An Analysis of the Pragmatic Functions of the Imperative and Prohibitive Verbs with reference to Speech Acts Theory in Yusuf Surah

Abstract

The paper investigates the imperatives and prohibitives verbs in Yusuf surah in terms of applying the rules of Searle's speech acts theory (1969). Utilizing Austin's (1962) and Searle's (1975) speech acts theory has an influence to describe the kind of speech acts involved in Yusuf surah to determine the connection of linguistic structures and contexts with the meaning of the imperative and prohibitive verbs. Data on the explanation and interpretation of the source text are collected from the glorious Qur'an and its related books (Books of tafsir) such as Ibn Kathir (n.d), and Al-Tabari (2001). The researcher found (38) imperatives and (6) prohibitives serving 11)) distinct speech acts in which they agree with the speech act theory and help in interpreting the connection between the pragmatic meanings and structures. The discussion of the data was made to demonstrate how imperatives and prohibitives were employed, and to what extent the intended meaning was conveyed to display the pragmatic value.