Syntagmatic Axes of the Meaning of “Reason” in Nahj al-Balaghah

One of the most important structural features of Nahj al-Balaghah is the harmony and coherence of semantic relation between the word and other words. This semantic relation can be explained by semantic harmony and it is therefore appropriate to utilize syntagmatic axis, which is one of the major strategies for transmitting speech. The value of word ordering and their selection by speaker become obvious through semantic relation between syntagmatic words. Meanwhile, the word “reason” is one of the polysemous words in the valuable book of Nahj al-Balaghah. Therefore, by descriptive-analytical method and through the usage of library resources, the present research has examined the syntagmatic axis of the word “reason” in that book and has concluded that syntagmatic position between “reason” and other words such as “testimony, treasury, strengthen, speaking, mistake, devising, admonishment, observance, and tradition” expresses a kind of semantic harmony in speech.