COLCONT: Colour Contrast
| COLCONT: Colour Contrast | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Contrasts & Inversions |
| Balaghascore.com | |
| Code | CA-9 |
| BalaghaBase.org | |
| Code | Q70 |
| OpenAlex | |
| ID | W4415372293 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q70 |
| Download PDF | |
| Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.0, v0.1.1 |
Definition
Colour Contrast (al-tadbīj) is the Arabic rhetorical device where colour terms are brought into opposition within the same expression.[1][2]
Mechanism
- The device consists in the juxtaposition (al-taqābul) of colour terms (alfāẓ al-alwān) within a single expression.[1][2]
Recognition
Colour Contrast may be present when:
- Two or more explicit colour terms appear within the same expression.
- The colour terms stand in a relationship of opposition or contrast.
Diagnostic Rhetorical Effects
- Visual vividness: The juxtaposition of colour terms creates an immediate visual contrast, making the opposition perceptible in concrete imagery rather than remaining at the level of abstraction.
- Semantic embodiment: Where colour terms conventionally carry symbolic associations, the device can embody abstract meanings — such as purity, corruption, vitality, or grief — in concrete visual form, condensing conceptual contrast into a compact image.
- Ornamental elaboration: The deliberate pairing of contrasting colour terms can produce an effect of verbal ornamentation, lending the expression aesthetic richness through patterned contrast and lexical variation.
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
- Source Example
تَرَدَّى ثِيَابَ الْمَوْتِ حُمْرًا فَمَا أَتَى
لَهَا اللَّيْلُ إِلَّا وَهْيَ مِنْ سُنْدُسٍ خُضْرُShe donned the red garments of death — yet every night came to her only as green silk.
- Explanation
- The verse by Abū Tammām contrasts ḥumran (red) with khuḍr (green), opposing colour terms within a single verse.[1][2]
- Constructed Example
كَانَ قَلْبُهُ أَبْيَضَ كَالثَّلْجِ، فَعَادَ أَسْوَدَ كَالفَحْمِ.
His heart was once white as snow; it returned black as coal.
- Explanation
- The sentence contrasts abyaḍ (white) with aswad (black), two explicit colour terms in direct opposition within a single expression — the defining criterion of al-tadbīj.
Different From
- Parallel Antithesis - Nāṣif et al. (2012) classify Colour Contrast as a subtype of Parallel Antithesis, the broader device of opposition between paired meanings; Colour Contrast is the specific case where the opposing terms are colour words.[1]
- ANTITH: Antithesis of two terms - ʿAkkāwī (1996) relates Colour Contrast - particularly in its al-mukhālif subtype — to al-ṭibāq, the opposition between two contrary terms.[2]
Notes
- Etymology: The term al-tadbīj derives from al-dībāj (al-dībāj), a Persian loanword for brocade silk, associated with ornamentation and variegated colouring.[2]
- Attribution: ʿAkkāwī (1996) attributes the identification of al-tadbīj as a distinct rhetorical device to Ibn Abī al-Iṣbaʿ al-Miṣrī.[2]
- Classificatory divergence: Nāṣif et al. (2012) classify al-tadbīj as a subtype of al-muqābala; ʿAkkāwī (1996) treats it as an independent device related to al-ṭibāq.[1][2]
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) records that Ibn Sinān recognised a second meaning of al-tadbīj, which he termed al-mukhālif (the contrasting), described as that which approximates al-taḍādd. Some scholars count this under al-muṭābiq.[2]
References
- ↑ a b c d e Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 107, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h 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), 298-299.
Page history
- 2026-02-10 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CB-2: Colour Contrast to COLCONT: Colour Contrast.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2025-04-15 - Page created: Colour Contrast.
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