Metonymy as a Pragma-Rhetorical Feature in some Speeches of Imam Ali

Abstract

The speech of Prophet Mohammad and his progeny (P.B.U.T) is regarded a main source for several sciences such as rhetoric and eloquence. Their speeches are expected to be an adequate corpus of analysis in the light of modern linguistic theories. As such, this paper investigates the pragma-rhetorical functions of metonymy in Imam Ali's (P.B.U.H) speeches. It aims at examining the applicability of one of the modern linguistic theories,namely rhetorical pragmatics, on Imam Ali's (P.B.U.H) speech. It is hypothesized that:(a)Imam Ali's (P.B.U.H) speeches serve as data of analysis for testing the applicability of Rhetorical Pragmatics, (b) he utilizes all types of metonymy to replace certain issues and actions, and (c) metonymy can breach pragmatic principles such as the cooperative principle so as to perform pragmatic functions.For the sake of analyzing the selected data, the study develops a model for finding out types of metonymy, pragmatic strategies and pragmatic functions.According to the analysis, a number of conclusions has been arrived at.All types of metonymy are used indata under scrutiny. The maxim of quality is the most prominent pragmatic strategy of metonymy. Besides, two functions are performed by these types of metonymy including affirmation and dispraise. Finally, the study proves that Imam Ali's (P.B.U.H) speeches are an important area of pragma-rhetorical data analyses.