Arabic Literature

The Study of Grice's Maxims in Egyptian Dramatic Literature:A Case Study of the Play Watani 'Akka by Abdel Rahman Al-Sharqawi

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Hashemian Maryam 1
Reyhaneh Mollazadeh 2
Fatemeh Akbarizadeh 2

1 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jalit.2025.384284.612879
Abstract
A complete understanding of discourse requires going beyond mere lexical-grammatical analysis and utilizing modern linguistic approaches. One effective tool in this regard is Grice's Cooperative Principle and the implicatures that arise from violations of its four maxims (quantity, quality, relation, and manner). This study aims to explore the implied meanings in the play Watani 'Akka by the Egyptian writer Sharqawi, who, in his works on resistance literature, places more emphasis on the concepts of resistance from a literary perspective. Given that the play is centered around dialogue between characters, the dialogic interaction between Palestinian fighters as the "self" and Zionists as the "other" is examined throughout the themes of the play. The analysis shows that the maxims of quantity (through verbosity and brevity) and manner (through the use of relative pronouns like "we" and "I") are the most frequently violated in all three types of dialogues: (self-self), (self-other), and (other-other). Verbosity is used for emphasis, reasoning, quoting leaders, persuasion, and emotional expression, while brevity is employed in critical moments. The violation of the maxim of manner is used to generalize concepts of friendship or enmity, implicitly reference the role of the West and the United States in supporting Zionism, and address issues of life, death, and martyrdom. The study also reveals that assertive speech acts are predominantly used to convey truths related to Zionism and the fighters' operations, while directive speech acts are employed for commands, prohibitions, and rhetorical questions to convey the concepts of resistance, highlight the Zionists' weakness, and emphasize the fighters' logic

Keywords

pragmatics
Speech Implicature
Grise
Abd al-Rahman Sharqawi
Wathani Akka
Subjects
The Holy Quran
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  • Receive Date 25 October 2024
  • Revise Date 21 January 2025
  • Accept Date 25 January 2025

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