LessonsPractice 3: Advanced Rhetorical Diagnosis: Correcting Faulty Analyses and Evaluating Arabic ProseQuiz

قَالَ الرَّجُلُ: وَصَلَ الْخَبَرُ، وَلَكِنِّي لَمْ أَتَيَقَّنْ مِنْ صِحَّتِهِ.
The man said: “The report has arrived, but I am not yet certain it is true.”

“The report has arrived” is a declarative statement, but receiving a report is not the same as accepting its content as true. Distinguish the sentence’s form, the claim it expresses, the listener’s understanding and the listener’s assent.

The assertion that every declarative sentence creates assent is false. A listener may understand a proposition yet suspend judgment, doubt it or reject it. Rhetorical analysis must not collapse these states.

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A declarative form is not assent

Practice 3: Advanced Rhetorical Diagnosis: Correcting Faulty Analyses and Evaluating Arabic Prose

قَالَ الرَّجُلُ: وَصَلَ الْخَبَرُ، وَلَكِنِّي لَمْ أَتَيَقَّنْ مِنْ صِحَّتِهِ.
The man said: “The report has arrived, but I am not yet certain it is true.”

“The report has arrived” is a declarative statement, but receiving a report is not the same as accepting its content as true. Distinguish the sentence’s form, the claim it expresses, the listener’s understanding and the listener’s assent.

The assertion that every declarative sentence creates assent is false. A listener may understand a proposition yet suspend judgment, doubt it or reject it. Rhetorical analysis must not collapse these states.