Less Form, More Meaning: A Case Study of al-Iẖtibāk in the Qur'an Through the Prism of Dependency Grammar
Dados Bibliográficos
AUTOR(ES) | |
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AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) | Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia |
ANO | 2023 |
TIPO | Artigo |
PERIÓDICO | SAGE Open |
ISSN | 2158-2440 |
E-ISSN | 2158-2440 |
EDITORA | SAGE Publications Inc. |
DOI | 10.1177/21582440231199921 |
ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
Resumo
Ellipsis pervades the Qur'anic discourse. One pervasive form of it is al-iẖtibāk ('interchangeable ellipsis'). In terms of the interface between Qur'anic exegesis and Arabic rhetoric, the phenomenon of al-iẖtibāk is far more than a rhetorically heuristic technique for surface-structure analysis. It is a fruitful tool for pragmasemantic inferences of discursive implicatures defined as a fundamental mode of text construction and a logical hermeneutic of text consumption. The veracity of al-iẖtibāk has received little attention in non-Arabic research. Consequently, this article revisits the typology of al-iẖtibāk through the lens of Osborne's dependency grammar to argue for its relevance to Qur'anic epistemology and axiology. Using a dependency grammar approach to al-iẖtibāk, the article conducts a qualitative content analysis of representative Qur'anic verses to highlight the symbiotic relationship between Qur'anic exegesis and Arabic rhetoric. Al-iẖtibāk is found to be related to givenness and newness of information structure which impact its interpretation and resolution—a finding in line with Winkler's argument. Al-iẖtibāk proves to be a central discourse marker of interaction between the Qur'an and its recipients who take part in filling the elliptical slots co(n)textually.