Al-Hikmah University Journal

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.