Examples Of Metonymy In The Quran

The Quran is the masterpiece of Arabic language from many standpoints such as linguistics and stylistics. The vocabulary, style, eloquence, effectiveness, and the rich poetic rhythm of this masterpiece, which lead to its linguistic and stylistic uniqueness, are the miracles of a Miracle, i.e. the Quran. As Arberry in the introduction of his book the Koran interpreted states, the Quran "is neither poetry nor prose but a unique fusion of both" (x).

Among the various rhetorical devices used in the Holy Qur’an, metonymy is the one which is the prime focus of this paper.

Metonymy, etymologically speaking, comes from the Greek word “metonumia” which means “a change of name” (Li 1998). Instead of referring to something directly, we can use some other terms related with it to refer to the specific thing. For example, we can use “Chomsky” for the book written by Chomsky.

E.g.,

1. وَاِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلٰۗىِٕكَةِ اسْجُدُوْا لِاٰدَمَ

And [mention] when We said to the angles, “Prostrate to Adam”. (17:61)

The Qur’an uses Adam as a metonym for the whole human race.

2. نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتٰبَ

He has sent down upon you, [O Muhammad], the Book…… (3:3)

THE COGNITIVE VIEW OF METONYMY:

Newmark (125) points out that metonymy occur ‘where the name of an object is transferred to take the place of something else with which it is associated’. This substitution is conditioned by the existence of a contiguity relation between the literal and figurative meanings and the existence of an implicit