Pragmatics of illnesses in colloquial Jordanian Arabic: What matters and what does not!
This presentation investigates the linguistic expressions of a number of illnesses in Jordanian Arabic (JA). Drawing on naturally occurring data, we supply evidence that illnesses in JA are predominantly expressed by two distinct sets of expressive strategies, vis. euphemistic expressive strategies (EESs) and non-euphemistic expressive strategies (NEESs). The former are exclusively used when cancer and mental health disorders are referred to. EESs essentially include the replacement of the name of the illness with some religious expressions or certain conventional terms, especially in reference to cancer. On the other hand, NEESs are used in conjunction with other illnesses (e.g., heart problems, kidney dialysis, diabetes, etc.). We discuss the effects of (folk) religious beliefs and local norms and values in determining the use of these expressive strategies.