We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Proverbial rhetorical questions in colloquial Jordanian Arabic.
- Authors
Badarneh, Muhammad A.
- Abstract
This study investigates a special variety of rhetorical questions in colloquial Jordanian Arabic, namely proverbial rhetorical questions: these are rhetorical questions used as proverbs with metaphorical content. Eighty-one instances of PRQs, ethnographically observed in everyday, naturally occurring conversations, were analyzed and their discursive role examined. It was found that PRQs are exploited by the interactants to serve a variety of pragmatic functions, namely invoking common ground in order to convey an opposite point of view, performing ritual impoliteness, performing face-enhancing and face-aggravating acts, evoking humor, and communicating irony. A common thread of these functions is the socioculturally shared presuppositions that underlie these formulaic PRQs and the role that metaphor plays in shaping and communicating messages in social interaction.
- Subjects
JORDAN; RHETORICAL questions; PROVERBS; METAPHOR; ARABIC wit &; humor; IRONY; LINGUISTIC politeness; LANGUAGE &; languages
- Publication
Folia Linguistica, 2016, Vol 50, Issue 1, p207
- ISSN
0165-4004
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1515/flin-2016-0007