The Problem

The concept of persecution can be defined as the systematic pattern of abusive behavior in a relationship that is used to gain and maintain domineer over another person.  It usually takes place in the victim's house alone and may take many different forms, including as, the offender insults or attempt to humiliate the victim then accuse her of being overly sensitive or saying it was a humor and she has no sense of humor, the abuser tries to make the victim feels guilty and position himself as the victim.

Violence became a topic of public debates nowadays, many countries suffering from domestic violence; not even every group in society has progressively come to realize that. This kind of violence is not limited to members of certain socioeconomic classes or groups who are marginalized in society. Many women live their lives knowing that their husbands or other intimate partners have sometimes abused them. In actuality, only the two parties immediately impacted by domestic abuse see it as a private issue.

Furthermore, Violence is seldom isolated incidents. It often includes psychological, financial, sexual, and physical types of abuse and increases in quality and intensity over time. This study investigates the socio-pragmatic aspects of the act of verbal domestic violence like using expressions to demean, frighten, or control someone. Furthermore, it is concerned with examining the socio-pragmatic features employed in novels texts. Moreover, much of the research has discovered different aspects of persecution and tackled it purely from psychological and social perspective but it has not dealt with from a sociopragmatic perspective. Hence, the present study highlights the socio-pragmatic analysis of persecution in literary texts to find answers to the following questions:

• What are the main factors of persecution in selected novel

• What are the triggers of persecution resorted to by the abusers in the selected novel

• What are the cooperative maxims violated by verbal abusers

The present study aims at:

• Discovering what the main factors of persecution are in selected novel

• Investigating what the triggers of persecution are resorted to by the abusers in the selected novel

• Pinpointing what the cooperative maxims are violated by verbal abuser

It is hypothesized that:

• Position and racism are the most frequently followed 

by the abusers in the selected novel

• Putdown, insult, belittles, and identity are the most common triggers of verbal domestic violence employed by the abusers in the selected violence

• Gricean maxims are occasionally violated by abusers especially quality, quantity and manner

Literature Review

Persecution Meaning: According to Merriam Webster persecution is the act or practice of punishing those who are different from you because of their ethnicity, religion, or social beliefs, the state of being pursued, bothered, or irritated Persecution is defined as the deliberate and serious deprivation of fundamental rights in violation of international law based on the identification of the victim. Persecution is a crime that can result in a prison sentence. Persecutory acts are prohibited in three elements:

• Against one or more individuals who are members of an indefinable (or targeted) group or collectivity (actusreus)

• Against one or more individuals who are members of an indefinable (or targeted) group or collectivity (actusreus)

• With the aim to discriminate on one of the grounds specified

Persecution begins with a “severe impairment of basic rights in violation of international law”. Several fundamental rights are recognized under international human rights legislation. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), for example, recognizes the right to life and human dignity, equality before the law, freedom of expression, assembly, association, religion, privacy, and freedom from torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, gender equality, the right to a fair trial, the right to family life and family unity, and minority rights. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (as well as other human rights accords) affirm the inherent dignity of all individuals and their equal and inalienable rights, and that these rights must be respected, as well as the fact that these rights are the bedrock of world freedom, justice, and peace. The International Bill of Human Rights is made up of these three documents taken together (ibid).

 Discrimination against Women

Women presently regard all of the following to be entirely natural: freedom of thinking, speech, movement, and job. However, they had to fight for a long period in order to attain this freedom. Women have achieved a lot in Europe and North America, yet they are still discriminated against in some areas of life. The following sorts of discrimination against women can be recognized in terms of professional careers [1]: 

• This sort of discrimination is linked to increased difficulty in finding work as well as a higher risk of leaving a job. Discrimination Against Women in the Workplace

• Professional discrimination occurs when there are arbitrary restrictions on access to specific professions, causing certain groups to be overrepresented in other professions, and when job circumstances differ between men and women.

• When there are arbitrary restrictions on access to managerial or decision-making positions, this is referred to as position discrimination. Position discrimination against women is linked to vertical professional segregation, as evidenced by the fact that women hold a lower proportion of managerial positions than men or decision making positions is considerably low. 

