So, how do you find the video? it is quiet helpful to assist us in understanding some elements discussed in pragmatics. Firstly, we will share about Grice's conversational maxims, H. Paul Grice
came out with four conversational maxims which are the maxim of quantity, the
maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. The maxim of
quantity is concern with giving an appropriate amount of information to others,
not too ambiguous and not insufficient. The maxim of quality is about saying
the truth without altering information while the maxim of relation is to be
relevant and suits one’s discussion. However, the maxim of manner is when one
tries to be clear, precise and less ambiguity.
What Islam has to say about Grice’s four
maxims?
The maxim of quantity is very supported by
Islam as in Islam, we are asked to speak when needed and remain silent when
there is no purpose of talking. Thus, appropriate amount of knowledge is
righteous to spread to others while ambiguous and insufficient information
should be avoided. Insufficient and ambiguous information might give
disadvantages to the listener and it might lead one to the wrong path
especially when it is pertaining Islamic jurisprudence, Fiqh, the Quran and
Hadith. A Hadith saying:-
The Prophet (SAW)
said: “A man might speak a word without thinking about its implications, but
because of it, he will plunge into the Hellfire further than the distance
between the east and west.” [ Sahîh al-Bukhârî and Sahîh Muslim ]
Therefore, this
above Hadith tells us that we are supposed to guard our tongue and speak
purposely that gives out benefits to the people and not corruption to oneself.
From this
cartoon strip, we can see how the mother abuses the maxim of quality by not
answering or somehow gives a vague answer to her child. Hence, abusing the
maxim of quality should be avoided in conversation as it may also kill one’s
thinking process.
The maxim of quality is somehow in line
with the Islamic teachings which teach us to tell the truth. In other words, do
not lie. Honesty is the key to Heaven and innate characteristic of a true
believer. Hence, lying is not one of the characteristics of a true believer.
'Abdullah b.
Mas'ud reported Allah's Messenger (SAW) as saying: Telling of truth is a virtue
and virtue leads to Paradise and the servant who endeavours to tell the truth
is recorded as truthful, and lie is obscenity and obscenity leads to Hell-Fire,
and the servant who endeavours to tell a lie is recorded as a liar. Ibn Abu
Shaiba reported this from Allah's Apostle (SAW).
Telling the
truth is a righteous act and to tell a lie is the worst act. Thus, it comes to
conversation with people, be sincere and even in written language whether in
writing our assignment, article and et cetera; the best way to write is to
produce pearls of utterances. For example, Kahaled Hosseini is a well-known
author; who uses splendid sentences to write about neither the consequences nor
a metaphor about lying:-
According to
Khaled Hosseini (2007), “When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his
wife’s right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie,
you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to
fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing.” p. 115
The third maxim
is maxim of relation which asks us
to be relevant. We have to relevant, be it according to Islam or not. If we
utter irrational saying, it shows how our mind operated and a wise man always
up-to-date with current issues, religious studies and even knowledge pertaining
social sciences. Therefore, relevancy is very important in a conversation to
transmit right information to people and to be acceptable in a society. For
instance:-
Mother: “Yasmin,
where is my praying dress and Quran? I want to pray.”
Yasmin: “I think
the kiblah is this way.”
From the above
extract, we can see that Yasmin is abusing the maxim of relation as she is not
answering her mother’s question and she even changes the topic to a totally
different issue. Hence, maxim of relation is very important in conversations to
avoid misunderstanding.
Maxim of manner requires precision
rather than obscurity and ambiguity. Precision is very important in Islam as
without precision; the unity of brotherhood and faith issues will be affected.
The easiest example we can take is from our compulsory ibadah i.e salah and sawm. Salah must be performed five times in a day when the specific and
precise time comes. For instance, Fajr is
around 5.47am; one cannot pray Fajr until
it is 5.47am. This same goes to sawm where
all Muslims can break their fasting when the call of Maghrib is being heard.
