Mansoura University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English

Mechanics of Linguistic Variability and Socio-cultural Mobility

:in the Palestinian Wedding Invitation Discourse
A Sociolinguistic Perspective

:Submitted by
Sami Ali Houssein Heeh

For the PhD Degree in Arts / English Language and Literature /

Linguistics / Applied Linguistics

:Supervised by
Prof Dr. Hamdy Muhammad Muhammad Shahin
Professor of Linguistics
Faculty of Arts – Mansoura University
2019-2020
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Pages: I-XII
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………………...……. V
DEDICATION ………………………………………… VI
LIST OF FIGURES ……..…………………………….. VII
LIST OF EXAMPLES…..……………………..…..….. VII
TABLE OF APPENDIX HEADINGS ….…….……… VIII
LIST OF TABLES …......……………………………… VIII
ABSTRACT …………………….……………………... IX
KEY WORDS ……….……….………………………... XII
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS ……………………… XII
Chapter One: INTRODUCTION 1-38
1. Preface ………………………………………………….... 1
1.2 Background of the Study ……………………………...... 1
1.2. The Wedding Invitation as a Speech Act ………………. 1
1
1.2. Wedding as Performance ……………………………….. 5
2
1.2. Wedding as a Complex Event …………………………... 7
3
1.2. The Wedding Invitation Card as a Homely Sub-genre... 9
4
1.2. The Wedding Invitation as Discourse ………………….. 12
5
1.3 The Notion of Marriage in Various Human Cultures … 15
1.3. Marriage as a Rite of Passage …………………………... 15
1
1.3. The Concept of Marriage in the Religious Discourse …. 17
2
1.3. Marriage in the Various Forms of Arabic Culture …… 19
3
1.3. The Palestinian Wedding Model ……………..………… 22
4
1.4 Statement of the Problem ………..……………………… 26
1.5 Research Objectives and Questions ……………………. 30
1.6 Definition of Terms ..……………………………………. 32
1.7 Significance of the Study ………………………………... 33

I
1.8 Limitations of the Study ………………………………… 36
Chapter Two: LITERATURE REVIEW 39-63
2. Introduction …………………………………………....... 39
2.1 Review of the Studies Conducted on the Arabic Wedding
Tradition ……………………………………………. 39
2.1. Affiliation of Religion and Power of Masculinity in the
1 Jordanian Wedding Discourse ………………….... 40
2.1. Articulating the Prevailing Socio-cultural Values in the
2 Jordanian Wedding Genre ……………………….. 41
2.1. Exploring the Egyptian Arabic Written Wedding
3 Invitation …………………………………………... 41
2.1. Exploring Muslim and Christian Wedding Invitation
4 Genre in the Jordanian Society …..……….......... 42
2.1. Communicating the Socio-cultural Identities of Iraqi
5 Society in the Wedding Discourse ………………... 43
2.1. Exploring the Rhetorical Structure and Linguistic
6 Features of Jordanian Wedding Genre ………..… 44
2.1. Summary and Conclusion ……………………………… 45
7
2.2 Review of the Studies Conducted on the Wedding
Tradition in the International Context …………… 46
2.2. Genre-based Discourse Analysis of Wedding Invitation
1 Cards in Iran ……………………………………... 46
2.2. Iranian Wedding Invitations in the Shifting Sands of
2 Time ………………………………………………... 47
2.2. On the Persian Wedding Invitation Genre .……..……. 48
3
2.2. Variability Dynamics of Wedding Invitation Discourse
4 in Iran ........................................................................ 49
2.2. Introducing Genre Analysis Using Brunei Malay
5 Wedding Invitations……………….……………… 50
2.2. Summary and Conclusion ………….…………………… 51
6
2.3 Preview of the Studies Carried out on Homely Genres …. 52
2.3. Birthday Genres ………………………………………… 52
1
2.3. Greeting Cards ………………………………………….. 53
2

II
2.3. Newspaper Obituaries …………………………….…… 55
3
2.3. Conclusion ……………………………………………..... 56
4
2.4 Review of the Studies Conducted on Norms of Polite
Speech in Arabic …………………………………... 57
2.4. Offering and Hospitality in Arabic and English …….… 57
1
2.4. Politeness in Arabic Culture …………………………… 58
2
2.4. Norms of Polite Speech Among Palestinian Arab EFL
3 Learners……………………….………...………….. 59
2.4. Polite Requests, Offers and Thanks in Moroccan
4 Arabic and American English ……………………. 60
2.4. Strategies of Polite Speech Employed in Filling
5 Jordanian Business Application Forms ………... 61
2.4. Greeting, Congratulating and Commiserating in
6 Omani Arabic…………………………………….. 62
2.4. Conclusion ………………..……………………………… 63
7
Chapter Three: MATERIALS & METHODS 64-84
3. Introduction …………………………………………....... 64
3.1 Theoretical Framework ………………………...……… 64
3.2 Research Methods and Materials ………………………. 69
3.3 Research Design …………………………………………. 70
3.4 Data Collection ………………………………...…….….. 72
3.5 Data Analysis: Frameworks and Models ……………..... 75
3.6 Analytical Procedure ……………………………………. 82
3.7 Ethical Considerations in Data Collection and Analysis 83

Chapter Four: DISCUSSION & RESULTS 85-118

4. Introduction …………………………………………….. 85
4.1 An Overview of the Emergence and Development of
the PWIG……………………………...……………... 85
4.2 The Typical Discourse Patterns and Sequential Parts in
PWICs ………………………………………..………. 90
4.2. The Opening Move of the PWIG ……………………... 90
1

III
4.2. The Heading Move in PWICs …………………............... 92
2
4.2. The Move of Identifying the Inviters in the PWIG …… 93
3
4.2. The Move of Requesting the Honor of Wedding
4 Participants ………………………………………..…. 94
4.2. The Move of Identifying the Bride and the Groom …… 95
5
4.2. The Move of Situating Time and Place in the PWIC … 96
6
4.2. The Closing Move of the PWIG ………………………... 97
7
4.2. The PWIC's Notification Move ………………………… 98
8
4.3 The Socio-cultural Values Depicted in the Traditional
PWID …………………………………………...….. 98
4.3. Domination of Religious Affiliations in the PWID …... 99
1
4.3. Affinity to Tribal and Sub-tribal Systems ……………. 100
2
4.3. Power of Masculinity and Discrimination Against
3 Woman ……………………………………………... 100
4.3. Meeting Norms of Polite Address, Good Manners of
4 Table and Values of Arabic Generosity ……..…… 102
4.4 Mechanics of Linguistic Variability and Socio-cultural
Mobility Depicted in the Contemporary PWID…. 105
4.4. Shifting Away from the Traditional Religious
1 Discourse to More Modern Literary Works …….. 105
4.4. Announcing the Wedding on Behalf of the Couple's
2 Family ………………………………………………… 107
4.4. Acknowledgement of Woman in the Recent Discursive
3 PWID …………………………………………………. 108
4.4. Satisfaction of Woman's Urgent Needs in Modern
4 PWID …………………………………………………. 109
4.5 The Forces Lying Behind the Socio-cultural Mobility
Evidenced in Modern PWID ……………………... 110
4.5. Geo-political Challenges and Governance …………… 110
1

IV
 4.5. Modern Themes of Woman's Rights, Sex Equality and
2 Liberty ………………………………………………... 112
4.5. Modern Family and Woman's New Roles ……………... 113
3
4.5. Post-modernity and New Emerging Technologies …….. 115
4
4.6 Validation of the Sociolinguistic Variation Evidenced
in the Palestinian Wedding Tradition and
Discourse …………………………………………... 116
Chapter Five: CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS 119-128
5. Introduction ……………………………………………... 119
5.1 Conclusions ……………………………………………... 119
5.1. Linguistic Variability and Language Change in the
1 PWIG ………………………………………………. 119
5.1. The Socio-cultural Values and Norms Established in
2 the Traditional PWID ………………...………...… 121
5.1. Socio-cultural Mobility Evidenced in the Recent PWID 122
3
5.1. The Forces Regulating the Socio-cultural Mobility
4 Evidenced in the Recent PWID …………….…….. 125
5.2 Implications for Research ………………………………. 126
REFERENCES: ………………………………………. 129-141
APPENDICIES: ……………………………………….. 142-169
Appendix (1)……………………………………….……... 142
Appendix (2a) ……………………………………………. 143
Appendix (3) …………………………..…………………. 144
Appendix (4) …..…………………………………………. 146
Appendix (5) ………………………...…………………… 162
Appendix (2b) in Arabic (‫(أ) مترجم الى اللغة العربية‬2 ‫ )ملحق‬... 168
ABSTRACT in Arabic (‫… )ملخص الدراسة باللغة العربية‬...… 170
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to the lovely people from Egypt who
gave me the opportunity to complete this thesis. First, I would like to thank
Professor Dr. Hussam Al-Deen Mostafa from the Department of Foreign
Learners, Mansoura University for his great help, Professor Dr. Hamdy M.

V
M. Shahin from the Department of English Language and Literature for his
enlightenment and academic supervision, and Mr. Samir Al-Madry, Eng.
Hazem Shafi’i, Eng. Muhammad Samir and Ahmad Ali from the Office of
Postgraduate Studies for their great technical help. I must also thank Hajj
Muhammad Al-Sa'id and his family, and Mr. Muhammad Hasan and his
family from Meit Khamis for their generous hospitality and cooperation.
Thank you all! You were and will always be professional academicians as
well as lovely brothers.

Furthermore, I have to thank my colleagues from Palestine Ahliya University

for their great help in data collection. Many thanks to Dr. Khalid Sabarnah,
Dr. Ali Abu Maria, and Mr. Karam Al-Muhtaseb for their great support, in
general, and for the big effort they paid with me in collecting data.
Colleagues, you were and will always be close friends. I would also like to
thank so much anyone who gave a hand in building the Palestinian wedding
corpus. A special thank has to be given to the students from Palestine Ahliya
University (PAU), who participated in interviewing the Palestinian couples.
Actually, you did a great social job! Wish you all the best in your present
academic as well as future social life.

DEDICATION

I'm deeply indebted to my soul-mate, Ramsees, my youngest daughter, Laila,

and my lovely sons, Ahmad, Bilal and Nour el-Deen for their patience,
encouragement and support.

VI
To my small family, the memory of my father, mother, brothers and sisters,
I dedicate this work.

VII
 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure (1) Palestinian Wedding …….………………………… 142
Figure (2) Representation of the Groom's Zaffeh …….. 142
……
Figure (3) Representation of the Traditional Mansaf ……. 142
Figure (4) Representation of the Bride's Arrival 142
……………
Figure (5) Dabkkah in the Palestinian Traditional
Wedding……………………………………………… 142
.
Figure (6) Fairclough's (2003) 3-D Analytical Framework 77
Figure (7) An Old PWIC from 1960's ……………………… 144
Figure (8) A Model of Modern PWIC ………………... 144
………
Figure (9) A Sample of Electronic Modern PWIC ……...… 145

LIST OF EXAMPLES
Example 1 The Opening Move in the Traditional PWID of
Muslim Community ……………..………………. 146
…
Example 2 The Opening Move in the Contemporary PWID
of Christian Community ………………………... 147
…
Example 3 The Opening Move in the Contemporary PWID 148
Example 4 The Heading Move in the Modern PWID….…… 149
Example 5 Split in the Modern PWIG………………………… 150
Example 6 Using Titles and Specific Formulaic
Expressions in the Move of Identifying the
Couple 151

VIII
 ………………………………………………...
Example 7 Situating Time and Place in the Contemporary
PWID ..……………………………………………….. 152
Example 8 The Closing Move in the PWID………………..… 153
Example 9 Prohibition of Taking Photos in Wedding Hall 154
Example 10 Affiliation of Religion in the 155
PWID………………
Example 11 Emergence of the Couple's Personal Identity in
the Recent 156
PWID…………………………………….
Example 12 A Model of Headless 157
PWID………………………..
Example 13 Emergence of Woman in the PWID: Some
respect to show………………………………………. 158
Example 14 Emergence of the Woman's Professional Needs
Worker in the Contemporary PWID…………... 159
…
Example 15 The Impact of Governance on Social Change…. 160
Example 16 Switching to English Language in the Recent
PWID…………………………………………………. 161

IX
 TABLE OF APPENDIX HEADINGS
Appendix 1 Representation of the Palestinian Traditional
Wedding Invitation ……….…………………….... 142
Appendix 2a Palestinian Couples (Structured Interview) . 143
……
Appendix 3 Development of the PWIC: Samples ...………… 144
Appendix 4 Verbal Representations in the PWID
(Examples) …………………………………………. 146
Appendix 5 Mechanics of Linguistic Variability and Socio-
cultural Mobility in the Traditional PWID: A
Critical & Variational Analyses ………………... 162
Appendix 2b A translated form of the interview …………..…. 168

LIST OF TABLES
Table (1) Description of the Linguistic Components of the
Traditional PWID at the Level of Text
Production …………………………………… 162
Table (2) Realization of the Socio-cultural Values and

X
 their Linguistic Affiliations in the
Traditional PWID …………………………… 163
Table (3) A Critical Approach to the Modern Literary
Works Depicted in the Opening Move of
Modern PWID ……………………………...... 163
Table (4) Description of the Linguistic Variability
Depicted in the Recent PWID ……………… 164
Table (5) Realization of Mechanics of Socio-cultural
Mobility Evidenced in the Recent PWID…… 165
Table (6) Palestinian Wedding Age in the Last Two
Decades ………………………………………. 165
Table (7) Levels of Education Within Palestinian Young
Couples in the Last few Years ……………… 166
Table (8) The Variant of Wedding Kinship Among
Palestinian Couples in the Last few Decades 166
Table (9) The Place of the Palestinian Wedding Ceremony 166
Table (10) The Parties that Decide upon the PWID………... 167

XI
 ABSTRACT

This thesis, entitled ‘Mechanics of Linguistic Variability and Socio-

cultural Mobility in the Palestinian Wedding Invitation Discourse from a
Sociolinguistic Perspective’, investigates the socio-cultural values depicted in
the discursive wedding discourse to explain the forces lying behind the young
couples' preferences and inclinations in the last two decades. Therefore, it
aims to understand the contemporary Palestinian wedding patterns and
sequential design patterns, describe the reflection of the socio-cultural
practices and values in the wedding discourse, interpret the sociolinguistic
variability and socio-cultural mobility evidenced in the wedding invitation
discourse, and finally explain the forces and proclivities that maintain or
sustain the conventionalization or reformation of certain socio-cultural values
and social norms among young couples in Palestine.

On the theoretical and methodological levels, the thesis fits into

qualitative studies, as it mainly benefits from both genre and discourse
analysis as a research method. It, however, builds on three analytical
paradigms: Genre Analysis (GA) used by Swales (1990), Foley (1997) and
Bhatia (2004), Sociolinguistic Variation followed by (Marshall, 2004;
McMahon, 1994), and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) implemented by
Wodak (1999), Fairclough (1995; 2010), and van Dijk (1998). Thus, a trans-
disciplinary approach will be implemented analytically to describe the
different moves built in the speech of this social event, to analyze the generic

XII
structure of the wedding invitation texts, and then to delve critically into the
socio-cultural proclivities and forces underlying the maintenance or
emergence of different social discursive practices. Central to sociolinguistics
is language change and choice. Thus, the study applies a sociolinguistic
variation approach to examine the impact of the social variables, such as age,
gender, education and status for instance, on the text selection and production.
In general, the variational approach has been used to validate the results of the
study and to better understand the forces and proclivities that maintain the
social practices of the wedding discourse among Palestinian youths, so about
(50) recently soon-to-wed as well as old couples are interviewed.

By applying a multi-disciplinary, critical discourse and socio-linguistic

variation approach, analyses have resulted (inclusively) in:

1. Identifying eight moves at the textual structure of the Palestinian wedding

invitation genre, including the opening move, the heading move, the move
of identifying the inviters, the move of requesting the honor of wedding
participants, the move of identifying the bride and the groom, the move of
situating time and place, the closing move, and the notification move.

2. Revealing that the traditional wedding discourse is implicitly illuminated

or rather dominated by some religious affiliations, and exclusively
oriented by socio-cultural practices, featured fundamentally as a
patriarchal domination as well as social discrimination against woman, in
particular, and the young couples, in general.

3. Asserting that by time passage and under the influence of specific internal
as well as external challenges, including governance, i.e. the instructions

XIII
 and activities of the Palestinian Authority towards peace and order, and
the unstable geo-political factors for decades, hot themes of modern life,
such as the equality between both sexes, liberty, woman's rights and roles
in the third millennium, and the modern emerging technologies and
programs of social media, a change in the social norm and code,
manifested itself in abandoning religion-oriented wedding texts and
patriarch-dominated social systems, is evidenced in the recent practices of
the Palestinian wedding discourse community.

4. Acknowledging and naming the use of modern poetic texts highlighting

the components of personal identity and self-concept among the recent
propensities of the Palestinian young couples. There is also a public
inclination on the textual level of the wedding discourse to adopt motifs of
modern life, such as equality between both sexes, rights of woman, and
roles of woman in modern family.

Finally, the study implicates for research in the various domains of

sociolinguistics and pedagogy.

XIV
KEY WORDS: Language and Social Change, Sociolinguistic Variation,
Palestinian Wedding Invitation Discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis,
Homely Genres

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS
CDA Critical Discourse Analysis
CGA Critical Genre Analysis (emerging)
GA Genre Analysis
MU Mansoura University, Egypt
PWIC Palestinian Wedding Invitation Card
PWID Palestinian Wedding Invitation Discourse
PWI Palestinian Wedding Invitation Genre
G
RQ(s) Research Question(s)
SAT Speech Act Theory

XV
 Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

1. Preface

This chapter aims to provide some background knowledge to the thesis. It

also attempts to create a niche for the research to be conducted. Then, it
continues to state the problem of the study, set up the ultimate research goals
and specific objectives, and assign some questions to be addressed. Finally, it
acknowledges the significance and limitations of the study.

1.2 Background of the Study

This section systematically introduces the wedding tradition from a linguistic

perspective. It first argues for the wedding invitation as a speech act. Then, it
presents the wedding ceremony as a performance act. It also advances to
display the wedding ceremony as a complex event. The section also carries to
endure wedding cards as a sub-category of homely genres that have certain
moves and steps at the structural level. Finally, the section ends in accepting
the wedding invitation card as a discourse involving some linguistic
components that can mirror the social practices as well as the socio-cultural
values, attitudes, and identities of a group of people.

1.2.1 The Wedding Invitation as a Speech Act

Speech Act Theory (SAT) plays a major role in the emergence of the
functional perspective on language use, teaching as well as learning in the
1970’s. According to Schmitt (2013, pp.74-91), language users need to

1
understand two types of meanings: Functional categories, such as requests,
apologies, requests and complaints, and notional categories, such as
frequency, quantity and location. Munby (1981) specifies an inventory of
micro-functions for language use including request, polite request, direct and
indirect command, for instance. Nowadays, a more complex organizational
network which includes other concerns, such as tasks, topics, structures or
even multimodal approaches, has been used.

A speech act is best referred to as an utterance that has a performative

function in language and communication. Bach and Harnish (1992) claims
that any speech act is actually the performance of several acts, distinguished
at once by different aspects of the speaker's intention. The current use of the
term 'speech act', however, goes back to Austin's (1975) development of
performative utterances, i.e. declarative assertions and his theory of
elocutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Generally, speech acts are
usually taken to include such acts as greeting, ordering, requesting, warning,
promising, greeting, congratulating and inviting.

Central to the theory of SAT is the notion of illocutionary force. From

a pragmatic perspective, any speech act must entail some processes including
namely the assignment of reference and sense in context and the interpretation
of the illocutionary force and the implicated meaning. According to Spencer
and Zegarac, a reference is "a social act in which the speaker assumes that the
word or phrase chosen to identify an object or person will be interrupted as
the speaker intended" (In Schmitt, 2013, pp.74-91). The process of assigning
meaning "involves interpreting ambiguous and vague linguistic expressions to

2
assign them in context". When people speak, they also 'illocute', that is they
intend to say or do things like making requests, making statements, offering
apologies,.. etc. Working out the implicated meaning means that the main
import of an utterance does not easily lie with the thought expressed by the
utterance —with what is communicated directly, but rather with what is
implicated or communicated indirectly (ibid.74-91).

Searle (1979) has already classified speech acts mainly into four types:
Assertives, directives, commissives and expressives. Assertive acts refer to
the acts that commit a speaker to believing the proposition conveyed, e.g.
reciting a creed. Directives attribute to the speech acts that attempt to make
the hearer take a particular action, e.g. advice, commands and requests.
Commissive acts appeal to the speech acts that commit a speaker to do some
future actions, e.g. oaths and promises. Expressive acts refer to the verbal
utterances that express the speaker's emotions and opinions towards the
proposition, e.g. excuses, thanks and congratulations. Finally, declarative acts
involve the rites trying to change the social atmosphere in concord with the
proposition of the declaration, e.g. marriage bonds or baptisms.

Searle (1985) has also introduced the notion of Indirect Speech Act,

which in his account is meant to be in particular an indirect 'illocutionary' act.
By employing the conception of illocutionary acts in relevance to what they
are —roughly as acts of saying something with the intention of
communicating with audience, Searle claims that in indirect speech acts the
speaker communicates to the hearer more than he or she actually says words.
With the theory of indirect speech acts, Searle (1985, pp.179-182) attempts to

3
clarify how it is possible for a speaker to interlocute, i.e. say something and
mean it, but probably additionally mean something else. Searle suggests that
the hearer should realize what the indirect speech act is meant to be. Searle
hints that while direct speech aims to give an exact interpretation of the words
being said, indirect speech is more variable in claiming to represent a truthful
report of the content and form of the phrases picked and used. It is important
to note here that Coulmas (1986, pp.1-28) refers to both direct and indirect
speeches as "stylistic devices" for satisfying meaning.

The function of speech acts varies considerably according to the

situation itself. Thus, one linguistic form is used to express different speech
functions which may overlap from one situation to another. It is important to
note here that speech functions also differ across cultures. For example, the
typical interrogative phrase 'Where are you going man?' used frequently by
the native speaker of Arabic meeting a close friend in the market, sounds
phatic as it exclusively (but implicitly) aims to socialize. For a native speaker
of English, the same question is quite informative as it inclusively and
explicitly attempts to elicit some information. Holmes (2013, pp.253-282),
however, gives a list of the most frequent speech functions people tend to use.
It includes such functions as informative, directive, expressive, affective,
performative, commissive, phatic, and poetic.

To conclude, invitation, among the other speech events, is a

commissive, directive and informative act. As it is intended "to commit the
speaker to some future course of action" (Searle, 1979, p.14), this act must be
encouraging for the inviter as an actuary who maintains financial accounts for

4
his own business. Given that an invitation act requires the auditor to
accomplish something, e.g. to participate in a festival, then it will be
"directive", too (Searle, 1979, p.13). The actuary's ability as well as his keen
interest and the other spouse's commitment to the pledge made both play an
important role in performing the event efficiently. As most of the ordinary
invitations usually take place in a written form, the linguistic features of the
wedding invitation can also be informative.

1.2.2 Wedding as Performance

As concluded in the previous section, wedding is very likely to be a

social act which involves performance. Reading an account of speech in a
ceremony is simply not a wedding. A wedding lacks what Austin (1975)
termed as 'performative' utterances; that is, uttering exact words serves an
action, in which these words bring about an alteration in status. Leeds-
Hurwitz (2013, p.101) agrees that when a Christian says before the altar or
registrar, "I do", he or she is simply not reporting on a wedding. He / she
certainly indulges in or rather tickles it. The articulation of the phrase "I do"
completes an endeavor shooting at turning as well as acknowledging publicly
two people as a couple. In any oral tradition performance, Hymes (1981, p.86)
argues that performance itself is "a mode of existence and realization that is
partly constitutive of what the tradition is". Hymes' assertion suggests that
only through performance humans can make the invisibles, such as identities
and values, for instance, look visible. Finally, it maintains that any ritual is a
performative act as soon as it does change something.

5
 One element of a ceremony as performance is the clear concentration
on the element of time. In most rituals, events are supposed to take place in a
chronological order. For example, there is a full agreement among various
cultures about having a shower before the wedding party and a honeymoon
post it. It is important to note here that the linguistic terms used for describing
the wedding tradition are often derived from certain events related to time. In
English, the term 'bridegroom' refers to ‒according to www.dictionary.com‒
"a newly married man or a man about to be married". As it also highlights
'grooming', the compound phrase connotes the positive feeling of attending
carefully to clean body and dress hair. The Arabic equivalent of 'honeymoon',
roughly glossed as 'honey-month', explicitly addresses the element of time; it
also connotes the positive feeling of 'marriage' as a sweet thing.

Another detracting element of wedding as a ceremonial performance is

the employment of space. Place and time are often merged together in
wedding parties in a musing way. Most of the wedding invitations cards
clearly describe when and where weddings take place; they clearly paraphrase
the settings for each event, so that both the hosts and their guests accomplish
the task perfectly. Most people also tend to document the wedding by taking
photos or making videos which they keep in a very close place. By time
passage, the photo albums are often moved first out of immediate sight, but
kept close enough, so that others, such as children, close friends or couples
themselves can look at on occasions and anniversaries. Diamant (1985, p.128)
hints that the wedding ceremony serves as a marker for marriage itself which
comes to represent the rapport among couples, rather than the photographs
taken at the first moment of that parental rapport.

6
 To sum up, the wedding ceremony can be referred to as a performative
act. It entails certain key elements including mainly a couple-to-wed, and a
group of people all attending in one place and at a specific time for the
purpose of taking an action, i.e. announcing the bride and groom as a couple-
to-wed soon.

1.2.3 Wedding as a Complex Event

Rituals are intricate events including some elements distributed

differently across diversified language systems, combining different events
carried out at other locations on distinct days (Leeds-Hurwitz, 2002, p.105).
Among these, wedding rituals involve at least language, dance, music,
clothing and objects, such as jewelry and gifts. The fundamental components
of a wedding event vary considerably from one couple to another, and are
probably established from the past experiences of others, such as parents and
close friends. In addition to the wedding party, the components of wedding
may include everything from the proposal and engagement to honeymoon.

