Departure from Communicative Norms in the Qur'an: Insights from al-Jurjānī and al-Zamakhsharī

Abstract

This article discusses the occurrence of the phenomenon of ‘departure from communicative norms’ in the Qur'an based on the insights of two eminent Qur'anic scholars: al-Jurjānī and al-Zamakhsharī. These two scholars argued that the Qur'an does contain instances where what is said defies what is normally expected in the context in which the utterance involved is produced. To them, such instances call for interpretation, and with this approach they opened up an interesting new territory in Qur'anic interpretation. This article analyses their approach and compares it to an influential theory in Western linguistic scholarship – the Gricean maxims.