Plurals of the Fewness and Plurality and the Exchange of its Use in the Holy Qur’an

Abstract

The main idea of this research revolves around explaining the exceptions to the characteristics of the plurals of few and many, and the cases of their use in the Holy Quran. The topic is of great importance as it confirms the word-meaning relationship and justifies the change of plurals’ characteristics in some positions by analyzing plurals’ models in the Holy Qur’an in a linguistic, stylistic and rhetorical analysis. The research is initiated from the problematic: What are the motives for bringing a plural in the place of another plural, and what is its impact on the Qur’anic style? And what are the positions where plurals substitute each other? This research aims to define plurals and clarify the relationship between the type of plural and the place of its use, and to identify the exceptions to the characteristics of some plurals in the Holy Quran. It also aims to explain the use of plural elsewhere in the Holy Quran, and the rhetorical purpose was mentioned in that. Several approaches were adopted in the rooting and elaboration of this research: Descriptive, analytical, inductive, and comparative. Through the research outputs, we conclude that the exchanging plurals is an accurate rhetorical method, and the most important results of the research are that the plural of the few from three to ten and the plural of the many above to ten, and some said the plural of the many starts from the three as well; except for the formula of the utmost plurals that begins with eleven, just as the two plurals may occur, one of them is the place of the other, and it came in many verses of the Holy Quran, the plural of the many in the place of the few, or vice versa; this is due to several reasons, the most important of which are; that the aforementioned plural be more used than the other, or that it be modified to suit the context; as if it is to belittle or humiliate, so the few are used in the place of abundance, and the interaction of the plurals has contributed to the beauty of the expression of the Holy Quran and the miraculous meaning of its meaning, so the used plural suggests some rhetorical meanings that the other would not suggest if it was used.