Lexical and Conceptual Language Compression/ Decompression through Antonymic Construals in the Qur’ān

Abstract

This study investigates the lexical and conceptual compression/decompression of the Arabic language brought about by means of antonymic construals in the selected category ‘Signs of Allah'sMagnanimity and Omnipotence’ of the Qur’ān. It aims to have an insight into the usage based and context dependent functions of antonymy in creating compression and decompression of language though dynamic construal approach to antonymy. The data were gathered by using purposive sampling technique. 861 verses were selected as the universe for this research. Eighty four verses were then taken as the content or population for the study. Further, through two tiered sampling we selected eight verses as the sample to answer the research question i.e., to what extent the context affects language compression and decompression that take place in the selected category i.e., ‘Signs of Allah's Magnanimity and Omnipotence’ through antonymic construals? The study finally concluded that the context plays a central role to cause language compression and decompression through the antonymic pairs in the Qur’ān.

Keywords

• Antonymic construals
• language compression
• language decompression
• context dependent
• non-gradables