Factors of Persecution

Persecution is organized according to the following factors such as power, identity, class, gender, racism, and social status. In every communicative situation, there is a complicated way of variety of factors of persecution, which may be more or less noticeable in certain situation. Even gender identity is more relevant than age, class, or occupational individualities, but in certain situation it may be applicable and other factors are highlighted according to the nature of situation [2]. There are many factors that are considered as prerequisites to persecute others, such as racism, gender, social class, and position. He pinpoints that the concept of persecution is very different from one person to anther or from one society to another, where injustices are inversely grounded. They depend on the colour of the skin (white and black) racism, and ethnicity or sometimes, based on religion and language (Ibid). Persecution includes the features that make the victim suffers from persecution, for examples, race, position, gender and class. It also hits the people where they live to ruin or to make embarrassed, decisive grid of blackness, whiteness, femaleness and maleness. These factors are:

• Gender: Gerson claims that the experience of persecution is very injurious to the victim in that he worries that his social image is harmfully influenced. Holmes treats gender as given and unchangeable which classifies any person that encounter as male or female. Gender identity is just like a construction not as a rigid characteristic. It is additionally valuable in representing precedents where women adjust to manly contexts and men adjust to female contexts by utilizing characteristics that are connected with manliness and femininity. From the perspective of femininity and masculinity, masculinity is associated with power and subjugation. In order to keep this category of society, the boys are systematically socialized for the concept of dominance and violence. They can persecute the women by their dominance and violence anywhere women serve and teach her children to acquiesce. Male annoyance is privileged as allegedly “rational.” While female emotion is ridiculed as weak emotionality [3]

• Position: Weber claims that the concept of status clarifies the concept of someone’s inferiority, person’s position superiority in the status order which is considered as a significant part of his/her identity. Humiliation is noticeable in lowering of status and position of the people. The universal concept of social position is as a collective term. It includes the total class-based, rank-based measures and resource based that means any class reflects a particular position in a particular social (ranked) structure. Doven shows that the term persecution means when people feel persecution that their dignity is persecuted and fell down. So, persecution is triggered by lowering the social status and position of the victim

• Social Classes: Krieger et al. define the concept of social class as a social classification alluding to social gatherings manufactured by associated monetary and lawful connections. It is introduced upon individuals' basic area inside the economy as bosses, workers, independently employed, and jobless, and as proprietors, or not, of capital

• Racism: Klein points out that persecution is generally understood to mean the gathering of behaviour which connected with the experience of persecution, for example, racism. Racism is occurred by individual, for example, the black and white people or by institutional and nation. The concept of persecution includes a tool that can be utilized to recognize racial subjugation to clarify racist actions and the replies of a person and groups exposed to it. Griffin asserts that persecution is a struggle concept in the sense that struggle in both with the self and with other. Sometimes, the victim rejects the act of disrespect or the bad treatment which takes place through different levels of protests. They feel embarrassment and shame because the persecutor ignores relevant aspects of them or others deny the significant factors of them. Lindner develops the concept of humiliation and says that persecution is an act of doing certain speeches in order to persecute others

Triggers of Persecution

Devon illustrates that Persecution is triggered by lowering the social status of the people. He pinpoints that there are many ways to persecute an individual or a group: For example by verbal or non-verbal expressions. They are like the inflicting of suffering, harassments, imprisonment, insult, fear or pain, belittle. Etc.

Women Persecution

To be granted asylum, a person must show that they have been persecuted in the past or that they have a well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future. The terms 'persecution' and 'retaliation' are not defined in either the INA or the Convention. Persecution may not have a universally accepted definition, yet most acts of bodily assault have been labeled as such. Persecution is defined as a “threat to the life or freedom of, or the inflicting of pain or harm upon, individuals who differ in a way seen as objectionable” by the Board of Immigration Appeals ('BIA'). Persecutory incidents against women can be divided into two categories:

• The first type occurs in private domains, and the persecutor is usually someone with whom the woman has a personal contact, such as a romantic partner or a relative

• The second type of persecution occurs when a public or private, non-state entity, such as governments or militant organizations, perpetrates or condones sexual abuse or subjection against women of a certain ethnicity

Socio-pragmatics

Leech uses the term “socio-pragmatics” to refer to the “sociological interface of pragmatics”.  LoCastro [4] states that “Sociopragmatics focuses primarily on the social rules of speaking, those expectations about interactional discourse held by members of a speech community as appropriate and normal behavior”.  Sociopragmatics is the interface of sociology and pragmatics and refers to “the social perceptions underlying participants” interpretation and performance of communicative action. As Kasper and Roever assert, socio-pragmatics encompasses the knowledge of the relationships between communicative action and power, social distance, imposition, and the social conditions and consequences of what you do, when, and to whom among other hybrid terms. Socio-pragmatics focuses on the relationship between linguistic action and social structure and is concerned with the influence of socio-contextual factors in language as social action. While the notion of language as social action May concepts of context and action are seen as central to pragmatics be viewed as the outcomes or action accomplished through language use [5].

