A Descriptive-Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Acts in Colloquial Iraqi Arabic: Contexts and Functions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70036/cltls.v2i3.149Keywords:
speech acts, Colloquial Iraqi Arabic, pragmatics, cross-cultural communicationAbstract
Background: Pragmatics, the study of language use in context, plays a crucial role in understanding how speech acts function within different languages and cultures. In the case of Colloquial Iraqi Arabic (CIA), the ways in which emotions, requests, refusals, and other speech acts are communicated reflect specific sociocultural norms and communicative strategies that may differ significantly from those in English. Aims: This research seeks to present a descriptive pragmatic examination of speech acts in Colloquial Iraqi Arabic (CIA), focusing on their linguistic realization, pragmatic functions, and contextual variation. Methods: The primary goal is to determine the ways in which various speech acts like requests, refusals, apologies, compliments, and greetings are formed and understood in CIA, and how they differ from their English counterparts. It is assumed that CIA uses unique pragmatic strategies that systematically differ from English with regards to politeness, indirectness, and social deixis. To test this assumption, 40 natural examples from CIA are examined by means of Arabic script, interlinear glossing, transliteration, and English translation (Zughoul and Abdul-Raof, 2017). The study follows the models of Speech Act Theory (Searle, 1969), Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), and Cross-Cultural Pragmatics (Wierzbicka, 2003; Blum-Kulka, 2005) as its theoretical framework. Employing introspective native speaker data and a descriptive methodology. Result: The results show that speech acts in CIA tend to have more indirectness and culturally embedded politeness strategies than English. These pragmatic disparities mirror underlying sociocultural norms concerning power, solidarity, and face-saving. Implication: The research has implications for Arabic pragmatics, translation studies, and contrastive linguistic analysis.
References
Abdel Fattah, S. (2022). The role of context in Arabic speech acts: A pragmatic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics and Discourse, 14(3), 198–213.
Al-Azzawi, M. A. (2019). Speech act variation in Iraqi Arabic across gender and status. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 15(2), 419–432.
Al-Batal, M., & Hermas, H. (2018). Arabic pragmatics: Speech acts and politeness. Routledge.
Al-Din, A. (2023). Contextual variation of speech acts in Iraqi Arabic media discourse. Iraqi Journal of Language Studies, 12(1), 45–62.
Al-Duleimi, L. A., & Aziz, F. (2021). Speech act analysis of political discourse in Iraqi TV debates. Iraqi Journal of Language Studies, 3(1), 50–65.
Al-Ghamdi, F. (2021). Pragmatic competence in Arabic and English learners: A cross-linguistic study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(2), 112–130.
Al-Hamdani, A., & Jasim, R. (2024). Speech acts and face-saving strategies in Iraqi Arabic. Journal of Modern Linguistics, 17(1), 56–75.
Al-Hasani, M. (2022). Pragmatic functions of directives in colloquial Iraqi Arabic. Arab Journal of Language and Literature, 11(4), 84–103.
Al-Hassani, M., & Ahmad, K. (2024). Social media discourse and pragmatic variation in Iraq. Journal of Digital Linguistics, 5(1), 30–47.
Al-Hindawi, F. H., & Hussein, A. A. (2020). Politeness strategies in Iraqi Arabic requests: A gender-based study. International Journal of Linguistics, 12(6), 1–15.
Al-Issa, A. (2022). The pragmatics of refusal strategies among Iraqi EFL learners. Arab World English Journal, 13(1), 85–99.
Al-Khafaji, R. (2016). The use of speech acts in Iraqi political discourse: A pragmalinguistic study. Basrah Journal of Humanities, 44, 112–129.
Al-Khazraji, O. (2016). Speech act analysis in Iraqi Arabic political discourse. Basrah Journal of Humanities, 44, 112–129.
Al-Khazraji, O. (2021). Pragmatic aspects of complaints in Iraqi Arabic. Iraqi Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(3), 97–115.
Al-Khazraji, O. (2023). Face-threatening acts in Iraqi Arabic media discourse. Arab World English Journal, 14(1), 203–222.
Al-Mada, L. (2023). The pragmatic use of apologies in Iraqi Arabic television programs. Iraqi Studies Review, 20(2), 75–89.
