AUTHOR=Sardaraz Khan , Rashid Radzuwan Ab , Nusrat Aasia 

TITLE=The Semantics of the Preposition “alā” in the Quran: A Conceptual Metaphor Perspective

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.788582

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.788582

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Traditional syntactic approaches do not offer a plausible explanation regarding the use of the Arabic preposition “<sup><inline-graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="fpsyg-13-788582-i0051.tif" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></sup><italic>alā</italic>” with abstract nouns or states. This article adopts a corpus-based approach to investigate the semantic classification of the preposition “<sup><inline-graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="fpsyg-13-788582-i0051.tif" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></sup><italic>alā</italic>” in the Quran from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Conceptual metaphor theory (hereafter CMT) was employed to find out conceptual metaphors (hereafter CM) in the data retrieved from the Quran with the help of search Quran software. CMT holds that human sensorimotor neural structures help store spatial relationships, which are then used to map the abstract concepts in language and thought, and that prepositions are the products of human sensorimotor neural structures. This paper found nine key CM themes behind the usage of prepositions in the data. Contact and support schemas were at the heart of the literal and metaphorical use of the spatial preposition “<sup><inline-graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="fpsyg-13-788582-i0051.tif" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></sup><italic>alā</italic>” in the Quran. However, it was also found that language generation and comprehension involve the role of multimodal perceptual schemas and linguistic knowledge rather than the unilinear process of one CM. This paper suggests further research into spatial relations across languages to explore the cross-cultural implications of image schemas.</p>