PRBLAME: Praise-Blame Dichotomy
| PRBLAME: Praise-Blame Dichotomy | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Persuasive Tricks |
| Built upon | 4 sources |
| Annotation Unit | |
| ARDT Code | PRBLAME |
| Level | 1 |
| Included in Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.1 v0.1.0 |
| External Identifiers | |
| BALAGHAScore | CE-19 |
| BalaghaBase | Q116 |
| OpenAlex | W4415405334 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 Live DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q116 |
| Use this page | |
| Download | PDF JSON  |
Definition
Praise-Blame Dichotomy (al-Mughāyara, also al-Taghāyur) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which a subject that is blamed or condemned is instead praised, or a subject that is praised is instead blamed or condemned.[1][2][3][4][5]
Linguistic Operations
- The same subject receives two opposed evaluations: praise (madḥ) and blame (dhamm), with one evaluation reversing or opposing the other.[1][2][3][4][5]
- The reversal may run in either direction: something blamed or condemned is praised, or something praised is blamed or condemned.[1][2][3][4][5]
- The contrary evaluation may be the communicator's own or that of another person: ʿAkkāwī explicitly includes both possibilities, while Cachia formulates the device in terms of praising what others condemn or condemning what others praise.[3][4][5]
Recognition
Praise-Blame Dichotomy may be present when:
- A subject is praised in opposition to blame or condemnation directed at it, or is blamed in opposition to praise directed at it.[1][2][3][4][5]
- The two opposed evaluations concern the same subject; they may be expressed by the same communicator or by different people.[3][4][5]
Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements
- Evaluative reversal: The movement from praise to blame, or blame to praise, creates a reversal in judgment that disrupts the audience's initial expectation and forces a reassessment of the subject.
- Heightened emphasis through contrast: Because praise and blame are opposing evaluative poles, each sharpens the force of the other. Commendation appears stronger when emerging from censure, and censure appears harsher when following commendation.
- Rhetorical surprise: When the second evaluative movement overturns the first, the device can create an effect of surprise or dramatic turn, sustaining attention and increasing the memorability of the statement.
- Exposure of contrastive aspects: By subjecting the same referent to opposing judgments, the device can foreground the subject’s competing or contrasting aspects, making its complexity more rhetorically vivid.
- Concentrated tension: Because both evaluative poles are anchored to the same referent, the opposition is concentrated rather than distributed across different subjects. This intensifies the force of the contrast and the impact of the reversal.
- Impression of balanced judgment: When neither evaluative movement is strongly dominant, the device can produce an impression of fairness or completeness, as though the speaker has weighed both sides of the subject. This effect depends on the relative weight given to each pole and is not a necessary outcome of the device.
Applying the Recognition Framework
The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:
Examples
تَبًّا لَهُ مِنْ خَادِعٍ مُمَاذِقِ
[blame] Perdition to it — a deceiving, dissembling [coin].
أَكْرِمْ بِهِ أَصْفَرَ رَاقَتْ صُفْرَتُهْ
[praise] How noble is this yellow one whose yellowness delights!
- Explanation
- Al-Ḥarīrī first censures the dinar, characterising it as a deceiver, then immediately praises the same coin for the beauty of its golden colour. The two evaluative moves — blame then praise of the same subject — constitute al-Mughāyara.[1][2] The final word of the blame hemistich varies across sources. Nāṣif et al. (2012) give mumādhiq in the main text, with a footnote recording the manuscript variant mumāziq. Hāshimī (2019) gives mumāriq.
كَمْ أَفْسَدَ الذَّكَاءُ مِنْ عَقْلٍ رَزِينٍ، وَكَمْ قَادَ صَاحِبَهُ إِلَى الهَلَاكِ!
ثُمَّ كَمْ أَنْقَذَ الذَّكَاءُ مِنْ هَالِكٍ، وَكَمْ رَفَعَ صَاحِبَهُ إِلَى أَعْلَى المَرَاتِبِ!How often has intelligence corrupted a sound mind, and led its possessor to ruin! Yet how often has intelligence saved one on the brink of destruction, and raised its possessor to the highest ranks!
- Explanation
- The same subject — intelligence (al-dhakāʾ) — is first blamed, then praised, within a single passage. The juxtaposition of the two evaluative moves directed at the same subject constitutes al-Mughāyara.
References
- ↑ a b c d e Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 113, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ a b c d e Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 377, ISBN 9781527316386.
- ↑ a b c d e f Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 653-654.
- ↑ a b c d e f Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998); §175, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d e f Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), p. 129, ISBN 9783447040327.
Page History
- 2026-02-11 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CH-7: Praise-Blame Dichotomy to PRBLAME Praise-Blame Dichotomy.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2025-04-15 - Page created: Praise-Blame Dichotomy.
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