Analyzing the Semiotic Indicators of the Interrogative Discourse in the Sermons of Nahj-ul-Balaghah

Literary discourse includes a set of rhetorical elements that play an essential role in conveying the author's motives and purposes. Mechanisms that contribute to the literary discourse process include the aesthetics of the literary text, the author's motivations, and the reader's understanding of the read text. In his sermons, Imam Ali (A. S) has used various rhetorical methods with utmost beauty and eloquence. Questioning is one of the rhetorical methods that leads to the development of the discourse process. Each interrogative letter has verbal and spiritual characteristics that distinguish it from other interrogative letters. This article, with a descriptive-analytical-statistical approach, is based on counting the number of times that Imam Ali (A. S) used each of the interrogative letters, and based on the analysis of the indicators of the semantics of the discourse to examine the interrogative sentences and the lexical contexts in which The interrogative letters have been used, so that their meanings are revealed in the discourse in which each of the interrogative letters is mentioned. In addition; The discourse has analyzed the semantics of interrogatives from the perspective of its indicators, such as: the processes of discursive construction and expansion, and the indicators of connection and disconnection. This research has reached results, such as that interrogative letters are used seventyeight (78) times in Nahj al-Balagha sermons, and "Hamza" is the most frequent interrogative letter in Nahj al-Balagha sermons, which is used sixty-five (65) times. , and denial (rebuke and denial), speech, and width are the most important rhetorical purposes for interrogative letters, respectively. From the point of view of semantic signification, we observe that interrogative significations prove that when interrogatives indicate punishment, speech, and criticism, the processes of intensity and extensity increase together in literary discourse, while the purposes of reprimand and negation require an increase in intensity and a decrease in extensity in the discourse process.