Assessing Speech Acts of Curses and Prayers in Persian

Abstract

Speech acts are of great importance primarily within the bounds of semantics and should be on the basis of mutually shared background information between hearer and speaker. Curses and prayers are commonly used in everyday language. Whenever someone does a favour to us, we may say a prayer to God for him/her. We may curse at someone for making us angry or sad. By and large, we express our inner feelings and attitudes towards the hearer through saying prayers or curses; therefore, they are involved in expressive speech acts. The present article delivers a special classification of prayers and curses which are as follows: a) prayers and curses which are closely associated with our culture, tradition and religion; b) prayers and curses which have been progressed and produced gradually and no specific cultural root can be traced for them. This type of speech acts is itself classified into two categories: the first one is composed of prayers and curses which are frequently used by children in different contexts and the second category comprises those prayers and curses which English speakers have in common with Persian speakers.