Arabic prepositions are linguistic tools that play vital role in constructing meaning. A reader may easily arrive at an erroneous comprehension in the Qurʾānic discourse if the proper understanding of the prepositions is overlooked. Accordingly, this paper will initiate a corpus-based approach to investigate the functional complexities of علىʿalá throughout the Qurʾān, primarily from a cognitive semantic perspective. The Principled Polysemy Model is responsible for defining the Arabic preposition علىʿalá in two spheres. The first scope is of spatial nature, which is linguistically defined as the PRIMARY SENSE. The second domain embraces a semantic network of EXTENDED SENSES. The original spatial scenario provides foundation for the more abstract, whereby developing a rich set of non-spatial meanings. Cognitive Semantics provides a grounding for prepositional polysemy as a form of categorization in the Holy Qurʾān. The cognitive approach will revitalize the approaches of interpretation and classification. All in all, Cognitive Semantics takes the Arabic prepositions from the mere grammatical function of locating objects within the spectrum of space and time to a linguistic model that scaffolds a considerable number of abstract senses. |
