The Linguistic Features of the Qur'anic Narratives

101 Pages·2016·1.964 MB·English

by  Yehudit Dror

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Contents
Preface V
1. Chapter One: Introduction 1
1.1 What Is a Narrative 2
1.2 Literary Models of Narratives: Labov's Model 5
1.3 The Qur’ānic Narratives in Light of Labov's Model 7
1.4 Discussions of Qur’ānic Narratives in the Research Literature 11
1.5 Objectives of the Study 16
2. Chapter Two: Four Models of the Qur’ānic Narratives 18
2.1 Narratives Composed of Dialogues 20
2.2 Mixed Narratives Composed of Dialogues/Direct Speech and 22
Sequences of Events
2.3 Narratives Composed of a Few Sequential Events 23
2.4 Narratives Without Sequences of Events 24
Chapter Three: Discourse Markers Indicating the Beginning of a New 25
Narrative or a New Section
3.1 wa-’iḏ 25
3.2 wa-la-qad 31
3.3 Word Order OVS/OSV/SVO 33
3.4 Miscellaneous 34
Chapter Four: Topic References 36
4.1 Topic in Initial Position in the Narrative 40
4.2 New Topic Introduction 41
4.2.1 Introducing a New Topic in the Plot 41
4.2.2 Introducing a New Topic to Mark a New Unit 42
4.3 Topic Reference Due to Gaps in the Narratives 43
4.4 Topic Reference to Prevent Ambiguity 45
4.5 Addressing the Topic 46
4.6 Topic Specification 47
4.7 Miscellaneous 48
4.7.1 Redundant Reference 48
4.7.2 Emphatic Reference 49
Chapter Five: Foreground and Background Information 53
Chapter Six: Cohesion and Conjunction Particles 66
Conclusions 81
References 85
V

Preface
The Qurʼānic narratives concern different topics and different personalities and
they are different in length; thus, Gilliot (2013) suggests that the Qurʼānic
narratives might be categorized into four groups: (1) A single story that stands
as the focus of a specific sūra. (2) Narrative pieces, i.e., which have been
integrated into the sūras, and thus do not have any contextual relation with the
non-narrative material presented in the sūra. (3) Passages that are composed of
several stories but revolve around the same theme. (4) Short narratives that are
reduced to a few verses.
In light of the above suggested division of the Qurʼānic narratives, this work
addresses the following questions: On what basis is it argued that the sections
mentioned by Gilliot are indeed narratives? How do these sections differ from
other thematic sections found in the Qurʼān? The research literature mentions
some prominent features of the Qur’ānic narratives, such as the particle ’iḏ,
which starts the narrative. The question is, however, are there other features
shared by all narratives regardless of their theme, length and structure?
To answer this question we first formulated a list of narratives based on
previous studies. However, all previous lists of the Qur’ānic narratives were
examined carefully before including them in this monograph; thus, in several
cases some sections that were considered by the scholars as narratives were
omitted because they did not meet the basic requirements of a narrative, such as
(for example) a narrative must consist of at least two sequential events.
After gathering all narratives we noticed that there are different models of
narratives, which led us to re-classify them in four groups presented in the
second chapter. It was noticed that in spite of the structural differences, there
are four common features that appear in all types of story. Each feature is
discussed thoroughly in the monograph's chapters.
This study is organized as follows: The first chapter is the introduction, which
includes a definition of the term narrative, a presentation of Propp's and
Labov's narrative structures, a literature review and finally presents the objec-
tives of the study. In the second chapter we establish the four models of the
Qurʼānic narratives. Chapter three investigates the markers indicating the be-
ginning of a new narrative or a new section/thematic unit of the narratives. The-
se markers include the ʼiḏ-structures, la-qad, along with a less familiar structure
such as the OVS structure. In chapter four we examine the reference to the par-
ticipants made in the narrative. The Qurʼānic narratives are characterized by
their reference to specific events in which several participants are involved. The
questions that need further investigation are why and when a full name (e.g.,
Nūḥ, qawmuhu) is mentioned during the story. Chapter five is devoted to the
VI

features of the background and foreground information in the narrative, particu-
larly the use of verbs in perfect in the foreground information, i.e., the events
that advance the plot. Chapter six provides a look at the connective particles
wa-, fa- and the temporal adverb wa-lammā and their functions in the narrative.
Chapter One: Introduction
“Narratives: Stories of individuals and communities of the past, of varying
lengths, many of which appear in numerous renditions throughout the Qurʼānic
text, are found predominantly in the Meccan sūras of the Qurʼān. Although the
Qurʼān relates the tales of prophets and other notable persons, tales that pre-
sumably were already familiar to the first auditors of the Qurʼān, the stories that
are characterized as “narratives” contain certain requisite structural features (…)
The proportion of the narratives in the Qurʼān is very large: 1,453 verses, or
about a quarter of their total number. The narratives consist of accounts con-
cerning prophets or so-called prophets, messengers, sages, historical, historico-
mythical or mythical celebrities of ancient times.” (Gilliot 2003:516-517)
The introductory paragraph that starts Gilliot’s entry on narratives in the Qurʼān
includes the primary facts regarding the Qurʼānic narratives. They concern
various topics and different personalities and they vary in length, but their
structure usually contains the same formalistic features. Furthermore, the
primary contribution of Gilliot (2003) lies in presenting the distribution of the
Qurʼānic narratives and categorizing them into several groups: The first group
includes one single story that stands in the focus of a specific sūra, e.g., Q 12,
the story of Joseph. In the second group is classified narrative pieces, i.e., they
have been integrated into the sūras, and thus they have no contextual relation
with the non-narrative material presented in the sūra; they are therefore isolated
and considered independent units, e.g., Q 89:6-14 the story of ʻĀd. Within the
third group there are passages composed of several stories but which revolve
around the same theme, e.g., Q 26:10-189. In the fourth group there are short
narratives that are reduced to a few verses, e.g., Q 53:50-54. (Gilliot 2003:518-
520)1
Gilliot does not deal with all the themes of the Qurʼānic narratives; however, he
manages to present the narratives, their content and type, and their formalistic
features. Nevertheless, after reading literature that defines the term narrative
and refers to different aspects such as structure and linguistic features, the
following questions are raised: Can all narratives mentioned by Gilliot be called
narratives? Should, for example, every passage mentioning the name of a
prophet be considered a narrative? Gilliot shows that there are different types of
narratives in the Qurʼān, yet it is unclear whether these types affect their
structure − i.e., is there one uniform structure and if such a structure does exist,
what are its linguistic features?

1 Cf. Robinson (1996:106-109).
Another classification of the narratives found in the research literature distinguishes between two
primary types: 1. Parables, e.g., 18:32-43. 2. Historical narratives, e.g., 11:84-95. See: Ḫalafallāh
(1999:153-198) and Quṭub (2002:263-276).