GRPDIFF: Grouping and Differentiating Two Items

    From The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric

    الجمع مع التفريق
    GRPDIFF: Grouping and Differentiating Two Items
    CategoryLinguistic Embellishments
    (ʿilm al-badīʿ)
    SubcategoryGrouping & Distinguishing
    Built upon8 sources
      
    Annotation Unit
    ARDT CodeGRPDIFF
    Level1 (Rhetorical device)
      
    Included in Taxonomy
    ARDTv0.1.1
    v0.1.0
      
    External Identifiers
    BALAGHAScoreCB-5
    BalaghaBaseQ86
    OpenAlexW4415372668
      
    Cite this page
    🔗 Live DOI10.64393/balagha.Q86
     
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    Definition

    Grouping and Differentiating Two Items (al-jamʿ maʿa al-tafrīq) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which two things are brought together within one shared meaning or ruling, while the distinct aspect by which each enters that shared meaning is differentiated.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

    Background Information

    The Arabic name al-jamʿ maʿa al-tafrīq (“grouping together with differentiation”) directly describes the operation: two things are brought together within one shared meaning (jamʿ), while the distinct aspect by which each enters that meaning is differentiated (tafrīq).[6][7][8]

    Linguistic Operations

    • Two subjects are brought together under one shared meaning, ruling, or comparison (jamʿ), establishing a common frame within which they are differentiated.[6][7][8][1][2][3][5]
    • The two aspects by which each subject was subsumed under that shared predicate are then differentiated (tafrīq) — that is, a distinct jiha (aspect or mode of inclusion) is specified for each subject.[1][2][3][5]
    • The basis of either the grouping or the differentiation may be similarity or opposition in circumstances, attributes, causes, effects, or comparable relations.[5]

    Recognition

    The following diagnostic tests aid identification:

    • Two or more subjects are mentioned.
    • A single predicate, ruling, or comparison is applied to both subjects.
    • A subsequent specification assigns a distinct aspect (jiha) to each subject, derived from that shared predicate.
    • The grouping and differentiation are integrated within a common linguistic structure, rather than merely occurring in separate statements that happen to describe related or contrasting subjects.

    Communicative Enhancements

    • It makes a shared relation cognitively salient before or alongside the differentiation: the addressee processes the subjects under one common meaning or ruling while also recognising the distinct aspect through which that ruling applies to each.
    • It can make the difference between the subjects more prominent than if the corresponding facts were stated independently, because the differentiation occurs within an explicitly established common frame.
    • It can sharpen comparison or contrast by presenting difference within commonality: what the subjects share provides the basis against which their distinct aspects become salient.
    • The rhetorical effect therefore depends not merely on mentioning different attributes of two subjects, but on linguistically integrating their grouping and differentiation.

    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

    فَوَجْهُكَ كَالنَّارِ فِي ضَوْئِهَا، وَقَلْبِي كَالنَّارِ فِي حَرِّهَا

    Your face is like fire in its light, and my heart is like fire in its heat.

    — Rashīd al-Dīn al-Waṭwāṭ

    Explanation
    The face and the heart are both grouped under the comparison to fire, then differentiated: the face corresponds to fire's light and radiance, the heart to fire's heat and burning.[1][2][3][4]

    خَلَقْتَنِي مِن نَّارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِن طِينٍ

    You created me from fire, and him from clay.

    — Qurʾān 7:12

    Explanation
    Both Iblīs and Adam are grouped under the single act of creation by God, then differentiated by the material of their creation: fire for Iblīs, clay for Adam.[1]

    وَجْهُهَا كَالْقَمَرِ فِي ضِيَائِهِ، وَصَوْتُهَا كَالْقَمَرِ فِي هُدُوئِهِ.

    Her face is like the moon in its brightness, and her voice is like the moon in its calmness.

    Explanation
    Both the face and the voice are grouped under one comparison to the moon, then differentiated according to the distinct aspect of that comparison (brightness versus calmness).

    Both words were weapons: hers wounded by ridicule, his by accusation.

    Explanation
    The words are first grouped under the shared description of being weapons, then differentiated according to the distinct way in which each causes harm: hers through ridicule, his through accusation.

    See Also

    Notes

    • The term jiha (aspect, mode, or ground of inclusion) is central to the classical definitions of this device. Al-Sakkākī's definition, as cited by ʿAkkāwī (1996), additionally specifies that the two aspects should be mutaqāribayn (closely related or proximate). This qualifier is absent from the definitions given by al-Hāshimī (2019) and Atīq (2002), and has not been incorporated into the core definition above.[2]

    References

    1. ↑ a b c d e Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 197–221, ISBN 9781527316386.
    2. ↑ a b c d e 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), 462-463.
    3. ↑ a b c d ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Atīq, ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2002), 160-161.
    4. ↑ a b W. P. Heinrichs, ‘Rhetorical Figures’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 658, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
    5. ↑ a b c d 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. 50; §77, ISBN 9783447040327.
    6. ↑ a b c Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qazwīnī, known as al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī, al-Īḍāḥ fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ, ed. and comm. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 270-271, ISBN 9782745139078.
    7. ↑ a b c Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, al-Muṭawwal: Sharḥ Talkhīṣ Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Hindāwī, Shurūḥ al-Talkhīṣ 3, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2013), 658, ISBN 9782745131768.
    8. ↑ a b c Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 131.



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