پژوهش های زبان شناختی قرآن (کاوشی نو در معارف قرآنی)

The book "The The Qur’an Misinterpreted, Mistranslated, and Misread: the Aramaic Language of the The Qur’an" was published in 2006 by Gabriel Sawma. The author has claimed that the language of the Qur'an is the Syro-Aramaic, and most of its teachings are derived from Jewish-Christian sources. Among his claims, he alleges that Muslims have misunderstood the verse 116 of Surah al-Baqarah:"And they say Allah has taken to Himself a son Glory be to Him…" (Wa Qālūt takhadhal lāhu Waladāan Subĥānahu). He regards the word ‘اتَّخَذ’ (Has taken) as a distortion of the Syriac «اتَّحدَ» (has united) happened by the Qur'anic scribers.  According to this recitation, the meaning of the verse is "They said that God is united with the Son". This meaning is in accordance with the New Testament doctrine of the incarnation of God through the Son. In this paper, Gabriel Sawma's viewpoint is reviewed and criticized by two intra-religious aspects including the Qur'an and Arabic literature and extra-religious features including linguistic historical-comparative in some branches of Sami languages and interfaith research. The authors conclude that the textual and linguistic evidence prove contrary to the Sawma's claim.

The effect of language on culture has been an interesting issue in applied linguistics. One of the main critical domains of culture-related language issues is pronunciation. The importance of pronunciation in some cultures is doubled when its importance goes beyond the daily use of language. Many illiterate Muslims in non-Arab countries must perform their religious duties in accurate Arabic pronunciation.  Since illiterate learners can not be treated with regular and traditional educational intervention to complete this incumbent religious task, the current research has employed dynamic intervention, an approach adopted from the socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky (1978), for instructing a sample of these people in Iran. First, the main pronunciation problems of these participants were identified. Then using a native speaker’s judgment, the effect of this educational intervention was calculated in a pretest-posttest design. A paired t-test was used to interpret the collected data. The findings showed that dynamic intervention has a meaningful effect on the improvement of pronunciation in the Iranian illiterate participants of the study. This study could have implications for language teachers, language learners, and researchers in different fields of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.

The “Story-Based Language Teaching (SBLT)” is one of the most effective approaches in language pedagogy that addresses various elements and parameters in different texts. The aim of this study is to locate SBLT elements in one of the popular Holy Quran’s stories; namely, Abraham`s story known as a pedagogical text, based on Javadi Amoli (2006) and Farhadian’s (2011) Quranic pedagogical frameworks. To this end, the corpus of 130 verses containing the Abraham narration from various surahs was scrutinized and analyzed to extract their precious methods and strategies. To do that, the coding system was utilized to account for the frequency of the predominant method. Upon completion of the coding procedure, the inter-rater (coder) reliability was estimated and the results were confirmed by 81% reliability. The results illustrated that most of the Quranic pedagogical methods proposed by Javadi Amoli (2006) and Farhadian (2011) are manifested in Abraham`s story and some other methods were found by the present researcher through further analysis. The above-mentioned methods from the most repeated to the least ones are Storytelling, Repetition, Precise look, Wisdom, Encouragement, Socratic method, excellent examples, Sympathy, Metaphor, Parable method, Prayer, punishment, Discussion, Debate, Simile, Observation, Experience, Legislation, Holistic view, and Exemplification, respectively. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the dominant instructional methods in this story were inductive and explicit. The findings contribute to Quranic courses syllabus design and teaching pedagogy.

