Textual Appropriateness Strategy and Its Role in the Pragmatics of Discourse

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of appropriateness as a central mechanism in achieving textual cohesion and coherence, linking it to the pragmatic perspective of discourse. The study proceeds from the premise that text grammar transcends the boundaries of the sentence to encompass the text as a whole, wherein syntactic and semantic relations interact to form a cohesive structure. The article highlights the classical roots of the concept of appropriateness in Qur’anic studies, particularly in the works of al-Biqāʿī and al-Zarkashī, where it is conceived as a discipline that reveals the rationale behind textual arrangement and the interconnections among its parts. It also discusses the overlap between appropriateness and context, emphasizing that context constitutes a broader framework that facilitates uncovering the appropriate relationships among the components of discourse.

The study applies this perspective to the texts of al-Iṣfahānī, revealing the role of appropriateness in achieving coherence across multiple levels: lexical, syntactic, and semantic, in addition to its pragmatic dimension related to the horizon of reception and the authority of the sender. The article concludes that appropriateness is not merely a traditional interpretive tool but an effective analytical mechanism in modern text linguistics, contributing to the understanding of discourse as an integrated and dynamic structure.