The Polysemy of Word "yæ d" (hand) in Religious Texts In

The present paper analyzes the polysemy of the word «yæ d» (hand) in two religious texts and its relationship with cognitive metaphor and metonymy. For this، the required linguistic metaphors were extracted from Qur''an and Sahife Sajjadiyeh. The objective was to know how the polysemy of the word «yæ d» and the relevant semantic relationships between these meanings can be explained according to the Theory of Conceptual Metaphor and metonymy. Moreover، how conceptual analysis of polysemy of words can help the readers in better understanding of the concepts in religious texts. The theory of Lakoff and Johnson was used for the analysis of data. The research findings exhibited that the meanings of the word «hand» have literal، metaphorical (both structural and orientational)، and metonymic relationships in the religious language. Moreover، because of metaphorical and metonymic uses، the main meaning has undergone semantic extensions leading to polysemy. Although there are different analyses on the polysemy and the way this process occurs، it seems that a cognitive approach dealing with the meaning relationships of a polysemous word functions more coherently than other approaches. The readers’ awareness of such meaning relations can develop their understanding of the texts.