Nahjolbalagheh Research

Nahjolbalagheh Research

Discourse Semiotics of Wealth and Poverty in Alawite Narrations based on Greimas’s Semiotics Square

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract
The two words "wealth and poverty" are always referred to as antonyms in semantic studies. These two words are highly frequent in Islamic texts. In addition to the Quran, wealth and poverty have been repeatedly mentioned in hadiths and narrations, particularly Alawite narrations. On the other hand, philologists have always stated their lexical content, and others have discussed these two concepts based on moral precepts. The "Semiotics Square" model is one of the Paris school of semiotics models and a way to represent the text's semantic depth, based on the reciprocal relations explained by A.J. Greimas. In this research, an attempt is made to present the discourse between the two seemingly reciprocal concepts of "wealth" and "poverty" by using this square. In this research, the typical limit of "property" is considered; therefore, it does not study other properties, such as intellect, mentioned in the narrations. In this regard, the alternate words of the two words "wealth and poverty" have been analyzed based on Grimas' semiotic square. The study results indicate that wealth and poverty are conceptual antonyms, and there are other words as substitute words that indicate the degrees of poverty and wealth.
Keywords

  1. Hebert, Louis (2001),Tools for Text and Image Analysis: An interoduction to applied semiotics (trans. Julie Tabler).
  2. Bronween Martin & Felizitas Ringham. )2006(.Key Terms In Semiontics. Great Britain: MPG Books Ltd.
  3. Greimas, Algirdas Julien & & Joseph Courtes,(1982) Semiotics and Language:An Analytical Dictionary, Translated By Larry Crist and Daniel Patte and James Lee,Edward McMahon II and Gary Philips, Michael Rengstor. Indiana University Press Bloomington.