Defamation in English and Arabic: A Pragmatic Contrastive Study

  • Basim Yahya Jasim Algburi University of Mosul, College of Arts, Department of English, Iraq
  • Zainab Kadim Igaab University of Thi-Qar, College of Education for Humanities, Department of English, Iraq
Keywords: contrastive analysis, defamation, pragmatics

Abstract

Defamation is one of the verbal offences in which the plaintiff is accused of a certain wrongful act by one of the ways of publicity. If that wrongful act is proved, then the accused will be punished by law or lowered by his/her home people. Defamation is surely accusing another person of a wrongful act . Accusing can be done by any spoken or written ways whether truthful or doubtful. The purpose beyond those ways is to make those accusations about the victim true in the people's mind even if they are temporarily made. The aim of this study is to elucidate if there is a similarity or a difference between English and Arabic in terms of defamation. It has been hypothesized that both languages are different from each other in terms of the topic under investigation. This study arrives at: In terms of defamation, English and Arabic are similar to each other in having speech acts, grammatical referencing, conveyed meaning, malicious meaning, and discourse structure and framing with intentionality. English defamation cases include speech acts more than Arabic defamation ones.

References

Ahmed, G. (2013). Crimes of Insult, Defamation and Verbal Abuse: Commenting on Them by Rules of Reversal of a Sentence and High Administrative Court. Cairo: Centre of Administrative Police Information.
Al-Durra, M. A. S. (2009). Explaining Penal Code: The Private Section. Cairo: Al-Atik for Industrializing the Book.
Al-Haydary, Jamal I., & Betti, Mohammed J. (2020a). The Objective Penalty Protection of the Responsibles for the Educational and Learning Process in Public Defamation. Multidisciplinary International Journal, 1(6), 15- 29.
Al-Haydary, J. I., & Betti, M. J. (2020b). The Goals of the Law of Protection of Teachers, Supervisors and Educational Counselors No. (8) 2018 and Basis of Protection. International Journal of Law, Management and Social Science, 4(2), 25-38.
Al-Musawy, S. R. (2010). Crimes of Defamation and Verbal Abuse via Satellites: A Comparative Study Supported by Judicial Applications. Baghdad: Sabah Library.
Al-Qulaly, Mohammed M. (1948). In the Criminal Responsibility. Cairo: University of the First Fuad.
Al-Seady, Mohammed J. B. (1998). The Employment of English Lexicons by Adolescent Speakers of Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic as Determined by Sex Differentiation. Al-Qadisiya Journal, 3(2), 72-9.
Al-Seady, Mohammed J. B. (2002a). English Phonetics. Nasiriaya: Afaaq.
Al-Seady, Mohammed J. B. (2002b). Some Morphological, Lexical and Syntactic Aspects of the Interlanguage of Third Year Students/ Dept. of English/College of Education/ University of Qadisiya. Journal of Qadisiya for Educational Sciences, 2(1), 13-19.
Al- Timimy, Mahya bin Musa'd. (1982). Defamation rules in the Islamic legislation. Unpublished MA Thesis, Mecca, College of Islamic Legislation and Studies.
Amponsah, Peter, N. (2004). Libel Law, Political Criticism, and Defamation of Public Figures: The USE, Europe, and Australia. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Harvard: The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Betti, Mohammed J. (2007). Jokes in Iraq: A Study of Coherence and Cohesion. Journal of the College of Education, University of Wasit, 1(1), 399-411. https://doi.org/10.31185/eduj.Vol1.Iss1.694
Betti, Mohammed J. (2015). Jokes in Iraq: A Study of Coherence and Cohesion. In Betti & Igaab (Eds.), Linguistic Studies (pp. 51-67). Diwaniyah: Nippur.
Betti, Mohammed J. (2019). The Objective Penalty Protection of the Responsibles for the Educational and Learning Process. Unpublished MA thesis, Najaf, Al- Alamein Institute of Higher Studies.
Betti, Mohammed J., & Al-Jubouri, Chasib, F. ( 2009). A Structural and Intonational Study of Theme and Rheme in Iraqi Advanced EFL Learners' Language Repertoire. Alilbayt Journal, 7, 363-379.
Betti, M. J., & Al-Jubouri, C. F. (2015). Approaches and Methods of Teaching English As a Foreign Language. Diwaniya: Nippur.
Betti, M. J., & Igaab, Zainab K. (2015). (eds). Linguistic Studies. Diwaniya: Nippur.
Betti, M. J., & Hashim, T. G. (2018). The Lawyer’s Discourse in the Courtroom: A Contrastive Study in English and Arabic. International Journal of English Linguistics, 8(3), 276-296. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v8n3p276
