The semantics and pragmatics of blessing expressions in Rayya Tigrinya

Abstract

AbstractBlessings, both ritualized and religious, are universal phenomena despite varying from one society to another in terms of linguistic expressions and manner of practice. They are “performative utterances” intricately woven into the very fabric of human existence. This paper set out to uncover the semantics and pragmatics of blessing expressions in Rayya Tigrinya, a variety of Tigrinya, spoken in the Southern Tigray Zone in Ethiopia. Accordingly, blessing expressions’ literal and contextual meanings performed by elders and parents were presented and analyzed. The study adopted a descriptive design within a qualitative research approach. To obtain authentic data, a total of 9 native Rayya Tigrinya speakers, 4 males and 5 females, aged 45–85 years, were purposefully selected. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews and validated through the introspective method. The gathered data were thematically classified and analyzed through linguistic descriptive methods. The results confirmed that blessings are predominantly used metaphorically or connotatively, devoid of their literal meanings. Peace, health, unity, wealth, long life, success, successor, caretaker, and inclusion, all of which are basic for humans’ existence, are the most general and recurrent themes expressed in the elders’ and parents’ blessings. Blessing expressions, which are believed to be materialized in the future, are used for face-saving acts. In most instances, blessings are made implicitly appealing to the supernatural whose divine power is believed to execute the good wishes/benedictions, which also makes them religious. In other words, blessings are applied for mediation between the human world and the divine realm.

Keywords

• blessing expressions
• Rayya Tigrinya
• speech acts
• performative utterance
• expressive speech acts
• metaphorical meanings