INJUSTICE (ẒULM) AS THE CAUSE OF REVOLUTION IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE EGYPTIAN ARAB SPRING: A COGNITIVE SEMANTICS ANALYSIS
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Abstract
This article is dedicated to the analysis of a concept representing an Arabic cultural constants, a concept, which had long dominated the Egyptian and Arab political discourses, whose role in the discourse of January 25 revolutions appears to be quite unique. When faced with the need to explain the reasons behind the January 25 revolution Egyptian ẒULM (wronging, injustice, oppression) of the Ancien Régime would be cited mostly. A well-defined frame-semantic structure of the concept coupled with a clear set of evaluations associated with each semantic role – the Agent (Ẓālim), the Patient (Maẓlūm) and the very act of wronging or oppressing (Ẓulm), which may be contrasted to more abstract and hence relatively vague notions from the same semantic domain, such as ‘ADĀLA (JUSTICE), provides ẒULM with a unique capacity to impose a clear-cut structure on various types of social experience by construing and representing reality from the perspective of different social actors involved. With its extensive referential scope and high salience, ẒULM has developed into an essential element of dominant ideologies and folk theories of politics and society, projecting upon them a black and white vision of social reality as split between the negatively evaluated powerful wrongdoers and positively evaluated disenfranchised victims of ẒULM. As such, ẒULM has contributed greatly to the persistently polarizing nature of the Arab social debate.
How to Cite
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Cause of Revolution, Cognitive Semantics Analysis, Discourse of the Egyptian Arab Spring, Injustice (Ẓulm)
Bogomolov A. (2014), “Constructing Political Other in the Discourse of the Egyptian Arab Spring”, Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia, Vol. XIV, pp. 7–31. https://doi.org/10.14746/snp.2014.14.01
Bogomolov A. (2015), “An Eye for an Eye and the Struggle for Power in the Discourse of the Egyptian Arab Spring”, Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia, Vol. XV, pp. 13–33. https://doi.org/10.14746/snp.2015.15.02
Wehr H. (1976), A dictionary of modern written Arabic; Ed. by J. Milton Cowan. 3rd ed., Spoken Language Services, Inc., Ithaca and New York.
Fillmore C. J. (1985), “Frames and the semantics of understanding”. Quaderni di Semantica, No. VI. 2, pp. 222–54.
Carbaugh D. (2016), “Cultural Discourse Analysis: Pragmatics of Social Interaction”, in A. Capone, and J. L. Mey (eds), Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, Springer Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, and London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_22
Arutiunova N. D. (1988), Tipy iazykovykh znachenii. Otsenka. Sobytie. Fakt, Nauka, Moscow. (In Russian).
Bogomolov A. (2002), “Firm in the Face of the Enemy: Semantic Analysis of the Concept of Ṣumūd in Modern Arabic”, Folia Orientalia, Vol. 38.
Lakoff G. and Johnson M. (2003), Metaphors we live by, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470993.001.0001
Waugh L. R. et al. (2016), “Critical Discourse Analysis: Definition, Approaches, Relation to Pragmatics, Critique, and Trends”, in Capone A. and Mey J. L. (eds), Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, Springer, Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, and London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_4
Sayed Khatab. The Power of Sovereignty. The political and ideological philosophy of Sayyid Qutb. Routledge. London, NY, 2006. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203086940
Edward William Lane. An Arabic-English Lexicon. Beirut, Lebanon: Librairie du Liban. 1980/1997.
Junge Chr. (2015), “On Affect and Emotion as Dissent: The Kifāya Rhetoric in Pre-Revolutionary Egyptian Literature: in Fr. Pannewick, G. Khalil, and Y. Albers (eds), Commitment and Beyond. Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s, Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 253–72.
REFERENCES
Bogomolov A. (2014), “Constructing Political Other in the Discourse of the Egyptian Arab Spring”, Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia, Vol. XIV, pp. 7–31. https://doi.org/10.14746/snp.2014.14.01
Bogomolov A. (2015), “An Eye for an Eye and the Struggle for Power in the Discourse of the Egyptian Arab Spring”, Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia, Vol. XV, pp. 13–33. https://doi.org/10.14746/snp.2015.15.02
Wehr H. (1976), A dictionary of modern written Arabic; Ed. by J. Milton Cowan. 3rd ed., Spoken Language Services, Inc., Ithaca and New York.
Fillmore C. J. (1985), “Frames and the semantics of understanding”. Quaderni di Semantica, No. VI. 2, pp. 222–54.
Carbaugh D. (2016), “Cultural Discourse Analysis: Pragmatics of Social Interaction”, in A. Capone, and J. L. Mey (eds), Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, Springer Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, and London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_22
Arutiunova N. D. (1988), Tipy iazykovykh znachenii. Otsenka. Sobytie. Fakt, Nauka, Moscow. (In Russian).
Bogomolov A. (2002), “Firm in the Face of the Enemy: Semantic Analysis of the Concept of Ṣumūd in Modern Arabic”, Folia Orientalia, Vol. 38.
Lakoff G. and Johnson M. (2003), Metaphors we live by, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470993.001.0001
Waugh L. R. et al. (2016), “Critical Discourse Analysis: Definition, Approaches, Relation to Pragmatics, Critique, and Trends”, in Capone A. and Mey J. L. (eds), Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, Springer, Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, and London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_4
Sayed Khatab. The Power of Sovereignty. The political and ideological philosophy of Sayyid Qutb. Routledge. London, NY, 2006. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203086940
Edward William Lane. An Arabic-English Lexicon. Beirut, Lebanon: Librairie du Liban. 1980/1997.
Junge Chr. (2015), “On Affect and Emotion as Dissent: The Kifāya Rhetoric in Pre-Revolutionary Egyptian Literature: in Fr. Pannewick, G. Khalil, and Y. Albers (eds), Commitment and Beyond. Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s, Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 253–72.