1.    Introduction

Discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary study trend that emerged from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s following extensive scientific and epistemological changes in disciplines such as sociology, linguistics, semiotics, etc. (Fairclough, 2001, p­.­7). According to Slembrouck (2006, p. 2) this type of analysis “studies language beyond sentence boundaries and the interrelationships of language and society”. Critical discourse analysis is a new approach to discourse analysis that has been used in a wide range of research in recent decades. According to Van Djke (2004, p. 4) “the objective of critical discourse analysis is to find the ideology behind the texts to clarify the unstated words”. Nowadays, various methods have been proposed for the critical analysis of texts, one of the important ones Van Leeuwen's model (2008). This model introduces the social actors by addressing the hidden socio-semantics elements in the heart of linguistic components (Yarmohammadi, 2006, p. 62). “In his model, Van Leeuwen's presents social actors in a networked system where the possible union begins among different types of language, the sociology of language, and the characteristics of discourse” (Meghdari and Jahangiri, 2015, p. 126).

Leeuwen introduced critical discourse analysis to society and he considered socio-semantics indicators as the criterion for his analysis due to the lack of an absolute direct relationship between linguistic indicators and their role (Pahlevannejad et al., 2009, p.54). According to Van Leeuwen (2008, p. 4), “Using the socio-semantics components of discourse rather than the mere linguistic components is a powerful tool for text analysis”. Critical discourse analysis has vital importance in Qur’anic studies, so scholars examine a list of dichotomies between what is explicitly mentioned in the text of the verse and what is implied through the text using it (Jorfi and Mohammadian, 2014, p. 4).  Hence, Qur’anic discourse became a verbal event whose main elements are sender, receiver, message, and purpose (Yaqtin, 1989, p. 9). Among these, the purpose element has a significant role due to its impact on the author's speech and the way it is made. Besides, the purpose element interprets many stylistic variables of the linguistic process (Meftah, 1990, p. 167). Accordingly, the purpose of discourse analysis of Qur’anic verses is to describe the figurative meaning of the sentence (Aghagolzadeh, 2006, p. 46). Therefore, this study using Van Leeuwen's model attempts to clarify the hidden ideologies of discourse-oriented components of the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS) in Surah An-Naml. In Surah An-Naml, the narration of the story of the Prophet with the Queen Belqis is depicted and it has significant actors and speech acts. Therefore, Van Leeuwen's model is fully compatible with it.

1-1- Research questions

The present study, after examining the discourse-oriented structures of the narration of Prophet Solomon (AS) in Surah An-Naml based on Van Leeuwen's model, attempt to answer the following questions:

1-1-1- How Van Leeuwen's theory and the representation of social actors affect the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS) according to the Socio - semantics components of Surah An-Naml?

1-1-2- What is the motivation for applying the discourse - oriented components to the social actors?

2- Literature Review

Some studies have been done concerning the discourse-oriented analysis in the Holy Qur’an, a few cases of them will be mentioned here:

Seyyedi and Hamedi (2012) in an article entitled "Discourse analysis of verses concerning the Resurrection in the last two parts of the Qur'an" by analyzing the linguistic context of the verses about the Resurrection, have concluded that this type of discourse is more in line with warning and awakening the negligence and certainty of the resurrection.

Davoudi Moghaddam (2014) in her article “Literary-Linguistic Analysis of the Qur'anic Story of Moses and Khizr from the Viewpoint of Discourse Systems” claims that the analysis of discourse systems can be used to demonstrate the skillful processing of the structure of Qur'anic stories.

Pakatchi, Shairi, and Rahnamaa (2015) in their article entitled" Tensive Semiotics of Discourse in Surah Al-Qariah, a New Approach in Semiotics of the Qur’anic Discourse”, after reviewing Surah Al-Qara'a using the analysis of discourse processes, concluded that the discourse processes of Surah Al-Qara'a as a whole have proceeded in accordance with the descending tensive structure and in the direction of the disengagement discursive act.

Hosseini and Radmard (2015) in the article “The Effect of Tempo-spatial Context on Speech Act Analysis; Comparing the Frequency Speech Acts in Meccan & Medinan Surahs of Holy Qur’an” believed that by analyzing the speech acts in Meccan and Medinan Surahs of Qur'an, the expression of Devine and Islamic knowledge has gained the highest volume in Meccan Surahs, while direction, prohibition, giving good tidings, and warnings are of higher priority in Medinan Surahs.

