The Rhetoric of Deviation and its Impact on Meaning Construction in the Holy Qur'an: An Applied Linguistic Study

Abstract

This study aims to study the rhetoric of deviation in morphological structure, Qur’anic structures, and Qur’anic styles, and to demonstrate its impact on meaning construction in light of context and the statements of linguists, rhetoricians, and exegetes. It adopted the descriptive-analytical method in studying ten Qur’anic examples selected purposively; two examples on morphological deviation, and eight examples on grammatical order: ellipsis, transition between declarative and performative, and the original significations of styles. The analysis was based on establishing the original from which the deviation occurred, presenting scholars’ interpretations, analyzing contextual clues, and evaluating the strength and limits of each interpretation. The results showed that the rhetoric of choice is broader than the concept of deviation, and that describing an expression as deviation requires a fixed linguistic origin and a supporting contextual clue. It also became evident that the strength of establishing deviation varies among the examples; it is strongest when the original form and the deviated form occur together in the same context, or when the original can be determined from the sentence structure. The study revealed the necessity of distinguishing between the establishment of deviation, the weighted rhetorical function, and the possible justification for the choice, and not considering the rarity of the expression in contemporary usage as sufficient evidence for it. The study concludes that the impact of deviation is determined by its relation to context and situation, not by the linguistic form alone.