Applied Semantics and the Qur'an: Izutsu's Methodology as a Case Study

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-173
Author(s):  
Ṣalāḥ Al-Dīn Al-Zarāl
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Japanese Scholar ◽  
Descriptive Approach

This article focuses on the methodology of the Japanese scholar, Toshihiko Izutsu, as put forward in his God and Man in the Koran: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung. This work is a semantic reading of the Qur'an in which its author utilises two paradigms, sometimes using a descriptive approach in order to interpret Qur'anic concepts in a situated time, and sometimes using an historical approach to explain the development of conceptual frameworks in pre-Islamic Arabia on the eve of Islam and at the time of the revelation. In the Introduction, I give a general overview of modern semantic theory. Part One discusses applied semantics and explores the extent to which it can be applied as discourse analysis and the ways in which it can be a location for hermeneutical interpretation. Part Two will then discuss the works of Izutsu and his methodology in order to propose a suitable paradigm for interpreting the actual words of the Qur'anic vocabulary with respect to their semantic significations.

“We must unite now or perish!”

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Nartey
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah ◽  
Pan African ◽  
The World ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

Abstract This paper presents a discourse-mythological analysis of the rhetoric of a pioneering Pan-African and Ghana’s independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah, drawing on Ruth Wodak’s discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis. The thesis of the paper is that Nkrumah’s discourse, in its focus on the emancipation and unification of Africa, can be characterized as mythic, a discursive exhortation of Africa to demonstrate to the world that it can better govern itself than the colonizers. In this vein, the paper analyzes four discursive strategies employed by Nkrumah in the creation and projection of his mythology: the introduction or creation of new discourse events, presupposition and implication, involvement (the use of indexicals) and lexical structuring and reiteration. This study is, therefore, presented as a case study of mythic discourse within the domain of politics.

ANALISIS KOHESI DAN KOHERENSI WACANA DALAM BERITA ONLINE BERBAGI PAKET SEMBAKO UNTUK KAUM DHUAFA DI JAWA POS RADAR BOJONEGORO EDISI 11 MEI 2019

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (01) ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Suci Armala
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Reasons For Action ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Food Packages ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Descriptive Approach

Cohesion and coherence in discourse play a role in forming a wholeness in the discourse itself, both discourse and writing. One of the written discourses is the news in the Jawa Pos newspaper, which is the distribution of basic food packages breaking the fast of Ramadhan for the poor in the Tuban area held by PT. PJB UBJOM PLTU Tanjung Awar-awar, in this news is thought to contain elements of cohesion and coherence. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach and discourse analysis techniques. The data obtained contains cohesion and coherence. In this data collection, namely by listening to the news and recording it. The results of this study include grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion and its coherence. Grammatical cohesion includes reference cohesion, recovery cohesion, release cohesion and liaison cohesion. In addition to cohesion there is also coherence that is like the coherence of the means of purpose, the coherence of reasons for action, the coherence of the meaning of reason and so forth. With the discovery of the use of cohesion and discourse coherence in Jawa Pos news.

scholarly journals Re-defining gender as a heinous crime: A case study from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

2020 ◽  
pp. 095792652097721
Author(s):  
Janaina Negreiros Persson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Public Hearing ◽  
Rhetorical Invention ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core

In this article, we explore how the discourses around gender are evolving at the core of Brazilian politics. Our focus lies on the discourses at the public hearing on the bill 3.492/19, which aimed at including “gender ideology” on the list of heinous crimes. We aim to identify the deputies’ linguistic representation of social actors as pertaining to in- and outgroups. In addition, the article analyzes through Critical Discourse Analysis how the terminology gender is represented in this particular hearing. The analysis shows how some of the conservative parliamentarians give a clearly negative meaning to the term gender, by labeling it “gender ideology” and additionally connecting it with heinous crimes. We propose that the re-signification of “gender ideology,” from rhetorical invention to heinous crime, is not only an attempt to undermine scientific gender studies but also a way for conservative deputies to gain more political power.

