ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with a comparison of the three sets of Arabic data so as to examine the functional and linguistic parallels in the Egyptian, Iraqi and Libyan material collated.
6.1 COMPARISON OF THE THREE SETS OF DATA
6.1.1 Language functions
As we consider the three sets of data, we notice that they share a certain number of functions and strategies associated with a particular language level:
• In all three sets of data, MSA is particularly likely to be used whenever the speaker is constructing an abstract argument, recalling historical events, expanding new political ideas, and axioms. General and abstract concepts are presented as if they were unquestionable text, as opposed to exegesis. As the speaker distances himself from the audience, he tends to depersonalise the discourse. The speaker may also want to act as a spokesman or third party. Because in these cases the speaker is instructing his audience, the tone is authoritative, that of superior to inferior, and MSA is the expected code for such purposes. Accompanying paralinguistic features such as slow delivery and pauses are employed to give full emphasis to some words and to signal the "weight" of the message.
