Description
Book SynopsisThe book presents an ethnolinguistic study on lexical expressions of honor in the Language of Early Arabic Poetry. It is the first application of Cultural-Linguistic methodology in research on the language and culture of al-Jahiliyya Arabs. Consequently, it is one of the first cultural cognitive linguistic studies on Classical Arabic semantics and lexicology. The book examines the use of Arabic honor-related lexis in the oral-formulaic pre-Islamic poetry, and interprets lexical expressions as encoding cultural conceptualizations: cognitive schemata and categories, and conceptual metaphors and metonymies. An exhaustive description of pre-Islamic Arabic cultural models of honor and social evaluation is offered alongside semantic frames for discourses of honor available to pre-Islamic Arabs.
Table of ContentsEarly Arabic Poetry and its language as an index for self-identification; methodology of Cultural Linguistics; anthropological data on honor; pre-Islamic Arabic code of honor: being karīm; generosity-honorability metonymy; karāma-honor paid to equals; ḥasab-value of honorability; šaraf-honor-precedence is elevated place; ˁirḍ is personal honor; embodiment of ˁirḍ is body; shame-dishonor model; model of honor; model of social evaluation of worthiness; Arabic-European contrast
