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THE MULTIPLE FUNCTIONALITY OF THE PRONOUN ULA IKA IN THE QUR'AN
Get PDFDemonstrative pronouns may function as deictic or anaphoric pronouns. The demonstrative pronoun 'ula ika in Arabic is the focus of this paper. It is argued that in the Qur'an, besides being an anaphoric/resumptive pronoun, which primarily functions as the syntactic subject, it has three additional functions: (1) as a resumptive pronoun of the left-dislocation construction, helping in retrieving the predicate, which usually consists of a short clause following a 'heavy' subject. (2) Possibly it has the same function as damir al-fast, 'separation pronoun'-namely, 'ula ika occurs in a simple sentence where it separates a definite subject and a definite predicate. It also occurs between subject and predicate, while both are constructed as relative clauses, and between a 'heavy' subject and indefinite predicate. (3) As a number marker in conditional clauses that are headed by the conditional particle man, and two kinds of number agreement are exhibited in the clause: singular and plural. ula 'ika in this case marks the transition from the grammatical-number feature associated with man to the notional number of man
Applying Discourse Analysis to Define the Stylistic Features of Qurʾānic Genres
No full textThis article presents an inquiry into the identification of the stylistic features characterizing genres in the Qurʾān. It explores how discourse organization and the articulation of marking foreground and background information convey the intended meaning and topics of Qurʾānic genres and impact their style in terms of lexicon and syntactic structure. Three types of information are shown to emerge in Qurʾānic genres that are captured in the relationship between syntactic form and discourse function: main foreground information, complementary foreground information and background information. Whereas the main foreground information in all genres has its own identifiable syntax, the complementary information is diverse. The background information in all types of genres shares some common thematic, pragmatic and linguistic features which can easily be identified
Topicalisation in the Qur’ān: A study of ’Ištiġāl
No full textThis paper examines one structure of topicalisation, the structure of ’ištiġāl, in which the noun is taken from its typical place in the sentence and posed at its head [“preposed”] and later on in the sentence this noun is referred to by a pronoun. The paper examines the pragmatic and stylistic uses of this structure in the Qur’ān. The explanations of the pragmatic uses of this structure are adapted from linguistic studies of topicalisation in Biblical Hebrew. The theory applied and presented in this paper is that put forward by Adina Moshavi, according to which there is a logical relation [e.g., cause and effect] between the extraposed noun and the sentence or sentences preceding it. The present paper also contains references to rhetorical and stylistic characteristics of the Qur’ān text and their connection to the studied structure
Parenthetical Clauses in the Qurʼān
Get PDFIn the few traditional Arabic grammatical sources that address the term parentheticals it is usually defined as the insertion of a clause between two other clauses, or between two syntactic components, for taʼkīd “emphasis.” In this article I examine Qurʼānic parenthetical clauses in the theoretical framework of relevance theory. It transpires that the parenthetical clause is placed where it achieves optimal relevance and therfore the conveyed utterance does not require the addresses to waste any efforts trying to procees the information and correctly interpret it. Optimal relevance also means having a contextual effect. The Qur’ānic parenthetical clauses have one of the following contextual effects: They serve to affirm God’s omnipotence, indicating that only God produces suras, created heaven and earth. He is the forgiver and all depends on His will; to explain what it meant by a specific statement or to explain the reason behind a certain action; to qualify, to highlight a specific characterization, for example, one of the parenthetical clauses modify the Qur’ān as the truth from God; to provide background information, which could explain further developments in the narrative
The Perfective Indication of kāna in Clauses of the kāna llāhu ʻalīman raḥīman Type
