Rethinking Gricean and post-Gricean categories of meaning: Evidence from Sībawayhian and post-Sībawayhian pragmatics in the Arabic tradition

The aim of this thesis is to conduct a cross-cultural metapragmatic study that (i) considers fresh theories and philosophies of communication from the indigenous Arabic pragmatic tradition and (ii) reevaluates the Anglo-American lens through which contemporary pragmatic models and categories of discourse meaning are defined. In particular, this thesis consists of three parts: First, it draws from the original historical texts of Sībawayhian and post-Sībawayhian pragmatics in the Arabic tradition, with a focus on how the concepts of metapragmatic conventions (conventions_mp) and integrative context (context_i) figure in their pragmatics-centric, intuition-driven framework of meaning-making. Second, this thesis utilizes these novel insights to rethink and potentially reshape Gricean and post-Gricean categorizations of conventions vis-à-vis context; linguistic vis-à-vis social sources of information; defaults vis-à-vis inferences; as well as semantics vis-à-vis pragmatics. Third, this thesis proposes a unique integrative contextualisti (IC) model of interpretation à la Sībawayhian and post-Sībawayhian theory, which on the one hand can be further developed in its own right, but on the other hand advances post-Gricean pragmatics by (i) expanding the pragmatic source and nature of conventionality and contextuality; (ii) balancing out the intention-convention interface by emphasizing the explanatory role of conventions in inference-making and framing conventions as a part of rather than apart from context; and (iii) simplifying meaning representation by opening up all sources of information to default and inferential processing. In the bigger picture, this thesis represents a step in the direction of integrating metapragmatic insights of lingo-culturally diverse intellectual traditions to create a “positively eclectic” grounds for pragmatic research with greater potential for universal applications.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Shahidullah, Sadiyah

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jaszczolt, Katarzyna

• Arabic Linguistics
• Islamic Linguistics
• Pragmatics
• Semantics
• Sibawayhi

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/a9d61063-04d7-4be0-8555-242e8b137b1d/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.106417

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/364947