The Best Topic for an Ode from Roodaki Viewed as a Pragmatic Perspective

زبانشناسی و گویش های خراسان

Article 6, Volume 8, Issue 14, November 2016, Pages 163-181   

Document Type: علمی - پژ‍وهشی

DOI: 10.22067/lj.v8i14.40748

Author

Mohsen Mobaraki^*

Birjand University

Abstract

Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
The word discourse has become widespread in human sciences since 1960s. As a result of recent improvements in linguistics, different attitudes toward discourse analysis were introduced noting that all language aspects should be considered under the social context (Sha'iri, 1381). The present research aims at finding out which of the topics, namely "Ghasideie dandanieh" (Dandanieh ode), "piry" (oldness), "Konun zamaneh degar gasht" (Nowadays everything has changed) or "Delam neshato tarab ra farakh meidan bud" (I was extremely happy) is the most suitable topic for one of Roodaki's odes through considering Hymes' discourse analysis principle (1964), Grice's relation principle (1975) and Grice's presupposition principle (1981).
A piece of writing can have different meanings if it is used in different times and places and by different listeners or speakers, so that it may mean "X" in context "A" while it means "Y" in context "B". In Hymes's (1964) ethnographic hypothesis, the method of social relations governing people in selecting and picking a language genre is considered as a basic issue in discourse analysis. He refers to eight characteristics in his language paradigm to analyze the events. According to Hymes's hypothesis (1975), the relations should follow special principles including quality principle, quantity principle, relation principle, and speech manner principle. This hypothesis asserts that speakers always try to speak in a way that is away from being misunderstood.
2. Methodology
This ode is discussed through using a bottom-up approach which should start from the text level in order to reconstruct the outer contexts. Since the physical context and the analyzers are not present in the context where the text is produced, inner contexts should be used through employing instruments such as presuppositions, so that the unmentioned facts could be derived from the text. In this ode the sentences are primarily analyzed singularly and then in a unified way based on cohesive and coherent principles and are analyzed and compared through tables. It is worth mentioning that text coherence refers to the unity of the sentences done through the sentence relation and is made through liaison words and this kind of coherence is done through semantic relations between the words.
3. Discussion
In this part some of Roodaki's odes are mentioned to decide which topic is the best one for this ode. In verse "mara besudo foroo rikht har che dandan bud" (All my teeth fell down), the addressee is unknown and not easy to be understood. Through considering some more words and increasing situational contexts and more references, the addressee will become crystal clear.
On the other hand, different speech acts including regret, complaint, advice, admiration and thanking have different connotations in different sentences. As an example, the speech act in the verse "Sepideh sim radeh budo dorro marjan bud, setareie sahari budo ghatreh baran bud" (The dawn raised up seeming like gem and coral, and it looked like dawn star falling as droplets) can denote admiration, regret, or both. As the number of contexts increase, different speech acts become more understandable. For instance, in the verse "yeki namand konun zan hame besudo berikht, che nahs bovad? hamana ke nahs keivan bud, na nahs keivan budo na ruzegar deraz, che bud? manat beguyam ghazaye doran bud" [no teeth left and all fell down, what is ominous? seems Keivan is ominous, neither Keivan nor life is ominous, so? I tell you it was fate] it seems that the speech act can be a sort of complaint from the life.
In verse "shod an zamane ke she'rash hameh jahan benevesht, shod an zamaneh ke oo sha'ere Khorasan bud" (The time came when everybody used his poems and he changed into a well-known poet in Khorasan) the topic is the life change and the changes happening in the poet's manner and the presupposition is that there must be a Khorasani poet. Since by considering other verses, different speech acts such as admiration and regret is denoted from this verse, it can be concluded that once the poet's words was understood in different places and times in the past, there was no poet in khorasan to be as influential as he was.
4. Conclusion
As mentioned in the article, sentences are analyzed based on semantics and context has no role in this regard. So, the present research looked at this issue from a discourse perspective which has a close relation with pragmatics. It considered Roodaki's sentences in one of his odes having different names in different sources, and based on different discourse elements including speaker, addressee, topic, message, presuppositions, and speech acts, tried to find a suitable topic for Roodaki's ode. Since the topic "Hasrate javani" (youth time regret) is only based on one of the issues in discourse analysis namely the speech act of "regret", it cannot be an appropriate topic for this discourse, and since word "life" has got the most frequency in this ode, the topic "konun zamaneh degar gasht" (now everything has changed) can be considered as the most suitable topic for this ode.

Keywords

cohesion; Coherence; Rodaki’s ode

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