Pragmatic Social Deixis in the Sermons of the Women of the Alawi Household (Peace Be Upon Them)

Abstract

The sermons of the women of the Alawite household were able to cover a wide range of social topics across their diverse sections. Their contents seemed to be dependent on the political, ideological, and social circumstances the female orators were experiencing. However, within this framework, they remained tinged with social demands and the associated protest and public awareness. As a result, Islamic influences appeared to be a tributary of these sermons, prompting the research to describe some of these social themes within the context of an explicit religious tone. This is evident in the presentation of these themes, which serve as a mirror reflecting the reality of life and the nature of prevailing human thought, given the religious, kinship, and class values and relationships prevalent in society at the time. In this context, deictics played a central pragmatic role in highlighting the speakers' position and their positions within the audience. This intelligent use of deictics formed a coherent pragmatic structure that ensured the effectiveness of discursive intentions and the rapid transmission of meaning within the framework of contextual understanding and the symbolic authority of the statement.

It becomes evident that this linguistic phenomenon served as a central pragmatic tool within Alawi feminist discourse. Far from being mere referential devices used for identification, these elements gave rise to profound ideological and value-laden meanings. Pronouns, temporal and spatial markers, and collective or individual designators were employed to construct a discourse of resistance and to reframe the relationship between the speaker and the audience—thereby asserting the symbolic and moral superiority of the female speaker while simultaneously condemning the recipient group.