Religious Expressions and Discursive Politeness in Synchronous Communication

Abstract

In Islamic Arabic culture, religious words and phrases play a significant role and serve various pragmatic functions, mainly related to politeness strategies. However, politeness strategies have not been accounted for in politeness theories because of the theories' secular nature. Although several studies have analyzed the functions of specific religious expressions in face-to-face verbal interactions, no study has yet investigated the role of these expressions in non-face-to-face written discourses. Therefore, in this paper, it is asserted that religious expressions in the Muslim discourse can be salient aspects of polite and politic behavior in non-face-to-face interactions, such as Telegram chats. The study adopted an eclectic discursive approach to data analysis, entailing the use of Brown and Levinson's (1987) modern model and Terkourafi's (2008) and Watts' (2009) post-modern models. The findings showed that Saudi interactants on Telegram value expressing their religious identities with other interactants despite anonymity of participants and constrains of time and space. The findings also provided implications about the applicability of relational work of Terkourafi (2008) and Watts (2009) to synchronous communication. Interactants on Telegram used religious expressions to express polite and politic behavior.