Elamur Research⌕
☰
home / papers / 2020 / Quranic Studies Made in Austria: Approaching Quantitative Arabic Linguistics

Quranic Studies Made in Austria: Approaching Quantitative Arabic Linguistics

Summary

The article does two things. First, it gives a historical account of how Europe came to study Arabic: medieval interest in science texts, Crusade-era polemics, Robert of Ketton's 1143 Latin Quran, Semitic philology, and the later grouping of Arabic with other Islamicate languages. It then turns to Vienna, home of the first Chair of Arabic in the German-speaking world (1962), and to Arne Ambros, a physicist turned Arabist who brought statistical methods into Quranic research. Elmaz argues that Ambros was wrongly left out of an Arabic survey of Orientalism.

Second, the author presents results from his own multi-layered study of hapax legomena (words attested only once) in the Quran, counted at the level of roots. The study finds that unique-root hapaxes are numerous and spread across many suras. It also finds that they cluster strikingly in the rhyme position, especially in early Meccan suras.

The broader claim is that quantitative Arabic linguistics is still immature, but it can reveal new patterns even in an intensively studied text.

Key points

  • The Quranic text was analysed as 78,245 tokens and 1,676 roots. Of these roots, 748 are represented by a single word, and 391 by a single word that occurs exactly once (HLu). The 391 split into 377 triliteral, 13 quadriliteral and 1 multiliteral.
  • HLu appear in 86 suras and 350 ayas, and some ayas hold up to five of them. Longer suras tend to contain more.
  • Some morphological patterns are attested only through hapaxes, for example fuʿlūl (ḥulqūm) and faʿlalīl (zamharīr, salsabīl).
  • Rhyme statistics across 6,236 ayas:
    • About 75% end in a long vowel plus a consonant (31.09% –ūC, 36.20% –īC, 5.48% –āC).
    • N is the final consonant in 3,121 ayas (50.05%).
  • Roughly one in three HLu sits in rhyme position (fHLu), mostly in early and middle Meccan suras. As a result, about 1 in 20 early Meccan ayas rhymes on a hapax. A complete hapax list for the Quran did not exist until 2001.

Interesting ideas

  • I1. Measuring rarity on roots instead of surface forms separates genuinely unique lexical material from words that merely have rare inflections, which makes rarity counts more meaningful in morphologically rich text.
  • I2. Crossing word rarity with structural position (here, verse-final rhyme slots) showed that rare items are not randomly placed but gather in marked positions.
  • I3. Listing morphological templates that are witnessed only by one-off words gives an inventory of grammar knowledge resting on a single example.
  • I4. Before interpreting hapax counts per sura, the study notes that longer units simply tend to contain more of them, which is a size baseline that guards against reading length effects as meaning.

For Mova

How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests:

  • I1 (tokens): Compute singleton statistics over lemmas as well as forms, and route lemma-level singletons to review of the lemmatizer and morphology tables instead of treating every rare form as unknown.
  • I2 (learn): Slice parser and tagger evaluation by rarity × sentence position to see whether errors cluster on rare words in specific slots, and target silver-data collection there.
  • I3 (tokens): Mark suffix or derivation rules supported by only one attested lemma as low-confidence, so the analyzer explains when it relies on such fragile evidence.
  • I4 (learn): Add document-length baselines as negative controls, checking that a metric (e.g., unknown lemmas or frame failures) is not just tracking text size.

Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.

Fields: Linguistics & languages

Topics Semitic languages

 Institutions

🎓University of St AndrewsSt Andrews · United Kingdom3 works · 14 citations

Cite

Cite as Orhan Elmaz. 2020. Quranic Studies Made in Austria: Approaching Quantitative Arabic Linguistics. Journal of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies 38 (مجلة كلية الشريعة والدراسات الإسلامية 38).

