17.1395, Review: Discoure/Ling & Literature: Abdul-Raof (2005)

Sat May 6 02:57:42 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1395. Fri May 05 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1395, Review: Discoure/Ling & Literature: Abdul-Raof (2005)

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1)
Date: 29-Apr-2006
From: Mohammad Mahand < mrmahand2001 at yahoo.com >
Subject: Consonance in the Qur?an 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 05 May 2006 22:56:21
From: Mohammad Mahand < mrmahand2001 at yahoo.com >
Subject: Consonance in the Qur?an 

Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-608.html 

AUTHOR: Abdul-Raof, Hussein
TITLE: Consonance in the Qur'an
SUBTITLE: A conceptual, intertextual and linguistic analysis
SERIES: Languages of the World 34
PUBLISHER: Lincom Europa
YEAR: 2005

Mohammad Rasekh Mahand, Linguistics Department, Bu-Ali Sina 
University, Hamedan, Iran.

DESCRIPTION

This book attempts to provide a text linguistic insight into macro level 
consonance by investigating the conceptual and intertextual 
relatedness between Qur'anic chapters. The investigation of Qur'anic 
data used in this book attempts to explicate the concept of 
consonance and sequentiality that are established by conceptual and 
intertextual chaining in the Qur'anic text. Each two subsequent 
chapters are analyzed through a textual analysis which highlights the 
intertextual meaning relations. The book looks at the deliberate 
linguistic manipulation of grammar, lexis and the phonetic features in 
order to achieve the Qur'an-bound conceptual thrust.  It also attempts 
to provide an in-depth account of micro level consonance by 
examining conceptual and intertextual relatedness at inter- and intra-
statement levels. The book deals with the impact of context and cotext 
on the lexico-grammatical selections and the selection of formulaic 
expressions, and their sounds. Contextual factors explain the 
occurrence of parable-specific formulas and expressions. Cotextual 
factors, however, are contributing factors in the establishment of 
grammatical and lexical congruity.

The major argument of the book is conceptual chaining that leads to 
sequentiality in Qur'anic discourse. Consonance and intertextuality 
are the characteristic text linguistic features of Qur'anic discourse.

The writer's approach in this book is based on the modern European 
theory of text linguistics which provides a comprehensive analysis of 
Qur'anic discourse and investigates the textual feature of consonance 
more rigorously and completely through the different levels of linguistic 
analysis. The Muslim scholars approach, however, provides 
exegetical thematic reasons only. Their contribution in the discussion 
of the notion of consonance has been referred to in the bibliography.

The book provides a critical and substantiated account of the textual 
feature of consonance. It also provides empirical textual, grammatical, 
semantic, stylistic, and phonetic account that has not been tackled by 
traditional Muslim scholars with regard to this particular notion. In the 
light of modern European text linguistic theory, the writer has provided 
11 linguistic levels of analysis in addition to 10 sub-levels of language. 
The approach is more comprehensive and sheds more light on this 
interesting textual feature. The approach provides creative results for 
the reader. It is also effectively applied throughout the book which 
reflects the writer's argument and the contribution of text linguistics in 
the investigation of the consonance.

The writer has employed modern linguistic methods of analysis to 
complement the traditional approach to consonance. These modern 
methods are the effective tools to uncover the underlying semantic 
relations which the traditional method could not achieve in a 
comprehensive fashion. The book provides a substantiated argument 
through detailed linguistic discussion and explication of grammatical, 
semantic, stylistic, and phonetic problems. It also provides a detailed 
account of the controversy over the notion of consonance in the 
Qur'anic discourse. More argument for the contextual level, in addition 
to another one for co-textual level, is provided in the discussion of 
consonance at the grammatical, semantic and stylistic levels of 
language. The argument is supported by examples and linguistic 
discussion. It covers the verb form, the active participle, the passive 
participle, the conjunctive element (then/and), the plural form, the 
plural of paucity, the plural of multitude, the feminine noun form, and 
the phonetic form. On the macro-textual level of language, the book 
provides detailed cases of conceptual and intertextual relatedness 
and textual progression. 

This textual investigation uncovers various types of consonance in 
Qur'anic discourse, including consonance between chapters, within a 
chapter, at parable level, at inter-ayah (section or sentence) level, at 
intra-ayah level, of notions, at co-text level, at context level, at word 
level, at phrase level, at letter level, at grammatical-morphological 
level, at semantic level and at phonetic level.

The book has seven chapters: the first chapter provides a theoretical 
foundation for the notion of consonance. Chapter two introduces an in-
depth analysis of Qur'anic discourse at the macro level. Chapter level 
provides another macro level textual analysis. Micro level analysis at 
statement level is introduced in chapter four. Chapter five focuses on 
the micro level analysis of the notion of consonance within a given 
ayah. Chapter six is concerned with the text linguistic notion of co-text. 
Chapter seven provides a conclusion about the overall empirical 
analysis of Qur'anic text.

EVALUATION

The discussion of intertextuality in Qur'anic discourse makes the 
present work a useful source for literary semiotics of the Qur'anic text. 
This is the first multi-faceted text linguistic account of its kind which 
attempts to investigate how a given Qur'anic text is made in relation to 
other Qur'anic texts and the intertextual meaning relations among 
these texts. 

ABOUT THE REVIWER

Mohammad Rasekh Mahand is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at 
Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran. His research interests include 
syntax, the syntax-pragmatics interface and typology.

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