The Pragmatics of the Rhetorical Question in Selected(English)Qur’an Chapters

• 作者: Lawan Dalha Waheed A.Bamigbade
• 来源期刊: 语言与符号学研究
• 学科: 文学
• 关键词: rhetorical question(RQ) the(English)Qur’an pragmatic acts common ground change-seeking pragmatic acts of challenging reinforcing and affirming
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（4）
• 页码范围: 103-125
• 页数: 23页
• 分类号: H31

摘要

This paper interrogates the pragmatic choice of the rhetorical question(RQ)as a linguistic resource in some disputational discourse in the verses of the English translated Qur’an.It argues that the choice of this sentence-type not only puts the speaker in a position of control in powerful assertion of facts,but also strengthens the pragmatic acts in the context to be more emphatic.Adopting Mey’s(2001)Pragmatic Acts theory and Caponigro and Sprouse’s(2007)Concept of Common Ground,the paper does a close reading of the last forty Quranic chapters for a critical analysis and finds that RQ accounts for 15%(61)of the 410 verses in the seventeen(17)chapters that have RQs out of the last forty chapters investigated.We find that the Authorial Voice in the Qur’an employs the RQ as an argumentative strategy to perform the pragmatic acts of challenging,inviting,affirming,reminding,reinforcing,assuring,appealing,and warning in series of intellectual engagements with the addressees in order to put them in a reflective mode.It is concluded that the RQ is an effective,dialogic,evidence-gathering,change-seeking pragmatic tool for securing improved attitude and ideological understanding from the addressees.Addressees are sought after to be convinced by the Speaker in a dialogue,and then left alone to decide,which presents the Speaker as One that uses rational argument in the context of disputation to persuade humans in real dialogues so as to seek change.