Conceptual Structure and the Interpretation of Some Polysemous Verbs in a Few Specific Verses in Holy Qura‟n: Jackendoff's Semantic Theory (1990)

Abstract

The objective of this work is to decompose the semantic primes of the polysemous verb ţagha ‘transgressed’ and qatala 'killed' in some verses of Holy Qura’n in a new manner with reference to Jackendoff's (1990) Semantic Theory. The researchers make use of the conceptual level to specify their conceptual structures and translate them correctly and then match the semantic compositions available with their syntactic counterparts with reference to Argument Structure Theory. The two levels of representations are linked by Semantic Projection Rules to determine the exact meaning intended in translation at the Logical Form. The researchers compare the interpretable as well as incorporated semantic features of the verbs in the verses with other situations in which the verb are used. Discrepancies in meanings because of polysemy will be taken care of with reference to the Theories of Argument Fusion and Incorporation. Semantic primes are represented at first by syntactic axioms and then fused into semantic concepts, namely, Thing, Event, State, Action, Place, Path, Property, Amount and Affect. These concepts lead to derive the final version of the wanted meaning for the verbs at LF. The researchers provided better versions of translation different from those already given by Palmer (1942), Dawood (1965), Khan (1970), Arberry (1980), Piekthel (1982) and Al-Hilali and Khan (1996).