This study is concerned with sectarianism as a social and pragmatic act which is critically manifested by the Sunni and Shiite preachers, for which a critical pragmatic approach of analysis is introduced. It addresses how sectarian discourse, which is issued by the British and American Muslim preachers, is pragmatically conveyed and how to reproduce such sectarian discourse in order to de-sectarianize it.
Certain relevant questions are raised. These questions are related to the defining criteria, ideological forms and strategies of the sectarian discourse, the pragmatic strategies, the critical pragmatic mechanisms, socio-cultural aspects used by Muslim preachers in British and American different communities to indoctrinate sectarianism, and others.
The study attempts to develop a model to investigate its aims, which are concerned with providing the most frequent linguistic criteria, discovering the ideological forms and strategies, pinpointing the most outstanding pragmatic strategies, discovering the socio-cultural dimensions and variables, identifying the pragmatic functions of sectarianism and finding out the similarities and differences between the British and American contexts.
These aims can be reached out through certain procedures which can be briefed as follows: reviewing the literature about criticality in pragmatics, setting operational definitions, presenting an account about the concept of sectarianism among Muslim communities, and a workable model is developed to analyze the data which are selected randomly from both of the British and the American contexts. This study introduces practical conclusions. Muslim preachers adopt ideological strategies to convey sectarianism; pragmatics plays a key role in interpreting the act of sectarian discourse critically; the preachers use socio-cultural factors as represented by the principles of politeness and impoliteness to indoctrinate and sectarianize the audience; and the British and American preachers use different identifying criteria and contextual factors.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1. Preliminaries
1.2. Problem of the Study
1.3. Aims of the Study
1.4. Hypotheses of the Study
1.5 Procedure of the Study
1.6. Limits of the Study
1.7. Value of the Study
Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Critical Pragmatics
2.2.1. CDA: A Brief Account
2.2.2. Meeting Points: CDA and Pragmatics
2.2.3. The New Approach to Pragmatics
2.3.1. Preaching Defined
2.3.2. Defining Criteria of Preaching
2.3.3. Preaching in Muslim Communities
2.3.4. Discourse of Preaching
2.3.4.1. Discourse Standards in Preaching
2.3.4.2 Discourse Markers in Preaching
2.3.5. Criticality in Preaching
2.3.6. Pragmemes of Preaching
2.4.1. Definition of Sectarianism
2.4.2. Sources of Sectarianism
2.4.2. 1. Religious
2.4.2. 2. Political [divide and rule]
2.4.2.3. Social
2.4.3. Types of Sectarianism
2.4.3.1. Cultural Sectarianism
2.4.3.2. Political Sectarianism
2.4.3.3. Linguistic Sectarianism [Linguicism]
2.4.3.4. Religious Sectarianism
2.4.4. Approaches to Sectarianism
2.4.4.1. Weber’s Ideal Type Approach
2.4.4.2. Troeltsch’s Socio-cultural Approach
2.4.4.3. Wilson’s Religious Subtypes Approach
2.4.4.4. Stark & Bainbridge’s Movement Approach
2.4.4.5. Presumed Sectarianism Approach
2.4.5. Defining Criteria of Sectarianism
2.4.5.1. Linguistic Criteria
2.4.5.2. Paralinguistic Properties
2.4.5.3. Ideological Criteria
2.4.6. Sectarianism in Islam
2.4.7. Stages of Sectarian Discourse
2.4.7.1. Rationalization and Reproduction Stage
2.4.7.2. Legitimization Stage
2.4.7.3. Naturalizing Sectarianism Stage
2.5. Previous Studies
Chapter Three: Methodology of Analysis
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Relevant Approaches
3.2.1. Fairclough’s Dialectical Approach
3.2.2. Wodak’s Historical Approach
3.2.3. Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach
3.2.4. Van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Approach
3.3. Critical Pragmatic Analysis (CPA)
3.4. Related Criteria
3.5. The Developed Model
3.5.1. Identifying Criteria of Sectarian Situations
3.5.2. Contextual Adaptation
3.5.3. Stage One: Forms of Sectarianism
3.5.3. Stage Two: Ideological Strategies of Naturalization
3.5.4. Stage Three: Critical Pragmatic Mechanisms
Chapter Four: Data Analysis
1.1. Introduction
4.2. Data Collection
4.3. Data Description
4.4. Contextual Adaptation
4.5. Methods of Analysis
4.6. Data Analysis
4.6.1. Qualitative Analysis
4.6.1.1. Sunni British Preachers
4.6.1.2. Sunni- American Preachers
4.6.1.3. Shiite British Preachers
4.6.1.4. Shiite American Preachers
4.6.2 .Quantitative Analysis
Chapter Five:
Conclusions, Recommendations, and Suggestions for Future Work
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Conclusions
5.2.1. Practical Conclusions
5.2.2. Other Conclusions
5.3. Recommendations
5.3. 1. Pedagogical Recommendations
5.3.2. Religious Recommendations
5.3.3. Political Recommendations
5.4 Suggestions for Future Work
Bibliography
Appendix
Research Objectives and Thematic Areas
This study aims to examine sectarianism as a social and pragmatic phenomenon, specifically analyzing how it is manifested in the discourse of British and American Muslim preachers. It establishes a critical pragmatic framework to investigate how sectarian attitudes are conveyed, naturalized, and reproduced, and seeks to develop a model that can identify, analyze, and de-sectarianize such discourse through a mixed-methods approach.