Get PDFAccording to traditional Arab and Western grammarians, kāna in clauses of the kāna llāhu ʻalīman raḥīman type expresses an action in the present or at no specific time, having started in the past and still continuing. Clauses of this type reveal various aspects of God's nature and share one notion: God is not limited by time or space and is eternal. My examination showed that in some cases kāna indeed has a perfective meaning, something that does not necessarily contradict God's infinity because kāna has two references: to a past action (mentioned in the verse or implied by Qur’ānic exegetes) and still to the circumstance that enabled this action’s occurrence. For example, in Q 33:9 the implied past event is the triumph of the Muslims in the battle of the Trench. This happened because God saw (kāna llāhu baṣīran) the Muslims’ effort before and during the battle, digging ditches and devising their military strategy
Tipos de equivalencia sintáctica en traducciones coránicas del inglés, alemán y hebreo
Get PDFGenerally, there is little expectation for linguistic equivalence in translations because languages are linguistically and semantically incongruous. Though this premise is basically correct, here it is argued that syntactic equivalence is at times possible and that the translation process can involve a matching at the syntactic level even when some components or structures appear untranslatable. In this article, sets of examples from three Qurʾānic translations (English, German,and Hebrew) are examined. It is shown that the translators in some cases failed to generate an equivalence although syntactic equivalence may have been possible. These inaccuracies may arise from insufficient syntactic knowledge of the SL or the translator may maintain minimal similarity to the source language for no apparent reason. This can lead to misinterpretation of the intended meaning of the source language.Por regla general, existen pocas expectativas de equivalencia lingüística en las traducciones debido a que los idiomas son lingüística y semánticamente incongruentes. Aunque esta premisa es básicamente correcta, en este trabajo se argumenta que la equivalencia sintáctica es, en ocasiones, posible y que el proceso de traducción puede implicar una coincidencia a nivel sintáctico incluso cuando algunos componentes o estructuras parecen intraducibles. En este artículo se examinan conjuntos de ejemplos de tres traducciones coránicas (inglés, alemán y hebreo). Se demuestra que los traductores, en algunos casos, no lograron generar una equivalencia, aunque la equivalencia sintáctica puede haber sido posible. Estas inexactitudes pueden deberse a un conocimiento sintáctico insuficiente del SL o a que el traductor puede mantener una similitud mínima con el idioma
CLASSIFICATION OF THE INDEPENDENT PERSONAL PRONOUN IN THE QUR\u27ĀN
No full textThe independent personal pronoun or, in Arabic, aḍ-ḍamīr al-munfaṣil, appears in verbal sentences and in nominal sentences, where it functions as the grammatical subject of the sentence or as pronominal copula. This paper presents the pragmatic function of the independent personal pronoun in the Qur\u27ān. It reexamines and clarifies some pragmatic functions that have been widely discussed in the research literature, as (for example) the most prominent function – which is emphasis. The research literature gives some examples for this function; however, this paper presents all cases in which the independent personal pronoun has this function by referring to the context of the sentence and to its syntactical structure. Additionally, it provides new functions of the pronoun, such as expressing contrast or identifying an interruption of sequence
Die Wortstellung des Subjekts „Gott“ im Koran
No full textIn diesem Aufsatz wird ein Aspekt der Frage Wortstellung im Koran behandelt und zwar die Stellung des Subjekts ’allāh und rabb in den einfachen Verbalsätzen im Koran. Um die bestehenden Wortstellungstypen darzustellen, werden die Sätze in drei Gruppen klassifiziert: Klassifikation nach Verb- und Aktions-art, Klassifikation nach der Satzart und Klassifikation nach Satzeinleitungspartikeln. Insgesamt konnten vier Ursachen erarbeitet werden, die zu den verschiedenen Wortstellungen führen: Tempus und Aspekt, unterschiedliche Funktionen der Partikeln und der Pronomina, sowie rhetorische Zwecke und Betonung.This article examines one aspect of word order in the Qurʼān, which is the position of the subjects ’allah and rabb in simple verbal sentences. To present the word order types existing in the Qurʼān, the sentences were classified in three groups: the verb’s type and its aspect (aktionsart), the sentence type, and the type of the particle preceding the sentence. Four factors affecting the word order were found: time and aspect, different functions of a specific particle, rhetorical purposes, and emphasis
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