Formal Analysis of the Mystical Language: Types, Objects, and Solutions

In the Persian language, formal analyses of the mystical language are not in one type. Some studies analyze the mystical language by a formal approach and others follow a formal attitude toward the mystical language. A great group of these studies aims to introduce an explanation of the mystical language based on the properties of the mystical tradition. Many of these studies, despite their differences, have common properties that bring up some criticisms. Introducing the various types of formal analyses of the mystical language in the Persian language in this study, we have classified different criticisms and objects. The most important of these criticisms are inattention to mystical experience, the disproportionate and unjustified position of mystical experience in formal explanations, the inextensibility of some results, and the confusion of literary language with the language of mysticism. Introducing a formal explanation of the mystical language, the exegesis model of the mystical language could respond to the above objects. Ignoring the conventional ontological and phenomenological properties in this model, exegesis is defined as passing from one context to another. Despite different genres and structures, this exegetic construct has been found in mystical texts. Therefore, this pattern can be considered as the main and fundamental feature of the mystical language, which is also connected with the content elements of the mystical tradition, without having a mandatory role in the linguistic and formal explanations of the mystical language. Transcendence, becoming, and passing from the exoteric layer to the esoteric layer are among contentual features which do not have any obligatory function in the linguistic and formal explanations of the mystical language.