Grice’s Cooperative Principles

The philosopher Paul Grice develops the cooperative principle (CP henceforth). He asserts the CP is the basic way for successful verbal communication. That is, the speaker undertakes in normal conditions the ground rules that he observes when he speaks and interprets utterances. He suggests that participants in a conversation follow a common CP which expresses that members perhaps will observe it [6-7] say that people need to contrast not merely, on what is said but also on what is implied. Grice [6] develops a theory of relationships in order to know the expression of the speech, the meaning that the speaker conveys and the implications of utterances. Levinson, on the other hand, illustrates that when communicating, each one who takes part in a conversation should regard the requirements of other participants. That is, he “should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information”. In the actual life situations, many people when communicating, they have a tendency to say untruth and breakdown the maxims of Grice’s cooperative principle [8] Grebe [9] remarks that this principle is a common code that each speaker needs to follow. Therefore, they can impart effectively and adequately. Along these lines, its name involves that cooperation is essential about effective correspondence. When conveying information, every member should respect the necessities of different members who ought to talk truly, pertinently and unmistakably, while giving adequate data.

Conversational Maxims

Grice [6] appends four conversational maxims which elucidate how the co-operative principle works:

A-Quantity

This maxim denotes the quantity of information set in the course of a speech. The speaker should give as much information as is required, but he should avoid making it too informative (Ibid: 20).

• Make your contribution as informative as is required

• Don't make your contribution more informative than is required

Quality

The speaker should be truthful in his contribution. Furthermore, he is predictable to give information for which he has evidence [8].

• Don't say what you believe to be false

• Don't say that for which you lack adequate evidence

Relevance

The contribution must be relevant to what is said via other participants. Moreover, any effort of irrelevance needs to be pointed out. The maxim of relation is considered as a solitary maxim, specifically, be relevant. This maxim is in some way or another raises a problem. Despite the fact that it is brief, it brings up some unanswerable issues about the diverse sorts and focal points of relevance, and the movements and changes that really happen in discussion, etc. [8].

D- Manner

The speaker should be clear, brief, and orderly in his speech at any degree. In addition, vagueness of expression and obscurity should be avoided (Ibid: 64).

• Avoid obscurity of expression

• Avoid ambiguity

• Be brief

• Be orderly

Observing the Maxims

Thomas [8] asserts that the interesting case is the point at which a speaker observes every one of the maxims as in the following example: Husband: Where are the car keys? Wife: They are on the table in the hall. The wife is replied clearly (Manner) truthfully or honestly, (Quality). She gives just the right amount of information (Quantity) and directly gets her husband's aim in asking the question (Relation). She says exactly what she is intended, no more and no less, and created no implicature.

Non-Observance of Maxims

Grice [6] states that there are many circumstances whereby the speaker fails to observe the maxims. He puts many ways in which participants in a speech conversation may fail to fulfill the maxims. These ways of failing to observe a maxim are: Violating a maxim, flouting a maxim, infringing a maxim, clashing a maxim, suspending a maxim and opting out of a maxim. Black elucidates that in literary texts, the failure to observe the maxims can take several forms: (Opting out, violating a maxim, a clash and flouting). Moreover, the present study limits to the violation and flouting a maxim.

Violation: The speaker is intentionally attempted to mislead the hearer, this act is known as lying (Ibid). Grice [6] states that the concept of violation can be defined as the unostentatious non-observance of a maxim. If a speaker tries to violate a maxim, s/he will be liable to mislead. Grice means that the speaker violates a maxim when his intention is to mislead the hearer. Moreover, he clarifies that the violation of a maxim refers to conversational situation in which the speaker may “quietly and unostentatiously” violate a maxim and he becomes liable to misled. 

Flouting: Grice [10] illustrates that when the speaker flouts a maxim he intentionally disobeys the maxim but tries to make the hearer to infer the implicature of the utterance. 79 Thomas [6] clarifies the notion of flouting a maxim. He says that the situations which are mostly interesting for Grice are those in which a speaker “blatantly” fails to observe a maxim, not with every aim of deluding or deceiving. The speaker wishes to provoke the listener to search for a meaning which is different from or additional to the conveyed meaning.

Data Analysis

The Data Collection: The data of this work are collected from a novel under study. This novel is called “Their eyes were watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. The researcher selects this novel to focus on its theme of persecution. Therefore, the diversity in choosing this novel is to make more comprehensive to the process of persecution from different sides.

The Model of the Analysis

Data Analysis

Zora Neale Hurston life and works: Zora Neale Hirstone born (1891) in Kermanshah, Persia to British parents and died in 1960. She is an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. This novel is the most famous novel and it is published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays and essays.

