The Linguistic Features of Politeness in Qur'anic Dialogues: A Pragmatic Study of the Chapter of ''The Cave''

The scope of the study:
       The present study attempts to investigate politeness techniques used on the Holy Qur'an using basically Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness (1987). The study mainly focuses on the dialogue between prophet Moses (peace be upon him) and the righteous servant in the chapter of the “Cave” in the English translation of the Holy Qur'an by Yusuf Ali (2007).The selected dialogue reflects the social communication between characters of different social distance and shows how politeness strategies may vary from situation to another according to social distance and relative power of the participants. The chosen dialogue also sets a great example for how should be the dialogue between a knowledgeable man and a knowledge seeker.
Methodology:
      The study adopts a pragmatic approach. It attempts to test Brown and Levinson's model of politeness on the selected dialogue. The authors introduced four possible strategies to calculate the weightiness of politeness: bold on record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off record. For all utterances done by speaker and the hearer through the conversation, the type of strategy used is analyzed.
Findings of the research:
      The present study has attempted to test Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness (1987) on the Quranic dialogue between prophet Moses and the righteous servant in the chapter of “The Cave". Throughout the analysis of the dialogue, it has become clear how the social variables which are the social distance between the participants, the power relation between them and the degree of imposition of an FTA have affected the participants’ choice of the suitable politeness strategies during the social interaction in order to make a polite request. The findings have also shown how the relationship between the interlocutors including the three social variables affects the directness and the indirectness of the selected dialogue. For example, as seen during the analysis, prophet Moses adopted a more decent and polite way in making his request to learn using the negative politeness strategy of being indirect, "May I follow thee, on the footing that thou teach me something of the (Higher) Truth which thou hast been taught?"(no:66). On the other hand, when Alkhidr refused prophet Moses’ request in the beginning, he was considerate to his negative face ‘wants not to be impeded’ that is why he chose to be indirect giving a reason for his refusal avoiding hurting Moses as the face threat of the act of refusal was so great. So, Alkhidr spoke off-record giving an association clue for the act of refusal, "Verily thou wilt not be able to have patience with me"(no:67).
              In addition, House and Kasper's modality markers (1981) were used during the analysis to support Brown and Levinson's model of politeness (1987). For example, the use of the upgraders was most evident such as the use of intensifiers such as, 'verily and truly'. Thus, the findings have answered the research questions mentioned previously in the introduction as the analysis of the corpus of the study has reviewed politeness strategies used in the selected dialogue and why they are used .