Betti, M. J., & Igaab, Zainab K. (2018). A Contrastive Study of Modulation in English and Arabic. International Journal of English and Cultural Studies, 1(1), 30-45. https://doi.org/10.11114/ijecs.v1i1.3120
Betti, M. J., & AlFartoosy, M. H. H. (2019). Ellipsis and Reiteration in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study. English Language and Literature Studies, 9(1), 93-105. https://doi.org/10.5539/ells.v9n1p93
Betti, M. J. H., & Ahmed, A. (2020). The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Ability to Use Speech Acts in MA and Ph.D. Theses Defense. Education, Language and Sociology Research, 1(2), 41-65. https://doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v1n2p41
Betti, M. J., & Mahdi, M. A. (2020). A Conversation Analysis of Repair Trouble Sources, Inadequacy and Positions in the Iraqi University Viva Discussions in English. International Linguistics Research, 3(4), 69-93. https://doi.org/10.30560/ilr.v3n4p69
Betti, M. J., & Yaseen, K. S. (2020). The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Use of Conversational Maxims at the University Level. Education, Language and Sociology Research, 1(1), 43-60. https://doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v1n1p43
Bies, R. J., & Thomas, M. T. (1993). Employee-initiated defamation lawsuits: Organizational responses and dilemmas. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 6(4), 313-324. Plenum Publishing Corporation. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01385020
Calow, Duncan. (1995). Internet liability: defamation on the internet. The Computer Law and Security Report. Denton Hall, 11, 199- 201. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0267-3649(00)80048-5
Dehham, S. H., Betti, M. J., & Hussein, N. M. (2021). The Effect of Using Estafet Writing Technique to Enhance Students’ Compositional Efficiency. Education, Language and Sociology Research, 2(1), 1-13.
Duffy, D. J. (1983). Defamation. Privacy in Work Place, 3, 267- 280. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.3910100307
Garner, B. A. (2009). Black's law Dictionary. New York: A Thomson Reuters Business.
Ibrahim, M. S. (1997). Press Freedom: A Study in the Legislating Politics and its Relation to Democratic Development. Cairo: Scientific Books House.
Igaab, Zainab K. (2010) Reduplication in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study. Journals Education for Girls, 1(1), 3-24.
Igaab, Zainab K., & Altai, S. M. M. (2018). Concord in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study. International Journal of English Linguistics, 8(2), 288-297. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v8n2p288
Igaab, Zainab K., & Hanan, A. (2018). Collocation in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study. English Language and Literature Studies, 8(4), 89-103. https://doi.org/10.5539/ells.v8n4p89
Igaab, Zainab K., & Israa, K. (2018). Affixation in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study. English Language and Literature Studies, 8(1), 92-103. https://doi.org/10.5539/ells.v8n1p92
Igaab, Zainab K., & Tarrad, I. R. (2019). Pronouns in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study. English Language and Literature Studies, 9(1), 53-69. https://doi.org/10.5539/ells.v9n1p53
Kenyon, Andrew, T. (2010). What conversation? free speech and defamation law. The Modern Law Review, 73(5), 697-720. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2010.00815.x
Mitchell, P. (2005). The Making of the Modern Law of Defamation. Oxford: HART Publishing.
Mousa, Mahmood S. (2012). Rules of Criminalization and Strict Liability: A Comparative Study in Arab Legislations and Italian and French Laws. Al-Iskandariya: House of University Printings.
Naseef, Nasha't A. (2010). Explaining Penal Code: The Private Section. Cairo: Al- Sanhoory Library.
Rolph, D. (2008). Reputation, Celebrity and Defamation Law. England: Ashgat Publishing Limited.
Salman, Hussien Salah and Mohammed Jasim Betti (2020). Politeness and Face Threatening Acts in Iraqi EFL learners’ Conversations. Glossa, 3(8), 221-233.
Searle, J. (1969). Speech acts: In The Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: CUP. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173438
Shuy, Roger, W. (2000). The language of Defamation Cases. Oxford: OUP.
Tiersma, P. M. (1987). The Language of Defamation. Law Review, 66, 303-350.
Tiersma, P. M. (2015). Defamatory language and the act of Accusing. In Speaking of Language and Law: Conversations on the Work of Peter Tiersma.
Published
2021-05-12
Section
Articles