Besides components, the elements of wedding are unlikely to be

attended equally across various cultures. Some attain much priority as well as
attention than others, so they turn to be key symbols in wedding ceremonies
(Leeds-Hurwitz, 2002, p. 105). As the term 'key' suggests, these symbols are
more significant than others because they are simply visible, frequent and
typical in any wedding ceremony. Ortner (2002, p.142) argues that in any
ritual every social code is represented by at least one key symbol. To check
key symbols, Ortner suggests that informants of a certain wedding element
(X) should tell us that (X) is important, and they seem positively or negatively

7
excited (but definitely not indifferent) by their (X); the (X) should also
appears in many contexts; there should also be greater cultural illustrations
and restrictions surrounding (X). By applying these criteria, Leeds-Hurwitz
(2002, p.106) found that there are key symbols present in the mainstream of
the American wedding tradition, including mainly the couple's vows, bridal
gown, wedding rings, and finally wedding cake. Each of which has to satisfy
the linguistic, cultural and social codes.

Absent the key symbol of language, the other key symbols of wedding
actions sound vey materialistic. Charsley (1992, p.129) refers to these
elements as "materialized customary actions". They are so because of their
frequent recurrence in material cultures. The wedding material objects, such
as rings, cakes and bridal gowns, lack relative flexibility when compared to
the element of language which is characterized by total formality, indirectness
and diffuseness. In other words, the wedding vows have to be formally and
publicly uttered first by one attendant, like a priest or a state agent only in
front of some attendants and witnesses, then repeated immediately by the
couples themselves. Besides, material objects are featured by its simplicity
and specialty; there is always one wedding cake, one wedding dress, and one
wedding ring or set of jewels for the bride only. Even the bride and groom are
supposed to form one pair of couples soon.

Besides the key symbols, there is a prevailing set of essential elements

to be anticipated in the main stream of wedding. These dominant elements
help create wedding prototypes, i.e. original models, such as "standard
American wedding" or "standard Jewish wedding" (Leeds-Hurwitz, 2002, p.

8
107). In both models, the central element is focused on the wedding vow
recited in the church or the 'chuppah', i.e. the wedding canopy. Central to the
former is walking into the church aisle, handing the bride to the groom,
saying a few words and finally uttering the marriage promise. In the latter, the
Jewish wedding integrates from an artistic perspective three basic elements:
the bride in white, the groom in black and the canopy in which a piece of
cloth or sheet is fixed on the corners or manually held up by attendants to the
ceremony. In fact, the basic elements in both models are quite symbolic; they
clearly display a couple standing in a place and promising each other to stay
together under one roof. These elements can only help realize the positive
feelings of establishing home and family.

To conclude, wedding is a complex event. Though each cultural group

has already developed its own specific wedding elements and key symbols,
the components of some wedding ceremonies among sub-cultural and across
cultural minorities and majorities are sometimes focused on one specific
element. Johnson (1998, pp.220-221) documents a case study in which a
Philippine bride insisted on wearing the American style —a style encourages
only a white bridal garment for both the ceremony and reception. In the
Philippines, only the traditional clothes are stressed in the wedding ceremony
whereas the white American style is allowed to the reception only. This case
suggests that wedding is rather complicated.

1.2.4 The Wedding Invitation Card as a Homely Sub-genre

Swales (1990, p.58) perceives genre as a set of communicative events

in which members share and probably care for a set of communicative

9
purposes. Built on Swales' perception, Bhatia (2004) used a system of
analysis to identify the communicative purposes of the social activity. Bhatia's
model of analysis has already revealed the genre's component moves and the
pattern of organization regulating the social activity. Consequently, Bhatia et.
al (2008, p.169) argue that genres are highly structured; thus, they have
conventionalized structures that can be identified according to their features
that keep evolving over time and in physical space.

Swales (1990, p.1) also conceives genre analysis as "a means of

studying spoken and written discourse for applied ends". This notion has set
forth one of the influential definitions of genre in the new paradigm among
scholars. In the study of written discourse, genre analysis is conducted for the
purpose of finding out how writers conventionally sequence materials to
obtain particular goals (Richards & Schmidt, 2002). According to Al-Ali
(2006b, p. 696) "the genre as a whole is made up of a sequence of component
moves, each of which carries out a minor function in the global function of
the genre text". Kachru and Smith (2008, p.161) also argue that "not all the
moves are essential in a genre, and conventions across disciplines and
cultures may differ as to which ones are vital for achieving which purpose".
These moves do not necessarily appear in the same sequence or even
importance; some are optional whereas others are obligatory.

In general, an invitation refers to a memorial and celebratory event with

the social communicative purpose of courageously appealing and notifying
people to engage in a special carnival, festivity, parade, fair.. etc. As it has
such a purpose, invitation fits into a genre, termed by Miller (2015; 1984, p.5)

10
as "homely genres" which in fact catalogue the types of genre that we have
"names in everyday language"; these embrace habitual ceremony messages
namely obituaries, weddings, birth cards and the like (Al-Ali, 2006b; Mirzaei
& Eslami, 2013; Sawalmeh, 2018).

Wedding invitations, amongst the other broad range of homely genres,

are exclusively quite exciting to study. They are eminent and well-known to
people all over the world. Besides, their message automatically demonstrates
the first realization of co-built marital discourse of a soon-to-be-wed couple in
the surroundings. It also indicates for the commencement of couple's marriage
as one of their 'rites of passage' (Leeds-Hurwitz, 2002). The content of
wedding invitation mirrors itself in the concept of wedding; components often
include names of couple, details of celebration such as time, date, and
location, and "conventionalized phrasal patterns" in which the basic parts are
illustrated. Utilizing this genre can, however, expand awareness in
sociolinguistics and, in Al-Ali’s words, "would add depth to what is known
and may broaden the field of genre and discourse analysis research" (Al-Ali,
2006b, p.711; Johns, 1997).

To sum up, genres are types of texts that are easily noticeable to writers
and readers. They also meet the needs of the rhetorical situations in which
they function. Therefore, people perceive and understand the wedding
invitation for instance, as a homely genre which is different from birthday and
death cards. Genres keep evolving over time in response to persisting
rhetorical needs. Thus, people have wedding invitations because they simply

11
keep getting married; they need a powerful and effective way to inform
people and to ask them to attend wedding ceremonies.

1.2.5 The Wedding Invitation Card as Discourse

The printed forms of invitation, such as wedding invitation cards, have

generic features that set them apart from other written texts. They are
particular tools of a conventional formal text in which socio-cultural values
play a significant role. Having the capacity to inform some potential receivers
about something, they belong to a group of particular texts. Therefore, Miller
(2015) recaptures homely genres as "homely discourses" enclosing ceremony
announcement texts of life routines as weddings, obituaries and the like. A
wedding invitation is universal, as it is common to everyone. Their content is
also likely to be predictable, as their title expands 'wedding' to announcing the
name of the bride and groom and the settings of the ceremony. Therefore, the
wedding text sounds "conventionalized" (Johns, 1997, p.39).

The term discourse designates any written or spoken unit of language

or "more specifically a text at a level above that of a sentence" (Dudley-Evans
and St John, 1998, pp.87-94). In the fields of semantics and discourse
analysis, discourse is the theoretical and abstract generalization of
conversation within each approach and context of communication. In this
sense, discourse, in its entirety, refers to the codified language used formally
or informally in a given field of social practice or intellectual investigation,
such as medical, religious and legal discourses (Cruse, 2006). 

In humanities and social sciences, the term discourse portrays a formal

way of thinking that can be expressed through language. Schryer and Spoel

12
(2005, pp. 249-278) claim that discourse is the social borderline that defines
what assertions can be said about one topic. It can also have impact on
people's views. To escape discourse for any reason is unlikely. For example,
one can find two definite discourses from media, describing one Palestinian
military act against the Israeli Occupation as terrorism or freedom fight.
Discourse is, therefore, closely linked with different theories of power, as
long as realizing texts is meant to define reality (Fairclough, 2010).

From a structuralist’s perspective, all human behaviors and social

constructions are linked to language, and may be realized as systems of
related aspects. Howarth et. al (2000, p.17) affirm that "individual elements of
a system can only have significance when considered in relation to the
structure as a whole, and that structures are to be understood as self-
contained, self-regulated, and self-transforming entities". This means that the
structure, i.e. the discourse, can determine the meaning, function and
significance of the individual elements of a system. In general, structuralism
has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the rapport
between the social system and language. In relevance, Saussure's theory of
language stresses "the decisive role of meaning and signification in
constructing human life more generally" (ibid. 27).

In modern views, discourse is related to the functions of talking or

ways of talking. Theorists contemplate the existence of social and natural
laws that can be used more broadly to develop both knowledge and a better
understanding of society (Larrain, 2013). They were very busy with
navigating reality and acknowledging the truth, so they have already explored

13
some thoughts accommodating absolute certainty and necessity, and precise
predictability and possibility (Best & Kellner, 1997, p.202). Therefore,
scholars perceive discourse as functional. Language transformations and the
new emerging discourses are assigned to the need of developing new but
more authentic words that describe the new areas of interest. In these views,
discourse and language are detached from ideology or power. Alternatively,
discourses are felt as natural products of progress. It is important to note here
that modernism gives rise to the liberal discourses of equality, justice,
freedom and human rights (Sarat & Kearns, 1997, p.272).

In postmodernism era, theorists dismiss the claim that there was one
theoretical approach that can read and explain all aspects of society (Best and
Kellner, 1997). Instead, they are preoccupied with investigating collections
from peoples' and groups' experiences, and emphasizing the potential
differences over the clear similarities and common experiences. According to
Jameson (2004, pp.192-207), the postmodern theory, in contrast with the
modern one, is more fluid, and allows for individual differences, as it rejects
the domination of social laws. By doing so, theorists have already shifted
away from seeking the truth depicted in the text to seek some answers for
how truths themselves are established and maintained in various discourses.
In these views, life (in its broadest sense and course) is felt as a continuous
discourse. A typical day often starts with a discourse, such as greeting
members of the family in the early morning, discussing some news at the
breakfast table, and listening to reading some items of news from the TV or
the Internet. The flow of discourse in space and over a few days creates the
sense that life is made up of discourse (Schmitt, 2013, p.55).

14
 To conclude, discourse theorists and analysts have proposed that the
concept of genre actually goes further beyond the text. Correspondingly,
analysts use a specific discourse to describe, interpret and explain the typified
but dynamic social interaction of a group of people when they interact in an
activity. It is important to note here that the typified interaction always
follows a specific pattern. In turn, the dynamic interaction motivates pattern
change to fit people's different circumstantial needs. New patterns keep
evolving as long as the new emerging pattern helps people do their activities
properly. This flexibility allows for sharing expectations among groups.

1.3 The Notion of Marriage in Various Human Cultures

This section aims at introducing the notion of marriage in the Palestinian

culture. From a human perspective, marriage is first introduced as a 'rite of
passage'. Then, marriage is highlighted from a religious perspective. And
finally, the Palestinian wedding is displayed as an Arabic specific model.

1.3.1 Marriage as a Rite of Passage

In every community, the individual's life is an array of passages from

one phase or profession to another. Van Gennep (2013, pp.2-3) clarifies that
when there are exquisite distinctions in the human's age and business,
progressing from one category to the next is often accompanied by some acts
wrapped in distinctive ceremonies. In these rituals, stepping from one social
situation to the next or from one group to another is implicitly connected to
the very fact of existence. That is to say, these acts are ontological, i.e. not
free of the sacred. This means that our life is made up of a sequence of
successive "stages with similar ends and beginnings" including mainly birth,

15
maturation, profession, marriage, parenthood and finally death". For each
event, there exists a potential, relevant ceremony that allows for everyone to
move in physical space and time from one point to another.

Among rites of passage are birth, marriage and death. Van Gennep
(2013, p.11) contends that all these actions are only rites of passage as they
have their own ultimate but personal aim of passing into another category
within one community. Though they mark the major stages of someone's life
everywhere, Leeds-Hurwitz (2013, p.39) remarks that there is no standardized
pattern for birth rituals. There is also little accord about the speck at which
children turn to be adults; and humans naturally pay much effort to pretend
that they will not die. There is, however, a large uproar and commotion about
the arrangements of wedding which have loads of traditions, i.e. established
practices, almost common to everyone. In wedding events, people often spend
much more money than they do in the other events, though many marriages
may end in an instant break-up. These facts, however, illustrate the
importance of wedding for all of us.

Nowadays, a wedding ceremony is perceived as a text displaying social

acts and identities. Leeds-Hurwitz (2002, p.87) quotes "Since ritual is a good
form for conveying a message as if it were unquestionable, it is often used to
communicate those very things which are most in doubt". She also remarks
that communities exploit rituals as one way to send information to other
members, and to designate occasions of significance, such as birth and
wedding, in particular. In relevance, a ritual is defined as "an act or actions
intentionally conducted by a group of people employing one or more symbols

16
in a repetitive, formal, precise, highly stylized fashion" (Myerhoff, 1992, p.
129). To develop a full understanding of the meanings depicted by these ritual
symbols, Leeds Hurwitz (2002, p.88), however, argues that we should look at
them in terms of "a hierarchy organized according to the size of the unit under
analysis". In any ritual, a symbol can be associated with other symbols, and
realized as part of a larger whole, i.e. a social code.

Finally, rituals, according to Driver (1991, p.6), belong to us and have

three social gifts including the sense of community, social order and
transformation. Of these, a wedding ritual for instance, plays a certain role in
creating the sense of order and the sense of community through supplying a
specific structure and predictability to the members of the group participating
in the ritual. Wedding rituals also maintain a way for reviving social "bonds"
among group members (Van Gennep, 2013, p.2). They also provide a vehicle
for the "transmission of family across cultures" (Troll, 1988, p.628). It is clear
that those who share and care for attending our parties are part of our
community; those who do not for a good reason are, however, not.

1.3.2 The Concept of Marriage in the Religious Discourse

Stylistically, the holy Script of Islam, selects and uses two terms to
refer to the process of getting married: zawa:jun and nika:hun. The former is
roughly glossed as marriage in formal British English; the latter might also be
realized as the term wedding in modern American English. It is important to
note here that the term 'marriage' denotes —according to www.merriam-
learners.com: "the relationship that exists between a husband and a wife";
therefore, it allows for certain words, such as 'happy', 'second' and 'old-

17
fashioned', to collocate with. However, the phrase 'wedding' refers only to the
"ceremony at which two people are married to each other". Thus, it is merged
with other terms to advance certain compounds, such as 'wedding party',
'wedding cake', and 'wedding dress'. Otherwise, it signals only for the
ceremony or party in which two couples are getting married, as in 'The
wedding will be at 2:00PM'. Dissimilarly, the Qur'anic discourse inclusively
selects the term 'azwa:jun glossed as 'couples' to mirror the concrete, but
normal, relationship between couples, whereas it chooses the term nika:hun to
help realize the abstract aspect of 'marriage'.

Central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam is the first happy marriage

—though misfortune regarding the place of residency —in history between
Adam and Eve. Among these Abrahamic doctrines, only Islam validates
polygamy, i.e. the practice or condition of having more than one spouse,
especially wife, at one time. The Noble Qur'an legitimates (under certain
conditions related to the levels of kinship and rights of women) that a Muslim
male can have up to four wives at the same time (Engineer, 2008; Jawad,
1998). Prophet Muhammad's teachings also urge directly the capable young
male to wed. Therefore, scholars of Prophet Muhammad's sayings as well as
the pioneer interpreters of the Qur'anic discourse have already accepted that
marriage be mandatory. This suggests that the practice of marriage in Islam is
realized as an optional, but essential, tradition.

To conclude, marriage in Islam, in particular, is not rigidly a sacrament;

it is always felt as a gift from God or rather a kind of service to God.
According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, the basic Islamic principles

18
concerning marriage are laid out in the Qur'an, which explicitly states that the
marital bond (also known as marriage knot) rests on "mutual love and mercy"
and that couples are "each other’s garments" (Lotha et. al, May 2018).
Muslims may have up to four wives at one time, though they seldom do it in
reality, as the wives must all be treated fairly. Traditionally, marriage is
always contracted by the guardian of the bride and her potential, destined
husband, who must, in turn, offer his bride the mahr, a payment provided as a
gift to secure their financial and social independence.

1.3.3 Marriage in the Various Forms of Arabic Culture

As long as marriage traditions in the Arab world concern, culture, i.e.

way of life, is not restricted by any regional boundaries (Monger, 2004). The
inclination of humans to construct partnerships is universal. To establish
partnerships, there is always some form of a ceremony to be carried out
everywhere within the convictions of time and space. Moreover, there is some
exceptional correspondence in relevance to thoughts, ideas and symbolic
objects across cultures in wedding parties. This ceremony is typically a public
event in which an audience from the society to which the couple belongs
usually attends to participate in the union. Therefore, the communal aspect of
the wedding ceremony is internationally substantial. The potential ceremonial
divergence and discrepancy can only be contributed to some variations in the
religious views of marriage and the social roles of both sexes.

Throughout the Arab as well as the Islamic world, wedding ceremonies

are managed by the philosophy of Islam which stresses the importance of the
demand, i.e. the engagement, on behalf of the male and acceptance on behalf

19
of the nominated female. The physical ability and the fiscal capacity of the
groom-to-wed are both pivotal to further marriage as well as to continue
marital life later. Based on the Qur'anic discourse, scholars have already listed
some duties and rights for both couples, including the debatable right of
'guardianship' in favor of only the male (Aziz, 2008; Jawad, 1998). To
publicize marriage, Islam mandates that only two witnesses be present when
giving vows. By the establishment of modern Arab states in the beginning of
last century, marriage is, however, fully documented and well organized.

In the Arabic speaking countries, differences in marriage traditions are

not always apparent due to the Islamic identical, verbal code used. However,
a considerable amount of dissimilarities is often attributed to wedding
customs. Monger (2004, p. 9) argues that the seemingly incomprehensible and
peculiar customs and ceremonies related to life events have actually a
practical or spiritual function. In looking at the Arabic traditional marriage, it
sounds that the bride's wedding attire is featured by spirituality, as it attempts
to meet the Islamic code of woman's attire (also known as hijab) which
highlights body coverage (with a few exceptions, such as the face, palms of
the hand and feet). This dressing code does not also encourage body modeling
at the same time; thus, the attire of the woman in any event of life should also
be loose (Latiff & Alam, 2013). The practicality of both sexes' garments and
verbal interactions are strictly regulated by the cultural and social codes.

Generally speaking, Arabic wedding costumes and ceremonies serve

different functions. According to Monger (2004, p.9), marriage rituals and
apparels can work as a public advertisement to the whole community in the

20
surroundings that a new nuclear family entity has been established and
entrenched. This media aspect pleases the social aspect of marriage at both
the communal and personal level. These ceremonies can also help couples
start their own home as an independent economic unit; thus, the wedding
financial aspect is important for young couples who have already graduated,
and have not already experienced the difficulties as well as the demands of
life. Besides, wedding ceremonies and costumes have a legal aspect, as they
serve a popular adjunct to the official marriage institutions (Barakat, 2005). In
relevance, this wedding aspect is vital for modern states through which
policy-makers can plan schooling and health systems, for instance.

To conclude, wedding ceremonies in the Arab world are intricate and

idiosyncratic constructs that have a plethora of functions and meanings, both
social and legal (Monger, 2004, p.13). They exhibit cultural similarities and
differences. Where the customs and traditions are very much alike, the
meanings of these habitual practices are also corresponding. Throughout the
successive periods of time, the Arab world has been characterized by social
inconstancy in the pre-Islamic period, religious anxiety in the post Islamic
period and political uncertainty in late modern times. These factors would
trigger some drastic challenges and changes in the Arabic culture, customs,
traditions and wedding practices. For example, during the first uprising (also
known as Intifada), the silent wedding ceremony was introduced in response
to the cruel practices of the Israeli occupying authorities against the young
Palestinians. This social act has already reflected a high degree of national
solidarity among Palestinians at the national and international level
(Hammamy, 1997, pp.194-210).

21
1.3.4 The Palestinian Wedding Model

Before 1967, the year in which the State of Israel took control over the
remaining parts of historical Palestine, weddings among Palestinians were a
mixture of traditional Arab and Turkish Muslim practices with some elements
of Western wedding rituals (Monger, 2004, pp.209-210). Like their brothers
in the surroundings, the groom's family did not only pay an amount of money
to the bride's family to bring the wedding objects, but they also used to make
all the necessary wedding arrangements. The groom's family personally
invited guests from the local community. Over several days ending in the
wedding day, the groom's family, friends, and relatives, met together for the
'sahra', a full night of singing and dancing. Wedding celebrations were
usually performed in fields or open spaces to accommodate and welcome the
large number of the hosts and their guests. In this night, only men could join
to dance the folkloric 'dabkah' which was performed on the heavy beats of the
drum or in concord with the rhythms of the flute (Hood & Al-Oun, 2014). In
the night exceeding the wedding day, Palestinian women met in the evening
to dance as well as to decorate the bride's hands with 'henna'.

Throughout the last two decades of the twentieth century and the first
decade of the third millennium, the political disputes between the Israelis as
an occupying force and the Palestinian national and Islamic parties for
liberation have brought about big problems for the Palestinians getting
married (Monger, 2004, p.12). At the socio-political level, the Israeli
authorities have legislated some rules totally depriving the Palestinians living
in West Bank and Gaza Strip to get married from the Palestinian young girls

22
carrying the Israeli citizenship (Lustick, 1997, pp.61-66). In the old city of
Jerusalem, Palestinians are also discouraged from marrying young girls from
the 'Palestinian territories'. Family reunions among the Palestinian couples
living in a foreign country are also constrained to a great deal. The Israeli
military long sieges, closures and road check points (also termed as collective
punishment), have sometimes obviated the groom from getting to the home of
his bride to collect her ‒as does the Palestinian custom highlight (Shamas,
2001, p.3). To meet all these procedures, the Palestinians have to either adjust
the wedding norms or adopt some other social practices.

During this period, the complicated political situation has lead to some
drastic changes in all aspects of life. In relevance to the social act of marriage,
the tradition stressing a big noisy celebration at the local community level has
disappeared. Instead, a new tradition flavoring a more quite celebration with a
limited number of guests from very close friends and relatives, has been
introduced (Monger, 2004, p.10). Wedding songs are also done in a very
controlled manner. Instead of singing and feasting for several days, the event
now lasts only for a few hours starting afternoon prayers and ending so
quickly in the evening. Inspired by the higher education they obtained from
the new emerging Palestinian universities, media they were exposed to, and
the influx of the Egyptian movies they were watching, many Palestinian girls
are now reluctant of the traditional wedding dress. They want to experience
more new trends, such as the European wedding model. The Israeli military
roadblocks and checkpoints have also downsized the number of participant to
reduce any potential loss in their lives. In short, the Palestinian wedding has
turned to be a "subdued and surreptitious" event.

23
 To preserve the wedding tradition from any loss or theft in historical
Palestine, women amongst the third and fourth generations, have, however,
paid some effort —according to: www.palestinianembroider.tripod.com, to
record and display wedding from an artistic and historical perspective.
Therefore, they incline to prepare some embroidered, well-framed pieces that
help realize the wedding traditions in their historical and geographical
contexts. Figure 1, for example, depicts a typical Palestinian wedding in the
countryside of Ramallah (a region at the middle of Palestine). The enlarged
scenes clearly display the Palestinian traditional wedding. They show mainly
the dabkah, i.e. the folkloric dance, the bride on a horse or tal'ah, and the
traditional dish or mansaf (see Figures 1 to 5 in Appendix 1).

In modern Palestine, the impact of kinship, parenthood and religion on

every aspect of life is quite clear. Religion is acknowledged in the Palestinian
certificates of birth, identity cards and travel documents, and is often referred
to as a form of formal identification of the minorities living there. For a
Palestinian, the person's own identity and entity is twisted around affiliations
of religion. In 2018, the number of the Palestinian living in what is termed
West Bank and Gaza Coastal strip has already exceeded five million people ‒
according to www.worldometer.info. The overwhelming majority of the
Palestinian population, living in what is also referred to as "historical
Palestine" are Arabs (Khalidi, 2010). Among these, Muslims constitute the
vast majority of more than (90%), while the Christian Arabs and native
Palestinian Jews form a minority of only (10%) or less.

24
 According to the Palestinian Constitution (1)4:3, the "principles of
Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation" (in Khalil, 2003, p.
145). Thus, the Islamic law maintains that a male can marry a female at will
by uttering the formulaic expression 'I marry you' in the attendance of her
guardian (often her father) and two mature, sane male bystanders. In the
Palestinian life mainstream, wedding is mainly intended to announce two
mature people of both sexes as a couple, though it is also closed as a social
union between the couple's families. The arrangements of real marriage are
typically made between the groom and the bride's direct families. Although
the groom might express his desire to get married, he should ask his parents to
allow him to wed, as his own family often contributes to the marriage
arrangements. Preceding the wedding ceremony is the khutbah (i.e.
engagement), through which the groom fixes a gold ring around his fiancé's
finger. On this occasion, brothers, sisters, very close relatives, such as uncles,
aunts, cousins, very close friends, some relatives from the groom's sub-tribe,
and neighbors, may attend the engagement ceremony.

To conclude, wedding in Palestine is a commemoration for an occasion

of societal joy, very wealthy in traditions and customs. The wedding
ceremony is often preceded by two to three evenings of entertainment and
recreation accompanied by dancing to show that the wedding festival has
already started. Dancing as well as singing goes on to midnight; both women
and men usually dance individually; this visual isolation does not mean that
they cannot hear the voices of each other. In these evenings, the groom's
parents invite or hire some singing and musical bands to raise the spirits of
the guests; they inspire some local young people to do some sort of folkloric

25
dance. Prior to the wedding celebration itself, the wedding guests are
welcomed to a banquet known as ‘wedding feast’. On the day of wedding,
there is a ritual attendance to the wedding festival, which is carried out in a
communal place. The couple moves to a wedding hall where they meet the
guests who have arrived to celebrate their arrival; this festival may last for an
hour or two. When the couple accomplishes this wedding event, they move
out of the hall to their house. They are often attended by a large group of
guests’ cars, headed by a well decorated car for the couple. There, relatives
and friends usually express their wishes of happiness to the couple by offering
them some money (known locally as inqu:t). With that money, many couples
prefer to have their honeymoon in a romantic foreign country.

1.4 Statement of the Problem

Families in the Arab World including Palestine are experiencing major

changes in which new patterns of marriage and family formation are
emerging across the area. Based on the United Nations fertility report in 2003,
Rashad et. al (2005, p.1) argue that "universal, early marriage is no longer the
standard it was once in the Arab countries". The average age at marriage for
both Arab men and women is generally soaring up. This means that there is a
relative decline in the averages of the young Arabs wedding at the age
extending from (15) to (19) years' old. It also shows that more and more Arab
women are staying single longer or not getting married at all. Although these
marriage inclinations are part of the global phenomena, they are fresh among
Arabs. Those new emerging trends may result in some consequences that can
seriously challenge the deeply-rooted cultural values and social norms.

