The cohesive role of reference in Qur'anic texts

الملخص EN

Abstract.

Cohesion is an aspect of textuality that deals with so¬phisticated aspects of language.

It plays a great role in establishing se¬mantic relations and lexical ties between sentences.

The present study examined the way in which reference contributed to cohesion of Qur'anic texts.

It dealt with the distribution and frequency of per¬sonal, demonstrative and comparative reference on the discourse level.

The study was confined to the analysis of the cohesive devices in the following surahs: Yuns, Hud, Yusuf, Ar-Racd and Ibrahim.

Per¬sonal reference was the most frequent than comparative and de¬monstrative reference in all surahs analyzed.

As for the subcategories of personal reference, prenominal were the most frequent.

Plural mas¬culine pronouns were more recurrent than the singular and plural fem¬inine.

This might be due to the linguistic features of Arabic that over¬uses masculine pronouns.

Demonstrative and comparative reference functioned cohesively but they were found to be less frequent than personal reference.