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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 16:2 (2025) ► pp.201–225

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Talking about the deceased in the Jish linguaculture

A semantic and pragmatic analysis

ORCiD logo with link | Tel-Hai College
Published online: 8 March 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.23034.hab
Abstract
This paper has aimed to look into the terms and expressions used in the Jish linguaculture when talking about the deceased. Seventeen such terms and expressions are presented, discussed, and explicated using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. The explications appear in simple, (semi-)universal language, which makes them relatively easily understood and readily translatable into any language. This, in turn, means that the explications are accessible by linguacultural insiders and outsiders. In addition, the study provides anthropologists and linguists with precise analysis owing to its micro-level focus; it investigates the micro-linguaculture of Jish, which belongs to the macro-culture of the Arab world. Lastly, the study documents one aspect of this undocumented linguaculture; this documentation can preserve one part of this linguaculture from fading into oblivion.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Talking about someone’s death in the Jish linguaculture
    • 3.1Different ways of saying “someone died”
    • 3.2Different ways of saying “someone was buried”
    • 3.3Different ways of referring to the deceased
      • 3.3.1ḥayāt ‘life’ & Il-ḥarīʾ ‘the burned’
      • 3.3.2alla yirḥamu ‘may God have mercy on him’
      • 3.3.3yirḥam il-trāb illi lammu ‘may [God] have mercy on the soil that engulfed him’
      • 3.3.4alla yghammiʾlu ‘may God make it deeper for him’
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
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