Binary Oppositions in the Lyrics of Attar Neishabouri

Binary oppositions are among the essential concepts and components of structuralism and linguistic and semiotic theories that are rooted in human ancient beliefs. One of the fundamental functions of the human mind is the creation of binary oppositions, which are seen in art and literature. The study of binary oppositions in literary works leads to a better understanding of them. This article is an attempt to discuss the binary oppositions in the lyrics of Attar Neishabouri. A close study of 100 chosen lyrics of Attar shows that many of the lyrics are formed by binary oppositions and even in some verses there are two, three, or four binary oppositions, as if binary oppositions are the driving force behind many of Attar's lyrics. The study of these lyrics shows that there are 843 cases of binary oppositions of which 47 percent (396 cases) are lexical, 35.5% (298 cases) are semantic, and 17.5 percent (149) are thematic. There are about 8.4 binary oppositions in every lyric which shows the great frequency of this type of diction. The main reason that Attar is interested in binary oppositions is that the poet is influenced by his unconscious, the importance he gives to moral and religious issues, his consideration of mystical concepts, the effect of the social environment and the his interest in aesthetics and music. In short, binary oppositions are considered as one of the stylistic characteristics of Attar's lyrics that have semantic and aesthetics functions.