STYLISTICS OF ANTONYMS IN THE LAST PART (JUZ’U CAMMA) OF THE QUR’ĀN

Abstract

Antonym, a sub-type of lexical relation, is a means through which natural languages are organized. It is employed 
by speakers and writers to express diverse opinions and contrast powerful ideas and emotions. Antonyms are widely 
used lexical relation techniques in the Qur’ān and constitute a significant stylistic feature in the chapters of the 
Qur’ān. This paper investigates the use of antonyms in the last part of the Qur’ān, known as Juz’hcAmma. Both 
qualitative and quantitative techniques of simple percentage and other statistical methods are used to analyse the 
data. A slight modification of Ndimele’s (1997) model of semantic opposition is employed as theoretical framework 
to analyse the data. Findings reveal that nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are syntactic class of antonymous pairs 
that are found in the data with the noun antonymous pairs of 62% as the dominant grammatical class employed to 
express key ideas and ideological contents. Findings also reveal that while the gradable binary contrast names and 
describe concepts that cannot be mentally grasped by mankind, the ungradable opposites are predominantly 
employed to express the concept of monotheism, moral rectitude, ideological belief of life after death and the cosmic 
connections between the heavens and the earth. In conclusion, the paper highlights the implications of the findings 
to contemporary global challenges.