Warning in Jordanian and Modern Standard Arabic: a socio-pragmatic analysis

This study investigates the speech act of warning in Jordanian and Modern Standard Arabic. The research topic falls under socio-pragmatics, which is the interaction between two main areas in linguistics: sociolinguistics and... [ view full abstract ]

This study investigates the speech act of warning in Jordanian and Modern Standard Arabic. The research topic falls under socio-pragmatics, which is the interaction between two main areas in linguistics: sociolinguistics and pragmatics. In this study, Jordanian Arabic (JA) is the vernacular dialect used by local Jordanians specifically in informal gatherings and contexts. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) refers to the standardized and literary variety of Arabic used in formal speech and writing in highly institutionalized contexts. Three main aspects of this speech act will be studied. The first one discusses how the performance of the speech act of warning is realized linguistically (syntactically, semantically, and lexically) in JA and MSA. The second aspect to be investigated in this study is the mitigation devices that are typically used in JA and MSA when expressing warning. How warnings vary in the public domain (formal) compared to private domain (informal) is the third aspect to be investigated in the current study. The cultural and ideological influences that govern Jordanians’ use of warning will also be studied. As for (im) polite warnings, Brown and Levinson's (1987) Politeness Theory will be applied to analyse the politeness/mitigation strategies employed in expressing warning in JA and MSA. Providing a comprehensive analysis of how the speech act of warnings expressed in JA and MSA is the empirical motive of the current study. Theoretically, the main contribution of the study is to reformulate Browns and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory in relation to JA and MSA.

Key words: warning, socio-pragmatic, speech act, natural occurring, media, written warnings, Jordanian Arabic, politeness, intracultural influences.