Imperative-Didactic Speech Acts in Mourid Barghouti’s Novel I Saw Ramallah

Speech act theory is one of the well-known theories in applied linguistics. By considering language in the context of human acts, it reveals what is left unsaid in the text and enables us to arrive at an interpretation of it. Based on this theory, one does not merely use words and sentences to communicate a meaning, but commits acts which are called speech acts.  I saw Ramallah is an autobiographical novel by Mourid Barghouti, a Palestinian poet and writer. The events of the novel revolve around his return to Ramallah and Deir Ghassana after thirty years of exile to European and Arab countries. The article highlights and analyzes imperative-didactic speech acts of the novel in order to determine the author’s purpose in using them. The importance of the research is evident in the fact that the novel contains emotional speech acts contained in interrogative speech acts in order to express the plight of Palestinians and their resistance against the Zionists. The research argues that two kinds of interrogative speech acts are used in the novel: direct and indirect. The direct speech acts are used by the characters in order to acquire information. The indirect speech acts, however, are used by the writer in accordance with the societal circumstances to express his goals. They are mostly used to express denial, anger, scolding, ridicule, sadness, regret, and surprise upon seeing what has happened and is happening to Ramallah. This type of speech act is prevalent in the novel since it is the most effective in expressing the writer’s intentions and it highlights the communicative aspects of language, which are convincing, encouraging, and affecting the interlocutor. Thus, the writer uses indirect speech acts to reveal his psychological state, as he wants to influence the reader and stir the feelings of the Arab and Islamic nation so that they realize the issue of the Palestinian people and the right that is taken from them by the Zionists.