From converts to cooperation: Protestant internationalism, US missionaries and Indian Christians and ‘Professional’ social work between Boston and Bombay (c. 1920–1950)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Michael Phillipp Brunner
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
North America ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
High Phase

Abstract The 1920s and 30s were a high phase of liberal missionary internationalism driven especially by American-led visions of the Social Gospel. As the missionary consensus shifted from proselytization to social concerns, the indigenization of missions and the role of the ‘younger churches’ outside of Europe and North America was brought into focus. This article shows how Protestant internationalism pursued a ‘Christian Sociology’ in dialogue with the field’s academic and professional form. Through the case study of settlement sociology and social work schemes by the American Marathi Mission (AMM) in Bombay, the article highlights the intricacies of applying internationalist visions in the field and asks how they were contested and shaped by local conditions and processes. Challenging a simplistic ‘secularization’ narrative, the article then argues that it was the liberal, anti-imperialist drive of the missionary discourse that eventually facilitated an American ‘professional imperialism’ in the development of secular social work in India. Adding local dynamics to the analysis of an internationalist discourse benefits the understanding of both Protestant internationalism and the genesis of Indian social work and shows the value of an integrated global micro-historical approach.

“I am not a guinea pig”: Parental opportunity hoarding and tracking reform in Germany

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-82
Author(s):  
Lana Apple ◽  
Mira Debs
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Guinea Pig ◽  
Education System ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
School Structure ◽  
Student Background ◽  
Achievement Outcomes

PISA test data from 2000 to today have shown Germany’s education system is one of the most inequitable within the OECD, with high correlations between student background and achievement outcomes. Scholars have identified the highly differentiated school structure, which tracks students as young as 10 years old, as a central cause. This scholarship has not evaluated why German tracking has proved difficult to reform over the last 20 years, despite evidence of negative outcomes. Using a case study of parents’ actions in Hamburg, this paper employs a discourse analysis of debates surrounding a tracking reform to argue that opportunity hoarding—that is, parents with more social capital maintaining certain advantages through ingrained systems that are theoretically open to all—may contribute to why Germany’s early tracking system persists despite evidence showing that it increases educational inequality. The findings presented have implications for an international discussion of tracking reform and opportunity hoarding.

The trope of the vulnerable child in conditional welfare discourses: An Australian case study

2021 ◽  
pp. 144078332110089
Author(s):  
Michelle Peterie ◽  
Greg Marston ◽  
Louise Humpage ◽  
Philip Mendes ◽  
Shelley Bielefeld ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Parliamentary Debates ◽  
Vulnerable Child ◽  
Australian Case ◽  
Welfare Discourse ◽  
Welfare Reforms

Conditional welfare policies are frequently underpinned by pejorative representations of those they target. Vulnerable children, under physical or moral threat from their welfare-dependent parents, are a mainstay of these constructions, yet the nuances of this trope have received little focused attention. Through a discourse analysis of parliamentary debates at the introduction of compulsory income management (CIM) to Australia, this article explores the complexities of the vulnerable child trope. It shows how the figure of the child was leveraged to justify hard-line welfare reforms in Australia, and offers a deeper and more intersectional understanding of how social and economic marginalisation is reproduced through welfare discourse.

The Other Sex Work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Winter ◽  
Morgaine Struve
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Case Study Analysis

This work is a case study analysis of the contemporary feminist academic pornography discourse. Based on two academic articles, two competing discourses are identified and examined using constructivist grounded theory and discourse analysis. This clash of discourses is traced back firstly to changing social norms on sexuality: Older generations, who still inhabit most positions of power within academia, are largely still representing restrictive attitudes on what constitutes “acceptable” sexualities. Secondly, research conventions within the humanities and social sciences have changed to defy easy explanations. Pornography researchers are therefore forced to choose between conforming to prevalent sexuality norms or research conventions.

Verbal Number in Chadic, with Special Reference to Hausa

2021 ◽  
pp. 596-626
Author(s):  
Malte Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Basic Semantic

The chapter provides a general overview of the formal marking of pluractionality in Chadic languages and its observable interpretive effects, with a special focus of Hausa. Section 29.2 introduces the three major strategies for marking pluractionality in Chadic (reduplication, infixing/ablauting, suffixation), before discussing possible correspondences between formal marking and interpretation. The empirical focus lies on languages that do not figure prominently in earlier works on pluractionality in Chadic. The section also contains a case study on the interpretation of different ways of pluractional marking in West Chadic Bole. Section 29.3 introduces the basic patterns of pluractional marking in Hausa, and their basic semantic interpretation in terms of distribution over participants or places. It then discusses secondary, pragmatically inferred meaning effects in terms of abundance, individuation, or intensification. The chapter ends with a discussion of why pluractional marking in Hausa does not easily allow for iterative event interpretations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document