26
 Changing the demographic patterns of marriage often mirrors the
broader "social roles of the family" and the "economic changes" occurring in
the region (Georgas et. al, 2006, pp.221-244). In the Arab World, most of the
economic systems have (to a good extent) moved away from the local
agricultural systems that are necessarily supported by early marriages, high
"fertility and birth rates", and the extended family structures (Hirschman,
1994, p.203). The vast majority of the population in the Arab World is now
living or working at least in cities. Young Arabs are now involved in the
industrial plants or service sectors. Today, young Arabs are more educated
when compared to their parents and grandparents. They are working as school
teachers, university instructors, doctors, engineers,.. etc. To earn living, young
Arab women are also more likely to work outside their homes.

To understand how marriage patterns are changing in the various

Arabic communities is decisively important. The rising cost of marriage in the
Arab world including Palestine, is attributed partly to the rising expectations
and merchandizing that have followed the opening of many economies in the
last two decades of the twentieth century. Each country’s high cost of housing
and furnishings have relatively had a number of undesirable consequences for
"unusual marriage patterns", such as the bad reputation marriage pattern or
'urfi', i.e. common-law marriages that are unregistered and generally secretive,
as well as the 'service marriage' from an older, wealthy woman (Singerman,
2007). Marriage in Egypt, for instance, typically takes place in many stages
involving specific and costly ceremonies. Related marriage costs often
concern the Shabka, i.e. tying of the couple with gold rings, the dowry, partly
paid at the time of the marriage with the rest held in reserve for settlement in

27
case of divorce, housing for the couple to live in, furniture and appliances for
the newlyweds, and the gihaz, i.e. trousseau, of the bride, comprising small
home furnishings. In 2000, the Egyptian marriage cost has —according to
Singerman and Ibrahim (2001, pp.10-11), averaged USD6,000, an amount
which is (4.5) times higher than the Egyptian's yearly income.

Challenges always keep evolving. Therefore, certain modes and forms

of tradition may emerge and reside for a while. For example, post the second
Palestinian intifada, which broke out in 2000 against the Israelis' repetitive
attacks to Al-aqsa Mosque and their brutal assaults on prayers, the
Palestinians have already developed two exceptional modes of wedding
traditions: the 'political marriage' and the 'mass-wedding'. The former has
been originated at first by the Palestinian prisoners who had already met in
the Israeli jails and were released later. These prisoners flavored to wed from
their own comrades' relatives. In this mode of wedding, the ceremony has also
been normalized. Generally speaking, the mode of wedding can be locally
realized in specific terms, such as 'Islamic', 'traditional' and 'modern' wedding
parties (Khawaja, 2000). The latter has been emerged in response to the very
poor living standards that the Palestinians dwelling in Gaza have been
experiencing since 2007 due to three sever wars (Johnson, 2010). This mode,
however, aims to encourage wedding through reducing the high costs.

Consequently, the growing numbers of young people in the Arab

World, the centrality of marriage to social life and the challenging social and
economic realities surrounding the wedding tradition are among the factors
that motivate the socio-cultural mobility taking place in the region. Altogether

28
with other mechanics, such as levels of education, age, gender and roles, time
is due to explore the changing marriage patterns and traditions and their
impact on people’s lives and societies as a whole. As implicated in this
section, marriage has ordinarily been outside the realm of Arab government
policies, but this tradition is changing soon. Therefore, more scholarly
research is needed to develop a good understanding of the social and
economic phenomena enclosing the marriage tradition. The findings of these
studies may help develop some culturally sensitive programs and policies that
address the needs of Arab people who want to marry, who want to delay
marriage, and even who want (if any) to remain single.

Despite its integrity and applicability, the discourse of wedding

invitations has received little attention from researchers in pragmatics,
discourse studies, critical discourse analysis (CDA), the emerging critical
genre analysis (CGA) or other fields. Regionally, the gap becomes broader or
rather more acute when it comes to the general Arabic and Islamic contexts. A
clear exception is the Mirzaei and Eslami's (2013) investigation into the
Persian culture as well as the Al-Ali’s (2006b) endeavor in the Jordanian
cultural context. To state the problem of the study, the topic ―as the
preliminary overview of the literature has revealed, is still in its beginning,
and there are no (up to my best knowledge) published studies that have
already examined the Palestinian invitation discourse depicted in the
wedding cards so as to reconsider the mechanics that govern the couples'
linguistic choice and selection at the rhetorical features and structures of the
wedding genre, and more importantly to unearth the mechanics that help

29
regulate the socio-cultural mobility realized in the new emerging, discursive
patterns of this Arabic marriage tradition.

1.5 Research Objectives and Questions .

To bridge the gap in the Arabic overall cultural context as well as the
void in the Palestinian specific context, the proposed thesis exploits the
Palestinian wedding tradition to investigate the socio-cultural mobility
reflected in the wedding discourse. In its ultimate goal, the study investigates
mechanics of social and language change in the Palestinian wedding
invitation discourse (henceforth, PWID). Thus, the study examines the
sequential constituents of the wedding genre and the rhetorical features of this
homely discourse into the socio-cultural forces, values, and inclinations
underlying the pattern including (but not exclusively) the religious, national
and political affiliations, academic and socio-economic status, and
masculinity and feminism forces regulating the new emerging patterns. By
doing so, the present thesis makes a substantial attempt to solve this issue by
rebuilding the moves through a genre analysis approach (cf. Foley, 1997;
Swales, 1990 & Bhatia, 2010, 2004), and then investigating the socio-cultural
forces through a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach (cf. Fairclough,
1995, 2010; Van Dijk, 2011, 1998, 1997; Wodak, 1999). To achieve its goal,
the study sets the following objectives:

 Developing a good understanding of the contemporary PWID patterns and

sequential design.

 Recognizing the socio-cultural practices, values and social norms

reflected in the modern PWID.

30
  Perceiving the linguistic and social change evidenced in PIWD among
young couples over the last few decades.

 Explaining the forces and proclivities that maintain or reform the social
discursive practices in the recent PWID.

To set a purpose for the issues appointed up, the first point in question
concerns establishing the contemporary wedding discourse moves and the
component linguistic features. This identification enables the researcher to
bridge the gap perceived in the preliminary overview of the literature. The
second point aims at identifying the socio-cultural values through the
juxtaposition of the discourse practices. This manipulation enables the
researcher to describe the fresh socio-cultural practices at work. The third
points at examining any social variance taking place on the discourse level in
the period extending from 1998-2018. This cross-time adjacency study
attributes to interpret the abilities of movement within the discourse. The last
involves the real forces lying behind the social practices. This helps explain
the social factors or forces that motivate the evolution or conservation of
PWID. In line with the above-mentioned objectives and aims, this socio-
linguistic study addresses the following questions:

1. What are the typical discourse patterns and sequential parts recognized in
the contemporary Palestinian wedding invitation cards (henceforth
PWICs)?

2. What are the typical socio-cultural values and affiliations reflected in the
discourse patterns and sequential move organizations of the PWIC?

31
3. How are mechanics of socio-cultural mobility and linguistic variability
evidenced in the PWID among young couples in the last decade?

4. What are the indispensable forces and proclivities that stimulate the
emergence and maintenance of certain wedding patterns within the PWID?

Accordingly, the first question addresses the structure as well as the

design of the recent PWICs to describe their rhetorical features. The
description shoots at recognizing the typical but general moves as macro-
features and their components as micro-features. The second question
addresses the micro as well as the macro features of the PWICs to interpret
the socio-cultural values and social practices hidden in the generic sequential
parts. The third addresses the components of the PWID, chosen from some
earlier years, to construe, i.e. realize, the social and language change reflected
in these old forms of wedding traditions. Finally, the last question attempts to
explain the forces and inclinations lying behind the couple's selection of
certain social norms within the Palestinian wedding tradition.

1.6 Definition of Terms

The acronyms PWID and PWIC are used interchangeably to refer to the
Palestinian wedding invitation discourse and card, respectively. In the
previous section, the term 'discourse' is phrased in the section of research
objectives due to the nature of the study which mainly concerns discourse
analysis from a critical perspective (see Chapter 3). However, the term 'card'
is partly phrased in the research question section to show the focus of the
question. Where the question addresses only the rhetorical features of the
wedding genre, the term 'card' is selected and used; otherwise, the phrase

32
'discourse' is used. It has been argued in a previous section that critical genre
analysis (CGA) is still evolving. Elsewhere, the technical terms of the study
are either defined or paraphrased where they are used.

1.7 Significance of the Study

The thesis essentially counts because —as the preliminary overview of

the literature has shown —there seems to be no orderly systematic
investigations of the wedding invitation discourse into the Arabic general
cultural context, have been conducted. Therefore, this study is among the first
of its type to throw some light on this well-known, extensive socialization
process from which one can read "the rules and practices of social groups"
(Worsley, 1970, p.153). To learn a foreign language is to learn "how to
behave linguistically in cultures other than one’s own" (Ventola, 1987, p.6).
Accordingly, the study will be vital for those who want to participate in and
become familiar with the social life of members coming from other different
cultures. Besides, such a research would yield good knowledge that is pivotal
to learning within the field of TEFL (Eshreteh, 2014).

The thesis also matters, as there is no (up to my best knowledge)

scholarly published research that has been recently fixated at the wedding
invitation discourse in the Palestinian specific context in terms of
accessibility, relevance, originality and saliency. In relevance, the study
collects data from natural, fresh social corpus in which the wedding social act
that the study explores, sounds naturally renewable. It has been argued that
life for a human being is "a constant flow of discourse" (Schmitt, 2013, p.53).
The study also originates the significance of the discourse structure, and more

33
importantly the impact of socio-cultural values on the choice of different
linguistic formulas. In the field of sociolinguistics, I acknowledge (as an
English program coordinator) that Palestinian EFL learners (also mostly
females) are exposed to some published textbooks, such as Holmes' (2013),
that often enclose the Palestinian culture within the Arabic and Asian general
ones. Those course books often tend to generalize the findings of the studies
carried out on the regional or international cultural context over the
Palestinian one, probably due to the insufficiency or inadequacy of the studies
attempting to examine the Palestinian socio-cultural values. To avoid such a
cultural judgment, this study is noticeably important.

The thesis is also significantly eventful in its linguistic scope. It

investigates the PWID as a social act from a pragma-linguistic as well as a
socio-pragmatic view. Inviting as an illocutionary act is a "commissive act"
(Searle, 1985, p.14) which entails a "commitment" to someone or a group of
people to make a "course of action" (Mirzaei & Eslami, 2013, p.103).
Invitations also function as directives as they actually attempt "to get the
hearer or the reader to do something" (Searle, 1985, p.13). That thing refers to
participating in a good social event. Unlike common everyday invitations
which occur in a spoken discourse, formal invitations, such as wedding
invitations, are usually printed out and characterized by some "traditional
structures and linguistic forms" in which socio-cultural traditions "play a
major role" (Al-Ali, 2006b). Therefore, the study is expected to reveal a lot
about the discourse participants' typical and discursive practices and
proclivities, regarding their ethical commitments, religious and national
identities, personal self-concepts, and social values and ranks.

34
 The findings of the thesis will hopefully contribute to linguistics and
theory of language, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics in various
domains. As the study is conceptually framed by Halliday's (2004) systemic
functional linguistics (SFL), which builds on language function and structure,
and Searle's (1985) Indirect SAT, which models on speech functions, it is
expected that the study will implicitly evaluate their universal efficacy in the
domains of Arabic culture and language. In the domain of theoretical
linguistics, the study is expected to purify the meanings depicted in the PWID
to reveal how the discourse community use their pragmatic competence to
assign and implicate certain meanings and values in PWICs. In the field of
applied linguistics, the study is supposed to implicate for language researchers
in the domains of language and ideology, and language and culture. In the
field of sociolinguistics, the study will implicate for educational policy-
makers, textbook compilers and language learners in the aspects of language
and community, change, politeness and gender.

Finally, the thesis is significantly inspiring in its manipulation as well

as in its perception of the social knowledge portrayed in and by the PWICs.
Therefore, it sustains an activity-oriented-analysis approach to ethnographic
research on cotemporary wedding invitations, embracing both structure and
knowledge from structural, variational and critical points of view. Based on
"insider knowledge", Bennett (2003, pp.186-199) argues that all knowledge is
situated in an activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts.
Therefore, data analysis should be perceived from an essential, post-
structuralist's lens confirming the notion that reads: "There is nothing outside
of the text" (Rivkin, 2017, p.511). If so, then knowing must be inseparable

35
from doing. Reconsidering such a dynamic, notional outlook to the PWID
asserts that social knowledge must be both "embedded in a communicative
activity of people's daily life", and retained tightly by the "form and content"
of this specific text to signify the discourse community's norms, values, and
identities (Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1993, pp.474-509). In short, the thesis
rethinks of the PWID from the most recent linguistic views.

1.8 Limitations of the Study

The study will be limited in its scope of linguistic priorities, as it will

be to a good extent ethnographic. However, ethnography is a branch of
anthropology dealing with the "non-scientific nature of anthropological texts"
(Pocock, 1975, p. 9). Ethnographic studies can provide us with extremely rich
"insight into the role of marriage as a political institution weaving together
from different clans in one tribal territory and thus converting neighbors into
kinsmen" (ibid. p.60). They can also be used to identify the new or currently
unmet users' needs of a discourse community, such as the couples', using the
same linguistic code (Kramsch, 1989, pp.6-7). Thus, the study exploits a very
limited amount of a rich wedding text to interpret, describe, and explain
critically the forces lying behind the participants' selection and use of certain
texts to echo their social norms and cultural patterns.

Roberts (1994, p.84), however, maintains that anthropological "studies

and discourse analysis go hand in hand. The whole person is involved in
cultural and social practices". Therefore, it would be misleading to display
'wording' as the equivalent of 'meaning'. Language analysts need "to combine
an understanding and use of discourse with an ethnographic eye as well as an

36
ear". This claim suggests a qualitative method, such as a semi-structured
interview or an observation, should be used in which the analyst attends the
subjects' wedding parties. In fact, this would be time consuming —if not a
mission impossible, in the Palestinian case. It would be more beneficial if
only interviews are carried out with some recent couples either wedding or
intending to wed in the new future. To conceit this allegation, the researcher
will carry out a structured interview with some old and new couples, and ask
their permission to provide some details related to their wedding cards, ages
at wedding, levels of their kinship relation, levels of education, and attitudes
of their marriage and of wedding parties. More importantly, the scholar is an
activist of the target culture on the social level.

Besides, the study is also expected to be limited in its geographical

aspect. Because of some circumstantial reasons related to what goes in
Palestine, data collection from both Diaspora and Gaza is unlikely. Since
1948, millions of Palestinians have been living in refugee camps mainly in
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands are also living all over the
world including Israel, i.e. the occupied part of historical Palestine. Data
collection from this category is technically unlikely due to their huge area of
residency. Methodologically, data analysis is also unlikely because of the
various external social factors that may affect the Palestinian wedding
ceremonies in the Diaspora. Data collection from Gaza might be unlikely due
to very compelling, political circumstances. Since June 2007, a misfortune
split has taken place after the coup in which the Islamic Resistance Movement
(HAMAS) has taken control over the state's security headquarters. Since then,
there have been two competing governments in the Palestinian territories: one

37
in the West Bank and the other in the Gaza Strip. The central government in
the West Bank is often recognized as a national and legal institution, whereas
the other in Gaza is always stigmatized politically as an Islamic, but illegal
one. Administratively, Gaza belongs to the southern districts that also include
Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Finally, the study is also limited in its demographic scope. Since

1967, the Israeli, unstoppable settlement activities in the West Bank have
been converting the Palestinian cities and towns into separate cantons, each of
which has its category of people, including city, countryside, refugee
campsite or even mixed dwellers. The hostile practices of the Israeli
Occupation on the Palestinians have affected the demographic distribution of
the Palestinians coming from the middle and north much more than those
living in the south. As a result, many young Palestinians have immigrated in
flux during the period extending from 1967 to 1993 to North and South
America. The southern districts including Gaza, Hebron, Bethlehem and
Jerusalem have relatively experienced less displacement due to the
complications of demographic crowdedness, e.g. Gaza, of population cultural
commitments, e.g. Hebron, religious beliefs, e.g. Bethlehem and
international disputes, e.g. Jerusalem. Absent Gaza, the southern districts
sound culturally representative as they entail a Muslim majority in Hebron
and Jerusalem, and a mixed Muslim-Christian minority in both Bethlehem
and Jerusalem. Thus, cultural coverage is hopefully satisfied by the
demographic, ethnographic as well as topographic factors.

38
 Chapter Two

LITERATURE REVIEW

2. Introduction

This chapter aims to review the literature of the wedding tradition. It

exclusively bottoms up the scholarly research carried out on wedding
invitation discourse in the Arabic cultural context. Then, it furthers to review
the scholars' efforts at the regional level. The section continues to review the
latest efforts paid in the international context. The review is oriented by two
factors: relevance and chronological order. The former highlights the studies
conducted in the Arabic cultural domain from which the Palestinian specific
culture stems and thrives. The latter underpins a historical presentation of the
studies from past to present.

The review will hopefully help develop a full understanding of the

development of the solid research carried out in the target field. It has been
argued that human knowledge is definitely accumulative. And a good study
should contribute to knowledge. Systematically, each review attempts to
elaborate on the topic examined, the problem stated for the study to be
conducted, the objectives born in the researchers' mind, the elements studied,
the research methods used the findings and conclusions drawn.

2.1 Review of the Studies Conducted on the Arabic Wedding Tradition

This section aims at reviewing the solid research carried out in the
general Arabic context of wedding discourse. Though the literature is not rich,
the section highlights to a good extent the efforts paid, the research methods

39
employed, the main findings presented, the conclusions drawn and the
implications raised for future investigation.

2.1.1 Affiliation of Religion and Power of Masculinity in the Jordanian

Wedding Discourse

From a pragma-linguistic perspective, Al-Ali (2006b, pp.691-417)

explored masculine power and religious affiliations dictating Arabic wedding
invitation discourse. Applying a critical discourse analysis and genre analysis
approach, the analyst found that the socio-cultural determinants in question
not only dictated the formation of generic component moves but also
encouraged the linguistic selections and the social practices in the wedding
invitation cards. In the opening move for example, Al-Ali found some quotes
from the Noble Qur'an or conventional expressions from Prophet
Mohammad’s teachings in the form of prescribed and ritualistic prompts
highlighting matrimony. In the move of identifying the couple for example,
socio-cultural affiliations, such as patriarchal kinship and powers of
masculinity were noticeable in the intensely honorable invitation message.
The names of the couple were placed on the same line, though the groom’s
was inserted first and to the right-hand side of the invitation card. This
linguistic manipulation gave high status to the favor of masculinity in Arabic
language. Interestingly, the results of the study also revealed that the name of
the bride was often deleted or rather substituted by honorific verbalization
like [kari:mat-hu] meaning 'his honorable daughter' or [shaqi:qatu-hu]
meaning 'his sister'. In both examples, the personal, deictic pronoun [-hu]
meaning 'his' records both the bride’s patronage and kinship. This meant that

40
an Arab Jordanian might act as a guardian and keep himself a seat (for social
guardianship) even after the female got married.

2.1.2 Articulating the Prevailing Socio-cultural Values in the Jordanian

Wedding Genre

From a socio-pragmatic perspective, Al-Momani and Al-Refae (2010,

pp. 61-62) also checked the structure of the Jordanian wedding genre to find
out the coponents that people used to articulate the genre's communicative
purposes. They also examined the impact of the socio-cultural features on the
genre's structure through exploring the relationship between cultural
represenations and laphage, i.e. histories of families. The researchers
collected a total of (150) wedding invitations from different Jordanian
sources, including family relatives, friends, and local printing presses. They
analyzed their data both quantitatively and qualitatively. They found that the
compoents of the wedding discourse were significantly affected by the
religious factors which determined not only the wedding act but also every
aspect of life. The wedding compoents were largely influenced by the variable
of gender in favour of men who involved much more than women in this
social act. They were also affected by kinship factors including the extended
and nuclear families. Finally, the scholars concluded that the impact of the
socio-cultural aspects on the generic structure of the Jordaninian wedding
genre was very significantly big.

2.1.3 Exploring the Egyptian Arabic Written Wedding Invitation

Within the Arabic context, Gomaa and Abdel-Malak (2010, pp.9-39)

explored the Egyptian wedding genre. The researchers assumed that the

41
wedding discourse could be featured as a genre. Therefore, they attempted to
recognize the generic constituents of the Egyptian wedding discourse and
detect how such working moves were employed efficiently by the wedding
invitation issuers. From a socio-cognitive view, the researcher meant to
examine if the wedding discourse communicated other purposes rather than
inviting others for the wedding ceremony, and if the Egyptian couples
belonging to different religious creeds had something in common when
inviting others for their wedding ceremonies. Built on Swale's model of genre
analysis, the researchers collected a corpus of (300) wedding invitation cards
from many different resources as well as places covering all the Egyptian
governorates. They found that the rhetorical and organizational components
of the Egyptian wedding genre had reflected a considerable amount of
information about the hidden socio-cultural norms and practices of the
Muslim and Christian community. The wedding components and sequences
articulated some information about the mutual relationship between memebrs
of Egyptian familes on social occasions. They also communicated some
affiliations related to religion through which the wedding discourse was not
only shaped in specific moves but also coloured in lexical choices.

2.1.4 Exploring Muslim and Christian Wedding Invitation Genre in the

Jordanian Society 

By the same token, Sawalmeh (2014, pp. 448-462) investigated the

structure of Muslim and Christian wedding invitation cards in Jordan. The
researcher theorized that many aspects of the wedding discourse related to the
generic structure and internal contents might provide some information about

42
the couples' sociocultural values, beliefs and religious identities. The wedding
data were collected through a questionairre, made up of (25) items drawn
from both Muslim and Christian wedding cards. The researcher aimed to
check if the structure of both types of wedding cards was systematic. He also
aimed to examine if the wedding discourse was influenced by religious,
economic and social factors. The researcher collected his data from (235)
Jordanian couples. The analysis of the results had shown some significant
differences between the Islamic and Christain wedding texts. The resaercher
concluded that the identification of the communicative purpose of the
wedding invitation discourse among the Jordanina Muslim and Christian
community was an important criterion for explaining the religious, social and
cultural forces that governed the couples' selection of certain cultural norms.

2.1.5 Communicating the Socio-cultural Identities of Iraqi Society in the

Wedding Discourse

Al-Zubaidi (2017, pp.129-130) investigated the textul as well as the

visual components of the wedding invitation genre in Iraq. From a semantic
as well as a syntactic point of view, the researcher aimed to articulate the
social norms and assumptions depicted in those components. The researcher
accepted the claim that wedding might be one of the most eventful and
cheerful moments in our life. Thus, the text of the wedding invitation cards
was the first exhibition of the young couple's constructed matrimonial
discourse indicating the beginning of their marriage, as a right of passge. It
could be typically provide some information about the inviters, the ceremony
itself, as well as some notes for the invitees attending the wedding ceremony.

43
The researcher collected his data from a (400) Iraqi wedding invitation
corpus, through which a representative sample of only (250) cards was
selected and analyzed. Built on a multidisciplinary analytic framework, the
scholar found that specific elements of religious thoughts and sociocultural
practices were entrenched in the textaul and visual components of the Iraqi
wedding discourse. Negotiating the verbal and non-verbal representaions
revealed that the wedding text had been forced out by the assumptions and
beliefs of the Iraqi wedding discourse community. Islamic identity and socio-
cultural conventions had been loaded deeply in the structure as well as the
components of the wedding text. He concluded that certain socio-cultural
proclivities and tendencies, including namely patriarchal dominance, paternal
authority, personal maturity, i.e. old age, and economic state, were allowed to
proceed, organize and shape the the structure of the wedding discourse.

2.1.6 Exploring the Rhetorical Structure and Linguistic Features of

Jordanian Wedding Genre

Based on the findings of a doctoral thesis, which was submitted to

University of Huddersflield in 2015 and had investigated the Jordanian
wedding and death announcements from a pragamtic perspective, Sawalmeh
(2018, pp.106-127) published the results of his study on the linguistic features
as well as the rhetrorical structure of the wedding genre. Built on Bhatia's
(1993) model of analysis through which a sample of (200) wedding invitation
cards was collected and analyzed, the researcher aimed at examining the
generic structure and the textual features to give an overview of the main
linguistic devices employed and to check the extent to which such devices

44
achieved the social purposes assigned for them. The researcher found that the
Jordanian wedding discourse was characterized by some features serving
sociocultural values. The scholar concluded that the Jordanian wedding
invitation cards were not only restricted to informing that two people were
getting married soon, but they were also loaded with many judgemental ideas
governed and regulated by religious, cultural, and economic factors. These
factors could either motivate or constrain some social practices in the
wedding invitation discourse.

2.1.7 Summary and Conclusion

Though limited, the studies that investigated the wedding invitation

discourse within the Arabic general as well as the regional contex have
already drawn on Al-Ali's (2006b) invistigation. The significant findings of
religious affiliations and masculine power in the Jordanian wedding invitation
genre, have illuminated a few Arab researchers to articulate the dominant
socio-cultural values depicted in the wedding tradition. They have also
motivated others to explore the Muslim and Christian wedding invitation
genres in both the Egyptian and Iraqi communities. The findings of these
successive studies have also urged other local researchers to try exploiting the
rhetorical structures and features of the local wedding invitation discourses to
articulate the sociocultural identies of specific groups of people. Surprisingly,
there has been a systematic shift from genre analysis which focuses on the
form and contents of the wedding genre to critical discourse analysis (CDA)
which focuses on the values or identities depicted in the wedding texts.

45
2.2 Review of the Studies Conducted on the Wedding Tradition in the
International Context

This section reviews the studies conducted on the wedding invitation

genre in broader contexts. As the area is still evolving, the literature is not
wealthy with solid research, such as doctoral thesis, reviews and published
papers. Therefore, the section elaborates on the efforts paid by a few scholars
coming from specific regions, namely Iran, Malaysia and Korea. Unlike the
previous section, the following section tops down the studies carried out on
wedding invitation cards from the most recent to the least. This chronological
order allows the researcher to shift the focus of revision. In the previous
section, the researcher has already concentrated on the findings of the study
conducted within an Arabic context similar to that of the proposed study. It
has been argued that culture is strictly bound to a specific group of people. In
the following section, the theoretical frameworks and models of analysis used
in these studies are (but not exclusively) concerned.

