البعد الزمني في اللغة والأدب: ﺩﺭﺍﺳﺔ ونماذج / The Temporal Dimension in Language and Literature

Program

ALIF

Find in your Library

http://www.jstor.org/stable/521595

All Authors

حسنين, أحمد طاهر; Hassanein, Ahmed Taher

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics

Publication Date

1989

doi

https://www.doi.org/10.2307/521595

Abstract

[The multiplicity of terms relating to time in Classical Arabic reflects the importance of the notion to the Arabs. Major Arab philosophers speculated on the problematic of time. Time has been divided into natural versus social, or divine versus human. The concern with time occurs in religious, literary and linguistic texts. Concern with the problematic of time is expressed in theoretical and in practical discourses. The article explores the theoretical concern through the writing of Arab lexicographers, grammarians and rhetoricians, using relevant examples. Arab lexicography defined the meaning of a temporal term by either giving another word for time, providing its antonym, putting it in a sentence, explaining its metaphoric sense or/and listing clichés which use it. Arab grammarians tackled issues of time under different rubrics: tenses, adverbs, conjunctions and conditional sentences. The rhetoricians, however, dealt with the temporal dimension taking in consideration semantics and the textual context. In practical discourses, sacred and profane, notions of time emerge. In the Quran, certain terms pertaining to time are more frequent than others. The author provides statistical information for each term used. In poetry, the theme of time was often embodied in poems dealing with youth and old age. In proverbs, finally, the disturbing ambiguity of the future is countered by a faith in God's course; an awareness of the present moment is exemplified in sayings concerning the consequences of belated performances. In Egypt, the proverbial identification of Coptic months with certain characteristics reflects a seasonal consciousness derived from agricultural rhythms. Thus the article shows how time is represented in a variety of discourses.]

First Page

72

Last Page

101

Link to Full Text
Find this item online

Share

COinS