The Summary of the Novel “Their Eyes were Watching God”

Their Eyes Were Watching God follows the life of Janie Craford, a girl of mixed black and white heritage, around the turn of the century… which was not an easy time to be of mixed race. As an adolescent, Janie sees a bee pollinating a flower in her backyard pear tree and becomes obessed with finding true love. (Because there’s nothing hotter than a little bee-on-flower action).

The Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Extract No.1

• Logan: “Janie!” Logan called harshly. “Come help me move dis manure pile befo’ de sun gits hot. You don’t take a bit of interesting in dis place” . “Tain’t no use in foolin round in dat kitchen all day long”

• Janie walked to the door with the pan in her hand still stirring the cornmeal dough and looked towards the barn: “You don’t need mah help out dere, Logan. You in yo’ place and Ah’m in mine” 

• Factors of Persecution: Position: The husband follows position strategy in order to make discrimination among men and women, in his speech “Tain’t no use in foolin round in dat kitchen all day long” . Therefore, the women suffer from violence through the concept of position. So this     factor is used by men to achieve persecution

Triggers of Persecution

• Be little: The abuser tries to make himself superior and be little the victim in his speech “you don’t take a bit of interest in dis place. Tain’t no use in foolin round in dat kitchen all day long”

• Insult: The abuser man tries to insult his victim when he says “you ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh”. He wants to make his wife that she is only a need for him

Conversational Maxims

• The Maxim of Quality: The abuser does not observe this maxim because he talks about something he feels it effect on his victim and his wife is like anything he needs it. In fact it is not true

• The Maxim of Quantity: The abuser observes this maxim. He does not    violate the quantity maxim, because he gives little information and it is  informed at the same time

• The Maxim of Relevance:  This maxim is non- observed by the abuser. He violates it in his expression “It’s wherever Ah need yuh” . Here the abuser talks about something do not relate to the text, he wants only to make the victim feels that she has no opinion or a decision to be in such place according to her desire

• The Maxim of Manner: This maxim is observed by the abuser,   because he talks is brief and he is not vague in his violent expressions

Extract No. 2

• Nanny:  “So you don’t want to marry off decent like, do yuh? You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh? You wants to make me suck de same sorrow yo mama did, eh? Mah ole head ain’t gray enough. Mah back ain’t bowed enough to suit yuh!”

Factors of Persecution

Racism: Nanny follows racism strategy in order to make discrimination among white and black, in his speech “You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?” Therefore, the black women suffer from violence through the concept of racism. So this factor is used by Nanny to achieve persecution against woman.

Triggers of Persecution

• Be little: The abuser tries to make herself superior and be little the victim and make her feel guilty in her speech “You wants to make me suck de same sorrow yo’ mama did, eh? Mah ole head ain’t gray enough”

• Insult: The abuser tries to insult her victim when she says “Mah ole head ain’t gray enough. Mah back ain’t bowed enough to suit yuh.” He wants to make his wife that she is only a need for him

Conversational Maxims

• The Maxim of Quality: The abuser observes this maxim because she talks about something she feels it effects on her victim and her daughter likes anything Nanny needs it. In fact it is true

• The Maxim of Quantity: The abuser observes this maxim. He does not    violate the quantity maxim, because he gives real information and it is  informed at the same time

• The Maxim of Relevance: This maxim is observed by the abuser. He doesn’t violate it in his expression “You just wants to hug and kiss and feel around with first one man and then another, huh?” Here the abuser talks about something relate to the text, she wants only to make the victim feels that she has no opinion or a decision to be in such place according to her desire

• The Maxim of Manner: This maxim is observed by the abuser, because he talks is brief and he is not vague in her violent expressions

Extract 3

• Logan: “Looka heah, LilBit, help me out some. Cut up dese seed taters fuh me. Ah got tuh go step off a piece”

• Jaine:  “Where you goin”

• Logan: “Over tuh Lake City tuh see uh man about uh mule”

• Jaine: “Whut you need two mules fuh? Lessen you aims to swap off dis one”

Factors of Persecution

Position: The husband follows position strategy in order to make discrimination among men and women, in his speech “Looka heah, LilBit”. Therefore, the women suffer from violence and persecution through the concept of position. So this factor is used by men to achieve persecution.