Thus, if one breaks his fasting even a minute before the call of Maghrib; it is
considered invalid. Precision appears in many forms such as actions, saying and
et cetera. The reason Grice came up with this maxim of manner is to make people
aware of being precise is very important in a conversation to get a mutual
understanding.
Dear our beloved readers, pragmatics
also discussed the issue of politeness. Yule defined politeness as “the means
employed to show awareness of another person’s face” (1996: 60). In Islam, it
is irrefutable that we must show our respect to others and approach them
politely in speech as well as in manner. In Quran, Allah has mentioned many
times that we need to use kindness, gentle and wisdom in order to preach to
others. In Surah Ibrahim, verse 14, Allah said that, “I did not send any
messenger except that he spoke the language of his people to explain to them”.
Here, we can see that the message of Islam is always through the words of truth
and applied the politeness principles in many ways. Our prophet Muhammad PBUH
is the best example of a man with polite words and manners. He used different
approaches when he spoke to the Quraish leaders according to their face wants
(the expectations concerning their public self-image).
In pragmatics, speech act refers to
us performing our action via utterances. However, there are certain conditions
for us to say something. Under Felicity conditions there are general condition,
content condition, prepatory condition and essential condition. When our
parents said study hard and we understand what they said is a general
condition. Our reply as In shaa Allah or okay is the agreement that the act of
study hard will happen in future (content condition). Our reply also denote
that the act of study hard getting good result will not happen by themselves
but we, as the promise will initiate the act of study hard and making the goal
of getting good result will happen in future, sincerely and not for the sake of
other things likely present or additional on our monthly allowance (preapatory
condition).
In the first verse of Surah Al Maidah, Allah said “O you who believe,
fulfill your promises!” Keeping promises is one of characteristics of true
believer. In Islam, Allah called upon His believers not only in the chapter
stated above but also in another chapters like Al Isra’ (17:34) and Maryam
(19:54).
Beyond our realization, everything
that we said is a promise. When our parents said, “study hard son” and we gonna
reply, “In shaa Allah”, or simply replied “okay” is a promise. Therefore, this
is an example of speech act which illustrates the promise.
According to Yule (1996), in order to make our speeches become
meaningful, speeches should be uttered according to situations or
circumstances. The situation in which speech act occur is what we called as
speech event. In performing our act through utterances, we should first produce
a meaningful linguistic expression or utterances (locutionary act). This is
followed by the purpose of the utterances.
On the other hand, speech acts are
very much related to the methods of dakwah (spread the message of Islam).
Alquran and prophetic history always emphasize on spreading the message of
Islam by wisdom. Hence, one of the ways of wisdom in dakwah is by using speech
act. Speech act is very applicable in performing da’wah. As for certain
situation, it is inappropriate to directly say something to someone.
For
example, when we want to encourage our friend to wear hijab, we must say it in
a proper way and using right word such as by saying “Subhanallah, you look
georgeous with hijab!” therefore she will feel encouraged to wear hijab. Here,
we can see the three dimension of speech act by saying such thing indirectly in
a way of imperative yet very meaningful in order to praise that friend as the
nature of the sentence suggest but at the same time we want to encourage her to
continuously wear hijab in future. Why such praise is chosen? Firstly is
because human being loves beauty. Secondly, not all people can receive direct
comment like “eh, you are sinful because you do not wear hijab”. Our duty is
not to judge others but to show and share the right way of Islam.
In Surah Al
Nahl, verse 125, Allah mentioned the best method to preach: “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom
and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your
Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of
who is [rightly] guided ...”. Hence, in order to preach, we should observe
the situation we are in (speech events) and performing speech acts with its
three dimensions in order for the message to be successfully delivered.
