Abstract
Narratives play an essential role in human communication and culture. A well-tailored narrative, whether it is a short story or a long novel, is considered a powerful tool in influencing people’s thoughts, beliefs and therefore their behaviours. The glorious Qur’an is rich in narratives of various types. This paper focuses on studying the parable of “The Companions of the Cave” which is a very prominent narrative among the Muslim community. The present work is mainly concerned with studying the linguistic features of this parable. The investigation, presented in this paper, tackles all levels of linguistic analysis including: the phonological, lexical and morphological, grammatical, semantic, and stylistic levels. The investigation reveals a plethora of linguistic features in such short story. One of the prominent findings of this research is that the stylistic features are plentiful than the other linguistic ones given the brevity of the story. It is worth mentioning that different modes of narration have been used in this significant parable such as authorial tone, direct speeches as well as dialogues. Furthermore, the scene description as well as the employment of semantic characteristics such as synonymy, antonymy, hyperbole, hyponymy and figures of speech allow the reader/listener to construct vivid images of the story. The paper also highlights the significance of employing the various phonological features on top of them are the auditory components such as rhyme and internal-rhyme, alliteration, assonance and consonance to engage the audience, grab their attention and facilitate the memorisation of the story.
Highlights
The famous book of Ibn Kathir: “Stories of the Quran” ( قصص القران2003) is behind my choice of this study
The book, which is rendered into English, deals with all narratives, stories and parables mentioned in the Glorious Qur’an in a way that interestingly grabs the readers
Method of Research: This study attempts to perform a thorough investigation of the various linguistic features of this narrative adopting an eclectic approach that tackles most linguistic levels: the phonological, the lexical and morphological, the grammatical, the semantic, and the stylistic
Summary
The famous book of Ibn Kathir: “Stories of the Quran” ( قصص القران2003) is behind my choice of this study. The book, which is rendered into English, deals with all narratives, stories and parables mentioned in the Glorious Qur’an in a way that interestingly grabs the readers. Ibn Kathir, cited the verses of the Qur’an that relate each narrative separately, he commented on each of them from a religious point of view. This method crystalizes each story and makes it easier for the reader to focus on a certain specific narrative. It is worth mentioning that this book, “Stories of the Quran” قصص القران, is extracted from Ibn Kathir’s book “The Beginning and The End” ( البداية والنهاية8811)
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