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263186

Semantic Change-Induced Misunderstanding in the Qurʔân and Ḥadîth

Article

Last updated: 05 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Linguistics

Abstract

This study explores misunderstanding that results from the semantic change of some Qurʔânic and Prophetic words via investigating the causes and types of that change. Besides, theories that best account for this phenomenon such as the prototype theory, the referential theory, and the theory of qualia have been discussed and multimodality has been proposed as a therapeutic approach that may rectify the misconceptions caused by semantic change. To conduct this study, the various usages and meanings of some misunderstood words of the Glorious Qurʔân and Noble Ḥadîth have been examined and compared with the modern usages to show how far the change has affected the perception of the religious texts and flag its potential repercussions in the long run. The study has revealed that the causes that led to the semantic change are either linguistic such as calque, false friends, polysemous and homonymous overlapping, or extralinguistic like the loss, change, or development of the possible referents and the prototypes of these words. As for the types of change such as restriction, degeneration, and elevation, they are the most frequent and significantly contribute to widening the gap between the classical and contemporary meaning of such words that may have the Muslim layperson partially or fully misunderstand them. The study has also found that the semantic change is remarkably high in nouns and verbs. In the end, a conclusion has been drawn and some recommendations have been made regarding the words under discussion.

DOI

10.21608/ejlt.2022.153294

Keywords

Semantic change, Classical and Modern Arabic, Qurʔân, Ḥadîth

Authors

First Name

Adel

Last Name

Mahfouz

MiddleName

Refaat

Affiliation

English department Faculty of Al-Alsun Minia University

Email

adelrefaat56@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

8

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

35931

Issue Date

2022-07-01

Receive Date

2022-07-30

Publish Date

2022-07-01

Page Start

35

Page End

72

Online ISSN

2314-6699

Link

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/article_263186.html

Detail API

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=263186

Order

2

Type

Research in linguistic and literary studies

Type Code

2,266

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Linguistics and Translation

Publication Link

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Semantic Change-Induced Misunderstanding in the Qurʔân and Ḥadîth

Details

Type

Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023