A Pragmatic Analysis of Impoliteness in Iraqi Family
In Selected Iraqi TV Series
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36324/fqhj.v2i55.23166Keywords:
impoliteness, Culpeper's strategy, , approach, , function, actorsAbstract
Iraqi drama has played a significant role in the artistic, social, and cultural life of Iraqi society for decades. It has consistently mirrored the realities, values, and cultural identity of the Iraqi people across different social classes. This study investigates the use of impoliteness strategies in Iraqi television drama, with the aim of identifying the most frequently employed strategies and examining their communicative functions within dramatic discourse.
The study is primarily based on Culpeper's (1996) model of impoliteness, together with its subsequent developments (2003, 2005). Although Lachenicht's (1980) model was also reviewed, Culpeper's framework was selected as the main analytical model because it is more comprehensive and better suited to the context of Iraqi dramatic discourse.
The data consist of twenty scenes selected from nine Iraqi television series. These scenes provide representative examples of the various impoliteness strategies and their communicative functions. The strategy of withhold politeness was excluded from the analysis because no clear instances of its occurrence were found in the selected corpus.
Methodologically, the study adopts a mixed-methods approach. A qualitative descriptive method is employed to analyze the selected dialogues and interpret the communicative purposes, emotional expressions, and contextual use of impoliteness strategies. In addition, a quantitative approach is used to calculate the frequency and percentage of each strategy, thereby providing statistical support for the qualitative findings.
The study is organized into two main parts: a theoretical framework and a practical analysis. The theoretical framework reviews the concepts of pragmatics, impoliteness, impoliteness strategies, and their communicative functions, drawing on the works of Bousfield (2008), Lakoff (1989), Beebe (1995), Culpeper (1996), and Terkourafi (2008). The practical analysis examines dialogues extracted from Iraqi television series available on YouTube and analyzes them according to Culpeper's model of impoliteness strategies. The findings reveal that Iraqi television drama employs a variety of impoliteness strategies to express conflict, power relations, criticism, and emotional tension, with some strategies occurring more frequently than others depending on the communicative context.
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