Analyzing Surah MaryamBased on Speech Act TheoryEmphasizing John Searle's Model

Applying new linguistic theories in the analysis of religious texts puts new horizons before researchers in both domains. One of these theories is Austin and Searle's speech acts theory. The study of the relationship between the speaker's mind and the actions performed with language is the main objective of this linguistic theory, which was raised under the influence of studies in analytic philosophy. Applying this theory to the analysis of Qur’anic texts reveals the deep layers of the meanings of the ayahs and shows how the various propositions and patterns in the Qur’an can be taken to mean differently given the register and the context of the ayahs. The present descriptive-analytical study that relies on John Searle's model in the aforementioned theory, analyzes the speech acts in Surah Maryam. The results show that among Searle’s five basic speech acts, declaratives, commissives, and expressives have the highest frequency in Surah Maryam. The declarative act is often used to recount the history of peoples misled and eventually due to negligence and defiance of religious leaders, perished. The commissive act, while informing the audience about the fate of the predecessors, encourages them to follow the path of happiness and salvation. The expressive act expresses the mental states and emotional conditions of the characters mentioned in Surah Maryam. Most of these acts are indirect and the interpretive power and depth of meanings of the ayahs are in a way that in many cases there exist more than a single speech act.