زبان پژوهی (Feb 2023)

Cognitive analysis of the element of movement in Kahf Surah based on Talmy theory

  • Ali Aswadi,
  • Soudabeh Mozafari,
  • Kobra Barzegar Pash

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22051/jlr.2021.35306.2005
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 42
pp. 69 – 95

Abstract

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INTRODUCTION The messages in the Quran have been framed in the form of multilayer verses and surahs. Therefore, despite easy and simple words, understanding its concepts needs deep thinking and exploration. In fact, the structure of the Holy Quran is among the issues which demonstrates the necessity of using new methods . As a new method, cognitive linguistics is so able toexplain interpretations disagreement.Movement is considered among the fundamental concepts of cognition which is an active field of experience that exists in all languages of the world and it is encrypted differently.Talmy is among the important characters in cognitive linguistics who has investigated cognitive linguistic issues with an especial approach. Talmy began studying movement phenomena with his ideas in 1972. He considers four major semantic components of figure, motion, path, and ground for movement. These semantic elements appear in language by superstructure elements. Talmy divides languages based on the type of conceptual elements framing in superstructure into two groups of verb-framed and satellite-framed. He believes that verb satellite elements are forms which have not been conceptually done in the root of a verb and appear beside it as a satellite on verb. That group of verbs that semantic element is placed inside their verbal root is called verb-framed.Fattahizadeh, Fat’hiyeh. Habibi, Fatemeh 2021), represented the Movement Phenomenon of “Zahaba” Verb in the Holy Quran in a cognitive approach. Despite the good approach in expressing Talmy’s typological theory and analyzing movement components, this study has not used this theory in analyzing verses cognitively. Mir Khaleghdada, Fatemeh. Hasoumi, Valiollah, Mousavi and Seyyed Mohammad Hossein (2019). study’s explains action verbs in the form of a thesis entitled the quality of conceptualizing static and active phenomena in Quran with a cognitive approach which in addition to real positions, it has penetrated into the audiences’ cognition through conceptualizing non-spatial and abstract affairs. In addition, using the path like and manner verbs and considering the meaning hidden in them, it is possible to understand that besides doing action, it shows that which semantic component has importance. This leads to the discovery of new information in interpretation.The element of movement, however, has been used in the Holy Quran in different forms to express abstract concepts and to show them and to make a living and active image of sensory affairs. The current study aims at investigating the element of movement in Al-Kahf and answering the following questions:What is the application of action verbs in Al-Kahf?What is the field of concepts which have been depicted in movement schema?What are the features of semantic components and movement superstructure elements in this surah? MATERIALS AND METHODSIn the present study, with a descriptive-analytical method in110 verses of Surah Al-Kahf, all the words containing the element of motion (verbs and whatever substitutes for the verb) are identified and the type of motions and motor components of these schemas are identified . The statistical findings obtained from it in the form of diagrams show the thalamic classification. Among the schemas in this surah, those words containing the element of movement (verbs, derivative nouns, infinitives, and similar cases) that contain cognitive semantics were analyzed and identified by semantic explanation of underlying meanings and hidden verses. Duplicate words are also estimated because they represent different situations, and their primary meaning is taken into account, and in some cases the secondary meaning in the form of conceptual metaphors implies motion. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe movement schemas as a result of the element of movement in Surah Al-Kahf have a great variety. This diversity has originated from the difference in the structure of the three stories told in the 110 verses of this surah. The story of the Companions of the Cave, due to the astonishing nature of its concept, depicts a set of abstract concepts with an increase in static movements. On the other hand, the story of Prophet Moses and Dhu al-Qarnayn has an abundance of transitional movements in the true sense. In the present study, after determining the components of motor superstructure in the schemas in the verses, their cognitive meaning has been divided and analyzed with the focus on the type of movements hidden in the motor component. In the form of two diagrams, first, the presence of all motor components and then the types of directional components in sentence superstructure are specified. CONCLUSIONThe elements of movement are related to verbs and whatsoever substituted with verbs in Arabic. In fact, movement component which needs time and place to be expressed and anything that can show these two features can depict movement. In addition, static motion, due to its special characteristic, occurs without the element of time. In parallel to Slobin’s (2004) maintenance based on Talmy’s theory which argues that Arabic is a verb-framed language and the element of path has become vocabular in the verb itself, the present study has proved this argument.Cognitive meanings have resulted from movement schema which have been mostly in the form of sensory affairs and in the form of conceptual metaphor by imagining abstract affairs in two ways. In the first way, it is resulted through exploring movement schema and its components. In the second way, it is resulted through exploring the second meaning which is directed to that way in movement schema. It is the virtual meaning and the semantic expansion formed in common categorization and similar vocabular circle related to the initial meaning. In Moses’ story, active and transitional movement proportional to the theme of story and sensory movement has a high frequency. Additionally, this coordination and proportion between movement components and theme is well observable in the story of the Cave of the Seven Sleepers which has begun with a static movement and has been repeated all through the story frequently.

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