A Pragmatic Study of Directives’ Forms and Functions in Surat Al-Baqarah: Focus on Commands, Prayers, and Permissions

Abstract

In line with the pragmatic analysis of the Holy Quran, the present study aimed to examine the use of directives to express three illocutionary acts: Commands, prayers, and permissions in Surat Al-Baqarah. To be exact, it attempted to show how dissimilar directive utterances could be depending on the context and, more precisely, the nature of the interlocutors. Austin and Searle’s speech act theories were used as theoretical frameworks. The descriptive interpretative qualitative method was opted for. Additionally, the circumstances of revelation and interpretations of the Quran were employed to identify the speech acts in focus. The contextual factors of power and distance were taken into consideration in data analysis. Findings show that one structure such as imperatives can serve different direct and/or indirect functions depending on the context. These findings are discussed with pedagogical implications for teaching English as a foreign language.