Ilm al-Ma'ani: The Science of Meanings

The section of Miftah al-Ulum devoted to ilm al-ma'ani represents as-Sakkaki's synthesis of al-Jurjani's theory of nazm with the broader Arabic tradition of analyzing how grammatical choices create communicative effects. Ilm al-ma'ani, as defined by as-Sakkaki, is the study of the properties of Arabic utterances that make them suitable or unsuitable for the occasion of their use — the science of how language relates to communicative purpose.

As-Sakkaki organized ilm al-ma'ani around the major categories of grammatical construction that have rhetorical significance. He addressed: isnad (the predication relation between subject and predicate), the nominal sentence and verbal sentence, the properties that distinguish musnad ilayhi (the subject of predication) and its variations, the categories of khabar (predicate) and their possibilities, questions and their uses, negative constructions and their functions, emphasis and its methods, conjoining and separation of clauses, and the principles of brevity (ijaz) and elaboration (ithab).

For each of these topics, as-Sakkaki did what al-Jurjani had done in Dala'il al-I'jaz but in more organized and encyclopedic fashion: he showed how the same grammatical construction can accomplish different communicative functions depending on context, and how the skilled writer or speaker chooses from among grammatically equivalent alternatives based on the communicative function they want to achieve. This is the fundamental insight of ilm al-ma'ani, and as-Sakkaki's systematic presentation of it became the standard account of the discipline.

A particularly important contribution in this section is as-Sakkaki's treatment of the concept of muqtada al-hal — 'the demands of the situation.' Every rhetorical choice must be evaluated in context; a construction that is appropriate in one situation may be inappropriate in another. The skilled rhetorician knows not only the range of available constructions but how to read the situation that calls for one rather than another. This context-sensitivity is what distinguishes rhetoric from mere grammar, and as-Sakkaki made it the organizing principle of ilm al-ma'ani.

The treatment of interrogative sentences illustrates the approach. Grammatically, an interrogative sentence asks a question. But in practice, interrogative forms accomplish many different things: a genuine question seeks information, but a rhetorical question asserts a proposition, an amazed question expresses wonder, a reproachful question expresses blame, and so on. As-Sakkaki analyzed each of these communicative uses of the interrogative form and provided examples that illustrate the contextual conditions that determine which use is intended.