2.2.1 Genre-based Discourse Analysis of Wedding Invitation Cards in

Iran

Pragmatically, Faramarzi, Elekaei and Tabrizi (2015, pp.662-668)

investigated the wedding invitation genre in Iran. They conducted a case
study to analyze the various expressions depicted in the genre to find out the
generic and schematic as well as the linguistic features and the
communicative functions, which were expressed by the generic components.
The researchers assumed that the analysis of the components of the wedding
invitations in Iran would result in revealing the underlying facts rooted in the

46
Iranian Islamic culture and the priorities of Persian young couples.
Theoretically, the researchers built on Swale's (1990) genre analysis
approach. Therefore, they identified eight component moves, each of which
had its own verbal and visual features. The analysts found that the discourse
community advanced to set a communicative purpose for their invitations.
They found that the inviters 'stated the last name of the bride and the groom'.
The names of the couple's parents might also be stated with certain titles
conveying social status, academic qualification or professional position, and
placed after the names of the couple. Finally, the researchers concluded that
the Persian schematic structures as well as the lexico-grammatical features of
the wedding discourse components had already illustrated the socio-cultural
values and norms concerning both sexes in Iran, in particular and in the
Islamic world, in general.

2.2.2 Iranian Wedding Invitations in the Shifting Sands of Time

From a stylistic as well as a diachronic linguistic point of view, Sadri

(2014, pp. 91-108) investigated the content as well as the form of the Persian
wedding genre. The researcher aimed to grasp a full understanding of how the
genre changed over time under the influence of specific socio-cultural forces
and proclivities. Accordingly, the researcher assumed that a specific wedding
genre as a discourse practice had to be a reflection of socio-cultural daily
routines at any point of time. Theoretically, the researcher built on a multi-
modal analysis of wedding genre approach based on Kress and Van
Leeuwen's (2001) social semiotics. The model aimed at perceiving meaning
making as a social practice, examining the interactional behaviors under

47
specific cultural assets, and accommodating the employment of the textual
and visual semiotic modes developed into products or events. The researcher
also built on Halliday's (1978) systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory.
SFL provided a model to examine the variables of the context, i.e. what the
text considered, tenor, i.e. who was exchanging the information, and mode,
i.e. by what means is the message sent and conveyed. Data was collected
from (270) wedding cards and divided into two categories: Category (A) and
(B). The researcher found that the features of category (A) representing
discourses of old couples, had (exclusively and significantly) demonstrated a
formal plain and simple design. The researcher concluded that the structure of
the Persian wedding invitation cards did not change over the last four
decades. However, the wedding genre's content and design had experienced
some significant changes across time. He contended that these changes had to
be seen in the light of the contemporary changes taking place in the world.

2.2.3 On the Persian Wedding Invitation Genre

From a stylistic perspective, Sharif and Yarmohammadi (2013, pp.1-9)

studied the wedding invitation genre in Iran. The researchers investigated the
genre's obligatory and optional moves and their order. The scholars remarked
that their study attempted to identify the typical component patterns of the
genre to develop a full understanding of the manners through which the
Iranian discourse community defined and employed this genre to accomplish
their goals at the community level. They also aimed to check the reasons that
forced the discourse community to design and produce the genre in the way
they did. The researchers collected their data from a corpus of (70) wedding

48
invitation cards. The wedding cards were collected from relatives and friends
within the circle of both researchers. The researchers identified seven moves
in the Persian wedding invitations. Among these, the first move, which was
typically opened with 'In the Name of God', and was centralized on the top
the top of the invitation. The researchers found that the names of the bride
and groom appeared immediately after the 'opening' move. More importantly,
the bride's name was fairly frequently placed on the right-hand side of the
wedding corpus. The researchers also observed that Iranian couples were
often identified by their first and last names which were also organized in a
cross-wise pattern similar to the letter X. This organizational format often
placed the bride's last name below the groom's first name with the bride's first
name below the groom's last name. Accordingly, the researchers concluded
that the Iranian wedding discourse community members had a threshold of
some recent communicative purposes to achieve . To make their ends meet,
young couples tended to construct seven generic component moves in a
practical, rigid order.

2.2.4 Variability Dynamics of Wedding Invitation Discourse in Iran

From a socio-pragmatic point of view, Mirzaei and Eslami (2013, pp.

103-118) built on a critical, trans-disciplinary approach to explore the Persian
wedding invitation generic structures and how the socio-cultural factors and
ideologies, such as age, religion, education, feminism, profession and social
outstanding, have already affected affinity of young couples towards the
selection of specific, stylish and formulaic discourse patterns. The researchers
found that for a considerable period of time wedding invitations in Iran were

49
deeply well-established as ritualistic and ceremonial, mostly governed by
socio-cultural and religious associations and prefabricated textual prototypes.
In the last few decades, Persian young couples have, however, realized -by
time passage and on accounts of modernism, emergency of modern
technologies, over-increasing relationships across cultures and societal
dynamism that traditional discourses would not signify their preferences
ethically and emotionally. Consequently, the young have started to abandon
the archaic Arabic-oriented wedding discourse and to be oriented by more
national and novel Persian-based discourse generic textures and social
behaviors, like placing the bride's name before the groom's and using
vernaculars of ethnic groups. Those discursive practices might be explained in
terms of modernity, such as equality between both sexes, level of education,
modern technologies.

2.2.5 Introducing Genre Analysis Using Brunei Malay Wedding

Invitations

From a pedagogical view, Clynes and Henry (2004, pp.225-242)

assumed that if EFL learners are to be exposed to the complicated notion of
genre, the first irresistible action to do is to introduce them to a well-
recognized genre, such as wedding invitation discourse but in their first
language so as to invoke the innate knowledge of their own language and
culture. Both scholars conducted a genre-based study to examine the
productivity of genre in a pedagogical context. In a quite small-scale corpus,
the researchers analyzed twenty Brunei Malay wedding invitation cards
considering their move sequential components. The scholars compared their

50
findings with nine learners' findings which were limited to analyzing only
(45%) of the corpus. The researchers found that the Bruneian learners could
only explore as well as recognize the genre's surface language, i.e. the
wedding invitation moves. Nevertheless, the learners were less able to explain
and relate the linguistic structures associated with the genre’s communicative
purposes. However, the study purely contributed to Brunei Malay wedding
invitation discourse ordinary rhetorical organization, but did not demonstrate
any socio-cultural motives underlying the tendency for a special structural
pattern. As it was limited in its scope, the study contributed to the field
TEFL, in particular.

2.2.6 Summary and Conclusion

Review of the literature at the international level has revealed that most
of the studies conducted on the homely genre were bound to a Persian cultural
context. Built on Al-Ali's (2006b) and Clynes and Henry's (2004) studies,
which were both carried out for a pedagogical purpose, the few studies carried
out within the modern Iranian context were genre-based ones. The wedding
invitation discourse was utilized to confirm the components of the genre at
the macro level, i.e. the genre's moves, as well as the micro level, i.e. the
internal components of each move. There was also an attempt to examine the
change that has been taking place on the written wedding invitation discourse
over and across time. This shift has already revealed that the wedding
discourse is likely to be characterized by linguistic variability as well as
socio-cultural mobility

51
 The scholars of more recent studies have implicated that there is a need
to re-examine mechanics of language change and social adjustment reflected
in the wedding invitation discourse. There is also a need to investigate
thoroughly the forces and proclivities lying behind the young couples
selections of certain linguistic formulas to advance specific social norms.

2.3 Preview of the Studies Carried out on Homely Genres

This sub-section aims at shedding some light on birth rituals and obituaries as
homely genres. It reviews a few studies to show how the researchers
approached the genre and what they found. Briefly and systematically, the
section elaborates on the researcher's main areas of research, concerns and
findings. The review concerns only the studies that built on a critical
discourse analysis approach to the birth and death discourses. As the findings
of the scholarly research carried out on death and birth 'homely' genres as well
as polite address norms sound relevant, a preview of a few of studies will
enrich the chapter.

2.3.1 Birthday Genres

From a pure sociolinguistic perspective, Jennings and Brace-Govan

(2014, pp.88-112) suggested that kid’s birthday parties are anniversaries that
could give a way to realize values of consumption related to motherhood but
down played or even taken for granted. Activities of mother’s consumption
and children's participations could unearth their administration of the
commodity boundaries. Building on the findings of some previous studies that
acknowledged mothers as family planners of celebrations and work fixing
ideologies of motherhood identified for women as players and performers, the

52
researchers investigated mother–child consumption and the leadership of the
commodity boundaries in both the preparation and hosting the kid’s birthday
celebrations. They collected their data from birthday party free service ads
depicted in Melbourne’s Child, a local parenting magazine. The researchers
found that mothers could openly share their friendly knowledge and concern
for their child by making the birthday party very personal through the gift of
their time and effort so that they could create a home-made event. Mothers’
existing as well as continuing responsible care for their kids was interlaced
into the party to signify something special but abstract, i.e. without any
material access. The researchers related that this basic rationalization was
natural, as childhood fun and innocent simplicity were imperative. The
engagement of the kid in consumption for the party enabled the mother to
measure the child’s delight, educate values and organize the commodity
boundaries.

2.3.2 Greeting Cards

From a psycholinguistic perspective, West (2010, pp.362-382)

acknowledged that greeting cards were a byproduct category in the United
States, though people consumed them at high rates across taste formations.
Relatively rich consumers deposited a bonus on originality in their self-
expression. Therefore, greeting cards displayed a consumption problem since
they were a manner to express one's self through a means of mass-produce.
Based on interviews with (46) women, the researcher revealed that wealthy
consumers were more likely to prefer the design of the card over emotion and
belief, so they tended to select smaller, simpler designs and sentiments. They

53
flavored the cards that were hand-made, seemed hand-made, or simply
reminded them of fine art. The researcher also found that those consumers
were more likely to use the greeting cards comically. The researcher
suggested that American rich users of greeting cards operated the uniqueness
of their own taste even through a form of broad culture. However, the social
entrenchment of greeting card communication meant that many consumers
harmonized considerations of taste with the necessities of effective
communication with other people. The researcher concluded that this self-
conscious competence to adjust signifiers of appreciation or taste was itself
evidence of cultural knowledge and a clue of cultural capital.

From a socio-linguistic point of view, Jaffe (1999, pp.115-141)

investigated the social applications and meanings of greeting cards. The
researcher contended that greeting cards could intermediate and fluctuate
between the variable social categorization of ‘gift’ vs. ‘commodity’. The
researcher argued that a card was not a virtual gift in essence, so people might
think that cards were cold and unfriendly. However, the card’s indirect rank
was also at the center of its potential capacity to communicate. By analyzing
specific cards and card categories, the researcher revealed how the senders
could exploit many different dimensions of the card’s gift and commodity-
like features to articulate their authenticated identities, beliefs and emotions.
They could also send delicate and intricate new messages about their
identities. The researcher also found that the use of cards could reveal how
commodities changed to gifts when people shop and select for their relatives.
The researcher also added that the consumption of cards was conceived as a
dynamic site of real interactions between the card senders and receivers.

54
Finally, the researcher concluded that greeting cards could exclusively show
most things were not intrinsically gifts or commodities. Rather, things could
reflect people's identities by honor of social interaction and processing.

2.3.3 Newspaper Obituaries

In a descriptive study to investigate the use of transliteration in the paid

obituaries announced in the Pakistani newspapers printed in English,
Chaudhry et. al (2016, pp.39-45) clearly identified the frequencies of the
transliterated vocabulary in the linguistic messages, then they inspected the
functional relationship that evolved in and between the textual moves of those
adds based on the connection between them. By interpreting the linkage, the
researchers were able to identify that the Pakistani obituary transliterations
stem namely from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. To explain this lexical
borrowing, the researchers checked the announcement authors' motives. They
found that transliteration was a community need-based act oriented by both
religion and culture. They finally concluded that lexical borrowing had to be a
technique used deliberately both to convey the message effectively and to
enhance the exactness of the announcement components spontaneously.

Danilova (2015, pp.267-281) investigated the politics of mourning

among the British families of the fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
researcher aimed at analyzing the memorialization of those soldiers. The
researcher collected her data from the obituaries published on two online
websites, the BBC and The Lasting Tribute. The researcher first compared the
sources of data collection as good examples of media-driven and community-
driven memorialization. This comparison had already enabled to establish

55
some links between media mainstreaming and functioning of digital
networkers, i.e. between public and private discourses of war anniversaries.
The researcher aimed at examining how memorial actuality in its essence,
symbolized war casualties in order to imply for the political association with
memorial actuality. The study postulated that virtual memorial presented
some professionalized as well as personalized considerations to the fighters,
serving in the army oversees. However, virtual memorials allowed for a
British devoted discourse of war honoring to proceed as well as to form the
culture of mourning in modern England.

2.3.4 Conclusion

The critical discourse analysis approaches to birth and death 'homely

genres' have already confirmed that people exploited the written as well as the
oral discourses to meet their own socio-cultural norms. In one example, the
researcher found that the American parents in general, and mothers in
particular, could openly share their friendly knowledge and care for their child
by making the birthday party very personal through the gift of their time and
effort so that they could create a home-made event. This propensity
corresponds 'individualism', one of the main axis of the 'American Dream'. In
another study carried out on Pakistani lexical borrowing, it has been found
that that transliteration from the Quran discourse is a community need-based
act oriented by religion and culture, which both highlight solidarity among
Pakistani Muslims.

56
2.4 Review of the Studies Conducted on Norms of Polite Speech in Arabic

As revealed in the previous sub-sections previewed on 'homely' genres,

there is a gap in the literature of 'homely' genres, in general. To avoid lacuna
in information, the following sub-section aims at reviewing the scholarly
research conducted on the polite address forms in Arabic. To a good extent
the section highlights the findings of the studies due to their direct relevance
of the main objectives of the study to be conducted on the Palestinian
wedding invitation discourse.

2.4.1 Offering and Hospitality in Arabic and English

In a cross-cultural study, Grainger et. al (2015, pp.41-70) investigated

hospitality and offering in Arabic and English. The researchers studied the
conventional linguistic practices involved in hospitality routines. The
researchers concentrated on comparing rather than contrasting the various
ways people made offers in different cultures. In this way, the scholars
questioned the claim that offerings were handled differently in cultures.
However, they argued only for similarities between the ways in which offers
were cross-culturally made because people's different codes and cultures
might contradict antagonistically and homogeneously. The researchers
collected their data from four groups of people met naturally and encountered
in hospitality actions. They aimed to explore the nature of hospitality giving
and perception in each cultural group as well as to examine the extent to
which offers and refusals were established in one particular language. The
analysts drew on Oatey's understanding of sociality face, i.e. hospitality as an
approach to sincerity. They found that there were similarities in regard to the

57
moves of offering in both Arabic and English, though the moves (hence the
norms) of insisting and refusing were slightly more conventionalized in
Arabic.

2.4.2 Politeness in Arabic Culture

In the domain of language and politeness, Samarah (2015, pp.2005-

2016) argued that language form and content were unlikely to be separable. In
fact, both were two aspects of one object. In natural language, people use the
same phrases and structures to express politely specific meanings in different
situations. From a pragmatic perspective, language change and choice were
very likely to be oriented by the 'politeness' factor. Built on Harris and Morn's
(1979) regarding interactions with minorities coming from the Arab World
which maintained both verbal and non-verbal factors as a stimulus for social
interaction, personal relationships and language politeness, the researcher
examined the content as well as the various forms of the utterances used for
greeting. It had been found that Arabic politeness was well-structured and
controlled mainly by powers of religion and affiliations of the dominating
social norms. In relevance, the impact of the religious factor on the selection
of polite terms was much greater than the social one. There was a reference to
'God' in all of the polite expressions analyzed in the study. Though the use of
titles, such as 'Mr.', 'Mrs', and 'Sir', for instance, could be found in all cultures
and languages. Arabs differed in the considerable amount and degree of the
titles employed for conveying politeness. In Arabic, politeness had to be
checked under many semantic categories including permission, humility,
hospitality, generosity, gratitude, respect and sociability. For example,

58
humbleness or modesty in Arabic broad culture was unlikely to be equal to
face loss or indignity. For a native speaker of Arabic, humility should entail
based on the teachings of Islam and implications of social norms a high
degree of respect to others according to their age, sex and status. In relevance,
Arabic was rich of politeness expressions, though the emergence of Islam in
the 6th century has also enriched Arabic with so many polite address forms.

2.4.3 Norms of Polite Speech Among Palestinian Arab EFL Learners

In the Palestinian EFL cross-cultural context, Eshreteh (2014)

conducted a PhD thesis (submitted to University of Madrid in 2014) to
explore the pragmatic nature of making, accepting and declining invitations in
the Palestinian and American society. The researcher aimed at investigating
the tendency to use the direct as well as indirect strategies of politeness
among native speakers of both American English and Palestinian Arabic
when issuing invitations, and accepting or declining them. The researcher
collected his data by using different methods including direct observations
and the corpus of the previous studies conducted on norms of American polite
speech. For data analysis, the researcher built on Searle's (1976) concepts on
speech act theory (SAT), Leech's (1983) general principle of politeness and
its maxims of agreement and self-dispraise, and Brown and Levinson's (1987)
models of face threatening acts. The researcher found that an invitation in
both cultures was a complex act involving different verbal forms in
Palestinian Arabic and American English. In both codes, invitations were
realized not only in the initial utterance of the invitation discourse but also
throughout the discourse. When inviting others, Americans and Palestinians

59
tended to involve into some 'face work' aiming at sustaining the inviters' as
well as the invitees' public image. The researcher also found that Palestinian
inviters, unlike their counterparts, the Americans, employed a higher degree
of direct invitation discourses. This strategic variation did not mean that one
group of inviters was more polite than the other in delivering the invitation; it
could only reflect language habits stemming from different cultures. Finally,
the scholar concluded that both Palestinian Arabs and Americans inclined to
use different prefabricated expressions as well as to apply certain strategies
when issuing, accepting or rejecting an invitation.

2.4.4 Polite Requests, Offers and Thanks in Moroccan Arabic and

American English

In a comparative study of English and Moroccan Arabic speech acts,

Alaoui (2011, pp.7-15) investigated the politeness principle maintained in the
various expressions selected for requests, offers and thanks in both varieties.
The researcher hypothesized that speech acts were complex, as they might
include a potential threat to the interlocutors' public image. The analysis of
the discourses collected from both varieties of Arabic and English had
revealed that the ultimate goal of the speakers was geared towards minimizing
any threat to their own face as well as their hearers'. In other words, the
interlocutors' selection and use of certain words, phrases and clauses when
expressing requests, offers, and thanks, were all governed by norms of
politeness highlighting the both the speaker and the listener's positive as well
as negative face. Positive face could refer to the public image the speaker
wanted the others to keep for himself or herself whereas negative face might

60
refer to the public image everyone claimed for themselves and did not want
others to exceed or go beyond. Technically, the researcher found some cross-
linguistic differences between Moroccans and Americans. To achieve their
purpose, Moroccan Arabs significantly inclined to markers and terms of polite
speech, including 'ahlan wa-sahlan' roughly glossed as 'welcome' and
'sharaftu:na' meaning 'we are honorable to', for instance; however, Americans
significantly tended to use both modals and interrogatives. From a pragma-
linguistic perspective, norms of polite speech were (to a good extent) satisfied
lexically in Arabic but syntactically in English.

2.4.5 Strategies of Polite Speech Employed in Filling Jordanian Business

Application Forms

Al-Ali (2006a, p.691) investigated the generic components and

pragmatic strategies of letters of applications compiled by Jordanian EFL
bilinguals. The researcher aimed to follow up how far novice non-native
beginners of English were able to make use of the generic components and
politeness strategies of English which often interact with communicative
success in social interactions. The researcher collected his data from (90) job
application letters applied by (90) job seekers. Modeled on Bhatia's 1993
move structure and governed by the framework of Brown and Levinson's
1987 model of politeness, the researcher found that strategies of politeness
were defectively applied and the genre components were not well managed in
the application letters. The letters echoed some strategic moves that were not
applied by the Jordanian bilinguals. The researcher argued that the bilingual
writers of English inclined to refrain negative politeness by making many

61
proper positive politeness strategies because of the potential inexperience of
the social and cultural forces governing their choices. The researcher
suggested that there had to be a different cause related to fields of cultural
transfer rather than the language impact.

2.4.6 Greeting, Congratulating and Commiserating in Omani Arabic

Emery (2000, pp.196-216) examined three categories of politeness

expressions used in the Omani Arabic curriculum. The categories included the
expressions used for greeting, consoling or relieving, and congratulating
others in the northern part of Oman. The researcher found that there was a
considerable amount of overlap between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern
Standard Arabic (MSA). Nevertheless, Omani Arabic displayed its own
linguistic features and patterns in the three areas raised for discussion. These
included certain local expressions used when leaving or arriving at home, and
exchanging greetings on religious festivals or supplicating 'Allah for rain'.
Local Omani phrases were used by all intellectual groups but more
significantly by the old who were less open to the influences of MSA than
younger generations. Within the category of the old, only women inclined to
be linguistically conservative regarding the dialect forms. Among the
category of women, young females looked more conscious than old females
in their usage of both CA and MSA. They also looked more open to MSA
than their counterparts, the young males. The researcher concluded that the
Omani usage in these areas remained relatively stable in spite of many calls
for language change. Except for several marginal cases, the actual forms of
exchange drew on Arabic.

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2.4.7 Conclusion

To sum up, the findings of the cross-linguistic studies carried out on the
norms of polite address in the Arabic and English context have already
indicated that the sociolinguistic factor of mainly keeping face as a main
motivating factor for selecting certain linguistic formulas. To a good extent,
the Arabic prefabricated phrases and structures used in greeting, offering and
requesting were regulated by the socio-cultural values oriented by religious
and social factors. In the Arabic broader cultural context as well as the
Palestinian context, in particular, norms of polite invitation were still
governed by some socio-cultural values featured by social hierarchy and
collectivism Palestinians still inclined to value social hierarchy and
collectivism.

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 Chapter Three

MATERIALS & METHODS

3. Introduction

This chapter sheds some light on the materials and methods employed in the
study. Systematically, it elaborates on the theoretical framework regulating
the study. Then, it displays the research tools followed and used in data
collection as well as the research methods and models implemented in data
analysis. The chapter ends in highlighting some ethical considerations to be
concerned in scholarly research.

3.1 Theoretical Framework

The thesis to be conducted fits into the area of sociolinguistics, i.e.

language and community as well as the domain of critical discourse analysis.
It, however, builds on three theoretical paradigms: Genre analysis (GA) used
by Swales (1990; 2004), Foley (1997) and Bhatia (2004), critical discourse
analysis (CD) implemented by Wodak (1999) and Fairclough (2010; 1995;
1992), and Van Dijk (1998), and socio-linguistic variation used by (Marshall,
2004; McMahon, 1994). These paradigms are developed to explain the
linguistic phenomenon in the various domains of language and community
properly. Though inter-disciplinary, the theoretical framework is integrative,
as it approaches language from a critical, analytical, and variational socio-
pragmatic as well as pragma-linguistic perspective and outlook.

More recently, the term 'genre' has been perceived as "a specific
product of a social practice" (Bloor & Bloor, 2013, p.8). Therefore, solid

64
research has already given a fresh interest in genre as a lens of analytic
categorization to stress the social aspect of texts or other events of
communication (Ifantidou, 2011; Paltridge, 1997).This research has shown
genres as not only pragmatic and social constructs concentrating on their
communicative aims to accomplish some socially identified goals (Swales,
1990) but also as ordinary prototypes examining their common rhetorical or
generic structure (Miller, 2015; 1984).

As implemented by Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993), genre analysis

(GA) invokes a system of analysis that can recognize the main
communicative purpose of a social activity. GA can also unearth the genre's
built-in component moves and organization patterns used to construe, i.e.
realize, this social practice. In its broadest sense, genre comprises an array of
move components, each of which performs a secondary role in the general
function of the genre's text (Ventola, 1987). The sequences of the component
of one specific genre determine the realization of "an interpretive set of
principles linking historically transmitted schemes for framing linguistic
performances" (Foley, 1997, p.377). In other words, a specific generic text
arranges the participants' contemporary practices, relationships as well as the
broader cultural and social affairs that enable these practices to rise socially.

Associated with GA is the upshot of critical discourse analysis (CDA).

As a branch of discourse analysis rooted in critical linguistics, CDA surpasses
the identification of the component moves that form the genre patterns to the
deconstruction and exposition of the social values, beliefs and practices that
molds the selection and arrangement made in the construction of one specific

65
genre. For a careful discourse analyst, CDA also clarifies all of the user's
choices preferred to be taken in the process of constructing a specific generic
discourse. To Fairclough (1992, p.12), the generic discourse should be felt
both as a reflection or a product of social acts and as if it were "shaped by
relations of power and ideologies". Similarly, Pennycook (1994, p.121) makes
an effort to develop a general outlook for CDA reflecting "the larger social,
cultural, and ideological forces that influence our lives". Pennycook adheres
that approaches to CDA "share a commitment to go beyond linguistic
description to attempt explanation, to show how social inequalities are
reflected and created in language" (ibid. p.121).

In general, a critical approach to discourse analysis ‒ according to

Fairclough (2010, p.131), is meant to make the reciprocity between properties
of the text and processes of power or ideology relations more visible. This
reciprocity is quite foggy or rather blurred to those who interpret or even to
those who issue the texts. The effectiveness of the text, however, depends on
this cloudiness. In its essence, CDA is multi-disciplinary (Bloor and Bloor,
2013; van Dijk, 1998); thus, it should be ‘trans-disciplinary’ in analysis. This
multiple approach can help the analyst attract the dialectical relations between
the genre's discourse and other intricate discursive moments, elements, and
objects in addition to the discourse internal relations (Fairclough, 2003;
2010).Therefore, CDA is applicable for any research geared towards
checking any cultural and social change, as it clearly digs for and
systematically delves into the links entrenched unintentionally between
language and social practice. In relevance, Fairclough (2010, p.131) contends
that "social and cultural changes are largely changes in discursive practices".

66
 To press on, language variation is central to sociolinguistics in the
contemporary theories of language. Variationists often examine how one
natural language keeps evolving by observing it. Observation is often
accomplished by looking at authentic materials, such as wedding and birth
discourses. According to O'Grady et. al (2009), variation is always studied by
looking at linguistic and social environments, then the data collected is
processed and analyzed as the change takes place. Variation in research must
be workable due to the nature of language itself. This is true because language
is also fluid in transition and does not shift from one state to another
instantaneously. Sociolinguistic variability illustrates how the use of language
differs across verbal contexts by the same person as well as between groups
and individuals. In relevance, language change in diaglossic and polyglossic
communities, often spreads gradually from "word to word, group to group and
class to class over time and in physical space" (Holmes, 2013, pp.194-220).

