TITLE:
Lexical Associations of the Word Eden in the Qur’an: A Corpus Linguistics Approach
AUTHORS:
Manar Almanea
KEYWORDS:
Arabic Corpus Linguistics, aConcorde, Concordance, Collocations, Eden, Heavens, Lexical Associations, Semantic Association
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.11 No.4,
August
3,
2021
ABSTRACT: This study investigates the use of the term “” Eden in the Qur’an and its lexical associations following a corpus-based research approach. There is a controversy regarding the exact meaning and subsequently the translation of the term Eden in the Qur’an. While some researchers consider Eden to be a general descriptive term of all heavens, others argue that term is a name of some group of those heavens with specific characteristics. The study examines whether or not there are, in the Qur’an, specific lexical association patterns that recur exclusively with the mentioning of Eden as a hereafter reward and which can point to a special use of the term. Along with that basic purpose, the study provides the frequency of the occurrence of the word Eden in the Qur’an as well as its collocations. The tool implemented to search through the Qur’an corpus is the concordance program aConCorde. Three semantic categories of lexical associations are found. They are grouped into description of the heavens of Eden, description and deeds of the inhabitants of Eden who deserved this reward, and description and deeds of Allah who grants this reward. The results of the study revealed that most of the lexically associated and the collocated words are also available in other contexts describing heavens in general. They do not signal a special use of the term.