A Study of Fundamental Differences in Methods of Qasr in Arabic Rhetoric

Qasr or hasr (restriction) is one of the techniques of semantics that can be used in different ways. Most of former thinkers believed that despite differences that exist in how these methods convey meaning to readers or audience, they function similarly. This research is a descriptive-analytical study of methods of qasr and tries to elaborate on the fundamental differences among these methods. It is also an attempt to invalidate former thinkers’ claim and tries to find the answer to this question: Can we assert that different methods of qasr are the same and have similar function although we know that those methods have been influenced by syntax. To find the answer to this question, different methods of qasr are introduced first, and then they are compared so that their differences are revealed. In conclusion, it is proved that every method of qasr has a specific meaning which makes its unique and it is not possible to consider different methods of qasr identical in terms of their function. It is also shown that all structures of qasr are based on syntactic rules and the issue of wujub which has entered rhetoric from semantics is a distinctive factor which distinguishes maqsur (the thing restricted) from maqsur alayh. Finally, qasr through negation and exception is the most important method of qasr because it has a peculiar syntactic structure.