New Horizons in Qur’ānic Linguistics: A Syntactic, Semantic and Stylistic Analysis

379 Pages·2017·3.13 MB·English

by  Hussein Abdul-Raof

New Horizons in Qur’anic Linguistics
Qur’anic discourse can greatly benefit from European theoretical linguistics.
However, until now, the value of European theoretical linguistics to the investi-
gation of Qur’anic discourse has been overlooked.
This is the first book on Qur’anic linguistics, which accounts for the different
levels of linguistic and stylistic analysis. Hinged upon modern European theoret-
ical linguistics, it covers a wide range of topics such as: syntactic structures,
ellipsis, synonymy, polysemy, semantic redundancy, semantic incongruity,
semantic contrastiveness, selection restriction rule, componential features, collo-
cation, cyclical modification, foregrounding and backgrounding, pragmatic func-
tions and categories of shift, pragmatic distinction between verbal and nominal
sentences, morpho-s emantic features of lexical items, context-s ensitive word and
phrase order, and vowel points and phonetic variation.
New Horizons in Qur’anic Linguistics provides a fascinating insight into
Qur’anic Arabic and delivers an in-d epth linguistic, semantic and stylistic ana-
lysis essential for comparative linguistics and much needed for corpus lin-
guistics. Illustrating the linguistic and stylistic idiosyncrasies of Qur’anic
discourse and its pragmatic secrets, it is a key resource for anyone with an
interest in Arabic linguistics in general and Qur’anic linguistics in particular.
Hussein Abdul- Raof (formerly Leeds University) is Professor of Linguistics
and Translation Studies at Taibah University, Saudi Arabia.
Culture and Civilization in the Middle East
General Editor: Ian Richard Netton
Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures
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For a full list of books in the series, please go to: www.routledge.com/
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Esad Duraković Methods and the Philosophy of
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51 Eastern Rome and the Rise of A History of Arabic Sciences and
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History and Prophecy Roshdi Rashed
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52 Literature and the Islamic Court Linguistics
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Ibn ʿAbbād Stylistic Analysis
Erez Naaman Hussein Abdul- Raof
New Horizons in Qur’anic
Linguistics
A Syntactic, Semantic and Stylistic
Analysis
Hussein Abdul- Raof
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Hussein Abdul- Raof
The right of Hussein Abdul- Raof to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Abdul-Raof, Hussein author.
Title: New horizons in Qur’anic linguistics: a syntactic, semantics and
stylistic analysis / Hussein Abdul-Raof.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Culture and civilization in the Middle East; 56 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017007960| ISBN 9781138946286 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315670911 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Qur’an–Language, style. | Arabic language–Syntax. |
Arabic language–Semantics. | Arabic language–Rhetoric.
Classification: LCC PJ6696.A615895 2017 | DDC 492.7/5–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007960
ISBN: 978-1-138-94628-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67091-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
For Sophia

Contents
Preface xiii
Arabic transliteration system xiv
Introduction 1
About this book 1
Premises of the current work 1
Rationale of the current work 1
Overview of the current work 3
1 Syntactic structures of Qur’anic discourse and perlocution 7
1.1 Introduction 7
1.2 Syntactic features 8
1.2.1 Qur’anic syntactic structures 8
1.2.2 Set order of sentence constituents 29
1.2.2.1 Set word order 29
1.2.2.2 Context-s ensitive phrase order 30
1.3 Syntactic structures and perlocutionary effects 32
1.4 Summary 46
2 Semantically oriented stylistic shift 47
2.1 Introduction 47
2.2 Where does stylistic shift occur? 47
2.3 Why does stylistic shift occur? 48
2.4 Syntactic factors 48
2.4.1 Word order 49
2.4.2 Grammatical case endings 51
2.4.3 Person 52
2.4.4 Tense 53
viii Contents
2.4.5 Singular/plural form 54
2.4.6 Definite/indefinite form 54
2.4.7 Feminine/masculine form 55
2.4.8 Morphological form 55
2.4.9 Substitution 56
2.4.10 Ellipsis 57
2.4.10.1 Stylistic ellipsis 57
2.4.10.2 Grammatical ellipsis 58
2.5 Phonetic factors 58
2.5.1 Assimilation 58
2.5.2 Assonance 59
2.5.3 Onomatopoeia 60
2.5.4 Vowel points and pronunciation 61
2.6 Co- textual factors 63
2.6.1 Grammatical co- text 63
2.6.1.1 Co- text and grammatical category 64
2.6.1.2 Co- text and morphological form 64
2.6.1.3 Co- text and number 65
2.6.1.4 Co- text and tense 65
2.6.1.5 Co- text and word order 65
2.6.2 Lexical co-t ext 66
2.6.3 Phonetic co-t ext 67
2.7 Contextual factors 67
2.7.1 Lexical level 67
2.7.2 Grammatical level 68
2.7.3 Word order level 69
2.8 Pragmatic factors 70
2.9 Surface structure ungrammaticality 71
2.9.1 Singular/plural form 72
2.9.2 Morphological form 73
2.9.3 Masculine/feminine form 74
2.9.4 Grammatical case 75
2.9.5 Anaphoric reference 77
2.10 Summary 77
3 Morpho- semantic analysis of Qur’anic lexical items 79
3.1 Introduction 79
3.2 Semantically oriented morphological patterns 79
3.3 Context and sentence-fi nal words 94
3.4 Semantic contrastiveness 97
3.5 Synonymy in Qur’anic discourse 109
Contents ix
3.5.1 Textual levels of synonymy 110
3.5.1.1 Micro- level synonymy 110
3.5.1.2 Macro- level synonymy 111
3.5.2 Reasons for synonymy 111
3.6 Polysemy in Qur’anic discourse 112
3.7 The active participle 113
3.7.1 Pragmatic functions of the active participle 114
3.7.2 Hyperbole morphological pattern 117
3.8 Semantic factors 120
3.8.1 Componential features 120
3.8.2 Collocation 121
3.8.3 Surface structure semantic incongruity 121
3.8.4 Semantic redundancy 124
3.8.5 Violation of selection restriction rule 126
3.9 Semantically oriented syntactic structures 128
3.10 Phonetic differences of lexical items 133
3.10.1 Sound and vowels 133
3.10.2 Assonance and meaning 136
3.11 Summary 138
4 Stylistic analysis of Qur’anic discourse 140
4.1 Introduction 140
4.2 Pragmatically oriented linguistic analysis 141
4.2.1 Types of Qur’anic marked word order 141
4.2.1.1 Foregrounding and backgrounding 141
4.2.1.2 Shift 142
4.2.1.2.1 Pragmatic functions of shift 143
4.2.1.2.2 Categories of shift 144
4.2.1.2.2.1 Intra- sentential shift 144
4.2.1.2.2.2 Inter- sentential shift 151
4.2.1.2.3 Intra- sentential stylistic variation 160
4.2.1.2.4 Inter- sentential phonetic variation 164
4.2.1.3 The verbal sentence versus the nominal
sentence 167
4.2.1.3.1 Pragmatic distinction between verbal and
nominal sentences 167
4.2.1.3.2 Practical analysis of verbal and nominal
sentences 169
4.2.1.4 Ellipsis 171
4.2.1.5 Modes of reading 172
4.2.1.6 The mutashābihāt sentences 174