Perfecting the Theory of Meaning: The Story of Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis

The common sense view of what language is for is that language is used for communication. However, some of the most prominent linguists in the field reject this view. In other words, the majority of professional linguists used to adopt a view of language which is at odds with the view held by non-linguists. The phenomenon of communication has often been thought of as peripheral in linguistic research. This view is a result of the strong hold the abstract objectivist language conception has had on modern linguistic thought. Communication has been reduced to a subordinate place amongst the possible functions of language. This low status attributed to communication is challenged by different pragmatic approaches to language. On the other hand, the content and use of the term “communication” is even by humanistic standards extremely ambiguous, and it has, therefore, often been difficult to use in practical, empirical work. This study is primarily a deep survey of the major contributions of both “discourse analysis” and “pragmatics” in an attempt to clarify the problem of understanding meaning in language use. In addition, it attempts to show how language is used, as a persuasive tool, in political discourse.The present study demonstrates that it would be a mistake to adopt an approach to pragmatics and discourse analysis which focuses on linguistic factors alone, or social factors alone, to the exclusion of cognitive factors. Also, it would be a mistake to adopt an approach which is exclusively speaker-oriented or exclusively hearer-oriented. The process of making meaning is a joint accomplishment between speaker and hearer; between writer and reader. In addition, the present study shows that both disciplines “pragmatics” and “discourse analysis” are hybrid fields of inquiry; and their common themes are “language”, “language users”, “communication”, and “meaning in interaction”. Both disciplines have borrowed their theoretical and methodological orientations from almost the same social and human disciplines. Accordingly, the terms “pragmatics” and “discourse analysis” can be used interchangeably. Finally, the present study shows that political speech is one of the main persuasive tools used by politicians to present their political persons and to further their political agendas

The Language of Consumer Advertising: Linguistic and Psychological Perspectives

This study examines the consumer advertising which is directed towards the promotion of some product or service to the public. The study, however, is not meant to exhaust all the aspects of this particular discourse, or present an answer to all the problems it poses. Rather, it aims at uncovering the basic elements of the most pervasive, influential and inescapable discourse of the 21st century; the advertising text. It focuses on the interaction of language, image and layout, and examines advertising persuasive strategies. In doing so, it draws on various linguistic (particularly pragmatic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic) theories. In addition, this study provides analyses of some ads, using different ways of interpretations; and ends with a discussion on the interrelationship between culture (schemes) and advertising discourse. In this connection, instances from the Egyptian media, and their analyses are provided, with a view to clarifying some rhetorical categories in Arabic Advertising, and showing that texts construct meaning through interaction with other types of discourse, and inseparable from the culture of the advertising text

Language and the Parameters of Power in Medical Discourse in Spoken Egyptian Arabic

The present study is an investigation of the parameters of power following in medical encounters in spoken Egyptian Arabic. The analysis will focus on the aspects of discourse: speech acts especially directives such as questions, orders and commands, features related to turn taking like different types of overlap, adjacency pairs and the concept of preference, Grice's concept of implicature and the politeness theory with its strategies for Face Threatening Acts.  The study aims at drawing conclusions concerning power and ways of claiming it in Egyptian Arabic medical encounters. Thus, the study differs from previous studies not only in investigating the Arabic language but also in the aspects of analysis, which has not been examined before because each of the previous studies concentrates on only one aspect of analysis