Verbal Openings in Quran Suras

A Semantic Investigation of Morphological And Grammatical Structure

Abstract

The current research examines verbal openings in Quran Suras, namely the Suras which open with an unconstrained affirmative verb with no negation. It is a semantic study of the verbal structure. The study attempts to answer the following questions: Why do certain Suras start with a verb, not a noun? Why is a particular tense form used? What is its semantic significance? Why is this opening chosen by Allah in certain Suras?

The researcher uses the descriptive-analytic approach, starting the study of Suras with illustrating the general purpose and the circumstantial reasons of its revelation and its relation to what occurs before it. The analysis proceeds by identifying the denotation of the Sura-opening verb and its contextual meaning. Then comes the study of the morphological form of the verb through investigating the following aspects: the meaning of transitivity features, derivational and inflectional affixes, and transitivity roles.

The Study includes three main sections:  Suras opening with the past tense,

Suras opening with the present tense and Suras opening with the imperative.