Al-Monitor Iraq. (2024). Political discourse and language use in Iraq. Retrieved from https://www.al-monitor.com/iraq
Al-Saidi, H. (2021). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Apologies in Iraqi Arabic and American English. Journal of Language, Culture, and Translation, 10(2), 101–117.
Al-Shammari, A., Hassan, B., & Yasin, S. (2024). Speech acts in Iraqi political debates: A pragmatic approach. Journal of Language and Politics, 11(1), 44–66.
Al-Shboul, M. (2013). Politeness strategies in Arabic speech acts: The case of requests. Pragmatics, 23(2), 235–257.
Al-Tamimi, S. (2019). Pragmatic competence in Iraqi Arabic learners of English. Arab World English Journal, 10(2), 123–139.
Al-Tamimi, S. (2022). Indirect speech acts in Iraqi Arabic media. Journal of Pragmatics, 19(4), 345–362.
Al-Zubeidi, A. (2020). The pragmatic functions of idioms in Iraqi Arabic TV shows. Iraqi Journal of Language Studies, 2(2), 35–48.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford University Press.
Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Ablex Publishing.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Estaifo, R. Q., Meteab, W. Y., & Hazem, A. H. (2023). A pragmatic study of connectives in Mosuli dialect with reference to English. World Journal of English Language, 13(6), 491. https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v13n6p491
Facebook comments. (2024). Comments on social media discourse in Iraq. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/iraqidiscourse
Hamed, M. M. (2020). The use of directives in Iraqi Arabic: A pragmatic perspective. International Journal of Linguistic Studies, 5(1), 27–42.
Hazem, A. H., & Mohammed, S. I. (2021). Mitigating devices in Mosuli Iraqi Arabic with reference to English. Ijaz Arabi Journal of Arabic Learning, 4(2), 518-534. https://doi.org/10.18860/ijazarabi.v4i3.13130
Hazem, A. H., & Mohammed, S. I. (2025). Forms and functions of Arabic perfect tense. Mustansiriyah Journal of Humanities, 3(1), 425–435. https://doi.org/10.47831/mjh.v3i1.789
Hassan, A. (2024). Speech act realization in Iraqi Arabic political speeches. Baghdad Linguistic Journal, 9(1), 15–33.
Iraqi Council. (2024). Official discourse and language use in the Iraqi parliament. Iraqi Parliamentary Records, 2024.
Iraqi TV sitcom. (2023). Language and humor in Iraqi sitcoms: A pragmatic study [Television series]. Al-Iraqiya.
Khuder, S. A., Hazem, A. H., & Kanaan, M. H. (2021). The role of discourse markers in organizing literary discourse: H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine as a case study. Adab Al-Rafidayn, 84(51), 1-26. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3881926
Kamil, D. F., & Hazem, A. H. (2019a). A syntactic o-semantic study of negative particles in Arabic literary discourse with reference to translation. Arab Journal for Arts and Human Studies, 3(10), 327–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.33850/ajahs.v.3n.10p.327
Leech, G. (2014). The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford University Press.
Newspaper column, Al-Sabah. (2023). Language and politics in Iraqi newspapers. Al-Sabah Daily.
Psychological clinic, Baghdad. (2024). Discourse analysis of therapeutic speech acts. Unpublished manuscript.
Rashid, R., & Alwan, H. (2018). Speech act classification in Iraqi Arabic WhatsApp messages. International Journal of Social Sciences and Educational Studies, 5(2), 29–41.
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J. R. (1976). A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society, 5(1), 1–23.
Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech acts. Cambridge University Press.
Tawalbeh, A., & Al-Oqaily, E. (2022). A pragmatic analysis of threats in Jordanian and Iraqi Arabic. Arab Journal of Applied Linguistics, 6(1), 23–45.
Wierzbicka, A. (2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction (2nd ed.). Mouton de Gruyter.
Yule, G. (2020). The study of language (7th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Zughoul, M. R., & Abdul-Raof, H. (2017). Indirectness in Iraqi Arabic: A pragmatic study of face-saving strategies. Pragmatics and Society, 8(4), 527–548.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Suha Idress Mohammed
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Authors who publish with Comparative Linguistics Translation and Literary Studies agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
License
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0
