An Analysis of Questions in Surah "Al-Mu minoon" Based on "Speech Act" Theory

Having a variety of performative functions in the language، questions are one of the most effective tools affecting the audience، and creating external acts. Regarding the special importance of questions in influencing and the rhetoric of speech، case studies of the speech acts of questions in the Holy Qur''an، and explicating their performative function in the influence and eloquence of the Qur''an is one of the necessities in the field of rhetoric and Qura''nic studies. To explain some other aspects of the rhetoric of questions in the Qur''an، in this article، based on speech act theory، we study the performative functions of questions in the Qur''an. To achieve better results، surah «Al-Mu’minoon» has been selected as the corpus. The results of this research show the purposeful and dynamic functions of the language of the Qur''an in the realm of speech acts. On the other hand، due to the fact that speech act theory is founded on «natural language» and its function in human societies، some principles of this theory are contrary to features of the inspirational language of the Qur''an and other scriptures. Thus، in the study of verses of the Holy Quran using speech act theory، this needs to be taken into account.