- Critical Pragmatic Analysis (CPA) and its integration with CDA to uncover hidden ideologies.
- Linguistic and paralinguistic markers of sectarianism in preaching.
- Ideological strategies used for sectarian indoctrination and naturalization.
- Comparative analysis of sectarian discourse within British and American Muslim contexts.
- Development of a workable model for de-sectarianizing religious preaching.
Excerpt from the Book
1.1. Preliminaries
In his theory of pragmemes, Mey (2001: 206-35) introduces the pragmatic acts as meta-pragmatics ending with ‘critical pragmatics’, which refers to the relationship between societal powers and discourse, i.e., the pragmatic theory of action that focuses on the ‘doing’ in addition to the ‘saying’ of a communicative event. The concept of doing brings about such pragmatic notions as implicature, presuppositions, relevance, speech acts along with all sub-categories of pragmatic phenomena. This is manifested by the ideologies, authorities, or hegemony that govern the codes of conduct of certain societies to achieve such functions as indoctrination, fraud, cunning, suppression, discrimination, inequality, segregation, conflicting, brainwashing, defamation, enhancing, beatifying… to mention but a few.
This can be done with discourse (Failclaugh and Wodak, 1997: 271-280). To interpret these social practices is to show the relationship between the text and the word, i.e. the context, borrowing Halliday’s (1976) concept of context.
Summary of Chapters
Chapter One: Introduction: This chapter provides the preliminary information on critical pragmatics and sectarianism, defining the problem, aims, and procedure for the entire study.
Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework: This chapter explores the theoretical foundations, focusing on critical pragmatics, the discourse of preaching in Muslim communities, and the definition and sociological approaches to sectarianism.
Chapter Three: Methodology of Analysis: This chapter develops the specific critical pragmatic model used for the study, drawing on CDA approaches and defining the stages of analysis for sectarian situations.
Chapter Four: Data Analysis: This chapter presents the practical analysis of 100 sectarian situations from Sunni and Shiite preachers in British and American contexts, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Chapter Five: Conclusions, Recommendations, and Suggestions for Future Work: This chapter provides the final conclusions, pedagogical and religious recommendations, and suggests potential areas for further investigation.
Keywords
Critical Pragmatics, Sectarianism, Muslim Preachers, Critical Discourse Analysis, Pragmemes, Ideology, Indoctrination, Preaching, Social Power, Pragmatic Strategies, Discourse Markers, Naturalization, Sectarian Discourse, British Context, American Context.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research?
The research focuses on analyzing sectarianism as both a social and pragmatic act, specifically examining how Muslim preachers in British and American contexts use language and ideological strategies to indoctrinate sectarian beliefs.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The study covers critical pragmatics, the discourse of religious preaching, the definition and classification of sectarianism, ideological strategies, and the analysis of social power and dominance in religious rhetoric.
What is the ultimate goal of this study?
The primary aim is to develop a critical pragmatic model to identify and analyze sectarian attitudes in preaching and to suggest ways to de-sectarianize such discourse.
Which scientific methods are utilized?
The study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative discourse analysis of preacher sermons with quantitative statistical methods using SPSS to objectify and compare the findings.
What does the main body of the work address?
The main body investigates the theoretical foundations of critical pragmatics, defines the criteria for preaching and sectarianism, develops an analytical model, and applies this model to analyze data from both Sunni and Shiite preachers.
Which terms best characterize this work?
Keywords include Critical Pragmatics, Sectarianism, Muslim Preachers, Critical Discourse Analysis, Ideology, Indoctrination, and Pragmatic Strategies.
How does the study define the role of the preacher in sectarianism?
The preacher is seen as a social actor who uses language, including discourse markers and ideological strategies, to exercise power, influence the collective mind of the audience, and naturalize sectarian ideologies within the religious context.
What distinguishes this research from previous studies?
Unlike earlier studies that may have focused on general discourse or non-sectarian topics, this research provides a direct, comprehensive pragmatic analysis of sectarian discourse specifically within Muslim communities, offering a model for de-sectarianization.
- Quote paper
- Basim Jubair (Author), 2021, A Critical Pragmatic Approach To Muslim Preachers’ Sectarian Discourse In English Contexts, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1215854
