Forms of Reference to the Prophet Mohammed ﷺ by his Contemporaries; Their forms and pragmatic functions

Abstract

Within the framework of discourse analysis and sociolinguistics, forms of reference are one of the keys to understanding the relationships of influence and impact between language and society. The speaker's choice of one form of reference over another is not viewed as a mere random choice, but rather as a conscious and intentional preference imposed by the temporal, spatial, psychological, social, and cultural contexts surrounding the speech event. This study seeks to study the forms of reference to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH by those who lived in his era, as documented in the Ibn Hisham’s Prophet Biography, which represents a document for analyzing the language of discourse of that era. Study applied the descriptive analytical method to the forms of reference to the Prophet PBUH, it classified their types, then studied them in the light of pragmatics. Study showed multiple forms used to refer to the Prophet PBUH; such as the first name, the full name, the nickname, and the adjective. It showed that the speaker's preference for the type of Forms of Reference is linked - in most cases - to the pragmatic function that he seeks to load for this formula or that.