More importantly, linguistic variation is not incidental but rather as

"orderly heterogeneities" that are systematically altered by extra
sociolinguistic factors (Marshall, 2004; McMahon, 1994). Labov (2011, p.11)
contends that linguistic change is often contributed to (and opportunistically
thrives on) variation. Speech communities show a high degree of a
heterogeneous order. Therefore, the standardized patterns of social norms and
linguistic styles suggest that community members can utilize any variation
others to place them on certain scales of social distance or social power.
Labov (2011) adds that when other systems emerge, community members
(often the old) do not necessarily reflect the flexibility needed to adapt or
adjust with the change.

67
 Among the social factors that trigger linguistic variation are age,
gender, race, education and social status. Most of these social "factors often
interact" leading to some linguistic variation between people through time
passage (Chambers & Schilling, 2013, p.131). Associated with gender, Lakoff
found that both sexes relatively tend to use slightly different language styles
fluctuating between speech quantification and qualification. Holmes (2013,
pp.284-316) argues that this gender-based variation is intended either to meet
norms of polite speech or to change functions of speech, from informing to
socializing, for instance. In relevance to the variable of age, people incline to
use linguistic forms that were prevalent and relevant; the linguistic and social
change in progress is often spotted between generations once each age-
category passes from a stage of their life to another. 

Accordingly, the thesis to be conducted is theoretically framed by GA,

CDA and variational sociolinguistics. As it is intended to deal with a wedding
invitation discourse characterized by a high degree of linguistic inter-
discursivity and cultural mobility, the generic analytical framework is
beneficial for both the identification and definition of the macro as well as
defining the micro features of the PIWC. As revision of the few previous
studies have already revealed, the analytical, but critical approach is, in turn,
good for not only for describing and interpreting the socio-cultural values
depicted in the syntactic, semantic and schematic level of the PWID but also
explaining the forces and proclivities lying behind the discourse community's
selection of certain linguistic formulas to maintain or constrain certain values.
Though analytical, the socio-linguistic variational framework is meant to
validate the findings as well as the conclusions drawn by the other paradigms

68
3.2 Research Methods and Materials

As long as methods concern, the thesis applies only two approaches to

qualitative research: Content analysis and the ethnographic structured
interview. The former is meant to analyze the PWID in terms of both
'contents' and 'contexts'. The content aspect is meant only to identify the
moves and components of PWICs; the context aspect is intended to delve into
the PWID. Thus, the content analysis aims at de-texturizing the genre's design
and structure whereas the other analysis shoots at contextualizing the social
norms and values hidden and rooted in the wedding text. Accordingly, the
investigation fits into discourse analysis studies due to its final scope,
ultimate goal and potential objectives. The latter, i.e. the interview, is
encouraged for triangulating the research method used in the study.
Triangulation often helps researchers validate the research methods they use
and the theories they build on, so that they can double check their findings
and conclusions (Carter et. al, 2014).

In general, the nature of qualitative research makes it hard to define

clearly. According to Denzin and Lincoln (2011, p.6), such a method has
neither a paradigm or a theory that clearly distinguishes it from the
quantitative method nor does it have a set of practices or methods that
exclusively belong to it. This suggests that qualitative research includes a
wide range of methods and approaches used within other research disciplines.
In spite of its diversity and the potential conflicting nature of the assumptions
underlying its inherent characteristic features, Hammersley and Atkinson
(2007) argues that qualitative research method is used broadly by many social

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researchers who have attempted to apprehend the defining properties of this
method. In the various fields of social work, qualitative research is often
referred to as an interpretive, naturalistic approach, concerned with delving
into one phenomenon, whether social or linguistic, examining it from the
inside, and taking its participants' views into account.

There are many key elements that are widely identified as common
characteristic features of qualitative research. Ritchie et. al (2013, pp.3-4) lists
variability, sensitivity, complexity, reflexivity and internal validity. They
argue that qualitative research has some objectives, revised for providing a
deep understanding of the social realm of the research participants. They also
add that qualitative research normally tends to apply non-standardized
methods for data collection and generation, characterized by a high degree of
sensitivity to the social context. In qualitative research, data are also featured
by a high degree of complexity, richness and details. Data analyses often
absorb complexity and tolerate each case uniqueness or participant's
specialty. Scholars are also open to emergent categories and theories in the
process of data analysis and interpretation. As the researchers always
acknowledge their roles and views, their approach looks reflexive. In
qualitative research, validity is internal, as this approach does not attempt to
quantify or generalize the results over a large number of people. It only aims
at quantifying certain social practices and proclivities.

3.3 Research Design

In view of the theoretical frameworks of GA, CDA, and socio-

linguistic variation displayed in section 3.1, the preview of the qualitative

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methods and its approaches presented in section 3.2 as well as the findings of
some relevant studies reviewed in chapter two, the wedding invitation
discourse seems to be a sociolinguistic and socio-cognitive concept at
different levels ranging from the immediate situation of wedding rite to
family or discourse community and at a wider level to society. Accordingly,
the thesis will implement a qualitative trans-disciplinary approach in an
attempt to realize the generic structure of the PWID in the last twenty years
on the one hand. One the other, it attempts to detect the impact of the socio-
cultural forces and values underlying the transformation or preservation of
certain discourse patterns and sequential structures on the community's
selection and use of specific textual features within the PWID.

In particular, the implementation of the explanatory CDA as a

fundamental research method and approach is supposed to help the analyst go
beyond just only describing and identifying the moves depicted in PWICs to
dismantle clearly the internal values, social practices, personal inclinations,
and ideologies that have remodeled the choices and patterns made in framing
this particular genre. The analytical manipulation as well as the critical
integration of the PWID basically as a highly formal, written, 'commissive
speech act' (Searle, 1979) should finally help the analyst acknowledge how
relations of power, culture, identity and ideology function covertly as
mechanics of social mobility. These factors blend together as invisible
agendas and forces to trigger some changes on the PWIC. They can help such
as linguistic variability within the PWID by either activating certain
ritualized, textual patterns or motivating some emerging but more creative
wedding patterns. In other words, the linguistic variability reflected in the

71
PWID is a vehicle for the socio-cultural mobility resulted from some external
or internal challenges and needs. In regard, the PWID is promising because of
the so many challenges the Palestine young couples have been experiencing
lately.

3.4 Data Collection

To construct a clear image of the PWID, A corpus of (500) wedding

cards has been collected for the purpose of classification. Among these, a
collection of (200) PWICs has been selected for further sub-classifications
and analyses. As implicated in Section 1.8, data collection has been limited to
specific areas of residency in historical Palestine. Therefore, the wedding
corpus was collected from some young and old couples living in the districts
of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Data collection also took into account
the participants' religious commitment as well as ethnic distribution. To check
mechanics of socio-cultural mobility in progress as well as the linguistic
variability in target within the PWID, the collection was sub-categorized into
two groups: Group A and Group B. The former included (30%) of old couples
who got married in the period extending from 1998 to 2008. The latter was
made up of some fresh couples (70%) who got married in last decade,
especially in 2018.

In an attempt to narrow down the scope of the study to the socio-

linguistic variability and socio-cultural mobility taking place in the last
decade over the Palestinian society, in general and among the young couples
and their families, in particular, about (50%) of the wedding invitation cards,
collected and depicted in category B, was selected from the last few years.

72
This procedure has been taken because of the anticipated influence of the
socio-political forces on the socio-linguistic variability under investigation. It
is important to note here that three wars were announced against Palestinians
by the Israeli occupying authorities during this period. Besides, the
geopolitical situation of the surroundings where the Palestinian culture
belongs to and is expected to be affected by has been quite unsettled since
2010 up to present. More recently, the announcement of 'Jerusalem as capital
of Israel' by the American President, Donald Trump, and the attempt of his
administration to pass on what is politically termed as the 'Deal of the
Century' over the Palestinians, are both expected to have their consequences
over social life in historical Palestine.

Data was collected within common circles of the researcher's family

members, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, friends, university students and
colleagues. A considerable amount of data was also collected from wedding
print shops, such as 'Babil', 'Jerashi' and 'Nawras'. The wedding data was
scanned and sub-mitted electronically to the researcher. This procedure has
been taken into account to meet some scientific and ethical burdens. The
study minds only the textual representations depicted in the PWIC. Besides,
the wedding cards, especially the old ones, are often kept —if any, with
wedding photos and albums by some people as part of the family private
properties for memorization or socialization. Only were the scanned
electronic copies printed out on papers and raised for analysis after disguising
or deleting personal details.

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 The ethnographic data, in particular, was collected through a fully
structured interview designed by the researcher. The interview contained (12)
items concerning the date of wedding, age of couples, their levels of
education and kinship, places of birth and residency, their religious thoughts,
opinions of marriage and costs of wedding parties. The demographic data was
collected by students and colleagues at Palestine Ahliya University. The
students, mostly from College of Arts, were doing a first honor degree in
sociology, English, Arabic and Islamic studies. They collected data during the
Fall of 2018-2019 in a Community Service course as part of the college
requirements. Data was collected from (50) couples. Among these, (25)
couples had already got married in the 1990's. The remaining couples (=25)
have already wedded recently. By taking the age of students' into account, the
students were encouraged to interview their own parents as old couples and
their family members including themselves —if married, to fill in the
interview form as fresh couples. The interview form was designed to cover
both the bride and the groom (see Appendix 2a).

In Palestine, wedding invitations sound seasonal. Most of yearly

weddings take place during the period extending from the mid of June to the
mid of October. However, certain factors related to religion, e.g. fasting in
Ramadan, education, e.g. general secondary examination (also known as
Injaz), weather condition, and local economy, e.g. olives picking, might play
an important role in setting the date of the wedding tradition. As in most other
countries, the Palestinian printing industry often supply models of wedding
invitation texts and designs from which couples can pick. Nowadays, there is,
however, a growing tendency among young couples to show a clear interest

74
and to play an important role in the process of preparing for and constructing
their own wedding invitation cards especially the ritual text. Many people
consider it prestigious to express publicly that they have already designed
their own cards. To market themselves well to their potential customers,
printers usually keep on track with the contemporary preferences and trends
of the youth. Then, it is expected that in many cases the selection from the
prefabricated patterns provided by the printing industry is determined by
some innovative clients’, i.e. previous couple's societal norms and socio-
cultural values. In short, the interview research tool was designed to examine
these factors and propensities.

3.5 Data Analysis: Frameworks and Models

As proposed in the previous sections, a trans-disciplinary approach will

be used in data analysis. This multiple approach necessarily integrates some
common analytical models theoretically framed by GA, CDA, and variational
sociolinguistics. These models of analysis will be respectively adopted first to
analyze the generic structure of PWICs, then to delve into and investigate the
socio-cultural proclivities and forces underlying the maintenance or
emergence of different social discursive practices within the PWID, and
finally to validate the results found and the conclusions drawn.

The GA analytical approach is suggested due to the fact that literature

lacks sufficient solid research in the domain of the Palestinian wedding
invitation genre. It hopefully aims at bridging the wide gap in literature as
well as furnishing to answer RQ:1 properly. This GA method builds on
Bhatia's (1993; 2014) steps of genre analysis and Bhatia's (2004) levels of

75
genre-text analysis. At the genre's level, Bhatia (1993, pp. 23-29) argues that
an analyst should follow certain steps when analyzing one specific genre.
These include placing the given genre-text in a situational context, surveying
the existing literature, refining the situational or contextual analysis, selecting
corpus, studying the institutional context, analyzing the text at some different
levels, and finally consulting a specialist in the area of genre analysis. Bhatia
(1993, p.34) also remarks that consulting a specialist functions as a second
opinion, as "the specialist's reaction confirms findings, brings validity to
researchers' insights and adds reality to analysis".

At the genre's textual level, Bhatia (1993; 2004) argues that the
researcher should manipulate data at three levels of language including
analysis of lexico-grammatical features, text-patterning or textualization, or
structural interpretation of the text-genre. The first analysis concentrates very
directly on specific language features of the text. The second analysis stresses
the tactical aspect of the conventional language used to fix how members of
one speech community allow for restricted values to further among the
various aspects of language. The third is geared towards interpreting the
structure of the genre text taking into account the way in which information is
displayed. According to Bhatia (1993, p.29), genre "specialist writers seem to
be consistent in the way they organize their overall message". This
organization usually manifests itself in some forms of moves and steps.

To proceed, a critical discourse approach to data analysis, building on

both Fairclough (2003; 2013) and Van Dijk's (1998) models of analysis, is
integrated as a major part of the analytical tools used to link the micro-

76
analysis of the text with the various 'macro-relations' of power, dominance,
equality, and ideology underlying and motivating the social practices of the
PWID community. In regard, these frameworks of analysis are implemented
to answer RQs:2-4.

This integrative approach is in full agreement with Fairclough’s (2010,

p.132) three-dimensional analytical framework displaying discourse
simultaneously as a language text (whether written or spoken), a discourse
practice (text production and interpretation), and a socio-cultural practice
(see Figure 6 below). In this view, the three-dimensional discourse analysis is
a method that covers text analysis, i.e. linguistic description of the text,
processing analysis, i.e. interpretation of how the "productive and
interpretative discursive processes" are linked to the text, and social analysis,
i.e. explanation of how these discursive processes relate to the socio-cultural
processes depicted in a specific generic text (cf. Mirzaei & Eslami, 2013,
p.106).

77
 By applying Fairclough's (2003) three-dimensional framework on the
PWID, the textual contents as well as the structural components the PWID
have to be analyzed at three different levels. The first analysis entails a
vertical description of the structural components of each move. This
interactive analytical process can help the researcher develop an
understanding of how the PWID is produced. The second comprises a
horizontal analysis of the textual contents of each move and step. This
interpretive analysis helps the researcher grabs a good understanding of how
the socio-cultural practices and proclivities of the text issuers are consumed in
the process of text production. The last analysis encompasses the
juxtaposition of the textual components as well as the social practices both
vertically and horizontally in an attempt to explain the forces lying behind the
inclinations towards the selection and use of specific wedding texts. This final
analysis helps the researcher conclude how the wedding text is often
construed , i.e. realized by the wedding discourse community and probably at
broader levels.

In line with Fairclough's (2010) notion of language and power is Van

Dijk's (1998) theory of discourse and ideology. Van Dijk (1998, pp. 203-209)
displays discourse as a fundamental component of particular ideologies. He
refers to some discourse structures that can carry some important functions of
our ideology. At the syntactic level of the discourse, the subject of one
sentence, for instance, mirrors what interlocutors holding certain ideologies
want to emphasize. Pronouns, such as 'we' and 'them', also echo some in-
group and out of group ideologies. At the semantic level, ideological
discourses are inclusive in nature. This means that people often express their

78
opinions of certain historical or social events positively, negatively or even
neutrally. At the discourse or schematic level, people often tend to reflect
their ideologies clearly. For example, the selection of certain words in a
newspaper title can show the ideology of the journalist who wrote it.

Van Dijk (1998, pp.149-156) argues that discourse analysis should

provide some important functions. He lists membership, action, value, belief,
relationship with others and resources; our memberships suggest identifying
who we are and how we define ourselves in terms of gender, race, socio-
economic class, religion, age, language and culture; our actions highlight
what we do in a specific group; our values stress what we like to do most; our
beliefs sustain any thought or doctrine we believe in; our relation with others
stresses where we have to stand on specific issues; and our realistic and
symbolic symbols confirm whether we already possess or just miss them.

Van Dijk (1998, pp.211-228) also points out that the context of
discourse plays an important role in understanding the texts. Therefore,
analysts should check first the domain, as the conservative ideology for
instance, always manifests itself in certain topics, such as 'birth control', sex
'education and life', 'birth and death' but not 'organic food'. Analysts also need
to examine the settings, including timing and location, as where and when the
discourse is given adds to the context. They should also explore the social,
ethnic and economic backgrounds of the discourse writers. Finally, they have
to inspect the affiliations related to the discourse writers' potential roles and
agendas.

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 In the light of Van Dijk's (1998) model, a critical analysis on the PWID
will be carried out. This particular analysis (also known as de-
contextulization) aims at revealing the PWID ideologies and identities.
However, this analysis includes only the discursive wedding texts manifesting
themselves as quotes from the religious scripts, literary works, political
mottos. Analyzing the context of these wedding textual elements at the
syntactic, semantic as well as schematic, i.e. discoursal, level helps does not
only reveal the PWID community's socio-cultural values and social practices,
but it also goes further to unearth their personal identities, religious beliefs
and ideologies, whether national or not and whether liberal or conservative. It
is important to note here that contextualization necessitates a close look at the
PWID's domains, and settings and PWID's communities roles and agendas.

Besides, language variation in the general domain of socio-linguistics

refers to the study of the way language varies in discourse communities. In
particular, linguistic variation focuses on the interaction of social factors, such
as the speaker's age, gender, ethnicity, and degree of integration into their
community, and linguistic structures, such as grammatical forms, structural
phrases, and lexical features. Accordingly, a sociolinguistic variation
approach, implemented by Marshall (2004) and McMahon (1994) are
integrally involved in the present study to seek the socio-cultural course of the
sociolinguistic variations that have already developed in the PWID over the
last few years. This mode of analysis is sustained for the process of validating
the results drawn on and framed by the exclusive CDA approach.

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 Marshall (2004, pp.15-18) asserts that the model of analyzing language
change and variation that Labov originated in 1972 has been implemented
over many speech communities around the world. He accepts that recent
approaches, however, whilst accepting the basic framework of the linguistic
variable, they reject or disdain the social variable. He contends that
sociolinguistic variation investigations will be sociologically unsophisticated
when they correlate isolated social facts about the speaker's gender, age, class
and ethnicity, for instance, with language use. These studies should observe
how social groups and networks form and evolve, and then analyze the
linguistic variation, whether lexical, structural or phonological, emerging
from that social practice. He also adds to check sociolinguistic variation, a
top-down, subjective approach that highlights first collecting some broad
social categories and then analyzing the language use of each category,
sounds unbeneficial, as it can only tell what is there. However, a bottom-up,
objective approach that first examines self-forming social groups and
networks to see if these groupings are reflected in linguistic structure looks
more beneficial, as it also attempts to inform and explain, i.e. to tell what
social practice is there and why it takes place.

Accordingly, to gain a good understanding of the forces and

proclivities that maintain or sustain the social practices reflected in the PWID,
two categories of Palestinian young couples including (25) recently married
(within the last five years or soon-to-be-wed) couples as well as (25) old
partners (from the period extending from (1990-1995), are interviewed (see
the translated copy of the interview form attached in Appendix 2b). The data
collected through the interview as a research tool often sets good answers

81
about "the intricate nature of language in social use" (Denzin and Lincoln,
2010). Initially, it enables the analyst to examine from a close but external
lens why and how the socio-cultural mobility mechanics under investigation is
taking place. From the same corner, it can also check the socio-linguistic
variability dynamics reflected in the wedding discourse. In other words, the
interview can reveal the real participants who took the decision of the
linguistic choice and where and when the social selection is made. In short,
this auto-ethnographic analysis can carefully check up (in a bottom-up
technique) the impact of the demographic factors on both forming the socio-
cultural values epitomized in the PWID and reforming the real forces and
proclivities sparking the couple's social practices.

3.6 Analytical Procedure

The textual components of any linguistic discourse, whether written or

spoken, can be verbal or non-verbal. The verbal elements often include the
words or utterances that people use to encode or decode their arguments,
ideas and messages. Therefore, the lexemes, i.e. contextualized words, and
syntactic structures, are used as symbols to satisfy certain meanings. Meaning
can be conveyed also by other techniques including visuals, such as images,
figures and colors. Thus, any text might have some verbal and visual
representations of the meanings and senses depicted there. As the present
study builds on some theoretical frameworks and analytical modes designed
as well as tailored for critically approaching only the textual elements, it —as
a procedure, excludes the visual representations included within the PWID

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from critical analysis. Nevertheless, the analysts points out to some pervasive
visuals, if any, when identifying the moves of PWICs.

3.7 Ethical Considerations in Data Collection and Analysis

As long as ethics concerns, the principles of research have to be revered

"in a code of ethics to guide the behavior of a researcher" (Chua, 2016, p.41).
Researchers can build on this code and practice in order to improve the
standard and quality of their work. A code of ethics addresses issues like
values, self-awareness, professionalism, trustworthiness and discipline
guideline. A code of values reminds the researcher to sustain specific moral
values before, during and after the research. Self-awareness maintains a full
awareness of all types of unacceptable behavior and actions towards
respondents and objects. Professionalism preserves using a research method
which will not lead respondents to experience negative consequences.
Trustworthiness reminds the researcher to process the data and research
results and to report honestly. Finally, a discipline guideline following rules
of research to produce valid research results should be kept.

To involve questions of right and wrong behavior relating to ethics,

certain procedures will be taken. The researcher will fully reveal his identity
and background to the respondents. The research objectives and procedure
will also be fully explained. The opinions of the participating couples will be
considered. Any research benefits will also be ensured. As data will be
collected directly from the subjects, the objectives of the study will be
informed. Confidentiality as well as anonymity of the personal details will be
certified, and a permission to use and analyze the couples' belongings will be

83
personally and explicitly asked. Therefore, the researcher will ask for a letter
of clearance from the Faculty of Arts at MU (preferably translated into
Arabic) verifying, certifying and clarifying the purpose as well as the ultimate
goal of the study to be conducted on the PWID and its community.

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 Chapter Four

DISCUSSION & RESULTS

4. Introduction

This chapter aims at addressing RQs(1-4), raised for discussion in Chapter 1.

First, it gives a short summary of the emergence of the PWIG as well as the
development of the PWIC. The purpose of involving the historical context is
unavoidable due to the unstoppable political challenges aiming at isolating the
components of the Arabic Palestinian culture from its external surroundings,
evacuating it from its internal social context within the forthcoming
generations, up to eliminating or pillaging its wealthy elements and key
symbols.

4.1 An Overview of the Emergence and Development of the PWIG

The origins of commercially printed fine wedding stationery might be

traced back to the period immediately following World War II, in which a
combination of rapid industrial growth and democracy gave the common
individual the financial capability to imitate the materialism of society's elite
and their life-styles. About this time, prominent society figures, such as
doctors and school teachers, have emerged to advise the ordinary man and
woman on appropriate etiquette including the use of wedding cards. During
that time, Palestinian couples (up to my best knowledge) used to print their
cards in Amman and Cairo (see Figure 7 in Appendix 3). Growth in the use of
wedding stationery has also been grounded in the development of
'thermography', though it lacks the fineness and distinctiveness of engraving

85
(Maldague et. al, 2002, pp.175-181). As this technique is less expensive, it is
often called poor man's engraving. By using such a method of printing,
wedding invitations, whether printed or engraved, finally have become
affordable to every couple regardless of their social class.

More recently, 'letterpress' printing has made a strong revival in

popularity for wedding invitations. It has a specific boutique and craft appeal
due to the deep impression or bite that can be achieved. In this method of
photocopying, the letter press is not intended to bite into the paper, but rather
to kiss it creating a flat print. The bite creates a deep impression of sensory,
aesthetic touches to the letterpress printed wedding invitations (Kulkarni &
Designs, 2013). Finally, laser engraving has also been making its own
headway in the wedding invitation market over the last few years. Primarily
used for engraving wood veneer invitations, it is also used to engrave tinned
covering or to mark certain types of metal invitations, such as wedding cards
(Gao, 2017). Finally, the latest trend in wedding invitations is to order them
online. Using the Internet has made viewing, organizing and ordering
wedding invitations an easy task. In Palestine, there are some local convenient
websites that can offer wedding invitations to couples.

Norms of 'polite speech' vary considerably from one culture to another

(Holmes, 2013, pp. 258-282). Therefore, the etiquette regarding the formal
text, printed out on PWICs, is supposed to meet norms of Arabic culture as
well norms of social politeness of daily verbal interactions in Palestine. In a
"diglossic community", such as the Arabic speaking countries, two forms of
language are often used: formal and informal. The former, also known as

86
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), is often regarded as a prestigious code, as it
builds on Classic Arabic. Thus, it is used for specific functions, such as
formal writing, education and religion. The latter including so many local
varieties is used in daily routines intended for socialization (Holmes, 2013,
pp.19-50). Thus, the PWID is supposed to be written in a formal, third-person
language, typically saying that the host wishes for the recipient to attend a
wedding party to occur in a specific place and time.

As the context is related to marriage, it is expected that the PWIC

initially displays some quotes from the Qur'anic discourse, Muhammad's
teachings, or Arabic literature fitting the wedding context. As the bride's
parents are culturally the guardians of the couples, and traditionally the hosts
of the wedding, the wedding text commonly begins with the names of the
bride's parents as they use them in formal social contexts, e.g. 'Mr. Sami and
'Dr. Ali'. As the Arabic wedding invitation discourse affiliates with both
"religion and power of masculinity" —at least in some Arabic speaking
countries, such as Jordan and Iraq, the ceremony is very probably
acknowledged on the honor of the clan or the whole tribe from which the
couple's parents descend (Ali, 2006, p.691). As formal Arabic maintains a
plural form for polite address, the wedding discourse tends to use certain
linguistic formulas adhering the individual within the whole, such as 'we are
pleased to', 'their son' and 'their daughter'. In the Palestinian wedding
ceremonies, both names of the couple-to-wed are expected to be placed under
their parents' names.

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 The modern invitation designs are fashionable. Invitations are generally
tailored to match the couple's personal preferences, the level of formality of
the event, and any color scheme or planned theme. For example, an open
space wedding may have light, fresh colors and sky-related graphics. The new
wedding may have more script typefaces and lots of ornamentation that
matches the formal nature of the event. The design of the invitation is
becoming less and less traditional and more reflective of the couple's
personality (Berger et. al, 2018). One of the insisting themes of the
Palestinian wedding card is the traditional female embroidered dressing, male
head cover, and the national flag (see Figure 8). Some web-based print-on-
demand companies now allow couples to design or customize their own
wedding invitations. Therefore, the PWIC is typically a note card, folded in
half, or perhaps folded twice into quarters. Other options may include a sheet
of paper tri-folded in a trendy pocket-fold design. The appropriate paper
depends mainly on the design, but typically ranges from heavy papers to very
stiff card stocks. Enhanced by modern technologies which tailor and produce
them, modern PWICs are clearly characterized by brevity, simplicity, gaiety
and vivacity (see Figure 9 in Appendix 3).