Triggers of Persecution

Be little: The abuser tries to make himself superior and be little the victim in his speech “Cut up dese seed taters fuh me. Ah got tuh go step off a piece”

Insult: The abuser man tries to insult his victim when he says “Looka heah, LilBit, help me out some”. He wants to make his wife that she is only like a need for him

Conversational Maxims

The Maxim of Quality: The abuser does not observe this maxim because he talks about something he feels it effect on his victim and his wife is like anything he needs it. In fact it is not true

The Maxim of Quantity: The abuser observes this maxim. He does not   violate the quantity maxim, because he gives little information and it is   informed at the same time

The Maxim of Relevance:  This maxim is non- observed by the abuser. He violates it in his expression “Ah got tuh go step off a piece”. Here the abuser talks about something do not relate to the text, he wants only to make the victim feels that she has no opinion or a decision to be in such place according to her desire

The Maxim of Manner: This maxim is observed by the abuser,  because he talks is brief and he is not vague in his violent expressions

Extract 4

• Logan: “Don’t you change too many words wid me dis mawnin’, Janie, do Ah’ll take and change ends wid yuh! Heah, Ah just as good as take you out de white folks’ kitchen and set you down on yo’ royal diasticutis and you take and low-rate me! Ah’ll take holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh! You better dry up in dere!”

Factors of Persecution

Gender: The abuser (husband) follows gender strategy in order to make discrimination among men and black women, in his speech “Don’t you change too many words wid me dis mawnin’, Janie, do Ah’ll take and change ends wid yuh!” Therefore, the black women suffers from violence through the concept of gender discrimination. So this factor is used by the abuser to achieve persecution against his wife

Triggers of Persecution

• Harassment: The abuser tries to make himself superior and he tries to harass the victim and make her feel guilty in his speech “Ah guess some low-lifed nigger is grinnin’ in yo’ face and lyin’ tuh yuh. God damn yo’ hide!”

• Treat: The abuser tries to frighten her victim when he says “You better dry up in dere! Ah’m too honest and hard-workin’ for anybody in yo’ family, dat’s de reason you don’t want me! come in dere and kill yuh”. He wants to make his wife that she is only a need for him

Conversational Maxims

• The Maxim of Quality: The abuser does not observe this maxim because she talks about something he feels it effects on the victim mean his wife. In fact not all his speech is true

• The Maxim of Quantity: The abuser observes this maxim. He does not    violate the quantity maxim, because he gives real information and it is  informed at the same time

• The Maxim of Relevance:  This maxim is observed by the abuser. He doesn’t violate it in his expression “Ah just as good as take you out de white folks’ kitchen and set you down on yo’ royal diasticutis and you take and low-rate me! Ah’ll take Holt uh dat ax and come in dere and kill yuh!” Here the abuser talks about something relate to the text, she wants only to make the victim feels that she has no opinion or a decision to be in such place according to her desire

• The Maxim of Manner: This maxim is not observed by the abuser, because he does not talk in a brief way and he talks a lot

Extract 5

• Jody: “Over, Janie? I god, Ah ain’t even started good. Ah told you in de very first beginnin’ dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice. You oughta be glad, ’cause dat makes uh big woman outa you. A feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her. She felt far away from things and lonely”

Factors of Persecution

• Gender: The new husband follows gender strategy in order to make discrimination among men and women, in his speech “dat Ah aimed tuh be uh big voice”. Therefore, the women suffers from violence and persecution through the concept of racism, he tries to make discrimination between men and women. So this factor is used by men to achieve persecution

Triggers of Persecution

Be little: The abuser tries to make himself superior and be little the victim in his speech “You oughta be glad, ’cause dat makes uh big woman outa you”

Insult: The abuser man tries to insult his victim when he says “Over, Janie? I god, Ah ain’t even started good” He wants to make his wife that he married her in order to help him to be a famous man and not because he loves her

Conversational Maxims

The Maxim of Quality: The abuser does not observe this maxim because he talks about something that is not real or true, and Janie is observed that well

The Maxim of Quantity: The abuser observes this maxim. He does not    violate the quantity maxim, because he gives little information and it is  informed at the same time

The Maxim of Relevance:  This maxim is non- observed by the abuser. He violates it in his expression. “You oughta be glad, ’cause dat makes uh big woman outa you” Here the abuser talks about something do not relate to the text, he wants only to make the victim feels that she has no opinion or a decision to be in such place according to her desire

The Maxim of Manner: This maxim is observed by the abuser,  because his talks is brief and he is not vague in his violent expressions

The table above shows that gender and position are the mostly factor that is used by the abuser. Racism, social class, and culture are not used in the selected texts in the novel. The table above shows that insult and belittle are the mostly used triggers by the abuser. Harassment, threat, and fear are not used widely in the selected texts in the novel.The table above shows that quantity is the dominant observance maxim that is used by the abuser in the novel, since it has the highest scores. Quality is the dominant non-observance maxim that is used by the abuser.

Table 1: The Statistical Analysis of Persecution

Table 2: Triggers of Persecution

Table 3: The Statistical Analysis of Grice’s Maxims

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