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A Pragmatic Analysis of the Expression ʕafiah in Jordanian Spoken Arabic

Authors

  • Manar Al Hassi ORCID

    School of Foreign Languages, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
  • Oday Alshorafat Email ORCID

    School of Foreign Languages, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i9.10775
Received: 28 June 2025 | Revised: 9 July 2025 | Accepted: 15 July 2025 | Published Online: 10 September 2025

Abstract

The present study investigates the pragmatic functions of ʕafiah (literally meaning health, well­being, or wholeness) in Jordanian Spoken Arabic (JSA), using Levinson's pragmatic framework to examine its varied uses in context. For this purpose, the researchers compiled an initial list of situations in which ʕafiah is used. They based their selection on their knowledge as native speakers of JSA with the expression and their familiarity with the expression's usage. They then highlighted and explored the pragmatic function of ʕafiah in each context. Two Arabic language instructors validated the discovered functions and proposed changes to several of the situations and functions. The acceptability of the revised list was tested against the linguistic intuition of 40 native speakers of Jordanian Arabic. The findings revealed that ʕafiah serves twelve pragmatic functions, all related to expressing various emotions or attitudes: praise, happiness, approval, appreciation, mockery, disapproval, surprise, anger, frustration, annoyance, condemnation, and surrender. The study further showed that ʕafiah functions as a pragmatically versatile discourse marker, predominantly conveying negative rather than positive meanings. It concluded that context plays a pivotal role in understanding and interpreting the pragmatic meanings performed by ʕafiah in different socially grounded situations. Future studies should investigate the pragmatic meanings of ʕafiah across different Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi, Syrian, Yemeni, and others.

Keywords:

Context, Discourse Markers, Pragmatic Functions, Jordanian Spoken Arabic, ʕafiah

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2025 Vol.7 No.9

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Article

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Copyright © 2025 Manar Al Hassi, Oday Alshorafat

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