Investigating the Emotional Context of Nahj al-Balaghah Based on John Austin’s Speech Act Theory: The Case Study of Letter 62

Speech act was introduced by Austin, one of the philosophers of the Oxford School, to demonstrate that the truth or falsity of many statements cannot be determined; rather, it is what such statements can do that matters. Austin believed that producing a speech act requires a speaker who produces utterances that are called locutionary acts and affect the addressee. This effect is what Austin called the illocutionary act, and speech act also refers to this effect, i.e., the illocutionary act.  The addressee’s reaction to illocutionary act is perlocutionary act. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emotional context of the speech acts in Nahj al-Balaghah to find out whether the speech act theory can be used for a better understanding of the Letter 62 of Imam Ali, and to see what place the emotional context has in the sayings of Imam Ali. Findings indicate that Nahj al-Balaghah tries to convey concepts to the audience through speech act, which is the same as the illocutionary act. In this article, using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on the science of semantics, an attempt has been made to specifically explore the speech acts and then to express the emotional context of the letter, and to examine the sentences used in Nahj al-Balaghah in the framework of the speech act theory from Austin’s point of view. Speech act was first introduced by Austin, one of the philosophers of the Oxford School, in his lectures in 1955 at Harvard University, and was published twenty years later. What he proposed as a speech act was essentially an opposing reaction to three principles that were usually held towards meaning among linguistics and logical semanticians. These three principles were: First, statements are the main type of sentences in language; second, the main function of language is to inform through sentences; and third, the truth or falsity of the meaning of an utterance can be determined. These three principles formed the basis of the attitude of the Vienna Circle philosophers in Austin’s time. Because texture plays an important role in constructing meaning, many attempts have been made to find a way to identify texture-related properties. Because context plays an important role in constructing meaning, many attempts have been made to find a way to identify context-related properties. It has long been accepted that the analyst must make choices in determining the characteristics of the context that are important for a particular example of interpersonal interaction. Context is the lowest level of the surrounding text that can have an important role in the meaning of propositions. Emotional context is also closely related to the synonymy component, because emotional context has an effective function in accurately understanding synonymous words, and the subtle and hidden differences of these words are revealed with the help of emotional context. The characteristic of Imam Ali’s words is that, while having the beauty of the words and the magic of the format, and employing all the rhetorical devices and artistic creations, they have deep content, wise meanings and concepts and sublime human intentions and goals.
In this article, an attempt is made to examine Letter 62 of Nahj al-Balaghah, which is the precious words of Imam Ali (AS), in terms of its emotional context, and to understand its function in the letter. Receiving meaning is one of the important aspects of reading a text, and in this regard, linguistic issues can be of great help in understanding the meaning. The present study seeks to answer the following questions: A) Is the theory of speech act useful in studying Imam Ali’s letter? B) Can contextual analysis be a way to express emotional context and create more awareness of this context? C) Does the emotional context in Letter 62 of Imam Ali, who is the successor after the Prophet, seem great or not? Letter 62 of Nahj al-Balaghah includes emotional actions such as rebuke, encouragement, expression of regret, and sometimes sorrow and grief, which are created as a result of the emotional context of the letter, and have been used to impress the listener and force them to take action. Reflecting on the internal content of the speech act brings another message: that in Nahj al-Balaghah the emotional context speech act is used in the matter of religious government with the utmost subtlety, which confirms the compatibility of this type of speech act in religious and sacred texts. Based on such results, it can be added that the speech act theory is effective in the analysis of Nahj al-Balaghah letters and the emotional context is rooted in the meaning of the word and the situation used in it and has been used effectively in Letter 62 of Nahj al-Balaghah.