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

@article{elmaz2020quranic,
  title = {{Quranic Studies Made in Austria: Approaching Quantitative Arabic Linguistics}},
  author = {Orhan Elmaz},
  journal = {Journal of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies 38 (مجلة كلية الشريعة والدراسات الإسلامية 38)},
  year = {2020},
  doi = {10.29117/jcsis.2020.0261},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.29117/jcsis.2020.0261}
}

References

47 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

  1. Abdul-Raof, Hussein. Qur’an Translation: Discourse, Texture and Exegesis (Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001). find
  2. Al-Bassūmī, Bāsim Saʿīd. Muʿjam al-farāʾid al-qurāʾniyyah (al-Bīrah: Markaz nūn li-l-dirāsāt wa-l-abḥāth al-qurʾāniyyah, 2001). find
  3. Al-Ḥāj, Sāsī Sālim. Naqd al-khiṭāb al-istishrāqī: al-ẓāhirah al-istishrāqiyyah wa-atharuhā fī l-dirāsāt al-islāmiyyah (Beirut: Dār al-madād al-islāmī, 2002. find
  4. Al-Shāfiʿī, Ḥusayn Muḥammad Fahmī. Al-Dalīl al-mufahras li-alfāẓ al-qurʾān al-karīm (Cairo: Dār al-salām, 2002). find
  5. Al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbī Bakr. Al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-qurʾān, ed. by (Beirut: al-Maktabah al-ʿaṣriyyah, 1426/2006)). find
  6. Ambros, Arne A. ‘Die morphologische Funktion der Vokalqualitäten im Althocharabischen’, WZKM 65/66 (1973/74):77-150). find
  7. Ambros, Arne A. ‘Die morphologische Funktion des Systems der Vokalqualitäten im Althocharabischen: Teil 2’, WZKM 67 (1975), pp. 93-164. find
  8. Ambros, Arne A. ‘Eine Lexikostatistik des Verbs im Koran’, WZKM 77 (1987), pp. 9-36. find
  9. Ambros, Arne A. ‘Syntaktische und stilistische Funktionen des Energikus im Koran’, WZKM 79 (1989), pp. 35-56. find
  10. Aune, David E. The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament & Early Christian Literature & Rhetoric (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003). find
  11. Bauer, Thomas, Altarabische Dichtkunst: Eine Untersuchung ihrer Struktur und Entwicklung am Beispiel der Onagerepisode (2 vols., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992). find
  12. Billerbeck, Margarethe. Senecas Tragödien: Sprachliche und stilistische Untersuchungen (Leiden: Brill, 1988). find
  13. Brierley, Claire et al., ‘Automatic Extraction of Quranic Lexis Representing Two Different Notions of Linguistic Salience: Keyness and Prosodic Prominence’. Journal of Semitic Studies LXIII/2 (2018): 407-456. find
  14. Chouémi, Moustapha. Le verbe dans le Coran (Paris: Klincksieck, 1966). find
  15. Cornelis de Vos, Jacobus. Das Los Judas: Über Entstehung und Ziele der Landbeschreibung in Josua 15, (Leiden: Brill, 2003). find
  16. Crapon de Caprona, Pierre. Le Coran - aux sources de la parole oraculaire: structures rythmiques des sourates mecquoises, (Paris: Publications orientalistes de France, 1981). find
  17. de Vries, Jan. Altnordische Literaturgeschichte (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1999). find
  18. Eisenstein, Herbert and Stephan Procházka. Arne A. Ambros – ein Nachruf, WZKM 98 (2008), pp. 9-12. find
  19. Elmaz, Orhan. Studien zu den koranischen Hapaxlegomena unikaler Wurzeln (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011). find
  20. Fihris iḥṣāʾ ʿadad kalimāt al-qurʾān al-karīm (http://www.alargam.com/quran2/kalemat) <last accessed 1 May 2017>. ↗
  21. Gerber, Christine. Ein Bild des Judentums für Nichtjuden von Flavius Josephus: Untersuchungen zu seiner Schrift Contra Apionem, (Leiden: Brill, 1997). find
  22. Greenspahn, Frederick E., Hapax Legomena in Biblical Hebrew: A study of the phenomenon and its treatment since antiquity with special reference to verbal forms, (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984). find
  23. Hamp, Eric P. ‘The Indo-European Horse’, in T.L. Markey and J.A.C. Greppin (eds.), When Worlds Collide: The Indo-Europeans and the pre-Indo-Europeans (Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers, 1990) pp. 211-226. find
  24. Jeremias, Jörg. Das Königtum Gottes in den Psalmen. Israels Begegnung mit dem kanaanäischen Mythos in den Jahwe-König-Psalmen, (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1987). find
  25. Karimi-Nia, Morteza. ‘Tak-āmad dar Qorʾān: taḥlili bar vāžehā va tarkibāt-e tak-kārbord dar Qorān-e karim’, Pažuhešhā-ye Qorʾān va Hadīṯ 47/2 (2014-2015): 247-284. find