The PWIC is often mailed in a single envelope. The outer envelope is

used to write the names of the invited people. More frequently, the invitees'
names are either written manually or printed out on a straight line that
sustains the invitation for the whole family, including the parents and their
sons and daughters. Sometimes the names of the guests are written neatly on a
space provided on the wedding card itself. Handing the card often takes place
a few days earlier to the wedding ceremony. The earlier distribution of the

88
wedding card, which is often carried out by members of the groom's family, is
intended to meet local etiquette and social norms (Martin, 2011, p.402). It can
give some time for both the inviters to include everyone in the surroundings
and their invitees to make up their mind regarding their personal
arrangements, commitments of attendance, and even priorities of attending
more than one wedding held at the same time. It is important to note here that
most of the Palestinian wedding rituals often take place during the summer
time and at the weekends. This communal tendency has forced the wedding
invited families to either be selective or reluctant of attendance. To meet the
demands of attending this social act, the invited families do not often
apologize; they would rather attend many wedding ceremonies only for a
short time.

To sum up, the external, global factors as well as the internal, political
situation have their drastic impact on the Palestinian population. This has
resulted in adapting some new changes in the customs and practices of the
Palestinians living in West Bank and Gaza coastal strip and probably "living
in the Diaspora" (Serhan, 2008, p.21). The presentation of certain wedding
traditions and elements, such as costumes, songs, and wedding cards, has
signaled for a high degree of social change in which new traditions have been
emerged and invented. The realization of the PWIG, in particular, suggests
that the wedding tradition has evolved among young couples into a communal
occasion for celebrating a national identity attempting to reflect itself, meet
external challenges, and cope with other's identities.

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4.2 The Typical Discourse Patterns and Sequential Parts in PWICs

This section explores the structural features of the PWIG. It attempts to

identify the moves established in the PWIC and to describe the components of
each move. Ultimately, it aims to reflect on the linguistic variability reflected
in the PWID. To do so, the section addresses RQ1: 'What are the typical
discourse patterns and sequential parts realized in the contemporary PWIC?'

To conclude how inviters to wedding ceremonies in Palestine achieve

the overall purpose of their invitations as a socio-cultural activity, Bhatia's
(2004; 1993) model of analysis of the genre's move textual structure has been
followed. By contextualizing the texts collected from the wedding cards
issued in the period extending from 1998 to 2018, eight moves at the
structural level have been identified. They include the following typical
moves: Opening, heading, identifying the inviters, requesting the presence of
others, identifying the bride and the groom, situating the wedding, closing,
and other optional elements. It is important to note here that some of these
moves are optional. That is to say, the moves and their steps do not essentially
take place in the same sequence or order. The textual format as well as the
PWIG's design varies considerably over time. This variation has resulted in
either sustaining some moves as obligatory structural elements or recycling
some moves as optional ones.

4.2.1 The Opening Move of the PWIG

In the typical PWIC, the opening move is often set apart on its own at
the top of the wedding card. In category A, including the cards issued up to
2007, the components of this move accommodate some direct quotes from the

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Nobel Quran or the Bible stressing the importance of marriage, extracts from
Prophet Muhammad's teachings urging the couple's loyalty to one another, or
couplet stanzas from Arabic relevant poetry praising the significance of
nesting families. The vast majority of the opening textual components are
sacred, as they have been copied literally from the first two resources of
legislation for a Sunni Muslim or the Bible for a Palestinian Christian (see
Example 1&2 in Appendix 4). The remaining percentage have been taken
from Arabic poetry stressing certain values derived from the Arabic general
culture, such as generosity, bravery, parenthood and devotion to family.

In category B, including the wedding cards issued after 2008, there is a

general tendency among Muslim people to avoid quoting from the holy
Scripts, the Noble Qur'an, in particular. One explanation for this void
probably resides in the public awareness (especially among Muslim couples)
of not including any literal verses in a wedding card that might be trashed in a
refuse soon. Instead, there is a general inclination either to skip the opening
move or to stipulate some lines that highlight the importance of marriage as
an Islamic theme, though the geo-political circumstances do not allow for
public celebration. For example, one wedding couplet reads 'O, Palestine! Oh
our Jerusalem! We beg your pardon; we are getting married just to apply the
teachings of our Prophet; we might beget some men who can set justice and
good deeds on earth'. These lines do not only reflect a national concern
regarding what is going in Palestine, in general and Jerusalem, in particular,
but they also echo the couple's biological needs for reproducing new
generations that can fix what has been (socially and ethically) spoiled in
modern secular communities (see Example 3 in Appendix 4).

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4.2.2 The Heading Move in PWICs

In the heading move, one particular formulaic expression is spotted in

the PWIC of Muslim community. This move is typically paraphrased in a
simple expression that read as: 'Weddings of X and Y'. This formulaic phrasal
expression often consists of the groom's and the bride's tribe, respectively.
Both names of the couple's tribes (if different) are normally written on a
separate line from right in the favor of the groom's to the left in the favor of
the bride's. The use of such an element in some wedding cards can enable the
invitees to identify the specific place of the wedding ceremony especially
when there are more than one wedding party running simultaneously in the
same building. The names of the couple's clans are often written in bold and
stressed by using different font styles.

In more recent PWIG, the heading move is not an obligatory element

due to the fact that there is a general tendency among specific groups of
people, including Palestinian Christians and Muslims coming from well-
educated classes, such as doctors, engineers and layers or different religious
sects, to issue the card as well as to announce the wedding on behalf of their
own nuclear families and relatives (see Example 4 in Appendix 4). Otherwise,
surnames and median names are often attached to the first names of the
wedding inviters, i.e. the couple's parents. One explanation for this language
change stems from the fact that the PWIC is intended to address many guests
from outside the circle of the couple's extended family or religious creed.
These outsiders belong to other discourse communities and probably different
religious sects within the circles of the couple's parents acquaintances. They

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are close friends and probably colleagues to only specific members of the
couple's families.

4.2.3 The Move of Identifying the Inviters in the PWIG

In the move of identifying the inviters, the PWIC is often announced

officially under the names of the couple's male parents in the Islamic wedding
discourse and under both male and female parents in the Christian discourse.
If any of the direct parents are deceased, then the invitation is issued under the
name of the grandfather or the whole brothers. In this exceptional case, the
formulaic expression 'Sons of the deceased X' is sustained. This move is an
obligatory element as it fixes the couple's parents or their brothers as
guardians with which only can marriage according to the teachings of
Islam go further. Typically and more frequently, the name of the groom's
guardian is established on the right-hand side whereas that of the bride's
guardian is often placed on the left-hand side. As reading in Arabic is oriented
or rather regulated (according to Chomsky) by a right-hand head rule, it gives
more emphasis on the words inserted to the right. The unique placement of
names is probably intended to catch the reader's eye to the groom's parent as a
main inviter to the wedding.

More recently, there is a split in the PWIG in which one card is

designed for the groom and another is issued on behalf of the bride's guardian
(see Example 5 in Appendix 4). In this emerging wedding format, the name of
the main inviter, whether the bride or the groom's parent, appears first. It is
followed on a separate line below the name of the second inviter. This new
wedding invitation format does not reflect a right-to-left manipulation in

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which the name of the groom's parent is often realized first. In fact, it sustains
a linear realization of invitation in which the invitee is mainly invited by the
person who is placed first on the wedding card. This authorization from the
groom's parent to the bride's allows for both individuality and equality in the
Palestinian wedding tradition. Individuality is preserved by linguistic
variability, i.e. issuing two separate forms of wedding texts; equality between
both sexes is reformed by shifting away from a one traditional form stressing
the groom's parent as the only inviter.

Arabs normally mind titles, so there was a glut of wedding captions,

such as as-sayyed, glossed as 'Mr.', al-haj, roughly glossed as a 'former
Visitor of the Sacred Mosque', al-mutran, meaning 'Bishop', al-sheik, glossed
as an 'Old but Revered man', al-doctor, meaning 'Doctor' or 'Professor', and
al-muhandis, meaning 'Engineer', all printed in a large size and bold font to
describe both couple's guardians (see Example 2 & 4 in Appendix 4). Such
titles can provide some information about the guardians' academic degree,
status and profession; thus they can promote the inviters' social status. It is
important to note here that these personal entitlements are so pivotal to the
process of socialization or invitation to a wedding party, as they are planted
so deep in the general, social structure regulating an Arab daily routine.

4.2.4 The Move of Requesting the Honor of Wedding Participants

Central to the PWIC is the move of requesting the honor of

participants and attendants. The move is fundamentally recurrent in the
wedding invitation because it maintains a functional purpose for the wedding
genre itself. Fairly frequently, the inviters, i.e. the couple's parents, ask the

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others to attend their son's wedding parties. The Arabic courteous expression
ya-tasharafu:na bi-da'watikum li-hudu:ri, roughly glossed as 'they are so
pleased you to attend', denotes both attendance and participation. Here, the
couple's parents kindly request the attendants either to gather in the place
where the celebration is taking place or to join in a wedding feast (known
locally as walimah), served on the honor of the couple's union as husband and
wife. Though recommended strongly in the teachings of Prophet Muhammad
(PUH), the food reception is an optional element in the PWIG. Wedding food,
drinks and disserts are often served in either the diwan, i.e. the meeting
building, of the groom's tribe or in public wedding halls.

The move of requesting the honor of the participants is typically made

up of two potential steps: inviting others for a feast and / or inviting others for
a public gathering. The former is highlighted by both religious and cultural
factors. The latter is stressed by personal, economic and probably political
reasons. Generally speaking, most Palestinian wedding invitations maintain
both steps. In a considerable number of the wedding parties carried out in
public halls and cities lately, there has been a clear propensity to serve only
cold drinks and cakes. Typically, all wedding invitations in Palestine use
verbalized as well as pluralized textual forms when requesting the honor of
others' presence and participation in a wedding ceremony.

4.2.5 The Move of Identifying the Bride and the Groom

In the move of identifying the bride and the groom, the first names as
well as the titles —if any, of the couple-to-wed are often placed at the center
of the PWIC on a separate line in a bold font. The data collected in the last

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twenty years disclose the couple's first names, preceded by certain titles
revealing the social rank, academic qualification and professional career of
the bride and the groom, such as 'Mr.', 'Miss', 'Doctor', 'Engineer',
'Pharmacist', 'Judge', and 'Lawyer'. In the typical PWIC, the groom's title
tagged with his first name is often inserted to the right-hand side of the PWIC,
whereas the bride's name or its initials and her title —if any, are always
printed on the left-hand side (see Example 6 in Appendix 4).

More recently, there is a trend to have the couple's initials imprinted in

Latin alphabets and decorated with illustrations having the shape of the heart.
The groom's name always appears in the PWIC; however, the groom's rarely
comes to sight. Generally speaking, there is a minimal reference to the bride's
name in the PWIG. More frequently, the bride's name is always subtitled by
the honorific attributes karimatu-hu or shaqiqatu-hum, which means 'his
honorable daughter or their honorable sister' (see also Example 6 in Appendix
4). In both phrases, the final bound morphemes [-hu] and [-hum] meaning 'his'
and 'their' can only refer to the bride's male guardian and eldest brothers,
respectively. This textual manipulation and processing suggest that the
Palestinian male figure is culturally thought to be the only guardian of a
Muslim woman and will remain the instrument of social control over that
woman even after marriage.

4.2.6 The Move of Situating Time and Place in the PWIC

In the move of situating the ceremony, both settings of time and place
are assigned in the PWIC. These elements are very pivotal to the wedding
ceremony as they attempt to tell the invitees when to come and where to go.

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Thus, the move is unlikely to be optional, as any failure in the assignment of a
reference to show the place and time of the wedding can either disturb the
invitees or even block their participation. In the Palestinian context, the place
variant often refers to the participants' public gathering in the groom's or
bride's private homes or public wedding halls, hotels and churches for
celebrating and feasting. It is important to note here that the church is
excluded as a potential place for feasting or serving food. It is a place for
carrying out the official wedding oath according to the teaching of
Christianity. The time variant, including duration and date, aims at orienting
the participants about the wedding day, on which the ceremony starts, and the
period, for which the celebration and feasting may last. More frequently, the
PWIC assigns weekends, i.e. Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons or
evenings, and summer and early autumn as a potential time variant for
wedding (see Example 7 in Appendix 4).

4.2.7 The Closing Move of the PWIG

As the title suggests, this move attempts to close the wedding

invitation. In the PWID, the closing move is unlikely to be optional due to the
high frequency of using some final prefabricated formulas in which inviters
wish happiness to their invitees, attract their invitees to attend and participate,
or supplicate Allah to bless their participants. A list of the most frequent and
typical closing prefabricated expressions in the PWIG may include the
following: 'May your inhabited homes be always full of happiness!', 'Your
presence will actually increase our happiness and complete our joy!', 'May
we visit you in similar subsequent occasions!', and 'May you be always

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torchbearers of happiness!' (see Example 8 in Appendix 4). It is important to
note here that the closing expression is often written in a different font style
and color, and placed right at the bottom of the card or at the end of the
wedding discourse.

4.2.8 The PWIC's Notification Move

In the notification move, specific textual elements are tagged to secure

a good wedding ceremony. In the data analyzed, more than one third of the
PWICs issued in the last two decades, has enclosed some additional
information attempting to specify exactly the day and the place of the sahrah,
i.e. the stage party in which only the groom's close relatives and friends have
to attend to the groom's house on the evening preceding the wedding day as a
clue for leaving singlehood forever. A considerable number of cards have
also added some closing notes attempting to specify both the time of bringing
the bride from her parents' house and the duration of the wedding feast. Some
wedding cards have also included some notes that exclude taking photos (see
Example 9 in Appendix 4). Surprisingly, more than one fourth of the wedding
cards has also requested explicitly from the invitees not to accompany young
children to the wedding party. For example, one of the most puzzling notes
imploring parents to leave their own kids at home, reads: 'Wish your kids,
whether boys or girls, a good night!'.

4.3 The Socio-cultural Values Depicted in the Traditional PWID

This section aims at recognizing the socio-cultural practices, values and social
norms entrenched in the PWID. Systematically, it describes the textual
features of the wedding discourse at the level of producing the PWIG in order

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to interpret the social values and the affiliations that have already governed
the practices of the PWID issuers at the level of consuming the texts. In other
words, the section addresses RQ(2): 'What are the typical socio-cultural
values and affiliations reflected in the discourse patterns and sequential move
organizations of the PWIC?'.

4.3.1 Domination of Religious Affiliations in the PWID

In the previous section, it has been found that the traditional PWID
opens with some quotes from both the holy Scripts of Islam and Christianity.
One of the most frequent wedding quotes from the Qur'anic discourse is
"And one of His Signs is this, that He has created wives for you from among
yourselves that you may find peace of mind in them, and He has put love and
tenderness between you. In that surely are Signs for a people who reflect"
(Ar-rum 30:21). Another taken from the Biblical discourses reads "We know
God's love for us and believe in them. God is love. He who is proven in love
is proven in God, and God is proven in him" (Johan 4:16). Both quotes call
for love and tenderness between couples, though the Qur'anic discourse also
adds peacefulness of mind as a main purpose for creating woman.

In the traditional PWID, these religious themes and affiliations are

often inserted in the opening move, centralized in the top of the wedding card,
written in a big font and probably in a different color, and presented in a very
well-decorated printing style (see Example 10 in Appendix 4). This linguistic
processing as well as textual manipulation suggests that the resource, i.e. the
religion, from which the quotes stem, plays a major role in the life of the text
issuers. It also suggests a dominant impact of the affiliations on the practices

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as well as the tendencies of the issuers regarding the proclivities to be taken in
the moves to follow (for full description and realization of the affiliation
drawn, see item 1 in Table 1&2 in Appendix 5).

4.3.2 Affinity to Tribal and Sub-tribal Systems

In the heading move, there is a general tendency to announce the

wedding ceremony on behalf of the couple's tribe and sub-tribe in the PWID
of Muslim community, in particular (for full description and realization of the
affiliation drawn, see item 2 in Table 1&2 in Appendix 5) . On the textual
level, the heading move is often carried out by three words: Wedding of X.
The Semitic term 'aal', which appears in the Arabic text, is a simple collective
noun phrase (NP) referring to the tribe or clan itself. The term is probably
derived from the Qur'anic usage of 'ill-an' which denotes any 'biological or
blood relationship' between people. The direct names of the couple's tribes (if
different) are then added to the this term, and altogether printed on a separate
line (more frequently in a well-decorated writing style and in a different font)
just below the Qur'anic quotation. This linguistic and textual manipulation
and processing suggest that the discourse of the Palestinian Muslim
community —when announcing their marriages— advocate to the Islamic
motif calling for "O, mankind, We have created you from a male and a
female; and We have made you into tribes and sub-tribes that you may
recognize one another…" (Al-Hujurat 49:13).

4.3.3 Power of Masculinity and Discrimination Against Woman

In the moves of identifying both the inviters and couples, there is a

general inclination to design one card that places the inviter from the groom's

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side on the right-hand side of the card and the inviter from the bride's side on
the left-hand side. Based on the orientation of the reading system in Arabic
which applies a reading journey from right to left, this textual manipulation
does not only mirror a high degree of masculinity, but it also reflects a
cultural grading system that discriminates against the bride's male parent.
There is also a general tendency to design one card that textually inserts the
groom's first name to the right-hand but below his father's name and the
bride's name or her initials to the left just below her father's full name. This
linear, right-to-left textual manipulation does not only reflect a parental
domination over the couple, but it also mirrors some social domination of the
groom over the bride. Besides, the deletion of the bride's first name as well as
the exclusive use of certain formulaic expressions that attach her verbally to
her male parent or brothers mirrors a high degree of both social discrimination
and personal bias against woman (see items 3&5 in Tables 1&2 in Appendix
5).

One explanation for the socio-cultural discrimination against woman

resides in the debatable misunderstanding of both guardianship and the
heritage system in Islam. In one verse, the Noble Quran informs that men are
more likely to be guardians (also known minor leaders in their homes) than
women, as they are physically stronger to earn and spending money. The first
generation of the scholars who interpreted the Qur'anic discourse, have
already implicated that the verse is very likely to be directive. Thus, they have
already advocated minor leadership to males. Building on this, they have also
concluded that a Muslim woman is very unlikely to be a state president or a
public leader. In another verse, the holy Script of Islam recommends parents

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to duplicate the share of male son over that of the female's (excluding the
mother and grandmother). Relying on these exclusive interpretations and
realizations of the meanings implicated, a general socio-cultural outlook
dogmatizing woman with 'inferiority' has already conventionalized
throughout history in the Arab and Islamic world. It also has a great impact on
the social roles that women could play on the societal and familial level.

4.3.4 Meeting Norms of Polite Address, Good Manners of Table and

Values of Arabic Generosity

In the moves that attempt to both set a communicative purpose for the
invitation and close the genre, the data analyzed reflect a clear tendency to
use some prefabricated expressions reflecting a high degree of politeness. The
selection of certain expressions, such as 'We are honorable to invite', 'May
your inhabited homes be always full of happiness!', and 'May we visit you in
similar subsequent occasions!' disclose a high degree of language tactfulness
(see items 4,7&8 in Tables 1&2 in Appendix 5). The use of a plural form also
meets norms of polite address in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is
often regarded as a very prestigious variety in the Arabic speaking as well as
the Islamic speaking countries. MSA originates from classic Arabic, the
language of the holy Script of Islam that Arabs, whether Muslims or
Christians, and non-Arab Muslims use officially in their religious ceremonies
and probably as a 'lingua franca' between Muslims for communication.

Besides, the inclusion of some notes in regard to taking photos among

Muslim discourse community, in particular, also meets norms of politeness,
as it attempts to keep face for a Muslim woman. Face is normally glossed as

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the positive public image everyone pretends for himself or herself. Face is
often lost when strangers go beyond somebody's personal limits and
boundaries. To keep face, the teaching of Islam, in general, discourages
public physical contacts and verbal communication between both sexes.
Therefore, Islam highlights both covering attire and physical isolation for
woman. In a wedding party, these Islamic motifs and material items are
seriously constrained; they are unlikely or rather improbable in a situation
having some events in which attendants from both sexes might meet so
closely together in one place to perform a social act intended for observing,
honoring and joy.

In the notification move, there is a less significant inclination to ask

families not to bring young children to the wedding hall. Most parties take
place in some wedding halls that are designed for carrying out wedding
ceremonies. These halls are often provided with some specific furniture, such
as love chairs for the bride and the groom, tables for serving drinks and
wedding cakes, and lighting and audio systems for taking photos and listening
to songs and music. These decorations, pieces of furniture and electronic
devices are rather expensive. So under the recommendations of tenants or
hall owners, to avoid any potential turmoil from immature people, such as
young guests, and to avoid paying any deposits or charges, couples prefer to
notify parents not to accompany young children (see item 8 in Table 1&2 in
Appendix 5).

In the notification move, there is also a significant tendency to notify

the guests about one particular social act to avoid. In the past, attendants of

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both wedding parties and death consolation public gatherings used to bring
certain grocery items including mainly coffee, sugar and rice. Among these,
people used to carry a sack of either sugar or rice when attending a wedding
feast (also known locally as wallimah). After the emergence of the first
Palestinian uprising (also known as Intifada) in 1987, which was a companied
by so many victims among young Palestinians, there was a huge decline in
the income of the Palestinians due to the strikes arranged by the leaders of the
'Intifada' as well as the long closures, curfews and massive punishment
against Palestinians and an international rise in the prices of these groceries,
many Palestinian social activists have already started to call for stopping this
social act at the communal level. Then, they have documented this call
textually in the wedding discourse. The written notification (typically and
simply) reads as 'Honoring without commissioning'. This linguistic
processing displays the 'bleeding edge', i.e. cost and loss' of attending a feast
and paying too much for the food to be served. It, however, connotes the
positive feeling of generosity as an Arabic socio-cultural, original value as
well as the negative feeling of sharing the financial burdens resulted from
serving the wedding food between the inviters and their invitees (see items 8
in Table 1&2 in Appendix 5). This linguistic processing has enhanced fixing
the wedding feast as an optional, socio-cultural value reflecting a high degree
of generosity. Once the value is established, entrenched, and normalized,
textual notification has faded off.

4.4 Mechanics of Linguistic Variability and Socio-cultural Mobility

Depicted in the Contemporary PWID

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This section explores mechanics of socio-cultural mobility reflected in the
temporary PWID. Therefore, it exploits some very recent wedding cards
issued in the last few years to negotiate mechanics of linguistic variability
allowing for some other socio-cultural values and affiliations to emerge and
develop. Thus, the section addresses RQ(3): 'How are mechanics of socio-
cultural mobility and linguistic variability evidenced in the recent PWID
among young couples?'.

4.4.1 Shifting Away from the Traditional Religious Discourse to More

Modern Literary Works

In the most recent issues of the PWID, there is a general tendency

either to avoid quoting from the holy Script of Islam or to use some couplets
from modern poetic and national literary works (see Example 11 in Appendix
4). One couplet reads: 'Dearest guests, welcome! Only with you can
Muhammad (the groom) renew our happiness. On his wedding day, let's
celebrate together till the couple feel happy and embrace'. Another reads
'From the best Gardens, I picked a lovely flower; that's you: So fashionable,
knowledgeable, honorable and committed to your religion! Our wedding is
soon. Everything is decorated with jasmine, so welcome dearest guests!'.

A critical approach (built on Van Dijk's 1998 model of analysis) to the

syntactic features of the couplets used in the opening move of the recent
PWID and referred to above, reveals a propensity among young couples to
use specific stretches of language metaphorically and expressively (for full
details of the critical analysis carried out, see Table 3 in Appendix 5).
Syntactically and functionally, these wedding clauses have a poetic,

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expressive, phatic and affective function. This linguistic processing suggests
that these phrases are not intended to inform; they are meant to express
feelings and socialize with, and direct others. At the semantic level, they
assign some predicates, i.e. what is said about the subject, e.g. WELCOME,
RENEW, CELEBRATE, BE HAPPY, PICK, BE SOON and BE
DECORATED to argue for (the guests), (the groom and happiness), (the
inviters and invitees), (every participant), (the bride), (wedding party) and
(wedding elements), respectively.

At the schematic, i.e. discoursal, level, the predicates and their

arguments assign specific references and meanings related to the wedding
elements, items and components. Among these are the bride and the groom
themselves. In the first couplet referred to above, for instance, the wedding
discourse does not only argue for the groom initially, but it also explicates his
personal identity overtly. In the second, the opening discourse also attempts to
implicate about the components of bride's identity. It lists beauty, knowledge,
high class and faith as main features (see item 1 in Table 4&5 in Appendix 5).
However, this textual manipulation as well as linguistic processing implicates
that there is a gradual shift from the sacred text which always attempts to
publicize the wedding social act to a more modern text that attempts not only
to personalize the wedding tradition but also to mirror the interest, self-
concept and above all the identity of the young couples. It is important to note
here that identity is often labeled as religious and conservative vs. national
and liberal in the Palestinian community.

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 More surprisingly, the recent discourse of the Palestinian Christian
community is still (to a great extent) oriented by biblical affiliations. One
explanation of this divine textual orientation resides in the inseparable
relationship between marriage as a theme and the wedding settings in
Christianity. In other words, the wedding ritual can only go further if the
marriage oaths are announced by couples in the church, in front of some
attendants, including the bishop, and altogether in a specific ceremonial
protocol. To put it in a metaphorical, modern language is simply to say 'when
couples go walking into the church aisle, their wedding attendants (including
the discourse) keep tweeting the sacred.

4.4.2 Announcing the Wedding on Behalf of the Couple's Family

It has been argued in the previous section that the wedding is

traditionally announced on behalf of the tribe or sub-tribe. Though this norm
is also conventionalized in the modern PWID, there are a few discursive
textual practices that announce the wedding ceremony on behalf of the
couple's male parents (see Example 12 in Appendix 4). A close look at the
issuers of these texts reveal that these texts belong to a discourse community
living in the eastern part of Jerusalem. This area has been under the capture of
the Israeli Occupation since 1967. Therefore, it is an international, debatable
issue between the Palestinian party and the Israeli government since 1993.
This group of the wedding card issuers, however, originates from families
living in Hebron. As they are detached from their own clans for ages now,
they have already developed a familial system in which the family may
extend only for two generations. Nevertheless, these people arrange their

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wedding parties in specific areas close to Jerusalem, such as Abu Deis and Al-
Azarriya, to enable relatives living in Hebron to attend their wedding parties.
This discursive shift in the social norms is attributed to some geopolitical
challenges (see item 2 in Table 4&5 in Appendix 5).

4.4.3 Acknowledgement of Woman in the Recent Discursive PWID

In a previous section, it has been found that there is a recent propensity

to design two separate, but identical cards: One for the bride's inviters and
another for the groom's inviters. There is also a tendency to design one
unconventional card for both the couple's parents as inviters and their sons as
couple-to wed. Surprisingly, the latter announces both couple's mothers as
inviters side by side as their own husbands. It also refers to these mothers or
mothers-in-law as aqeelah, roughly glossed as 'lady' in modern English. In
both designs of Muslim and Christian wedding discourses, male figures
(including the groom-to-wed, his father and father-in-law) are each entitled as
as-sayyed, glossed as 'Mr.' or 'gentleman' in modern English. The bride is also
identified by her first name which is normally depicted in a centralized figure
having the shape of heart (see Example 13 in Appendix 4). In both discursive
designs, the linguistic manipulation of both sexes mirrors a good degree of
equality, courtship and familial relationship. A close look at the professional
background of the text issuers suggests that the change in the social norm of
equality is attributed to the couple's higher levels of education (see also items
3&5 in Tables 4&5 in Appendix 5).

