THE ISSUE OF WORD AND MEANING BETWEEN AL-JAHIDH AND ABDULQAHIR AL-JURJANI
The duality of word and meaning is one of the most important issues of the Arab critical heritage, and it is also one of the most important axes of contemporary linguistic studies that often reproduce the heritage, and it is one of the main pillars upon which the sciences of Arabic rhetoric are based. Al-Jahidh and Al-Jurjani both have prominent positions in this discourse. The experts of criticism and rhetoric, traditional and modern, have all been enriching the discussion and they differed in the direction of their premises, their opinions varied, and the discussion diverged on the subject. One of the problems of this research is the broadening of the concept and its departure from the boundaries of the terminology, which led to a multiplicity of concepts within the framework of one term. The word and meaning have been viewed as the form and the content respectively, and this is the main idea suggested by Al-Jahidh, While Al-Jurjani views the word and meaning under the framework of Composing. Among the results of the research is the distinction found between the concepts of form and content, word and meaning, and dismantling the overlaps between them, and the emphasis on Al-Jarjani’s agreement with Al-Jahiz in the first concept, and his difference with him in the second. The research also sheds light on Al-Jurjani’s analysis of the compositions by excluding the word in favor of the meaning for motives related to discourse. The research concludes from Al-Jurjani’s analysis his distinction between the meanings of the word and the connotation.
Keywords: Word, Meaning, Al-Jahidh, Al-Jurjani, Form, Content, Connotation