Another
important thing discussed in Pragmatics is the preference and conversational structure
(Yule, 1996). According to Yule, the preference and conversational structure
mainly consist of the elements used in the conversation processes such as
turn-taking, pauses, overlaps, and backchannels. In Islam, these are called
manners in dialogues. It is indisputable that Muslims must observe manners
while converse with other people. The process of turn-taking (an attempt to
control the right to speak) is very important is Islam because it will give the
speaker an opportunity to explain what in his minds and it also gives the
respondent a chance to ask or refute. In Surah Al-Baqarah verse 258, Allah
said:
“Hast thou not
Turned thy vision to one who disputed with Abraham About his Lord, because
Allah had granted him power? Abraham said: "My Lord is He Who Giveth life
and death." He said: "I give life and death". Said Abraham:
"But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the east: Do thou then
cause him to rise from the West." Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance)
rejected faith. Nor doth Allah Give guidance to a people unjust.” (2:258)
In this verse,
we can clearly see one example from thousands of example in the Al-Quran that
contains dialogue. Here, these dialogues are between Prophet Ibrahim and his
people when his people have a dispute with him about the Lord. From this verse,
prophet Ibrahim observes the principle of turn taking and argues with them with
patience and even replies to their words with simple and wisdom. He does not
dominate the ‘floor’ of conversations but gives them their right to speak. We
can see the Transition Relevance Place (TRP) between prophet Ibrahim and his
people.
Dr.Muhammad
Sayyid Tantawi (2008) explained that the examples of dialogues and arguments in
Al-Quran are wide and cover many issues. There are dialogues of Allah and the
prophets, the angels, the devils and dialogues of various people.
In Pragmatics,
sometimes people use pauses in their conversation. As defined by Yule (1996),
pauses are the transitions with a long silence between turns. This happens
probably because of unfamiliarity, or the absence of information about certain
knowledge. In Islam, pauses are allowed in conversation but it is more
recommended to reply with an answer if the respondent does know about the question.
There is an example in Surah An-Naml : 20-23, when prophet Sulaiman asked a
group of birds about the absence of Hud-Hud. They remained silent until Hud-Hud
bird came and explained to Prophet Sulaiman about what it saw in Saba’.
In Islam, some
of the principles of conversation as discussed by Dr.Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi
(2008):
1) Based on the truth and avoid from false
misconceptions.
2) Stick on the issue of discussions
(avoid personal opinions and interests)
3) Clear and logical arguments, without
emotional influence.
4) Have a clear aim to solve the issues
with justice and truth.
5) Humbleness, not arrogant, and observing
politeness.
6) Give a full chance to all speakers to
give their own opinion without aggressive refutation or humiliating their
personal being.
7) Respect opinions from more experienced
scholars.
8) Do not rush in defining Shariah (rules
and regulations), and do not astray from the truth.
9) The contents of the dialogues must be
beneficial to various people intellectually.
Last but not least, as long as the pragmatics is concerned, it is related
with the linguistic forms and the users of the forms. It concerns how people
interact with each other and the significant meanings behind each interaction.
Hence, Muslims should utilize various ways of speaking to their aesthetic
functions that are very much related with Islam because Islam always emphasizes
on good relations with other people through actions and utterances.
As a conclusion, Allah says in Al-Quran Surah Ibrahim verse 24-25:
Have you not considered how Allah presents
an example, [making] a good word like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed
and its branches [high] in the sky?
It produces its fruit all the time, by
permission of its Lord. And Allah presents examples for the people that perhaps
they will be reminded. (14: 24-25)
References
Afzal Iqbal. (1992). Diplomatic Practices of Rasulullah S.A.W. Pustaka Salam Sdn Bhd: Kuala Lumpur.
Dr. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. (2008). The Religious Aspects of Dialogues in Islam. Translation Institute of Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur.
Khaled Hosseini. (2008). The Kite Runner.Riverhead Books: New York:
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press: NY
Crystal, D. (2012). Pragmatics and Speech
Acts. Retrieved from http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.htm on 2nd Dec 2012
http://islamicbooks.info/H-7-Ethics/7--Ethics-4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawah
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/grice.html
http://en.islamtoday.net/artshow-427-3256.htm
http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?
