A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of the Speech Act of Advice in Selected Qur’anic Verses

Abstract

This study investigates selected Qur’anic verses in terms of advice speech act. It answers the questions: what is the most common strategy used to perform the speech act of advice in the Holy Qur’an?, what is the most common type of sentence used to perform advice in the Holy Qur’an? and what is the impact of the social variables of distance and power on the choice of advice strategy? The study adopts Hinkel’s (1994) classification of advice into direct, indirect, and hedged as its main theoretical framework. However, the study revealed that the interlocutors in the Holy Qur’an opted for significantly more indirect advice, and that the imperative was the most frequent sentence type used to perform the speech act of advice. Also, the study showed that the choice of advice strategy was greatly impacted by social distance and power between the speaker and the hearer. However, context was also a determining factor in many cases.