The Expressive Miraculousness of the Holy Quran Concealed in the Literary Style of Noun-Verb Conversions: A Study Based on Jacobsen’s Functionalist Theory

In their examination of the miraculousness of the Qur’ān, scholars and thinkers have been paying a special attention to its expression and style for a long time. Numerous studies have been carried out in this regard in which the divinity of the source of this unique Scripture is evidently revealed. As one of the most essential methods of expression used by the noble Qur’ān, ‘udūl (conversion) means changing the linguistic context and the speech style. This concept has various types that have been classified by rhetoric scholars. These include switching from truth to metaphor; from close, easy propositions to distant, complex ones; and from one verb/noun form to another verb/noun form. Various purposes have also been suggested for these various types of conversions. Similarly, linguists emphasize the secondary purposes of linguistic techniques. Roman Jacobsen, the famous Russian linguist, calls the secondary purposes as linguistic functions. He considers six roles for language, namely phatic, emotive, aesthetic/poetic, conative, metalingual, and referential. The study at hand aimed to analyze the purposes of converting nouns and verbs to each other in the noble Qur’ān based on Jacobsen’s functionalist theory and to look at the miraculousness of the Qur’ān from this viewpoint. This examination showed that conversion in every verse of the Qur’ān causes the addressee to make mental exploration and reflection, one which is among the main purposes of the sublime God in the noble Qur’ān. The findings show that the implication of noun on the affirmation and that of the verb on renewal and contingency have had the largest representation in these verses. On the other hand, in some verses, in addition to semantic implication, the observation of the distance between the verses has also been taken into consideration. The six functions of language sometimes overlap, while in other cases the conversion leads to overemphasis on one of the functions. These findings all indicate the expressive miraculousness of the noble Qur’ān and prove the divine source of this heavenly Scripture.