Antonymy of Nouns in Arabic Proverb Books The Fifth Hijri Century

Abstract

This research aims to examine the phenomenon of antonymy in nouns in proverb books of the fifth Hijri century by tracing words and their opposites in discourse, analyzing their lexical and contextual meanings, and demonstrating their role in deepening meaning and reinforcing the moral and social values conveyed by proverbs.

The significance of this phenomenon lies in revealing the richness of Arabic and the precision of its semantic system, as well as in deepening the semantic understanding of texts.

The study adopts the descriptive-analytical method through the following procedures:

Identifying antonymous adjectival expressions occurring in proverb books.

Analyzing their lexical meanings by referring to Arabic dictionaries.

Studying the contexts in which the proverbs occur in order to reveal the intended and implicit meanings embedded in these proverbs. These proverbs carry both explicit and implicit meanings, particularly through the antonymy of nouns.

Distinguishing between types of antonymy, such as explicit linguistic antonymy and implicit antonymy. These expressions carry both hidden and overt meanings, and the study seeks to shed light on the hidden meanings and their psychological and social implications in conveying meaning. Examples include:

• Explicit antonymy in the saying: “Falsehood is a disease, and truthfulness is a cure,” where the contrast is established between two opposing moral qualities, upon which a symbolic therapeutic image is constructed.
• Implicit antonymy in the saying: “Ignorance is the purest enemy, and reason is the best hope,” where ignorance and reason are contrasted as intellectual and moral values whose meanings go beyond their direct linguistic sense to express a comprehensive behavioral vision.
• Antonymy also appears in qualities related to the human condition, as in the saying: “I gave you my youth, so grant me my old age,” where the temporal opposition between youth and gray hair is employed to express a transformation in ability and giving.

This method has contributed to revealing the semantic role of antonymy in constructing the wisdom-based meaning of proverbs and highlighting its expressive power in guiding human behavior.