  26. Katz, Elíás. HUAHA: Die Bedeutung des Hapax Legomenon der Qumraner Handschriften. (Bratislava: Khiḍr, Muḥammad Zakī Muḥammad. Muʿjam kalimāt al-qurʾān al-karīm (http://www.al-mishkat.com/words, 1426/2005). ↗
  27. Kyriakou, Poulheria. Homeric hapax legomena in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius: A literary study, (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1995). find
  28. Lachman, Roy et al., Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing: An Introduction (Hillsdale, New Jersey: LEA, 1979). find
  29. Le Guillou, Jean Yves. Le Dit de la campagne d’Igor: Introduction essai d’édition-reconstruction du texte traduction en prose notes historiques et linguistiques. (Montréal: Presses de l’Université du Québec, 1977). find
  30. Macúch, Rudolf. ‘Zur Grammatik und zum Wörterbuch des Mandäischen’, in Rudolf Macúch (ed.), Zur Sprache und Literatur der Mandäer: Mit Beiträgen von Kurt Rudolph und Eric Segelberg. Studia Mandaica (Berlin: de Gruyter 1976), pp. 1-146. find
  31. Nagel, Tilman. Medinensische Einschübe in mekkanischen Suren (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995). find
  32. Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther. Lukians Parasitendialog: Untersuchungen und Kommentar (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1985). find
  33. Neuwirth, Angelika. Studien zur Komposition der mekkanischen Suren: Die literarische Form des Koran - ein Zeugnis seiner Historizität?, (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007). find
  34. Nöldeke, Theodor. Geschichte des Qorāns: Erster Teil. Über den Ursprung des Qorāns, ed. by Friedrich Schwally (Leipzig: Dietrich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1909). find
  35. Pastor de Arozena, Bárbara. ‘En torno al hapax transicional’, Die Sprache 39:1 (1997), pp. 115-122. find
  36. Rippin, Andrew. ‘Lexicographical texts and the Qurʾān’, in Andrew Rippin (ed.), Approaches to the history of the interpretation of the Qurʾān (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 158-174. find
  37. Sadeghi, Behnam, ‘The Chronology of the Qurān: A Stylometric Research Program’. Arabica 58/3 (2011): 210–299. find
  38. Schmid, Nora. K., ‘Quantitative Text Analysis And Its Application To The Qurʾan: Some Preliminary Considerations’, in Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, and Michael Marx (eds), The Qurʾan in Context (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 441-459. find
  39. Selz, Gebhard J. et al., ‘Der ganze Orient: Zur Geschichte der orientalistischen Fächer am Beispiel einer internationalen orientalistischen Zeitschrift: Die Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (WZKM)’, WZKM 100 (2010), pp. 9-35. find
  40. Tilly, Michael. ‘Das Ende des Paulus und die syrische Texttradition Act 28 17-31 in der Überlieferung der Peschitto’, in Friedrich W. Horn (ed.), Das Ende des Paulus, (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2001), pp. 107-125. find
  41. Toorawa, Shawkat. ‘Hapaxes in the Qur’an: Identifying and Cataloguing Loan Words (and Loan Words)’, in New Perspectives on the Qur’an. The Qur’an in Its Historical Context 2, ed. Gabriel S. Reynolds (London: Routledge, 2011), 191–244. find
  42. Toorawa, Shawkat. ‘Hapless Hapaxes and Luckless Rhymes: The Qur’an as Literature’, Religion & Literature 41/2 (2009), pp. 221–227. find
  43. Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997). find
  44. Vydavatel’stvo Slovenskej akadémie vied, 1966). find
  45. Yahuda, A.S. ‘Hapax Legomena im Alten Testament’, The Jewish Quarterly Review 15:4 (1903), pp. 698-714. find
  46. Zammit, Martin R. A Comparative Lexical Study of Qur’ānic Arabic, (Leiden: Brill, 2002). find
  47. Zwiep, Irene. ‘Die Entwicklung der hebräischen Sprachwissenschaft während des Mittelalters’, in Sylvain Auroux/ E.F.K. Koerner/ Hans-Josef Niederehe/ Kees Versteegh (eds.), Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften: Ein internationales Handbuch zur Entwicklung der Sprachforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (2 vols., Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000), vol. 1, pp. 228-234. find

↑ back to top

This page in Markdown → https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/elmaz-2020-quranic-studies-made-austria-approaching/