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Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 28:1 (2018) ► pp.29–60

To be or not to be your son’s father/mother

A cognitive-pragmatic perspective on terms of address in Najdi and Tunisian Arabic

| King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The current article offers a comparative account of the address system of two dialects of Arabic, Najdi and Tunisian Arabic. Capitalizing on the theory of Idealized Cognitive Model, the article defends the view that the two systems display Idealized models, which are central to the system, and non-Idealized models, which are peripheral to it. Najdi Arabic includes Idealized terms such as first names, teknonyms, and kinship terms while non-Idealized models include a battery of terms of address. Tunisian Arabic Idealized models hinge on Si/Lalla + first names, first names, and kinship terms while non-Idealized models make use of endeared first names, kinship terms, and diminished kinship terms. The two systems are shown to differ at the level of types of encounter (including formality, closeness, and deference), availability of address options, social horizontality-verticality, and use of metaphor and metonymy.

Keywords: Idealized, non-Idealized, teknonym, Si/Lalla+first name, horizontality , verticality , metaphor, metonymy
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.The theory of idealized cognitive models
  • 2.Overview of terms of address
  • 3.Najdi Arabic address system
    • 3.1Propositional structure of Najdi Arabic address system
      • 3.1.1Idealized Cognitive Models
      • 3.1.2Non-Idealized Cognitive Models
    • 3.2Image-schematic structure of Najdi Arabic address system
    • 3.3Metaphorical mappings of Najdi Arabic address system
    • 3.4Metonymical mappings of Najdi Arabic address system
  • 4.Tunisian Arabic address system
    • 4.1Propositional structure of the Tunisian Arabic address system
      • 4.1.1Idealized Cognitive Models
      • 4.1.2Non-idealized cognitive models
    • 4.2Image-schematic structure of the Tunisian Arabic address system
    • 4.3Metaphorical mappings of the Tunisian Arabic address system
    • 4.4Metonymical mappings of the Tunisian Arabic address system
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 13 February 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.00001.ben
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