Social Identities of Diverse Personae in the Qurᾱnic Story of Joseph A Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

Qurᾱn, true to its denotation, has always been the most read book in the world, though Islam, which is founded on this book, is the youngest of all religions. For unfolding fresh meanings to the present day readership of this holy book, the Qurᾱnic scholarship has yet to benefit from the modern linguistic theories whose application can richly complement the illocutionary and perlocutionary force of its verses. The interpersonal function of language, as Hallidian paradigm defines it, clearly suggests an intimate relationship between social and linguistic identity. Considering this function of language, the researchers conducted this descriptive study which shows that in the Qurᾱnic story of Joseph, social identities of diverse personae are reflected in their linguistic resources. This study fills the gap in the linguistic studies as the sociolinguistic approach to the Qurᾱnic text had not been pursued seriously. In the Qurᾱnic narratives, diverse personae project their individual as well as social identities with their linguistic identity as the linguistic resources which these personae employ vary according to their social role and situation.  The research was guided by the objective of describing the social identity of diverse personae who reveal their personalities through the choice of particular lexical items and preference of their representative order. The study aimed at answering the question as to how different personae in the story of Joseph, related in the twelfth Sūrah of the Qurᾱn named Joseph (Yūsuf), reveal their multifaceted social identities in their peculiar linguistic choices. The analysis of conversations of different personae indicated that their utterances signaled linguistically the socially variegated persons. For this study, the researchers intention is to raise awareness among the Qurᾱnic and linguistic researchers about an important area of research for the Qurᾱnic scholarship and to open up new vistas of meanings yet unexplored and undiscovered.