Connotative meanings of metonymy and simile in Imam Ali bin Abi Talib's speech

Abstract EN

Connotative meanings, particularly in figures of speech, are one of the semantic behaviours of linguistic structures.

The current paper investigates some of these meanings in Islamic political discourse and their role in conveying the speaker's intended message to the audience.

For many reasons, Imam Ali's speech, in one of his famous sermons, ash-shiqshiqiyyah sermon, has been selected as data of analysis.

It is hypothesized here that Imam Ali's sermon (1) uses figures of speech to indirectly express his ideas and intended meanings, and (2) tends to connote such meanings to achieve more than one purpose particularly via metonymy and simile.

Before tackling the practical part a section introduces the theoretical background of the study.

Adopting Hymes' (1974) contextual model and Reza's (2011) version of translation of the examined data, the present study has gone through asshiqshiqiyyah for its figures of speech, particularly metonymy and simile, in order to show the way Imam Ali employs such figures to convey his message in a very politically critical situation.

The study has reached the conclusion that metonyms and similes are used in the Islamic political discourse to gain certain advantages.

In what has been examined, it has been observed that the addresser used them to connote his qualifications as a caliph and his real paternity and leadership of the nation and his tendency to preserve the Islamic unity.