LessonsSupplementary Comprehensive Examination — Advanced Arabic Texts and Evidence-Based Rhetorical AnalysisQuiz

«وَالصُّبْحِ إِذَا تَنَفَّسَ»
By the dawn when it breathes.

The verb tanaffasa denotes breathing, an action of living beings. It presents the emergence and spread of dawn as if it were a living thing taking breath.

A classical analysis may treat this as compatible with implicit metaphor (istiʿārah makniyyah): dawn is assigned an action characteristic of an implied animate comparator. The omitted comparator and its sign should be explained rather than asserted without analysis.

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Passage 13: dawn described as breathing

Supplementary Comprehensive Examination — Advanced Arabic Texts and Evidence-Based Rhetorical Analysis

«وَالصُّبْحِ إِذَا تَنَفَّسَ»
By the dawn when it breathes.

The verb tanaffasa denotes breathing, an action of living beings. It presents the emergence and spread of dawn as if it were a living thing taking breath.

A classical analysis may treat this as compatible with implicit metaphor (istiʿārah makniyyah): dawn is assigned an action characteristic of an implied animate comparator. The omitted comparator and its sign should be explained rather than asserted without analysis.