Hussein Abdul-Raof - New Horizons in Qur’ānic Linguistics: A Syntactic, Semantic and Stylistic Analysis

Quranic discourse can greatly beneft from European theoretical linguistics. However, until now, the value of European theoretical linguistics to the investigation of Quranic discourse has been overlooked.

This is the frst book on Quranic linguistics, which accounts for the different levels of linguistic and stylistic analysis. Hinged upon modern European theoretical 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, collocation, cyclical modifcation, foregrounding and backgrounding, pragmatic functions and categories of shift, pragmatic distinction between verbal and nominal sentences, morpho- semantic features of lexical items, context- sensitive word and phrase order, and vowel points and phonetic variation.

New Horizons in Quranic Linguistics provides a fascinating insight into Quranic Arabic and delivers an in- depth linguistic, semantic and stylistic analysis essential for comparative linguistics and much needed for corpus linguistics. Illustrating the linguistic and stylistic idiosyncrasies of Quranic discourse and its pragmatic secrets, it is a key resource for anyone with an interest in Arabic linguistics in general and Quranic 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

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New Horizons in Quranic Linguistics
A Syntactic, Semantic and Stylistic Analysis
Hussein Abdul- Raof

A Syntactic, Semantic and Stylistic Analysis

Hussein Abdul-Raof

First published 2018
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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.

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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'anLanguage, style. | Arabic languageSyntax. | Arabic languageSemantics. | Arabic languageRhetoric.
Classification: LCC PJ6696.A615895 2017 | DDC 492.7/5dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007960

ISBN: 978-1-138-94628-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67091-1 (ebk)

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For Sophia

New Horizons in Quranic Linguistics provides groundbreaking scholarship in Quranic linguistics. It provides a panoramic insight into Quranic landscape fenced by innate syntactic, semantic and stylistic landmarks where context and semantic componential features of lexical items have closed ranks to influence morphological form in order to achieve variegated styles with different perlocutionary effects. The present work discusses the pragmatic secrets of discourse, the perlocutionary effects of speech acts and the performative intent of the speaker. It accounts for the interpersonal relationship between the text producer and the text receiver through exploring the text producers performative intent. It is a wide-ranging account of the recurrent syntactic, stylistic, morphological, lexical, cultural and phonological voids that are an iceberg looming in the horizon of Quranic genre. When the intermingling of linguistic and rhetorical landmarks have imposed limits of translatability, one may wonder whether translation theory can provide an icebreaker to negotiate Quranic discourse. This work is an invaluable resource for comparative linguistics, translation studies and corpus Quranic linguistics.

New Horizons in Quranic Linguistics elucidates the linguistic and stylistic idiosyncrasies of Quranic Arabic and accounts for a wide range of linguistic topics such as syntactic structures, ellipsis, synonymy, polysemy, semantic redundancy, semantic incongruity, semantic contrastiveness, selection restriction rule, componential features, collocation, cyclical modification, foregrounding, backgrounding, pragmatic functions and categories of shift, pragmatic distinction between verbal and nominal sentences, morpho-semantic features of lexical items, context-sensitive word and phrase order, and vowel points and phonetic variation.

New Horizons in Quranic Linguistics is designed for a much wider international market. It is the first publication in English on this newly established academic research discipline, which I launched in 2001. The book will plug a research gap in a more innovative and methodologically coherent way and will meet market academic needs in Quranic linguistics for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and scholars.