Expressing Grief through Messages of Condolence: A Genre Analysis.
Keywords:
death, grief, condolence, genre,Abstract
Death is an unpleasant but common human phenomenon that usually puts humans in a state of unrest and grief. When such an unpleasant incidence befalls us, our neighbours, acquaintances, and friends try to sympathize with us, and the same gesture is reciprocated when they are in the same situation. The primary objective of this study is to analyze messages of condolence in terms of its schematic structure and linguistic features. Using the rhetorical approach to genre analysis, the study examined a data set of thirty (36) letters of condolences which were downloaded from the portal of International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICPT). The research identified nine moves. Out of the nine, six of the moves are obligatory and the rest are optional. In addition, each move has distinctive lexico-grammatical features. Furthermore, the schematic structure in addition to the lexico-grammatical features highlights the social functions of condolence messages in the world in general since the letters of condolences used for this study were written by people all over the world. This research has implications for genre studies in general, and further studies.
References
Afful, J. B. A. (2012). A Genre Analysis of Death Announcements in Ghanaian Newspapers.
Language and Society, Vol 1
Akibdele, D. (2007). Lumela/Lumela: A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of Sesotho Greetings. Nordic
Journal of African Studies, 16(1): 1-17.
Al-Ali, M. N. (1999). Genre, Schema, and Academic Writing Process: An Enquiry into the
Generalisability of Generic Structure and its Relationship to Schematic Knowledge. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Durham,UK.
Askildson, L. (2007). Discourse and Generic Features of US Army Obituaries: A Mini-corpus
Analysis of Contemporary Military Death Announcements. Language, Meaning and Society, 1:108-121.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bernan, M. (2008). Condolence Books: Language and Meaning in the Mourning for Hillsborogh
and Diana. Death Studies, 32: 326-351.
Bhatia, V. (1993). Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.
Byrant, C.D. & Peck, D.L. (Eds.) (2009). Encyclopaedia of Death and the Human Experience.
Los Angeles: Sage.
Creswell, J.W. (2002). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods
Approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Dubois, B. (1997). The Biomedical Discussion Section in Context. Vol. XLVI in the series
Advances in Discourse Processes Greenwich: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Dudley-Evans, T. (1994). Genre Analysis: An Approach to Text Analysis for ESP. in M.
Coulthard (ed.) Avances in Written Text Analysis. London Routledge.
Emery, P. G. (2000). Greeting, Congratulating and Commiserating in Omani Arabic Language.
Culture and Curriculum, 13(2): 196-217.
Fernandez, E. C. (2007). Linguistic Devices Coping with Death in Victorian Obituaries. Revista
Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 20: 7-21.
Holmes R. (1997). Genre Analysis and Social Sciences: An Investigation of the Structure of
Research Article Sections in Three Disciplines. English for Specific Purpose 16, 321-337.
Holmes , T. & Rahe, R. (1967). Holmes-Rahe Life Changes Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic
Research, 11, 213-218.
Lyons, J. (1981). Language and Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moses, R. & Marelli, G. (2004). Obituaries and Discursive Construction of Dying and Living.
Texas Linguistic Forum 47: 123-130.
Mostafa, M. M.& Reza, P. (2013). Investigating Condolence Responses in English and Persian.
International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning Volume 2 Number 1, 39-47
Mwihaki, A. (2004). Meaning as Use: A Functional View of Semantics and Pragmatics.
SWAHILI FORUM, 11: 127-139. Searle, J. (1979). Expression
Punch, K (1998). Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches.
London, Sage.
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd
ed.). New York: University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667305 accessed on 5/01/2013
Strang, G. (2001). London Bereavement Network. Annual Report 2000/2001. Retrieved from the
Web 10/04/2003. http://www.bereavement.org.uk/ accessed on 5/01/2013
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yahya, E . M. (2010). A Study of Condolences in Iraqi Arabic with Reference to English. Adab
Al-rafidayn,vol.(57)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
By submitting and publishing your articles in the African Journal of Applied Research, you agree to transfer the copyright of the Article from the authors to the Journal ( African Journal of Applied Research).
