WISH: Wish
| WISH: Wish | |
|---|---|
| Category | Sentence Construction & Syntactical Stylistics (‘ilm al-ma‘ānī) |
| Subcategory | Sentence-Type Switches |
| Balaghascore.com | |
| Code | A-6 |
| BalaghaBase.org | |
| Code | Q47 |
| OpenAlex | |
| ID | W4415329732 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q47 |
| Download PDF | |
| Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.0, v0.1.1 |
Definition
The particles laʿlla and ʿasā are used in the context of a wish that an outcome which is possible would occur. The particles layta, law and hal are used to wish that an impossible outcome may occur.
The use of particles normally used with possible things but to denote impossibility, and vice-versa, can have rhetorical effects.[1][2][3]
Example
أمارس الرياضة لساعة واحدة كل يوم، لعّلي أمنع اقتراب الشيخوخة به.
I exercise for an hour every day, hoping to prevent the approach of old age by it.
Explanation
The communicator uses the word laʿlla to suggest that preventing the approach of old age is possible by exercising for an hour every day. However, preventing the approach of old age is an impossibility. The communicator's objective is to hint at the intensity of the exercise, or the seriousness of the intention, through using this rhetorical device.
References
- ↑ Hussein Abdul-Raof, Arabic Rhetoric: A Pragmatic Analysis (Oxford: Routledge, 2006), 119-120, ISBN 9780415386098. DOI: 10.4324/9780203965399
- ↑ Ayman Amin Abd Al-Ghani, Al-Kāfī fī al-Balāgha: Al-Bayān, wa al-Badiʿ wa al-Maʿānī (Cairo: Dār al-Tawfīqiyya lil-Turāth, 2011), 353-356.
- ↑ Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 38, ISBN 9786144162798.
Page history
- 2026-02-10 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from A-4: Wish to WISH: Wish.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2024-04-22 - Page created: Wish.
