Semantic Roles in Selected Irjouzas of the Battle of Al-Taf

(A Semantic Sociolinguistic Study)

الملخص

   The main goal of studies on religious language is to analyze styles that are used in religious sentences and expressions. These sentences include a variety of agent, state of affairs or properties to raise topics such as guidance, thanks to God, justice, etc. The current study presents two types of analysis: the first is a semantic analysis of ten selected Irjouzas from the fighters of Imam Hussein's army, peace be upon him, in the Battle of Al-Taf. At that time, the fighters used to say several verses of poetry called Irjouzas, showing off their combat capabilities in an attempt to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies. The Irjouzas are chosen, from five young fighters and five older fighters. The aim of such choice is to conduct the second type of analysis, which is a sociolinguistic analysis according to the variable of age. The study assumes that Irjouzas include certain semantic roles to be the most used. It also assumes that young speakers use certain semantic roles more than older speakers and vice versa. The conclusion leads to the fact that the young talkers use the semantic role of relational agent more than the old ones because they need to identify themselves, while the old ones are mainly known to their enemies. On the other hand, older talkers use the semantic role of theme more than young people because their experiences in life and fighting are wide and therefore they had historical actions and victims on the battlefields.