Immanent Linguistic Analysis of the Qur’anic Text: An Applied Study of Selected Verses at the Phonological, Syntactic, and Semantic Levels

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which the reading, contemplation, and analysis of the Qur’anic text and its internal structures may be reconsidered in light of selected analytical procedures offered by the structuralist approach. At the same time, it emphasizes the distinctive nature, function, and sacred status of the Qur’anic text, which necessarily require an approach fundamentally different from that applied to other literary texts. Accordingly, the study proceeds from the premise that the Qur’anic text is characterized by a coherent linguistic structure and distinctive stylistic and rhetorical features that combine rhetorical inimitability, syntactic precision, consistency in the relationships among its components, and an interplay between form and content. The study also examines manifestations of unity and cohesion within the Qur’anic text by exploring the relationships between verses and surahs despite their thematic diversity, thereby revealing an internal coherence that enriches their meanings. The study further highlights the phonological and rhythmic structures of the Qur’anic text and examines their aesthetic and semantic functions in reinforcing meaning and influencing the recipient. Particular attention is also given to selected structuralist analytical devices, especially binary oppositions, repetition, and grammatical and syntactic relations, with a view to identifying their semantic, pragmatic, and pedagogical dimensions. These features contribute to the openness of the Qur’anic text to interpretation and exegesis, allowing its meanings to remain dynamic and continually renewed across different historical periods. To achieve these objectives, the study adopts the structuralist approach as an analytical framework for examining the internal structures and relationships of the text, while taking into account the distinctive nature of the Qur’anic text and avoiding the mechanical or reductive imposition of structuralist concepts upon it. The study therefore seeks to determine the extent to which a structuralist approach can reveal the diversity of Qur’anic styles and the distinctive character of their linguistic organization, while highlighting the cohesion, interconnectedness, and integration of the Qur’anic text across its linguistic, phonological, syntactic, and semantic levels, with due recognition of its sacred status.