Despite the huge bulk of research conducted on translation quality assessment, the literature on the translation of the Holy Quran is in its infancy. Since jurists, commentators, and Quranic interpreters analyze individual Quranic verses as a whole discourse and in relation to other verses and Surahs, it is deemed necessary for translators to follow the same procedure and consider the wholeness of the text in their translation of individual verses. Coherence is among linguistic properties that contribute to the wholeness of the Quran as a unique discourse. A literature review shows that coherence has a direct effect on the quality of translations. Thus, this research intended to investigate the effect of coherence on the translation quality of some famous translations of the Holy Quran from an instructional viewpoint. To this aim, a mixed-methods study was employed in which the effect of coherence on reading comprehension of 12 Ph.D. candidates enrolled in an ESP course was studied. In the qualitative phase, utilizing linguistic markers, samples of coherent translations were extracted from the 30th chapter of the Quran. Then, two reading comprehension tests were developed from the coherent samples and the corpus without coherent markers. In the next step, these tests were administered to participants. The data were analyzed through a t-test. Findings showed that coherent translations enjoy post-posed/pre-posed concessive, sense continuity, backgrounding, explicitation, and addition as coherence markers. Also, quantitative findings showed a significant difference between the tests taken by the participants at two different times (t (11) = 4.204 and p = 0.001) proving the meaningful effect of coherence on translation comprehension.

Metaphor, as a part of humans’ verbal communication, is naturally used in the language of religion. Directional metaphors are formed based on the main directions as the original domain and are related to the concepts that indicate the direction and spatial location. Directional metaphors allocate spatial meanings to concepts and thus convey meaning based on humans’ sensory and cultural experiences. The present article employs a descriptive-analytical method to investigate the linguistic aspects of the directional metaphor of the word “qurb” (nearness to Allah) in the Quran, and makes this metaphysical concept understandable in the human mind through referring to its empirical and physical backgrounds. Spatial or local directions, as well as geometric illustrations, create a new understanding for humans. Although the Quran has used several words and phrases to convey the meaning in the application of the directional metaphors, the present study examines the directional metaphors of the word “qurb” (nearness to Allah). In the end, it is concluded that the directional metaphors used for this word are behind and in front, up and down, center and margin, as well as inside and outside.

Arabic, as the only medium of performing religious rituals, is a widely used language in Islamic communities. Amongst uses of Arabic, reading and recitation of the Holy Qur’an enjoy a critical position. Accordingly, many religious schools have invested in teaching Qur’an and its required skills. Research findings have shown that Qur’anic teaching follows a traditional procedure in theory and practice. Considering the importance of conducting applied linguistics studies on teaching Qur’anic reading, the current research was an attempt to investigate the effect of semantic-structural elaboration of Qur’anic reading efficiency, encompassing reading reaction time, fluency, and comprehension. To this aim, an intact group of intermediate Qur’anic learners was selected through non-random convenience sampling and an experimental (pretest/intervention/posttest) design was employed in which the group underwent three different experiments. After raising awareness on five frequent Qur’anic roots and their derivations that occurred in different Qur’anic verses, tests were administered and parametric data were collected and analyzed through SPSS. Research findings revealed that intervention adversely affected reaction time by a significant increase (t (24) = -12.067, p < 0.000.) while promoting reading fluency and reading comprehension (t (24) = -9.643, p < 0.000, and t (24) = -6.914, p < 0.000, respectively). It was suggested that, though semantic-structural elaboration significantly increases learners’ knowledge of semantic, syntax, and morphology and promotes language skills, form-focused instruction is cognitively demanding and must be done with due caution. These findings could have implications for Qur’anic teachers, learners, and applied linguists in general.

Jihad as one of the central words of the Qur'an, meaning praiseworthy and condemned war and enduring hardship in the field of semantics has a close semantic relationship with the words "Qatl (murder), Harb (war), Jadal (dispute), Qalz (severity), Nafar (go forth), Sabr (patience)" in the form of synonyms. This semantic model, which considers the conceptual range of the word "Jihad" to consist of smaller components called syntagmatic semantic components, by analyzing the semantic components, expresses similarities and differences of the word Jihad with its synonymous terms. And it also plays a crucial role in explaining synonymy. Based on this vital point, the author in the present article tries to use this semantic hypothesis to examine the semantic coordinates of "Jihad" with words that have a possible synonymy; represents the semantic similarities and differences of each of them and explains the role of these elements in determining the specific situation and differentiating the context (Siyaq) and linguistic context of the mentioned words. Therefore, each context requires a combination of specific syntagmatic components that is the unit of word differentiation in different contexts. Hence, it is not possible to replace the word "Jihad" with words that have a relative synonymy; because this leads to a deviation from the intended meaning in "Jihad" and the terms that have a synonymy with Jihad.

