A Pragmatic Study of Deixis in the Song Lyrics of Maher Zain’s Album Thank You Allah

Abstract

The purpose of this research is the pragmatic study of deixis in the song album of Maher Zain Thank You Allah. The research has been conducted on deixis analysis and its types through the lense of Griffiths's (2006) classification of deixis. The study is based mainly on two categories of pragmatism and deals with deixis and its types while the other deals with its reference meaning. The mixed method approach has been used to describe the interpretation of deixis adopting Griffiths ‘modal classification of deixis theory. The study employs a framework of Griffith’s classification of deixis to explore how deixis functions within the lyrical context of the album, shedding light on how pronouns, demonstratives, and other deictic elements contribute to the communication of religious and emotional messages. By examining the interplay between language, context, and meaning, the research seeks to uncover the pragmatic strategies employed by Maher Zain in invoking a sense of gratitude, spirituality, and connection with the divine in his music. The methodology involves a mixed-method approach analysis of selected songs from the album, focusing on instances of deixis and their contextual nuances. The research aims to answer questions such as how deixis contributes to the construction of religious identity in the lyrics, how it establishes a connection between the artist and the audience, and how it enhances the overall emotional impact of the songs. Griffiths emphasizes pragmatically understanding deictic utterances in context relative to our semantic understanding of their meanings. So, we have "the day before the day of utterance" yesterday, "the obvious-in-context thing near the speaker or coming soon" this, "the female individual" yesterday, etc. This is one way to represent his categorization graphically. The primary data source is the lyrics of the album “Thank You, Allah”. The deictic expression in language enables a speaker to arrange or frame references in a context. The frequency of using Deixis has been analyzed which gave the result that the person Deixis used more than the other two types of Deixis. It reveals the fact that the researcher employed Person Deixis more than the others to establish direct contact among individuals including her. The new researcher is encouraged to work on Deixis and its types to reveal more information about its use and purpose.