not employed. The study has concluded that to pay a special emphasis on COVID-19 as an issue that preoccupied and endangered the world, headline writers of Aljazeera website uses specific speech acts, constatives and directives, more frequently than others. This makes it clear that using specific speech acts in writing headlines is an effective way for inspiring readers to easily understand the intended message.

Classroom learning of English L2 requests: Input and interactional opportunities in French secondary schools

With today’s strong focus on communicative competence in second language (L2) classrooms, speech acts like suggestions, requests, refusals, and apologies are often investigated in interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) as well as instructional pragmatics. Even though there is strong evidence in ILP research that purports that L2 learners respond well to pragmatic instruction (Taguchi, 2015), the teaching of L2 pragmatics is not always prioritized in textbooks, teaching programmes or teacher education (Barron, 2016; Savvidou & Economidou-Kogetsidis, 2019) with the consequence that pragmatic learning can only occur incidentally. The present study examines opportunities to acquire L2 requests for 308 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners across 7 years of instruction in French secondary schools, investigating textbooks preferred by teachers, classroom interaction (39 hours), and teacher perspectives (semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers). After a pragmatic analysis of 15 EFL textbooks with a focus on requests, the study examines the incidence of metapragmatic input in 39 hours of teaching in 13 classes at 3 levels, and relates interactional patterns with interview data from the 10 teachers concerned. Findings suggest limited pragmatic input in both textbooks and classroom interaction. By comparing the profiles of teachers who encouraged L2 requests with those who did not, the study offers new explanations for L2 learners’ limited pragmatic development which also broadly corroborate previous findings of somewhat limited potential for L2 pragmatic development in obligatory school contexts.

PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF STYLISTICALLY COLORED LINGUISTIC UNITS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: ON THE MATERIAL OF V.V. PUTIN'S SPEECHES

Постановка задачи. В предлагаемой статье мы подвергаем прагматическому анализу употребление стилистически окрашенных языковых единиц в политическом дискурсе жанра устной речи: на материале телевизионных выступлений (таких, как заседание и интервью) Президента России. Исследование окрашенных языковых единиц в рамках политического дискурса представляет собой особый интерес, поскольку данные единицы обслуживают прагматику языка. Результаты. Прагматическая информация в политическом дискурсе распределена между всеми языковыми единицами. Однако стилистически окрашенные языковые единицы, под которыми мы подразумеваем коннотативно насыщенные слова, выражения, фразеологизмы и афоризмы, несут в себе наибольшую прагматическую нагрузку. Именно они способствуют не только привлечению внимания адресата, но и воздействию на него. Выводы. Политический дискурс, представляя собой специфический и комплексный вид коммуникации, требует особого подхода к его исследованию. Роль стилистически окрашенных языковых единиц в реализации речевой интенции адресанта в политическом дискурсе велика. В ходе исследования было констатировано, что использованные Президентом России слова, выражения, фразеологизмы и афоризмы носят в целом оценочный характер, точнее ироническую окраску (в частности, отмечается довольно частотное употребление фразеологизмов (81.81%), а иногда стилистически сниженных слов и выражений (6.06%)). Это возможно объяснить тем, что фразеологизмы, в отличие от афоризмов, являются носителями лексического значения и могут выступать в качестве эквивалентов слов. Кроме того, степень сочетаемости компонентов во фразеологизмах неодинакова, т.е. в них могут входить несвободные, но легко отделяемые по смыслу слова, и употребляться в переносном значении. Следовательно, они с большей лёгкостью создаются в процессе речи, способствуя достижению иллокутивной цели адресанта. Тем не менее фразеологизмы и афоризмы, а также стилистически сниженные слова благодаря своей экспрессивности способствуют не только привлечению внимания адресата, но и воздействию на него, производя при этом определённый прагматический эффект. Problem statement. In the proposed paper, we subject to a pragmatic analysis the use of stylistically colored linguistic units in the political discourse of the genre of oral speech: based on the material of television speeches (as meeting and interview) of the President of Russia. The study of colored linguistic units within the framework of political discourse is of particular interest, since these units serve the pragmatics of language. Results. Pragmatic information in political discourse is distributed among all linguistic units. However, stylistically colored linguistic units, by which we mean connotatively saturated words, expressions, phraseological units and aphorisms, carry the greatest pragmatic load. They contribute not only to attracting the attention of the addressee, but also to influencing him. Conclusion. Political discourse, representing a specific and complex type of communication, requires a special approach to its study. The role of stylistically colored linguistic units in the realization of the addressee's speech intention in political discourse is huge. In the course of the study, it was stated that the words, expressions, phraseological units and aphorisms used by the President of Russia are generally evaluative, more precisely, ironic (in particular, there is a fairly frequent use of phraseological units (81.81%), and sometimes stylistically reduced words and expressions (6.06%)). This can be explained by the fact that phraseological units, unlike aphorisms, are carriers of lexical meaning and can act as an equivalent of words. In addition, the degree of compatibility of components in phraseological units is not the same, i.e. they may include non-free, but easily separable words, and be used in a figurative sense. Consequently, they are more easily created in the process of speech, contributing to the achievement of the illocutionary goal of the addressee. Nevertheless, phraseological units and aphorisms, as well as stylistically reduced words, due to their expressiveness, contribute not only to attracting the attention of the addressee, but also to influencing him, while producing a certain pragmatic effect.