In Arabic spoken discourse
Dr. Wafa Abu Hatab (* )
Speach act Theory was first postulated by the philosopher J.L. Austin in his book How to do things with Words in (1962) in which he stressed the significant role that the utterances play in establishing interpersonal communication between language users. For Austin, the utterance serves a communicative function, therefore, it is referred to as a locutionary act . This act is viewed as a medium via which the speaker expresses his intentions while speaking establishing the illocutionary force of the speech act. The effect the utterance has on the listener is called the perlocutionary effect (Austin 1962). According to the speech act theory, illocutionary acts have been classified as follows: 1 - Representatives: acts that represent a state of affairs e.g stating, claiming, describing, telling. 2 - Expressives: express speakers psychological attitude toward some state of affairs: congratulating, thanking, welcoming, greeting. 3 - Verdictives: assessing, ranking, estimating. 4 - Directives; requesting, commanding, inviting. 5 - Commissives: promising, threatening. 6 - Declaratives: acts that bring about a new situation. For example, blessing, firing, passing sentence, arresting, marrying. (Levinson: 1983). Austin suggested a taxonomy of conditions that must be fulfilled in the situation in which a speech act is carried out properly. He called these conditions felicity conditions and stated them as follows: A -(i) There must be a conventional procedure having a conventional effect. (ii) The circumstances and persons must be appropriate as specified in the procedure. B - The procedure must be executed correctly and completely. C - Often, the person must have the requisite thoughts, feelings and intentions as specified in the procedure, and if consequent conduct is. specified, then the relevant parties must do so. (Austin, 1962:11/6) Another classification of felicity conditions was provided by Searle (1969:607). He viewed these conditions as a combination of what makes the speach act communicative and what gives the
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Department of Linguistics - University of Khartoum - Khartoum.
(1981) referred to these conditions on which the accomplishment of an illocutionary act depends as approriateness conditions. These conditions should be fulfilled in any speech act to make it appropriate and violation of these conditions will lead to the emergence of inappropriate speech acts. Appropriateness conditions of locutionary acts are associated with the form of the speech act, the circumstances in which it is uttered, the participants of the speech act and their beliefs and attitudes. Felicity conditions or appropriatenes conditions can also be discussed with reference to Grices proposed model of maxims of conversation since both models aim at establishing a coherent and communicative discourse. Maxims of conversation underlie the efficient use of language and identify a general co-operative principle. These principles are: 1 - The co-operative principle: make your contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. 1 - The Maxim of Quality try to make your contribution true, specifically, (i) do not say what you believe to be false (ii) do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. 2 - The Maxim of Quantity (I) make your contribution as informative as required for the current purposes of the exchange. (II) do not make your contribution more informative than is required. 3 - The Maxim of Relevance: make your contribution relevant. 4 - The Maxim of Manner: be perspicuous, and specifically (I) avoid obscurity. (II) avoid ambiguity. (III) be brief. (IV) be orderly. The present study investigates felicity conditions and maxims of speech in the spoken discourse of Prophet Mohammed - may peace be upon him-. 1. Felicity conditions: a. preparatory conditions:
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(Aman came to the prophet and demanded his debts and used harsh words, the companions of the
(ALLAH doesnt take away the knowledge by taking it away from the hearts of people, but takes it away by the death of the religious learned men till when none of the religious learned men remains, people will take as their leaders ignorant persons who when consulted will give their verdict without knowledge. So they will go astray and will lead the people astray) 2 - sincerity condition:
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(You must tell the truth. Truthfulness leads to right action. Right action leads to the Garden. Beware of lying. Lying leads to corruption, and corruption leads to the Fire).
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(The man continues to lie and a black spot grows in his heart untill all his heart becomes black, then he is written in Allah sight, among the liars).
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(The messenger of ALLAH, may ALLAH bless him and grant him peace, was asked can the believer be a coward? He said, Yes . He was asked: can the believer be a miser? He said yes . He was asked: Can the believer be aliar? He said No . 2. - Relevance:
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(If one of you sneezes, he should say: (alhamd lillah) and the one who answers should say: may ALLAH bestow his mercy on you . When the latter says (
)the former should say (
( ) may Allah give you guidance and improve your condition). : . : :" : . : . ." :
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The prophet said: The Consultant is entrusted .
Maxims of speech:
1. Quality: a - Do not say what you believe to be false.
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(The greatest treason is to tell your brother alie while he believes you) b - Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
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(It is enough to lie when telling all that one hears.) 2 - Quantity
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(I was ordered to be brief because brevity is good).
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(The best talk, the righteous way and brevity is apart of 25 parts of prophecy).
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(Nothing will be accepted from anyone who learns unnecessary, words to capture mens hearts). 4 - Manner
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(Dont call the grapes al-Karm, Al-Karm however is the heart of a believer).
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(The prophet said ALLAH has forbidden you to be undutiful to your mothers, to withhold (what you should give) or demand what you dont deserve and to bury your daughters alive).
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(The prophets speech was clear so that it was understood by everyone who heared it).
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(The riding one should greet the walking one, the walking one should greet the sitting one, and the small number of persons should greet the larger).
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A man told the Prophet: My father sends salam (greetings) to you. The prophet said: peace be on you and your father .
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2 - Promising: a - The speaker must intend to carry out the things promised.
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(If the man promised his brother and intended to keep his promise but couldnt he is not guilty).
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3 - Naming 1 - The speaker must be recognised by his community as having authority to name.
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(If I have a son after you, may I call him Mohemmed and give him your kunya The Prophet said: Yes ).
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(A man begot a baby whom he named AL Qasim, The Prophet said to him: Name your son Abdeul Rahman ). 4 - Thanking
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(He who doesnt thank people doesnt thank God).
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Searle, J.R (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press.
