EVLETTR: Evasive Letterplay

    From The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric

    المواربة
    EVLETTR: Evasive Letterplay
    CategoryLinguistic Embellishments
    (ʿilm al-badīʿ)
    SubcategoryIndirectness & Ambiguity
    Built upon5 sources
      
    Annotation Unit
    ARDT CodeEVLETTR
    Level1 (Rhetorical device)
      
    Included in Taxonomy
    ARDTv0.1.1
    v0.1.0
      
    External Identifiers
    BALAGHAScoreCA-8
    BalaghaBaseQ78
    OpenAlexW4415372146
      
    Cite this page
    🔗 Live DOI10.64393/balagha.Q78
     
    Use this page
    DownloadPDF
    JSON

    Definition

    Evasive Letterplay (al-muwāraba) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which the communicator frames their speech such that, if it attracts censure or blame, its wording can be reinterpreted through a consonantal distortion (taḥrīf), a change in pointing (taṣḥīf), addition or deletion, a grammatical alteration, or a similar modification, in order to escape censure or accountability.[1][2][3][4][5]

    Background Information

    The Arabic name al-muwāraba generally denotes evasive or deceptive manoeuvring. The name therefore reflects the device's central function: the communicator linguistically manoeuvres away from an objectionable reading when challenged.

    Linguistic Operations

    • The communicator produces an utterance containing an element susceptible to reinterpretation through a small formal or grammatical change - such as a change in pointing (taṣḥīf), a consonantal distortion (taḥrīf), addition or deletion, a change in grammatical inflection, or a similar modification - that yields a different meaning.[1][4][3][5]
    • The initial reading is such that it may attract objection, censure, or blame, while the available modification supplies an alternative reading through which the speaker can escape that objection.[1][4][5]
    • If challenged, the speaker can invoke the alternative reading as what was intended, thus avoiding accountability for the original reading.[1][4][5]

    Recognition

    Evasive Letterplay may be present when:

    • An utterance contains a word (or words) susceptible to a small formal or grammatical change - such as altered pointing, a consonantal shift, addition or deletion, or a change in grammatical inflection - that produces a substantially different meaning.[1][2][4][3][5]
    • The initial reading is open to objection, censure, or blame, while the altered reading provides the speaker with a means of escaping that objection.[1][4][5]
    • The speaker may resort to the alternative reading if challenged, as illustrated in the cited source examples.[1][4][5]

    Communicative Enhancements

    Evasive Letterplay:

    • Allows the speaker to escape censure or accountability (li-yaslama min al-muʾākhadha) by invoking an alternative reading of the objectionable utterance.[1][4][3][5]

    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:

    • Use the Definition, Mechanism, and Recognition sections of this page in Step 1.
    • Apply the substitution test in Step 2.
    • Consider contextual indicators in Step 3.
    • Use the Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements section of this page in Step 4.

    Examples

    لقد ضاعَ شِعْرِي على بابِكُم
    كَمَا ضَاعَ عِقْدٌ على خَالِصَه

    My poetry was lost at your doorstep,
    Just as a necklace was lost on Khāliṣa.

    Explanation
    Abū Nuwās composed these lines, using ḍāʿa (was lost). When Caliph al-Rashīd objected, Abū Nuwās claimed he had said ḍāʾa (shone), a reading achievable through a minimal change in pointing. Both ḍāʿa shiʿrī (my poetry was lost) and ḍāʿa ʿiqd (a necklace was lost) could thus be reread as ḍāʾa shiʿrī (my poetry shone) and ḍāʾa ʿiqd (a necklace shone), yielding an entirely different and innocuous meaning.[1][4][5]

    كَتَبَ الصَّحَفِيُّ: «إنَّ هذا المسؤولَ أَكَلَ أَمْوَالَ الشَّعْبِ»

    The journalist wrote: "This official devoured the people's funds."

    Explanation
    The journalist used akala (devoured/embezzled). When called to account, he claimed he had written akkala (fed/provided for), meaning the official had spent the funds on the people's welfare. Since the two forms share an identical unpointed skeleton (أكل), the distinction rests entirely on a tashdid — a diacritical mark — making the escape reading formally available through a minimal change in pointing.

    قالَ الخَطِيبُ: «إنَّ هذا الوَزِيرَ يَخُونُ وَطَنَهُ وَأَهْلَهُ»

    The orator said: "This minister betrays his homeland and his people."

    Explanation
    The orator used yakhūnu (betrays). When challenged, he claimed he had said yakūnu (is/will be), completing the sentence as "this minister will be a sword for his homeland and his people." The two forms differ by a single dot on the first root letter (خ → ك), a minimal consonantal shift that constitutes taḥrīf, and which — in rapid speech or unvocalised writing — renders the escape reading formally plausible.

    The columnist wrote, “This minister is incompetent.”

    Explanation
    When challenged for insulting the minister, the columnist claimed that he had written “This minister is competent,” and that the prefix in- had been added in transmission. The objectionable reading incompetent can therefore be explained away as the result of a minimal formal addition to the innocuous competent, providing the speaker with an escape from accountability. The example illustrates Evasive Letterplay through addition rather than through the Arabic-specific manipulation of consonantal pointing.

    Different From

    • PARONOM: Graphic Paronomasia - depends upon graphic similarity between words differing in their written form or pointing. Evasive Letterplay may employ such graphic alteration, but specifically involves exploiting an alternative reading to escape censure or accountability.[4][3]
    • Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended — Both devices can provide the communicator with a degree of plausible deniability, but they create it differently. Evasive Letterplay provides an alternative linguistic form or reading that the communicator can invoke if challenged. Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended instead retains the wording but allows the communicator to retreat to its outwardly jesting character ("I was only joking"), while its serious meaning remains available to the audience.

    See Also

    References

    1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 121, ISBN 9786144162798.
    2. ↑ a b Basil Hatim, Arabic Rhetoric: The Pragmatics of Deviation from Linguistic Norms, LINCOM Studies in Communication 04 (Munich: Lincom Europa, 2010), 183, ISBN 9783929075731.
    3. ↑ a b c d e 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), pp. 40-41; §61, ISBN 9783447040327.
    4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j 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), 660-661.
    5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 711-712.



    Page History

    You are viewing the live version of this page. Would you like to view the version included in the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1)?
    Retrieved from "https://al-balagha.com/index.php?title=EVLETTR:_Evasive_Letterplay&oldid=17589"