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4.4.4 Satisfaction of Woman's Urgent Needs in Modern PWID

In the notification move of the recent PWID, there is a general

tendency to send the attendants some urgent messages. Many of these notes
redirect the guests 'to go directly to the wedding hall', 'to keep kids in the
baby-care unit available at the wedding hall', 'to congratulate the couple in the
wedding hall on the same wedding day', 'not to take photos in the wedding
hall', and 'not to fetch any groceries to the wedding party', for instance (see
Example 14 in Appendix 5). Though telegraphic, this wedding notification
has an exclusive directive language function. These textual final notes are
also provided to meet the social needs of female attendants in regard to
accompany their new-born babies, in particular, or to fetch items of
congratulations, i.e. gifts, to the wedding hall. The former note sounds
persuasive for some pure maternal reasons; the latter looks economical for the
female guests, as they can attend the wedding to participate, celebrate and
congratulate the couple-to-wed.

Notifying the guests to go directly to the wedding hall also sounds

convenient to every female relatives from the sides of the bride and the
groom, such as mother-in-laws and sister-in-laws, as this social act to be
performed out in a public hall will enable them to keep their private homes
and properties so clean and fresh. In other words, this notification helps
woman escape the large turmoil that often takes place in wedding parties
attended by a large number of people. In short, this wedding social practice is
clearly regulated by economic and economical factors, on one hand. On the
other, the wedding textual processing is oriented by the social and biological

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needs of the wedding female attendants. On the part of the wedding hall
owners, this telegraphic, textual manipulation, as long as it pleases the social
norms and needs of the female wedding discourse community, in particular, is
inclusively marketing and exclusively doing business.

4.5 The Forces Lying Behind the Socio-cultural Mobility Evidenced in

Modern PWID

This section explores the socio-cultural mobility evidenced in the discursive

practices of the recent PWIC. It aims at acknowledging the forces and
proclivities that regulate the change in the discursive social norms of the
discourse issuers. To unearth these forces, this section finally addresses
RQ(4): 'What are the indispensable forces and proclivities that stimulate the
emergence and maintenance of certain wedding patterns within the PWID?'

4.5.1 Geo-political Challenges and Governance

Complexities of the 'Palestinian Question' have imposed so many

challenges on the various components of the modern Palestinian culture. If
culture refers to the way of life a specific group of people live, cook, eat,
drink, dress and speak, get married and dance, then attempts of de-
culturalization in modern Palestine has already started with the Palestinian
demographic factor that often generates, innovates and originates the cultural
components. In Palestine, de-culturalization has gone further to 'borrow' or
rather pillage other aspects of culture, including many traditional food dishes,
specific dressing and architecture designs, and certain musical rhythms and
melodies. Many Palestinian socio-cultural norms are either endangered or
constrained by governance and geo-political factors. Both refer to the

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systematic policies and practices —including these days the oriented, social
media, of the successive Israeli governments over the Palestinian people,
homeland, socio-cultural values and social norms.

The impact of governance and geo-political factors on the socio-

cultural mobility evidenced in the various issues of modern PWID is clearly
pervasive. In one wedding card, the issuers notified that the main event of the
wedding ceremony, in which attendants gather in a place to celebrate and
perform Palestinian folkloric dance, has been canceled due to the Strike on
which the Palestinian prisoners detained in the Israeli jails were going for a
few months (see Example 15 in Appendix 4). Indeed, this textual notification
does not convert the wedding social act into a totally silent one, as it allows
for the hash-tag of the (#palestine-prisoners-on-strike) among the attendants
of one social event at a much broader level of discourse community having
different personal interests, social backgrounds and levels of education.

In another wedding discourse, the strike which a Palestinian lawyer

went on against 'administrative arrest' for more than (60) days, has led to
develop a very discursive wedding discourse. This discourse (hereby, I
acknowledge) mixes the general features of death, wedding and re-birth
'homely' genres (see Example 15 in Appendix 4). In this 'death-and-rebirth'
wedding discourse, the image of the prisoner has been inserted to the right-
hand of the card and hash-tagged to the public as (#X-the lawyer who defends
our dignity all). The wedding text also opens with 'I had a homeland, but it is
a prisoner now, and I had a brother, but he is a martyr now'. It also ends with
'Kill me, sink me into water, and tear me into pieces, but you can't live in my

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homeland; neither can you fly into my sky'. More surprisingly, the wedding
discourse identifies only woman as inviters to the wedding party.

It is important to note here that 'administrative arrest', i.e. a detaining

people under the claim of being activists for long periods and repetitive
intervals of time without taking them to the court, has been at work among the
Israeli massive punishment procedures since 1987. In both examples referred
to above, governance has brought in a drastic change in the Palestinian
wedding discourse and social norms entrenched and conventionalized lately.
For more information about the effect of the geo-political challenges, see
section 4.4.2.

4.5.2 Modern Themes of Woman's Rights, Sex Equality and Liberty

In the previous sections, it has been found that specific social norms
and proclivities have been established and normalized in the traditional
PWID. Those social norms and practices tend to discriminate against the
female in the favor of her counterpart, the male. Power of masculinity and
fatherhood dominates the social norms and practices of the target discourse
community. In that wedding discourse, females are often attached to their
male relatives. By time passage and probably under the pressure of woman's
liberty and rights movements, a social change has started to emerge within the
contemporary PWID. Among the socio-cultural mobility evidenced is the new
trends of designing a wedding text that acknowledges the bride and the groom
as equal couple, announces both couple's fathers and mothers as equal
inviters, and above all refers to the couple's mothers and fathers as equal
parents or rather as equal partners at least.

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 Liberty often thrives on the cultures that are characterized by a high
degree of individuality. However, it has been found that the traditional PWID
is often oriented by some religious themes calling for marriage as a
biological, social need. Although these wedding religious affiliations
highlight peacefulness of mind, tenderness, love and mercy among couples at
the syntactic and semantic level of the wedding religious discourse, these
meanings are partly neglected at the social level of the wedding Muslim
discourse community. Shifting away from a religion-oriented wedding
discourse —for a pure ethical reason stressing the importance of keeping the
wedding discourse free of any quotes from the holy Script of Islam— has
paved the way to some personal texts to advance and open the PWIG. Unlike
the religious discourse which looks frozen in its mode and informative and
persuasive in its function, the new emerging wedding discourses look very
intimate and casual in their mode and vey expressive and affective in their
function. This informality as well as intimacy has given the discourse
community some space, i.e. a margin of privacy or freedom, to express their
own feelings, self-concepts, identities and needs. In other words, the wedding
space occupied has individualized the wedding act. The communicative
nature of the wedding discourse has also enabled the issuers to pass their
outlooks to their audience openly and freely.

4.5.3 Modern Family and Woman's New Roles

In the traditional PWID, there are some textual practices attempting to

address specific familial and maternal issues from a more modern, civilized
perspective. Couple's private homes are no longer enough to hold the large

113
number of people attending wedding parties. Therefore, there has been a
general tendency among the discourse community at the societal level to
arrange their wedding rituals in public halls. This propensity is probably
facilitated by the nature of the wedding as a social act that requires a proper
place for a public gathering of a large number of people at the same time. As
this shift in the wedding settings of place has accompanied by some
spontaneous turmoil caused mainly by young attendants, families are notified
to leave their kids at home. Thus, attendance and participation have
constrained largely. The invitees have either to stay with their kids at home or
to attend only for a short time. Because of these very limited options, women
are very likely to be reluctant to participate in the wedding parties due to
some pure maternal, familial and professional constraints.

More recently, there is less significant notification in regard to the

attendance of young 'mid-night' comers, on the one hand. On the other,
invitees are encouraged to go directly or instantly to the wedding hall in a
significant number of the corpus collected. As the function of the language
used is very directive, it is very probable that many invitees either do not
attend the ceremony in the wedding hall or attend to the couple's houses first.
In a quite limited number of the PWID analyzed, there is a typical notification
screams of the availability of 'a nursery unit of baby-care in the wedding hall'.
Regardless of their positive or negative connotations, those wedding textual
notes can only address the social needs of a Palestinian modern, functional
family having a well-educated woman with some untraditional social (and
probably professional) roles to play or to do properly inside and outside her
own house.

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4.5.4 Post-modernity and New Emerging Technologies

In modern times, English is used as an international language for

communication, science, research, media and technology. With the emergence
of the United States of America as a Superpower post World War II as well as
with the collapse of many dictatorships and Berlin's wall, specific socio-
cultural values, affiliations, motifs and trends, such as individualism,
freedom, liberty, absolute equality between both sexes, and woman's rights,
for instance, have been raised, researched, discussed, evaluated and probably
taught all over the world mostly in English. As a result, English is linked with
these new themes; thus, it is deeply perceived as the clear-cut timeline from
which modernity stems and feeds. With new emerging modern technologies
and the various programs of social media, many of these values and norms
have been entrenched and conventionalized globally.

In relevance, there is a less significant trend among the discourse

community of the PWID to write both names of the couple or their initials in
English. This propensity has nothing to do with textual functionality, as the
names have already provided in Arabic. However, this emblematic code
switching is associated with the socio-economic class, as it is only frequent
among the practices of the very well-educated couples, such as doctors and
engineers (see Example 16 in Appendix 4). However, there is a more
significant switch away from the Indian numeric system used in the Arab
World to the Arabic numbers in writing the date of the wedding. Though
originated in the Middle East and used first by Arabs, most people in the

115
Arabic speaking countries always acknowledge them as an English numerical
style.

Finally, the recent PWID is characterize by the general features of

modern technology, the same medium that produces them. Among these are
lucidity, brevity and agility. The design of the wedding card is
straightforward, colorful and painless to read. The wedding discourse is short,
direct and compressed, as it is multi-modal, i.e. textual and visual. The
wedding structure is telegraphic, at is also intended to be wiki as the fast pace
of modern life. These properties, whether textual or technological, often echo
modern life's general requirements of good and polite speech. To be
collaborative with your listener, always be direct, clear, brief and relevant
enough.

4.6 Validation of the Sociolinguistic Variation Evidenced in the

Palestinian Wedding Tradition and Discourse

Triangulating the research methods used to evaluate the socio-linguistic

variation evidenced in the PWID as well as to validate the results obtained
about the socio-cultural mobility in progress, has shown some conformity
between social factors and social practices. Among these, the variant of
wedding age has recently raised up (among both sexes of the Palestinian
couples, interviewed) from (24.3) to (25.4) years' old. The total average of the
female's wedding age, in particular, has raised up from (21.6) to (23.0) years'
(see Table 6 in Appendix 5). Though universal, this result confirms a shift
away from 'early marriages' facilitated by the patriarchal system, oriented by
agricultural and botanic needs to 'later modes of' marriage' facilitated by

116
modern themes of nuclear family but constrained by high levels of education
and demands of modern life. The result also is in full agreement with the
discursive socio-cultural mobility, evidenced in the recent PWID that shifts
away from announcing the wedding ceremony on behalf of the couple's tribes
and sub-tribes to only couples' nuclear and extended families.

In regard to the variant of social-class, the number of the Palestinian

couples holding a first honor class degree, i.e. BA, in various areas of modern
time's specialization, has also raised up significantly from (22.2%) to (40%)
within the male category and from (15.6%) to (60%) within the female
category (see Table 7 in Appendix 5). This result harmonizes some discursive
wedding textual practices shifting away from announcing the wedding
invitation only on behalf of the male figures to include female figures as
inviters. The significant findings about the females, in particular, suggest that
many brides are well-qualified nowadays. Consequently, it is expected that
they work as full-timers. This result also reflects itself in some wedding
textual practices that attempt both to design a relatively special or a totally
'split' wedding discourse for the bride and to notify considerably for
professional women attending the party with their own young children.

In regard to the wedding kinship variant, there is a significant tendency

among Palestinian young couples to avoid getting married from their own
relatives. A bout (80%) of the couples interviewed have already married from
other extended families and different nationalities (see Table 8 in Appendix
5). This demographic information conforms some wedding textual practices
attempting to shift away from the patriarchal system flavoring marriage from

117
the same wedding kinship or within 'blood' circles to conceit the Islamic code
of 'woman heritage'. It is also in concord with the general tendency to open
the wedding discourse with some modern literary verse attempting to show
self-concept and identity. That is to say, foreign marriage allows for the
couples to go beyond external ways of thinking imposed by their own clans,
extended families, parents, and cousins to some internal ways of thinking that
mirror individual's needs, interests, and outlooks.

In regard to the variable of wedding place, more than (66%) of the

couples interviewed arranged their wedding ceremonies in their own parents'
houses and properties before the third millennium has started whereas (80%)
of the recent couples has arranged their parties in wedding halls (see Table 9
in Appendix 5). In regard to the place of residency post the wedding, more
than (37%) of the old couples have lived with their own families whereas
(100%) of the fresh couples has lived in a separate place. About (80%) of the
fresh couples confirmed that the wedding ceremony has cost more than
JD10,000 (=US14,090). About (60%) of the fresh couples reported that they
have been away on a wedding honeymoon. And most importantly, about (60)
of the fresh couples said that the groom and the bride had both decided upon
what was written on the wedding card (see Table 10 in Appendix 5). These
tendencies among couples do not only reflect a shift away from traditional
wedding norms to some modern ones, but they also mirror the bleeding edge
of the new emerging wedding trends and traditions.

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 Chapter Five

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

5. Introduction

In the light of the arguments and findings discussed in the previous chapter,
this chapter attempts to reflect on mechanics of linguistic variability
established in the traditional PWID as well as mechanics of socio-cultural
mobility evidenced in the recent PWID, and the forces regulating the social
change in progress . Finally, the chapter advances to implicate for researchers
in the various domains of sociolinguistics.

5.1 Conclusions

Drawing on a multi-disciplinary approach integrating genre analysis

(GA), originated by Swales in 1990 and implemented by Bhatia (2004; 1993),
critical discourse analysis (CDA) developed by Fairclough (1995) and Van
Dijk (1996), and sociolinguistic variation implemented by Marshall (2004)
and McMahon (1994), it has been found that the textual structure of the
PWIG is featured by language change and linguistic variation throughout the
eight generic moves identified.

5.1.1 Linguistic Variability and Language Change in the PWIG

Though gradual, language change in the PWID is realized in the

writing style used. The data collected from the PWICs issued in the last two
decades have already shown a significant shift from a fully gender-oriented
and parallelized textual writing style to a more linear, but less gender-based

119
style. In writing and speaking, parallelism highlights endorsement, i.e. saying
the same idea twice. It is important to note here that verbal duplication,
triplication, pluralization and specialization are among the linguistic processes
through which collective cultures, in general and high culture languages, such
as Arabic, in particular, maintain for polite norm speech. In turn, linearity
discourages the repetition of one idea twice. It is part of the writing styles of
individualistic cultures or low-culture languages, such as German, in which
individualism and equality between both sexes are highly encouraged. In
relevance, there is a constantly recent switch from a wedding text reflecting a
high degree of inequality between both sexes to a more linear text that treats
the couple's needs individually and equally.

Though limited to some moves, there is also a linguistic variation in the

components of the wedding tradition at the macro and micro level of the
PWID. At the external level of the PWIG, the wedding text typically fits into
eight moves, though some are optional; others do not appear at the same
order. The 'opening' move, for instance, sounds obligatory in the old wedding
issues, but less optional in the recent wedding discourse. At the internal level
of the generic structure, there is a significant switch from religious to more
poetic textual components. In the 'heading' move, there are some discursive
textual practices in which the wedding invitation is announced either on the
honor of the couple's tribe or on the honor of their parents. In the move of
'identifying the names of the bride and the groom', there is a fluctuation
between two types of texts. The former encodes the bride's name verbally and
attaches her socially to her parent and potential groom. The latter (and most
recent) attaches her directly to her own father. In short, the components of the

120
PWIC have shown some linguistic variation registered basically in the
PWIG's opening, heading, and the couple's identification moves.

5.1.2 The Socio-cultural Values and Norms Established in the Traditional

PWID

In the traditional PWID, certain affiliations and values related to

religion and Arabic culture are established and conventionalized in the
various structural and textual components of the wedding discourse. Among
these are specific religious, Islamic and Christian themes and motifs related to
the creation of woman for the purpose of marriage, tranquility, happiness,
tenderness and love among partners. As these affiliations are textually as well
as linguistically manipulated and processed initially at the discoural level,
each turns to be a dominant factor regulating the other social affiliations and
socio-cultural values and norms to emerge and establish at other levels of the
traditional wedding discourse. Because of their domination and high
frequency, the PWID and social practices are unlikely to be free of the sacred.

In addition to religion, the traditional PWID is associated with affinity

to a tribe-and sub-tribe-based code system. This social code is oriented by an
ontological, i.e. existential, Islamic theme highlighting 'ethnic variation,
accommodation, socialization and reproduction' as fundamental reasons for
creating, categorizing and sub-categorizing people in different tribes and sub-
tribes. More importantly, the PWID is also affiliated with power of
masculinity. Throughout the wedding text, there is a clear domination of
patriarchal proclivities and social practices over the matriarchal ones. The
wedding textual and social processing of this public tendency echoes a high

121
degree of a parental, socio-cultural value oriented by the social factors of age,
social class, and gender, respectively. To let this social value entrench, the
wedding text launches the wedding only under the auspice of the clan, the
wedding invitation only on behalf of the couple's male parents, and finally the
wedding ceremony on the honor of the young groom and bride. The
realization of the textual manipulation and linguistic processing of these
socio-cultural values (probably resulted from a misunderstanding of the
teachings of Islam in regard to parenthood and guardianship) echoes some
discrimination against women, in general, and women, in target including the
bride, her mother as well as her mother-in-law.

Finally, the traditional PWID is linked with certain socio-cultural

values of Arabic generosity, and norms of polite address. Norms of precise
and polite speech are met at the technical and personal level. Technically,
careful phrases and clauses are used to open and close the discourse. On the
sociolinguistic level, specific phrases and clauses characterized by a high
degree of linguistic tactfulness are picked by the wedding discourse
community and used. Moreover, some social, potential misconducts are
predicted and hedged by some linguistic practices that attempt fundamentally
to keep the positive face for woman. Good manners of table and values of
Arabic generosity are also negotiated and established well through verbal
proper notification.

5.1.3 Socio-cultural Mobility Evidenced in the Recent PWID

Approaching the contemporary PWID from a critical, multi-

disciplinary analytical perspective, analyses have already revealed that socio-

122
cultural mobility is evidenced. Thus, mechanics of linguistic variability must
be significantly at work. Unlike the traditional PWID which shows a
significant domination of religious affiliations on the wedding linguistic
practices and social norms of the Palestinian Muslim as well as the Christian
discourse community, the recent PWID, however, mirrors some affiliations
related to proclivities of personal identity —only among the Muslim
community. This socio-cultural mobility has been mirrored into some
linguistic practices shifting away from the sacred to more secular discourses.
De-contextualizing the linguistic components of these personal discourses at
the syntactic, semantic and schematic level, has resulted in realizing an
attempt from the Palestinian Muslim young couples to mirror their own
personal identity as well as the potential components of that identity. Unlike
the discourse of their counterparts, the Muslims, the Christian wedding
textual manipulation have stressed a religious identity.

Besides, the discursive textual practices of some Muslim wedding

discourse community have resulted in realizing a social change in the PWID's
conventionalized norm of announcing the wedding on behalf of the very
extended family or tribe to the textual practice of announcing the wedding on
behalf of only the couple's nuclear family. To realize and explain this
discursiveness in wedding social norms, other textual proclivities and
practices have been contextualized. Analysis has resulted in identifying a
strong linkage between the demographic as well as the ethnic factors and the
geopolitical constraints. Therefore, it has been concluded that this socio-
cultural mobility is regulated by governance, i.e. the political conflict between
relevant parties over Jerusalem.

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 In modern PWID, socio-linguistic mobility is also evidenced in the
selection and use of certain linguistic and textual processes reflecting less
domination over woman and more equality between both sexes at the social
level. On the textual level, some discursive practices have given a social role
for woman from both sides of the couple as an inviter. Other social practices
split the wedding discourse to conceive discrimination against woman, in
general, and the bride, in particular. Unlike the traditional discourse, which is
oriented by power of masculinity, the recent one is probably illuminated by
modern social themes, such as equality between sexes and liberation of
woman.

In modern PWID, sociolinguistic mobility is also evidenced by some

discursive textual practices attempting to notify the urgent needs of the
females attending the wedding ceremony. At the psychological level, one
PWID's notification dismisses the participating mother's negative feeling of
leaving her own young children alone at home, and secures a positive
maternal feeling of a nearby baby-care in the wedding hall itself. Another
attempts to save woman's time and probably money through doing social
requirements of all the events of the wedding act in one physical environment
and at the same time. A third inclines to save the effort and time of couples'
mothers to be paid and lost in cleaning their own houses post the wedding
ceremony. Though inclusively oriented by economical factors, this social
change does not echo the need of a traditional housewife, but that of a
profession female worker.

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5.1.4 The Forces Regulating the Socio-cultural Mobility Evidenced in the
Recent PWID

De-contextualizing the linguistic variability registered in the latest

PWID to check out the forces and proclivities that govern and regulate the
socio-cultural mobility evidenced, it has been found that the social change in
move is enforced out by specific factors including governance and geo-
political challenges, modernity, and new emerging technologies. In the
Palestinian particular context, governance and the geo-political situation,
resulted from the historical and existential dispute between the Palestinian
population as an occupied party and the Israelis as an occupying authority,
has brought some drastic challenges to the Palestinian socio-cultural values
and norms entrenched, established and rooted in historical Palestine over a
long period of time.

Modernity also has brought some new challenges related to democracy,

equality between both sexes and relevant ethnic groups, and rights of woman,
for instance. These emerging themes and motifs —mostly related to woman's
rights and exchange of social roles in modern functional family, have
reflected themselves in the recent PWID, and already endangered the
traditional socio-cultural values and norms at work. Moreover, the linkage
between English as an exclusive code of modernity and new technologies
flavoring English as an IT code, has also brought a less significant challenge
to Arabic, the social code of the Palestinian socio-cultural values. Modern
technologies, in particular, have already enhanced a socio-cultural norm of a

125
design and style of writing characterized, in general, by simplicity, brevity
and agility among Palestinian couples.

Finally, there is some evidence for sociolinguistic variability, mobility

and variation. Socio-linguistic variability can be explained in Labov's (2011)
principles of 'non-conformity' and 'constructive non-conformity'. Over the last
few decades, Palestinian young couples have started —because of time
passage, modernity and technology— to appreciate new social wedding
norms that disagree with the traditional, conventionalized social ones. In full
concord with Fairclough's (2010) claim of 'language and power', these social
proclivities have also reflected themselves as dynamic and powerful linguistic
practices attempting to cause some change in the social norm due to some
external and internal needs and challenges. To a great extent, the socio-
linguistic variation and change echoed in the wedding tradition is oriented by
Marshall's (2004) variants age, sex, social class, education, and kinship of the
Palestinian wedding discourse community.

5.2 Implications for Research

In the most recent PWID, there is a general void in opening the homely
weeding genre with some quotes from the Noble Quran among the Muslim
discourse community. Instead, there is a significant propensity among couples
to open the wedding discourse with some rhymed and blank verse having the
syntactic features of a couplet. These couplets are unlikely to be informative
or performative, as they can mostly sustain an expressive, poetic, and
directive language function. In an attempt to analyze critically the textual
components of a few examples, it has been found that these poetic lines are

126
intended to reflect some young couple's interests, self-concepts and identities.
Consequently, scholars from the various aspects of sociolinguistic domains
can approach these lines critically. They should de-contextualize these
wedding textual line to describe the meaning produced at the syntactic level,
to interpret the meanings assigned at the semantic level, and finally to explain
the meanings implicated at the, schematic level. One promising textual
affiliation to examine is language and identity. Therefore, researchers can
exploit the wedding textual components of these lines to through some light
on the identity as well its components emerging within the young
Palestinians.

Another area to investigate in depth is the impact of governance and

geo-political challenges on social change. In this study, it has been found that
some aspects of the social norm are constrained largely by both factors of
governance and geo-politics. In response to meet or rather conceit both,
certain discursive textual practices are innovated either to maintain the bare
minimum of the social norm or to allow for other urgent social norms to
proceed altogether at the communal level. In this study, the researcher has
also identified as well as acknowledged a new emerging homely sub-genre
'cocktailing' death, birth and wedding textual features together. Researchers of
GE, in particular, CDA, in general, and Information System (IT), in alliance,
should examine the Palestinian very discursive wedding discourse, such as the
'panoramic' one acknowledged in this study or the 'Martyr Wedding Genre'
acknowledged by Al-Ali (2006b), so as to develop a full understanding of
their generic patterns, to unearth the socio-cultural values hidden there, to
realize the socio-cultural mobility evidenced in their unique issues, and finally

127
to highlight the impact of modern technology on producing, consuming, and
construing the forces lying behind them.

Finally, a third area to examine is the impact of marketing and business

doing on social change. In the latest PWID, some textual practices and
notifications have been identified as communal trials to meet or reform the
social norm regulating the attendance of a particular group of people to the
wedding ceremony. The group in target is very likely to be female attendants
or women coming from a modern family. Therefore, researchers should
investigate the discursive wedding practices — often manifesting themselves
as final telegraphic notes at the end of the wedding card, which attempt to
please the Palestinian social norm and those which are intended only to please
third party agents, such as owners of wedding halls. Solid research can go
further to check the bleeding edge of the wedding social norm which
maintains wedding as a public act to be performed in a public place in which
the bare minimum of the social norm, such as meeting the needs of the
modern families and professional female workers, is constrained.

