Speech Act of Invocation in Iraqi Arabic

Abstract

This study investigates the speech act of invocation in Iraqi Arabic from a socio-pragmatic perspective. It also examines how speech act of invocation is realized within the framework of politeness theory, and how it is reflected among the Iraqi Arab speakers in special social contexts (such as greetings, weddings, funerals etc.). Since invocations are used in certain situations and contexts, they have a social function in the Iraqi society. Therefore, the inability to use such expressions in the appropriate way and the right tone may affect the social relationship. This study aims at exploring invocations used by Iraqi Arab speakers in daily social situations, and finding out the social and religious influences on Iraqi Arab speakers when they express invocations. In this study, it is hypothesized that Islam has a great influence on the Iraqi Arab speakers. The findings of this study have proved that speech of the females is different from that of the males; females use special expressions. They also have different concerns and attitudes from men. This study has also proved that Iraqi Arab speakers are influenced by the Islamic religion because they behave according to the Islamic instructions.