"Ishfāq" is among the highest frequency words belonging to the semantic field of "fear" in the holy Quran. Nevertheless, a study of lexicographical and exegetical sources indicates that there is not enough knowledge concerning the semantic components of this term, and its differences with such words as Khawf and Khashiyyah considered close in meaning with the former. The present research is an attempt to trace the oldest history of the root "sh-f-q" in Semitic languages, making use of historical semantics methodology. Studying the semantic changes of this root towards the Quranic Arabic, this study seeks to reexamine its semantic components in the holy Quran. Although some Muslim lexicographers hold that there is a polysemy between the words "shafaq" meaning the redness of the horizon after sunset, and "Ishfāq", meaning fear, considering both from the same etymon, this study concludes that there is no etymological relation between the above-mentioned words, each having its own distinctive historical origin. "Ishfāq" involves two significant semantic components, i.e. fear and scarcity. It thus signifies a kind of fear emanating from scarcity of water, food, money, etc.

It is not possible to get the desired thought of the text without considering the discourses of social actors. Using sociological-semantic categories, Van Leeuwen's discourse-oriented theory (2008) can explore the hidden layers of language in oral and written texts by stressing the importance of social actors of discourse. Hence, this theory can reveal the underlying relationships of each discourse. Due to the mysterious and discourse-oriented structures of the Holy Qur’an, one can find that the hidden ideology behind them is approximately the same. Therefore, discourse analysis can find a special status in Qur’anic studies. This study has examined the discourse system of the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS) in Surah An-Naml with descriptive-analytical and statistical approaches using Van Leeuwen’s discourse-oriented model. The findings suggest that the inclusion components (134 cases) have a much higher frequency compared to the exclusion components (38 cases). On one hand, this means that God pays the most attention to the meaning, but on the other hand, in stylistic creativity, He introduces the audience, the names of individuals, groups, places, and times in which social actors play an active role. Besides, the components of reference allocation (98 cases), role allocation (20 cases), and type allocation (16 cases) have the most representation in all types of social actors included in this narrative, respectively.

The law of attraction is widely considered one of the laws presented by non-specialist writers in academic sciences in today's global community. The formation of this view has been attributed to the authors of the New Thought movement. Examining this law from a Quranic point of view based on semantics helps determine to what extent this law is consistent with the prevailing traditions in the world from an Islamic point of view. For this purpose, the public bestowal tradition in this article was considered. Then, by examining the semantics of this tradition and its comparison with the law of attraction, it was found that some people achieve their worldly desires, but it depends on divine providence, and some achieve only a part of their desires, and the last group does not achieve their worldly desires in any way. Thus, in practice, the law of attraction is only effective for a specific group of people in terms of development.

The present study aims at examining the Retranslation Hypothesis in the context of sacred texts by concentrating on their culture-specific terms (CSTs). The Holy Qur’an and its 9 English translations by Sale, Muhammad-Ali, Pickthall, Arberry, Irving, Nikayin, Starkovsky, Edip Yuksel et al, and the Monotheist Group were studied. As the initial step, Qur’anic CSTs and their equivalents were specified and the procedures being opted for in rendering them were identified based on Davies’s (2003) model. Then, the translators were grouped into three categories based on the time their translations had been presented. Finally, it was examined ‘whether the passage of time affected the kind of procedures adopted by translators’ and ‘whether the Re-translation Hypothesis (RH) is confirmed or disproved in the context of sacred texts’. According to the findings, earlier translators were more inclined to provide clarifying notes and explanations for their target text (TT) readers than the recent ones. Findings also revealed the 20th and 21st-century translators’ stronger inclination towards selecting general-neutral equivalents which may imply that later translators have strived more to make the source text simpler and more comprehensible for the modern TT audience. Finally, it was realized that, as far as The Holy Qur’an is concerned, the RH is disproved.