YOU WANT TO HEAR THE MAGIC WORD? INSHALLAH
YOU WANT TO HEAR THE MAGIC WORD? INSHALLAH
Author(s): Mihăiţă HorezeanuSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Editura Universităţii de Vest din Timişoara / Diacritic Timisoara
Keywords: inshallah; intercultural communication; situation-bound utterances; speech acts;
Summary/Abstract: The present paper focuses on how the Arabic expression ‘inshallah’ (i.e. “God willing”) is used in English by Arab speakers and how it is (mis)understood by non-Arab/non-Muslim speakers of English. I start from some general considerations pertaining to intercultural communication, and then proceed to examine how cultural differences can account for communication barriers and failures. The last part of my paper looks at the various communicative functions of ‘inshallah’ from a speech-act theoretic perspective.
Journal: B.A.S. British and American Studies
- Issue Year: 2015
- Issue No: 21
- Page Range: 193-204
- Page Count: 12