Obituary announcements in Jordanian and British newspapers: A cross-cultural overview

Abstract

This paper examines the socio-cultural practices surrounding the use of obituary announcements in two different cultures. Specifically, it investigates the structural and linguistic features as well as the euphemistic expressions related to death in obituaries placed in Jordanian and British newspapers. It aims at exploration of the impact of some sociological factors on the form and content of the obituaries as well as finding out the communicative functions conveyed by this particular means of communication. The data comprise three hundred (300) death announcements evenly distributed by the two societies under investigation. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The paper reveals clear-cut differences between the two sets of obituaries in terms of structure, language and function. It has also been observed that most of these differences are mainly attributable to socio-cultural distinctions between the two societies. This study elicited a number of significant results which are full of insights to sociolinguistic theory and which lead to a better understanding of the interrelated relationship between language and culture.