A Pragmatic Analysis of Regret Expressions in Selected Quranic Verses

Regret is a mental and psychological state, a natural feeling; a feeling of sadness that a person experiences when he realizes the consequences of a bad thing he did or a decision he made. Regret expressions in the Glorious Qur’an vary according to the situational contexts and to the extent to which the experiencer is undergoing; however, these expressions seem have to some degree the same deep structure since they all reflect the meaning of regret. This leads to the fact that regret expressions offer a fertile field of study where the deep meaning of such expressions is one but reflected in various linguistic forms in the surface structure. This paper hypothesizes that regret expressions in the Glorious Qur’an are of different categories; however, they share the same deep structure and can be expressed directly and indirectly via different linguistic expressions. Accordingly, this paper aims at verifying these hypotheses by adopting Searle’s model (1971) of speech act theory. The data analyzed consist of eight selected Qur’anic texts. The analysis is achieved by interpreting the Qur’anic text, showing the type of regret, then decide the type of the speech acts found in these texts. The results of analysis and the conclusions prove the viability of the model adopted, verify the hypotheses, and achieve the aims of the study. Studying the speech act of regret can have important pedagogical implications for language learning and communication. By developing their pragmatic competence, critical thinking skills, and emotional intelligence, EFL learners can become more effective communicators and responsible members of their communities.