Politeness strategies and the representation of women in the Holy Qur’an
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Kawakib Al Momani
Kawakib Al Momani is Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Linguistics, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. Her research interests focus on semiotics, critical discourse analysis and pragmatics. She has published in multimodality, cross-cultural communication, and political discourse and speech acts.
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Fathi Migdadi
Fathi Migdadi is Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Linguistics, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. His research interests focus on pragmatics, semiotics and conversational analysis. He has published in cross-cultural communication, religious discourse and speech acts.
Eman Rabab’a is an M.A. holder. She took her B.A and M.A. degrees at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. She is interested in pragmatics, discourse analysis, and cross-cultural communication.
Abstract
The goal of this study is to examine the strategies of politeness used in the Qur’an, the holy book of Muslims, to address and represent women. Women have been represented negatively in many different types of texts through face-threatening acts that sustain masculine power and hegemony. This study attempts to investigate the image of women in the most sacred book of Muslims. Two aspects are examined herein: the representation of women in relation to sensitive issues like sex and marriage, and the forms of address and reference to women. A qualitative approach is used to provide interpretations of the hidden meanings in the selected excerpts, adopting Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness and Leech’s maxims of politeness as the guides for the analysis. The analysis has revealed that women all through Qur’an have been addressed and referred to decently and politely. Unlike most of the other topics where bald-on-record strategies are used, the use of off-record strategies and positive and negative face strategies of politeness have been found to be dominant in discussion of issues relevant to women. These strategies have been used to avoid unpleasant communication in spiritual issues, and also to avoid misrepresentation of women, demeaning of their persons, causing any embarrassment, and thereby saving the face of both women and recipients. However, bald-on-record strategies are sometimes used in topics related to legal matters concerning familial and social unity and solidarity. The analysis has demonstrated the means by which language is used in the Glorious Qur’an to courteously address women. Concerning interpersonal maxims, the approbation, modesty, sympathy, tact, and agreement maxims have shown to be evident in addressing and referring to women. This study will contribute to the field of pragmatics and will lead to cross-religious and cross-cultural understanding during a period where Islam and its teachings are being widely questioned and examined.
About the authors
Kawakib Al Momani is Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Linguistics, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. Her research interests focus on semiotics, critical discourse analysis and pragmatics. She has published in multimodality, cross-cultural communication, and political discourse and speech acts.
Fathi Migdadi is Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Linguistics, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. His research interests focus on pragmatics, semiotics and conversational analysis. He has published in cross-cultural communication, religious discourse and speech acts.
Eman Rabab’a is an M.A. holder. She took her B.A and M.A. degrees at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan. She is interested in pragmatics, discourse analysis, and cross-cultural communication.
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Appendix
Sources consulted in Arabic
The Noble Qur’an Arabic/English At: https://quran.com/?local=en accessed on 14 February 2018
The Bible
Al Tabari (1374 Arabic calendar A.C.) Jami? Albian ?an ta?weel AlQur’an. Dar Al m?arif. Qairo
Al-Qurtubi Interpretation (1423 A.C.) altafseer al Jami’ li’ahkam Al Qur’an>Dar Al ‘llm
Ibn Kathir Interpretation of Holy Qur’an (774 A C)
Tanweer Almiqias Min Tafseer Ibin Abbas
Sahih (Musnad) Ahmad Ibin Hanbal
Web sites consulted
http://www.islam4m.com/quran-maktoob.htmlhttps://sunnah.com/nasai/4/11http://www.ProZ.com
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Coordinated tautologies in Spanish and Russian
- “Stop doing this at once!”: The preferred use of modality for advice-giving by English language learners
- Comprehension of conversational implicatures in L2 English
- Forum
- Politeness strategies and the representation of women in the Holy Qur’an
- Book Reviews
- Troy McConachy: Developing Intercultural Perspectives on Language Use: Exploring Pragmatics and Culture in Foreign Language Learning
- Grosjean, François Li, Ping: The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Coordinated tautologies in Spanish and Russian
- “Stop doing this at once!”: The preferred use of modality for advice-giving by English language learners
- Comprehension of conversational implicatures in L2 English
- Forum
- Politeness strategies and the representation of women in the Holy Qur’an
- Book Reviews
- Troy McConachy: Developing Intercultural Perspectives on Language Use: Exploring Pragmatics and Culture in Foreign Language Learning
- Grosjean, François Li, Ping: The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism
