A Linguistic Approach to the Polysemy of the Quranic Word

Any language constitute a set of dynamic words that are being constantly reborn hence find expansion of meaning. In semantic studies of linguistics, polysemy is one of the most important issues to be considered at all language levels including lexis, i.e. paradigmatic polysemy. Linguistic approaches to lexicon always accompany word's senses influenced by collocates in a structural system, the semantic analysis of which is carried out with regard to the mutual relationships between the elements in the given system and the discourse process. Considering the linguistic context and the totality of the text following an etymological analysis of a word, and its semantic field, clearly depicts the development of the word and thus its polysemy. A main part of Quranic studies and research is discovering and elucidating the exact meaning of words in the structure of the Divine Word so that the perception of religious propositions may be facilitated. In this paper, the polysemy of the Quranic word "rahmat" is studied to illuminate its semantic development in the Quranic ayahs and its multiple semantic aspects in relation to the core meaning as well as the effect of collocates using Quranic commentaries. The word "rahmat" enjoys several semantic aspects like Islam, the Paradise, Faith, Rain, Subsistence, etc., all of which are processed in respect to the core meaning and conceptual relations with other linguistic units within the discourse structure.