128
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141
 APPENDIX (1)

Representation of the Palestinian Traditional Wedding Invitation

__________________________________________________________

APPENDIX (2a)
PALESTINIAN COUPLES (Interview)
Dear couples! This structured interview aims to collect some data for checking mechanics of
socio-cultural mobility and linguistic variability in the Palestinian wedding invitation cards in
the last two decades. As the data will be used for validating the findings of analyzing so many
wedding cards, the researcher assures privacy and confidentiality of the information provided.
The researcher would like to thank you so much for your cooperation with the interviewer.
1. Date of marriage: Day (e.g. Friday) Month (e.g. July): Year:

142
2. The age of the
couple at wedding: Bride: ( ) Groom: ( )
3. Level of Education: Bride:  High school or less Groom:  High school or less
 Diploma  Diploma
 BA  BA
 MA  MA
 PhD  PhD
4. The couple's Bride: ___________________ Groom: ____________________
profession:
5. Level of kinship: The couple is:  Cousins from father's side.
 Cousins from mother's side.
 Relatives.
 Not relatives (from other extended families).
 Foreigners (from other places /nationalities).
6. The couple's Bride:  Muslim Groom:  Muslim
religion:  Christian  Christian
7. Who decided upon what was
written in the wedding card?  The bride  The groom  Both
8. Did the couple go on a  Yes
honeymoon? Where?  No In ____________________________
9. Where did the couple arrange  In their parents' private home.
their wedding ceremony?  In a wedding hall.
 In a public place.
 At the church.
 Others: please specify: ________________________
10. The approximate total of spending  Less than 5000JD.
on the wedding ceremony:  From 5000-10,000JD.
 More than 10,000JD.
11. Where did the couple live?  With their families.
 In a separate house, flat.
 In a hired place.
 Others, please specify _________________________
12. Where does the couple come Bride: Groom:
from?  City  City
 Camp  Camp
 Village  Village

APPENDIX (3)

Development of the PWIC: Samples

______________________________________________________________

143
Figure (7): An Old PWIC from 1960's

Figure (8): A Model of Modern PWIC

Figure (9): A Sample of Electronic Modern PWIC

144
 APPENDIX (4)

Verbal Representations in the PWID

______________________________________________________________

Example (1): The Opening Move in the Traditional PWID of Muslim

Community

145
Example (2): The Opening Move in the Contemporary PWID of Christian
Community

146
Example (3): The Opening Move in the Contemporary PWID

147
Example (4): The Heading Move in the Modern PWID

148
Example (5): Split in the Modern PWIG

149
Example (6): Using Titles and Specific Formulaic Expressions in the
Move of Identifying the Couple

150
Example (7): Situating Time and Place in the Contemporary PWID

151
Example (8): The Closing Move in the PWID

Example (9): Prohibition of Taking Photos in Wedding Hall s

152
Example (10): Affiliation of Religion in the PWID

153
Example (11): Emergence of the Couple's Personal Identity in the Recent
PWID

154
Example (12): A Model of Headless PWID

155
Example (13): Emergence of Woman in the PWID: Some respect to show

Example (14): Emergence of the Woman's Professional Needs Worker in

the Contemporary PWID

156
Example (15): The Impact of Governance on Social Change

157
Example (16): Switching to English Language in the Recent PWID

APPENDIX (5)

Mechanics of Linguistic Variability and Socio-cultural Mobility in the

Traditional PWID: A Critical & Variational Analyses
__________________________________________________________
Table (1): Description of the Linguistic Components of the Traditional PWID at the
Level of Text Production Fairclough's 2010 Model
Moves Description of the textual features
1. Opening There are some dominant quotes taken from the Qur'anic Discourse
or the teachings of Prophet Muhammad in the wedding cards issued
in the last decade.
2. Heading There is a general tendency to announce the wedding ceremony on
behalf of the couple's cline / tribe in the PWID,
3. Identification There is a general inclination to design one card that places:
of the The inviter from the bride's The inviter from the groom's side
inviters side to the left-hand side to the right-hand side.
4. Requesting Throughout the data collected and analyzed, there is a general
the honor of tendency to use prefabricated expressions reflecting a high degree of
participants polite address.

158
5. Identification There is a general tendency to design one card that textually places:
of the couple The bride to the left, attaches The groom to the right, attaches
her to her parent, tags her with him to his own parent, describes
her title and probably blinds him with his own title and unfolds
either totally or partly her his first name.
name.
6. Situation of In the PWID, there is a general tendency to arrange the wedding
the ceremony rituals at weekends, during summer time and early autumn.
In the old issues of the PWID, there is also a general inclination to
arrange the wedding party or at least specific events of the wedding
ceremony, such as wedding feast, at the houses or public properties
of the groom's parents and tribes.
7. Closing There is a general tendency to use some prefabricated expressions
aiming technically to close the wedding invitation and tactfully to
urge the invitees to attend the wedding party.
8. Notification There is a general tendency to notify the guests about the specific
acts to perform, e.g. avoid bringing any grocery to the wedding
feast.
There is a general inclination to draw the participants' attention to
some potential misconducts to avoid, e.g. taking photos.
There is a general propensity to ask families not to bring young
children to the wedding hall.
Table (2): Realization of the Socio-cultural Values and their Linguistic Affiliations in
the Traditional PWID
Fairclough's 2010 Model
Moves Affiliations, values and norms
1. Opening There are some linguistic proclivities stemmed from religion.
2. Heading There are some linguistic affiliations related to the traditional
tribal, cultural system.
3. Identification There are some linguistic texts that mirror a high degree of
of the inviters masculinity.
4. Requesting There are some linguistic practices that reflect a high degree of
the honor of affiliations related to norms of polite speech at the communal
participants level.
5. Identification There are some linguistic practices that echo a good degree of social
of the couple discrimination against the bride's parent and gender bias against
the bride.
6. Situation of the There are some linguistic practices that echo the socio-economic
ceremony status of the bride's parent which plays a major role in
personalizing or / and publicizing the wedding ceremony.
7. Closing There are some social practices related to meeting norms of polite
speech.
8. Notification There are some linguistic practices that connote the positive feelings

159
 of generosity in Arabic culture, woman's face, i.e. the public image
of females, in a Muslim community, and manners of table.

Table (3): A Critical Approach to the Modern Literary Works Depicted in the Opening
Move of Modern PWID
Van Dijk's 1995 Model
Critical analysis at the level of:
Examples from the Syntax Semantics Discourse
opening move of the Language Predicates & Meaning values and
PWID functions arguments relations
1. 'Dearest guests, Expressive, WELCOME (the The language used have
welcome! Only with Phatic, guests) an expressive function
you can Muhammad Affective, RENEW (the centered around a
(the groom) renew our Directive, groom, happiness) discourse attempting to
happiness. On his Expressive. CELEBRATE socialize with a group of
wedding day, let's (attendants) BE people to attend
celebrate together till HAPPY (everyone) Muhammad's party.
the couple feels happy
and embraces'.
2. 'From the best Poetic, PICK (I, you) The language used have
Gardens, I picked a Affective, FASHION, some expressive function
lovely flower; that's Directive, KNOWLEDE, centered around the
you so fashionable, Expressive, HONOR, groom who is socializing
knowledgeable, Expressive. COMMIT (she), with others to express his
honorable and BE SOON feelings about the bride
committed to your (wedding) he chose.
religion. Our wedding BE DECORATED
is soon. Everything is (every x),
decorated with WELCOME (you)
jasmine, so welcome
dearest guest!'.
3. 'O, Palestine! Oh our Expressive, O! (Palestine), The language used have
Jerusalem! We beg Expressive, Oh! (Jerusalem), expressive function
your pardon; we are Affective, BE PARDON (we) centered around seeking
getting married just to Expressive, BE MARRIED apologizing for
apply the teachings of Expressive. (we), BEGET (we, Jerusalem for getting
our Prophet; we might men), SET (men, married though he is
beget some men who justice, good doing so as Prophet
can set justice and deeds) Muhammad asked him to
good deeds on earth'. do so to beget …

Table (4): Description of the Linguistic Variability Depicted in the Recent PWID

160
 Fairclough's 2010 Model
Moves Description of the textual features
1. Opening There is a general tendency either to avoid quoting from the holy
Script of Islam or to use some couplets from modern poetic and
national literary works in the most recent wedding discourse.

2. Heading There is a less significant inclination among specific groups of

people to announce the wedding invitation on the honor of couples'
parents.
3. Identification There is a recent propensity to design two separate, but identical
of the inviters cards: one for the bride's inviters and another for the groom's
inviters.
4. Requesting Throughout the data collected and analyzed, there is a general
the honor of tendency to use a prefabricated expression reflecting a high degree
participants of polite address.
5. Identification There is a recent propensity to design two separate, but identical
of the couple cards in each of which the personal details of the couple are
accordingly topped down or bottomed up in a linear equal way.

6. Situation of the In the recent issues of the PWID, there is a propensity to arrange the
ceremony ceremony at wedding halls.
7. Closing There is a general tendency to use some prefabricated expressions
aiming technically to close the wedding invitation and tactfully to
urge the invitees to attend the wedding party.
8. Notification There is a general tendency to provide some notes asking the guests
to go directly to the wedding hall, women attendants, in particular,
to keep their new-born babies in the nursery unit provided by the
wedding hall, to congratulate the couple on the wedding day and
hall, and not to avoid personal photography.

Table (5): Realization of Mechanics of Socio-cultural Mobility Evidenced in the

Recent PWID Fairclough's 2010 Model
Moves Affiliations and Values
1. Opening There is a gradual shift from the sacred texts (probably for some
pure polite reasons) to more temporary affiliations related to
national identity or personal interests.
2. Heading There is a clear switch to direct parenthood.
3. Identification of The are some social practices show power of masculinity.
the inviters
4. Requesting the There are some linguistic practices that reflect a high degree of
honor of affiliations related to norms of polite speech at the communal
participants level.

161
5. Identification of There is a switch to some linguistic practices that mirror a good
the couple degree of social class and sex equality
6. Situation of the There are some linguistic practices that echo the socio-economic
ceremony status of the bride's parent which plays a major role in
personalizing or / and publicizing the wedding ceremony.
7. Closing There are some social practices related to meeting norms of
polite speech.
8. Notification There are social practices attempting to meet the female's needs.

Table (6): Palestinian Wedding Age in the Last Two Decades

Answer Before 2000 2010-2018 Total
QTY. Average QTY. Average QTY. Average
Male 42 26.95 5 27.80 47 27.05
female 42 21.58 5 23.00 47 21.73
Both 3 24.27 25.40

Table (7): Levels of Education Within Palestinian Young Couples in the Last few
Years
MALES Before 2000 2010-2018 Total
QTY. % QTY. % QTY. %
High school or less 23 51.11% 3 40.00% 26 52.00%
Diploma 7 15.56% 0 0.00% 7 14.00%
BA 10 22.22% 2 40.00% 12 24.00%
MA 5 11.11% 0 0.00% 5 10.00%
PhD 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
Total 45 5 50
FEMALES
High school or less 27 60.00% 1 20.00% 29 58.00%
Diploma 6 13.33% 1 20.00% 7 14.00%
BA 7 15.56% 3 60.00% 10 20.00%
MA 3 6.67% 0 0.00% 3 6.00%
PhD 1 2.22% 0 20.00% 1 2.00%
Total 45 5 50

Table (8): The Variant of Wedding Kinship Among Palestinian Couples in the
Last few Decades
Answer Before 2000 2010-2018 Total
QTY. % QTY. % QTY. %

162
 Cousins from father's
side 10 22.22% 0 0.00% 10 20.00%
Cousins from mother's
side. 7 15.56% 0 0.00% 7 14.00%
Relatives 13 28.89% 1 20.00% 14 28.00%
Not relatives (from other
extended families). 14 31.11% 2 40.00% 16 32.00%
Foreigners (from other
places /nationalities). 1 2.22% 2 40.00% 3 6.00%
Total 45 5 50

Table (9): The Place of the Palestinian Wedding Ceremony

Places: Before 2000 2010-2018 Total
QTY. % QTY. % QTY %
In their parents' private home. 30 66.67% 1 20.00% 31 62.00%
In a wedding hall. 14 31.11% 4 80.00% 18 36.00%
In a public place. 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
At the church. 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
Empty 1 2.00% 0 0.00% 1 2.00%
Total 45 5 50

Table (10): The Parties that Decide upon the PWID

Wedding Parties: Before 2000 2010-2018 Total
QTY. % QTY. % QTY. %
Groom 1 2.22% 0 0.00% 1 2.00%
Bride 4 8.89% 1 20.00% 5 10.00%
Both (Groom& Bride) 21 46.67% 3 60.00% 24 48.00%
Groom family 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
Bride family 3 6.67% 1 20.00% 4 8.00%
Both families 12 26.67% 0 0.00% 12 24.00%
Empty 4 8.89% 0 0.00% 4 4.00%
Total 45 5 50

163
 ‫)‪APPENDIX (2b‬‬

‫مقابلة مع األزواج في فلسطين (ملحق مترجم)‬

‫أعزائي الزوجين‪ ,‬السالم عليكم‪,,‬‬

‫تهدف هذه المقابلة ال ُم ركبة إلي جمع بعض البيانات حول آليات الحراك االجتماعي والتباين اللغ‪r‬وي في بطاق‪r‬ات ال‪r‬دعوة لل‪r‬زواج‬
‫لدى الشباب الفلسطيني في العقدين األخيرين‪ .‬وألن الباحث يود اس‪rr‬تخدام ه‪rr‬ذه البيان‪rr‬ات ألغ‪rr‬راض البحث العلمي‪ ،‬س‪rr‬يحرص على‬
‫سرية وخصوصية هذه البيانات‪ ،‬شاكراً لكم حسن تعاونكم ‪.‬‬
‫السنة‪:‬‬ ‫الشهر (مثال شهر ‪)7‬‬ ‫اليوم (مثالً يوم الجمعة)‬ ‫‪ .1‬تاريخ الزواج‪:‬‬
‫______________‬ ‫______________‬ ‫___________________‬
‫__‬
‫) سنة‬ ‫الزوج‪( :‬‬ ‫) سنة‬ ‫الزوجة‪( :‬‬ ‫لكل من‪:‬‬
‫‪ .2‬العمر عند الزواج ٍ‬
‫الزوج‪ :‬مدرسة ثانوية أو اقل‬ ‫الزوجة‪ :‬مدرسة ثانوية أو اقل‬ ‫لكل‬
‫ٍ‬ ‫الزواج‬ ‫‪ .3‬مستوى التعليم عند‬
‫دار المعلمين (دبلوم)‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫دار المعلمين (دبلوم)‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫من‪:‬‬
‫بكالوريوس‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫بكالوريوس‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫ماجستير‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫ماجستير‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫دكتوراه‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫دكتوراه‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫مهنة الزوجة‪:‬‬ ‫‪ .4‬المهنة لكال الزوجين عند الزواج‬
‫مهنة الزوج‪_____________________ :‬‬
‫_______________‬ ‫(إن وجدت)‪:‬‬
‫كال الزوجين‪  :‬أبناء العم من جهة األب‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .5‬صلة القرابة بين الزوجين‪:‬‬
‫أبناء الخالة من جهة األم‪.‬‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫بينهما— صلة قرابة بعيدة (لكن من نفس العشيرة)‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫ال تربطهما— صلة قرابة مباشرة (من عشيرتين مختلفتين)‬ ‫‪‬‬

‫‪164‬‬
 ‫غرباء ألنهما من أماكن أو جنسيات— مختلفة‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫الزوج‪ :‬اإلسالم‬ ‫الزوجة‪ :‬اإلسالم‬ ‫لكل من‬
‫‪ .6‬االعتقاد الديني ٍ‬
‫المسيحية ‪ /‬النصرانية‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫المسيحية ‪ /‬النصرانية‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫الزوجين‪:‬‬
‫غير ذلك‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫غير ذلك‬ ‫‪‬‬
‫الزوج‪  :‬المدينة‬ ‫الزوجة‪  :‬المدينة‬ ‫‪ .7‬المكان الذي كان يقيم فيه كل من‬
‫المخيم‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫المخيم‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫الزوجين (أي مكان سكناهما—‬
‫‪ ‬القرية‬ ‫‪ ‬القرية‬ ‫قبل الزواج) هو‪:‬‬
‫‪ ‬كالهما (العريس والعروس معاً)‬ ‫العريس‬ ‫‪‬‬ ‫‪ ‬العروس‬ ‫‪ .8‬الشخص الذي قرر بشأن ما‬
‫كل من ذوي العريسين‬ ‫ذوو العريس ‪‬‬ ‫‪ ‬ذوو العروس ‪‬‬ ‫يكتب في بطاقة الدعوة (كرت‬
‫العرس إن وجد) هو‪:‬‬
‫‪ ‬كال من بيتي والد العريس والعروس‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .9‬المكان الذي أقيم فيه حفل‬
‫‪ ‬صالة أفراح‪.‬‬ ‫الزفاف هو‪:‬‬
‫‪ ‬مكان عام غير مخصص لألفراح فقط‪( .‬مثالً كنيسة أو ديوان)‬
‫‪ ‬غير ذلك (حدد)‪__________________________________ :‬‬
‫‪ ‬أقل من (‪ )5000‬ديناراً اردنيا‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .10‬التكلفة اإلجمالية للزواج هي‪:‬‬
‫‪ ‬من (‪ )5000‬إلى (‪ ))000 ,10‬دينار اردنيا تقريباً‪—.‬‬
‫‪ ‬أكثر من (‪ )10,000‬ديناراً أردنيا‪.‬‬
‫‪ ‬شقة أو بيت مستقل‪.‬‬ ‫‪ ‬بيت األسرة‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .11‬المكان الذي أقام فيه الزوجان‬
‫‪ ‬غير ذلك‪.‬‬ ‫‪ ‬شقة أو بيت مستأجر‪.‬‬ ‫بعد الزواج هو‪:‬‬
‫مع جزيل الشكر للطلبة القائمين على إجراء المقابلة وتعبئة النموذج!‬ ‫‪ ‬نعـــــم‬ ‫‪ .12‬هل نُظم للعروسين شهر‬
‫‪ ‬ال‬ ‫عسل؟‬
‫سامي الحيح (طالب مرشح لنيل درجة الدكتوراه في علوم اللغة‪ ,‬كلية اآلداب‪ ،‬جامعة— المنصورة)‬

‫‪165‬‬
 ‫ملخص الدراسة‬

‫ت أتي ه ذه األطروح ة تحت عن وان "آليات التباين اللغ""وي والح""راك االجتم""اعي الثق""افي في‬

‫سياق دعوات الزواج الفلسطيني من منظور لغوي إجماعي"‪ ،‬وهي بذلك تبحث في القيم االجتماعية‬

‫الموض حة في سياق خطاب الدعوة للزفاف لشرح القوى الكامنة وراء تفضيل واستحسان‬
‫َ‬ ‫والثقافية‬

‫صغار األزواج وميولهم الشخصية في العقدين األخيرين‪ .‬لذلك تهدف الدراسة إلى فهم أنماط الزفاف‬

‫الفلس طينية المعاص رة وأنم اط التص ميم المتسلس لة في بطاق ات ال دعوة للزف اف وذل ك من خالل‪ ،‬أوالً‬

‫وص ف انعك اس تل ك الممارس ات والقيم االجتماعي ة والثقافي ة في س ياق خط اب ال دعوة للزف اف‪ ،‬ثم‬

‫موض ح في بطاقات الدعوة‬

‫َ‬ ‫تفسير التباين اللغوي االجتماعي والحراك االجتماعي والثقافي كما هو‬

‫للزف اف‪ ،‬وأخ يراً‪ ،‬ش رح الق وى والمي ول ال تي تحاف ظ على تقوي ة أو إص الح بعض القيم الثقافي ة‬

‫واألعراف االجتماعية لدى األزواج الشابة في فلسطين‪.‬‬

‫عند المس تويين النظ ري والمنهجي‪ ،‬تن درج األطروح ة في الدراس ات النوعي ة‪ ،‬حيث إنه ا‬

‫تستفيد بشكل رئيس من علمي تحليل النمط الكتابي وتحليل النص كأسلوبي بحث علمي‪ .‬ومع ذلك‪،‬‬

‫تب ني الدراس ة على ثالث نم اذج تحليلي ة وهي‪ :‬تحلي""ل النم""ط الكت"ابي الخ""اص (‪ )GA‬ال ذي اس تخدمه‬

‫ك ل من (‪ ،)Swales, 1990‬و (‪ ،)Foley, 1997‬و (‪ ،)Bhatia, 2004‬وتحلي""ل التب""اين اللغ""وي‬

‫االجتم""اعي ال ذي اس تخدمه ك ل من (‪ ،)Marshall, 2004‬و (‪ ،)McMahon, 1994‬وعلم تحلي""ل‬

‫‪166‬‬
‫النص ""وص الناقد (‪)CDA‬كم ا اس تخدمه ك ل من (‪ ،)Wodak, 1999‬و (‪Fairclough, 1995,‬‬

‫‪ ،)2010‬و (‪ ،)Van Dijk, 1998‬ل ذلك تس تخدم الدراس ة م دخالً تحليلي اً ناق دا ومتع دد الوس ائط‬

‫لوص ف الحرك ات والخط وات ال تي ب نيت في س ياق ال دعوة له ذا الح دث االجتم اعي‪ ،‬ولتحلي ل البن اء‬

‫الع ام لنص خط اب ال دعوة لل زواج‪ ،‬وللخ وض على نح و ناق د في المي ول االجتماعي ة والثقافي ة وفي‬

‫القوى التي تكمن وراء ديمومة وسيادة القيم االجتماعية أو ظهور ممارسات اجتماعية مختلفة‪ .‬ومن‬

‫األمور األساسية في علم اللسانيات االجتماعي موضوع التغير واالختيار اللغويين‪ .‬وبالتالي‪ ،‬تُطبق‬

‫الدراسة مدخل التباين اللغوي االجتماعي لدراسة تأثير المتغيرات االجتماعية‪ ،‬مثل العمر والجنس‬

‫والتعليم والمركز الوظيفي‪ ,‬على سبيل المثال‪ ،‬في اختيار وإ نتاج نصوص خطابات الدعوة للزواج‪.‬‬

‫بشكل عام‪ ،‬تم استخدام المنهج التبايني التحليلي للتحقق من صحة نتائج الدراسة وفهم القوى والمي ول‬

‫التي تحافظ على الممارسات االجتماعية لخطاب الزفاف بين الشباب الفلسطيني بشكل أفضل‪ ،‬ولذلك‬

‫تم مقابلة (‪ )50‬زوجاً ممن تزوج قديماً وحديثاً‪.‬‬

‫ومن خالل تطبيق المنهج المر َكب والناقد لتحليل النمطين الكتابي والنصي لبطاقات الدعوة‬

‫للزواج وفحص التباين اللغوي االجتماعي فيهما‪ ،‬فقد خلُصت الدراسة (ضمناً ال حصرا) إلى‪:‬‬

‫أوال‪ :‬تحدي ِد ثم اني حرك ات في البني ة النص ية لبطاق ة الزف اف الفلس طينية وهي‪ :‬افتتاحي ة خط اب‬

‫الدعوة‪ ،‬ترويسة نص الدعوة‪ ،‬تقديم أصحاب الدعوة‪ ,‬التشريف بالحضور‪ ،‬التعريف بالعروسين‪،‬‬

‫الت وقيت ألزم اني والمك اني لحفل ة الزف اف‪ ،‬اختت ام خط اب ال دعوة‪ ،‬وإ عالم الض يوف بأي ة أم ور‬

‫مستجدة‪.‬‬

‫‪167‬‬
 ‫ِ‬
‫الكشف عن أن نص خطاب الزواج التقليدي مستشرف‪ ،‬أي مستنير ضمناً باالرتباطات الدينية‪،‬‬ ‫ثانياً‪:‬‬

‫موج ه حصراً بالممارسات االجتماعية الثقافية‪ ،‬التي تتجلى بوضوح من خالل الهيمنة األبوية‬
‫َو َ‬

‫والتمييز االجتماعي ضد المرأة خاصة‪ ،‬واألزواج الفتية على وجه العموم‪.‬‬

‫ِ‬
‫التأكيد على أنه بمرور الوقت وتحت تأثير عدد من التحديات الداخلية والخارجية بما في ذلك‬ ‫ثالثاَ‪:‬‬

‫الحوكم ة (أي توجيه ات وأنش طة الس لطة الفلس طينية فيم ا يتعل ق بالنظ ام والس الم)‪ ،‬والعوام ل‬

‫الجيوسياس ية غ ير المس تقرة في فلس طين من ذ عق ود‪ ،‬وموض وعات الحي اة المعاص رة والس اخنة‪،‬‬

‫مثل المساواة بين الجنسين والحرية وحقوق المرأة وأدوارها في األلفية الثالثة‪ ،‬والتكنولوجيات‬

‫الحديث ة‪ ،‬وبرمجي ات التواص ل االجتم اعي الناش ئة‪ ،‬ك ل ذل ك ق د أس هم في إح داث تغي ير في‬

‫األع راف والتقالي د المرتبط ة ب الزواج‪ ،‬تجلت — كم ا يتض ح من الممارس ات الحديث ة لمجتم ع‬

‫الخط اب للزف اف الفلس طيني‪ ،‬في التخلي عن نص وص الزف اف ذات التوج ه ال ديني والنظم‬

‫االجتماعية التقليدية التي يهيمن عليها بشدة النظام األبوي‪.‬‬

‫رابع اً‪ :‬تس ِ‬

‫مية اس تخدام النصوص الشعرية الحديث ة ال تي ت برز مكون ات الهوي ة الشخص ية المعاص رة‬

‫أيض ا مي ل ع ام‪،‬‬
‫ومفه وم ال ذات من بين التوجه ات الحديث ة لألزواج الش ابة في فلس طين‪ .‬هنال ك ً‬

‫عند المستوى النصي لخطاب الدعوة إلى الزفاف‪ ،‬يهدف إلى تبني أفكار الحياة المعاصرة‪ ،‬مثل‬

‫المساواة بين الجنسين وحقوق المرأة وأدوارها في األسرة الحديثة‪.‬‬

‫وتختم الدراسة ببعض التوصيات للباحثين في المجالين اللغوي االجتماعي والتعليمي‪.‬‬

‫‪168‬‬
 ‫جامعة المنصورة‬
‫كلية اآلداب‬
‫الدراسات العليا‬
‫قسم اللغة االنجليزية وآدابها‬

‫آليات التباين اللغوي— والحراك االجتماعي الثقافي في سياق دعوات—‬

‫الزواج الفلسطيني‪ :‬منظور لغوي اجتماعي‬
‫رسالة مقدمة لنيل درجة الدكتوراه في اآلداب ‪ /‬اللغة االنجليزية وآدابها ‪ /‬اللغويات ‪ /‬اللغويات التطبيقية‬

‫إعداد‬
‫سامي علي حسين حيح‬

‫تحت إشراف‬
‫أ‪.‬د‪ /‬حمدى محمد محمد شاهين‬
‫أستاذ اللغويات ورئيس القسم‬
‫كلية اآلداب – جامعة المنصورة‬

‫‪2019-2020‬م‬

‫‪169‬‬