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A Genre-Based Investigation of Wedding Invitation Cards and Obituary Announcements in Jordanian Society

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A Genre-Based Investigation of Wedding Invitation Cards and Obituary Announcements in Jordanian Society University of Huddersfield Repository Sawalmeh, Murad Ceremonial Arabic Writing: A Genre-Based Investigation of Wedding Invitation Cards and Obituary Announcements in Jordanian Society Original Citation Sawalmeh, Murad (2015) Ceremonial Arabic Writing: A Genre-Based Investigation of Wedding Invitation Cards and Obituary Announcements in Jordanian Society. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/28708/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ CEREMONIAL ARABIC WRITING: A GENRE-BASED INVESTIGATION OF WEDDING INVITATION CARDS AND OBITUARY ANNOUNCEMENTS IN JORDANIAN SOCIETY MURAD HASSAN SAWALMEH A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Huddersfield October 2015 Abstract The objectives of this thesis are fourfold: First, I will offer a detailed analysis of rhetorically functional text component moves of the genres of Jordanian written wedding invitation cards and newspaper obituary announcements at the macro-structural level. Second, I will provide a comprehensive analysis of salient linguistic features that characterize the genres at the micro- linguistic level. Third, I will find out how socio-cultural and religious beliefs and practices are reflected in the generic formulaic structure of these genres. Fourth, I will show how sociolinguistic variability and dynamics are evident in the genres. In order to explore the discourse of these genres, a move analysis was carried out upon a corpus of 500 wedding invitation cards, and another 500 newspaper obituary announcements. The analysis of macro- structural and micro-linguistic features is influenced by the work of Bhatia (1993) as it profitably illuminates the relationship between social practice and written discourse. The findings of the study are fivefold. First, the study demonstrates that eight and eleven communicative moves exist in wedding invitation cards and obituary announcements respectively. Each move performs a specific communicative function and contributes to the general communicative purpose of the entire genre. Second, the genre analysis indicates that the generic organisational structure of the genres is highly conventionalized and structured in terms of form, content, positioning and functional values, with some variations in frequency and order of moves. Third, the writers of Jordanian wedding invitations and obituary announcements use a number of linguistic resources the way they like to generate some special effects and express private and organisational intentions within the framework of culturally recognised purposes. Fourth, the generic structure of the genres uncovers many socio-cultural and religious messages about Jordanian society. Finally, the findings showed that, besides religion, other sociocultural factors such as family, gender, and socioeconomic status have massively impacted the way these genres are structured and interpreted. It is hoped that the results of this study will be of great help in further understanding the socio-cultural perceptions, attitudes and values that shape these two communicative events as well as aiding in efforts towards intercultural communication. 2 Dedication To my beloved parents, Hassan and Azeezah, to my loyal wife, Heba, and to my lovely kids, Ahmed and Adam. Their love, support and patience have lightened up my spirit to finish this study. 3 Acknowledgement First and above all, I would like to thank Almighty Allah for his guidance, endless blessings and unparalleled grace throughout my research journey. Allah, I am very thankful, as you have given me never-ending love, care and stamina that have enabled me to accomplish this research project well in a given period of time. It gives me immense pleasure to be supervised by Prof. Dániel Kádár. I would like to sincerely express my deepest gratitude and sincere appreciation for his patient guidance, enthusiasm and tireless support in guiding this research to a successful completion. Dániel, I do appreciate your massive knowledge and the timely responses to all academic matters related to my research. I also would like to thank my co-supervisor Dr. Jim O'Driscoll for his constant support, constructive suggestions and invaluable input to this research. I want to express my deeply-felt thanks to Dr. Tatyana Karpenko-Seccombe, Dr. Mohammed Azanee Saad, James Orme, Ali Barakat, Dr. Hamzeh Al-Jarah for their feedback and invaluable advice on my research, as well as for being very supportive of my work. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to my uncle Abu-Islam for his constant help and moral support, which were invaluable in completing this thesis. Of course, this research would not have been possible without the love and support of my family. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my father and mother for always encouraging me to follow my dreams. To my father and mother, I owe a great deal of thanks for your constant supplications and spiritual support. I should also acknowledge my deepest thanks to my brothers and sisters who helped me in whatever way they could during this life-challenging experience. And finally and most importantly, the most special acknowledgment goes to my supportive, loving and faithful wife, Heba, and my two wonderful children, Ahmad and Adam, who experienced all of the ups and downs of my research. 4 Ceremonial Arabic Writing: A Genre-based Investigation of Wedding Invitation Cards and Obituary Announcements in Jordanian Society Murad Hassan Sawalmeh Copyright notice i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trade marks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 5 Table of Contents Title Page Abstract …………………………………………………………………………...…… 2 Dedication………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….. 4 Declaration …………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Table of contents……………………………………………………………………….. 6 List of figures…………………………………………………………………………... 11 List of tables……………………………………………………………………………. 12 List of Arabic phonetic symbols used in transliteration……………………………….. 14 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………..…………………. 16 1.2 Background to the study ……………………………………………………………... 20 1.2.1 A general overview of the Jordanian society ………………………………… 20 1.2.2 The social context of wedding rituals in Jordan ……………………………… 25 1.2.3 Jordanian wedding invitation cards…………………………………………… 31 1.2.4 The social context of death rituals in Jordan…………………………………. 33 1.2.5 Jordanian obituary announcements …………………………………………... 38 1.2.6 Social and cultural aspects of the study………………………………………. 40 1.3 Aims and questions of the study ……………………………………….…………….. 42 1.4 Structure of the study ………………..……………………………………………….. 44 Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………..………. 48 2.2 Genre theory……………………………………………………………………….…. 49 2.2.1 The concept of genre …………………………...…………………………..… 49 2.2.2 Genre as social practice ……………………………………………………..... 52 2.2.3 Main goals of genre analysis …………………………………………..……... 55 2.3 Genre analysis …………………………………………………………………….….. 56 2.3.1 The concept of genre analysis ……………………………………...…...……. 56 2.3.2 Genre analysis and its applications………………………………...…..……... 58 2.3.3 Approaches to genre analysis …………………………………..…………….. 63 2.3.3.1 The Systemic Functional approach ……………………………..……. 63 2.3.3.2 The New Rhetorical approach…………………………...……….…… 65 2.3.3.3 English for Specific Purposes approach………………………….…… 66 2.3.3.4 The three genre analysis approaches: similarities and differences..…. 69 2.4 Discourse …………………………………………………………………………….. 71 2.4.1 Discourse and genre ……………...…………………………………………... 71 2.4.2 Homely
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