Repartees: Silencing Replies from a Holistic Pragmatic Perspective

Ramia Fua’d Abdulazeez

doi:10.47012/jjmll.17.3.3

Authors

Ramia Fua’d Abdulazeez Department of English, College of Education for Women, University of Baghdad, Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9088-3374

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47012/jjmll.17.3.3

Keywords:

Analogy, Construction, Holistic Pragmatics, Repartee, Silencing

Abstract

This study examines the holistic (i.e. causal) pragmatic structure of repartees, which are considered as silencing replies. It aims to build their structure by adopting Kopytko’s (2009) approach. It also aims to identify the type of analogy which fuels such witty replies via adopting Itkonen’s (2005) relation-based taxonomy. The methodology followed is qualitative represented by analyzing examples, from various sources, via an eclectic approach built on the two approaches mentioned above. The study endeavors to answer one question: What is the basic component which makes such replies silence their interlocutors? The answer has been shown to be self-referential analogy whose embodiment is binary- temporal and personal. It is concluded that a repartee’s holistic pragmatic structure embraces static and dynamic components. The former includes two: locution and perlocution. The latter, in turn, pertains to the illocution whose force changes in accordance with the context in its broadest sense. The significance of this study lies in its being the first linguistic one to bridge the gap in the literature on the concept of repartees as tackled here. It can help individuals to issue witty replies to silence their opponents when having unallowed standpoints, especially those concerned with bullying or hate speech in general.

Highlights:

Shedding light on an important aspect of language use - repartees. Learning how to issue them help speakers to face bullying or any supporters of hate speech in whatever form.
Showing the various forces which a repartee can perform: jocularity, defense, insult, etc.
Identifying the different types of analogy which fuel such witty responses.
Uncovering the infrastructure of repartees in order to learn how to issue one.
Spotting a new type of reasoning, i.e., analogic reasoning, which plays a crucial part in issuing such replies.

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Web sources:

Web source 1:

file:///E:/16-4-2024/Documents/Full%20Prof.%20papers/Repartees/Famous%20Insults,%20Famous%20Comebacks,%20Famous%20Rejoinders,%20Famous%20Ripostes%20and%20Famous%20Repartee.html