Fallah and Shafipoor (2020) in an article entitled “A Comparative Analysis of Discourse-Oriented Contexts of Prophet Noah in two Surahs of Hood and Noah Based on Van Leeuwen's Framework” scrutinize the way social actors are represented by the narrative of Noah and his people according to sociological-semantic components to produce and transmit specific ideologies in the lower layers of the text in the condition of revelation era in Hood and Noah surahs.

Considering the literature review, so far no research has been done on the study and analysis of the discourse-oriented structures of the story of Prophet Solomon (AS) in Surah An-Naml, using Van Leeuwon's model. There is a similarity between the present article and the article of Fallah and Shafipoor (2020), although it is due to their similar theoretical framework. In the story of Prophet Solomon (AS), unlike the story of Prophet Noah (AS), Prophet Solomon (AS) is the main character and has all the natural and supernatural possibilities and intends to face a powerful queen who is a polytheist toward God. Both try to resolve the issue through conversation and in an expedient way, so the story of Solomon (AS) and Queen Belqis has significant actors and speech acts, and the mentioned model is fully adaptable to it. Undoubtedly, conducting such research can play an effective role in enlightening the audience about how to present various Qur'anic concepts. As well, it can purify the importance of using language in expressing these concepts and discovering the linguistic structures of the Holy Qur’an for the audience.

3- Analysis of Discourse – Oriented components of Van Leeuwen's in the Prophet Solomon (AS) Narrative

1. Each discourse using its principle produces a proportionate method to analyze the social phenomena because it is a language beyond sentence and phrase (Jaworski and Coupland, 1999, p. 1). Considering this matter, in this section, Van Leeuwen's discourse-oriented components are extracted from the narrative of the prophet Solomon (AS) and the purposes of using each of them is determined. Van Leeuwen's model is based on two main branches called exclusion and inclusion, each of them will be explained below.

3-1- Exclusion

Van Leeuwen's first component is exclusion. “Exclusion means that many social actors are not represented in the text” (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 29). Exclusion or inclusion of social actors depends on the goals and interests of the author of the text and discourse. Of course, in all cases, the exclusion of actors is not discourse-oriented and sometimes is unintentional, which is why, in Van Leeuwen's model (2008, p. 28), the exclusion is sometimes purposely, depending on the goals and interests of the producers of the text, and sometimes is innocent. It is assumed that the reader is aware of the identity of the removed actor and knows him/ her. Purposely exclusion is done in suppression and backgrounding formats in the text. In suppression, the exclusion is such that social actor recognition is by no means possible because the verb is passive. In backgrounding, although the social actor is excluded, and leaves a (literal) trace elsewhere in the text (ibid). In the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS), in verse18, 38 items have been excluded, 29 of which are in the form of backgrounding and 9 in the form of suppression. Sometimes both cases of exclusion, backgrounding and suppression, are mentioned together so that God Almighty is the center of attention: “And Solomon (AS) was David's heir. He said: "O, ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds, and on us has been bestowed [a little] of all things: this is indeed Grace Manifest [from Allah.]” (An-Naml, 16). In this verse, the backgrounding occurs in the verb “said” which refers to Prophet Solomon (AS) according to its context.  The verbs “taught” and “bestowed” come in the passive form and the main actor, Allah", has been excluded. Leeuwen believed that it is not possible to identify the main actor in suppression, but in this verse, this can be understood from the previous verse: We gave [in the past] knowledge to David and Solomon: And they both said: “Praise be to Allah, Who has favored us above many of his servants who believe!" (An-Naml, 15).

3-2- Inclusion

The discourse mechanism of a communication event involves various processes of text construction and application, leading to discourse analysis of the text, not merely textual analysis. Analysis of texts resting on the socio-semantics system occurs when texts are set in the social conditions of production and consumption (Richardson, 2007, p. 41). Thus, the main tool for understanding this process is to examine the methods of representation and inclusion of social actors of the text. Leeuwen (2008, p. 31) states the inclusion of social actors as follows: “Whenever the social actor is present in the discourse, the phenomenon of inclusion has occurred”. He classifies it into role allocation, reference allocation, and type allocation.

2. 2.2.1. Role allocation

Leeuwen (2008, p. 32) believed: “The roles that are given to social actors to play in representations determine the actor or patient”. This given action takes activation or passivation formats. In activation, the social actor is defined as a dynamic and effective force (ibid). Unlike suppression, inclusion is used thoroughly in this narrative. In the role allocation section, the activation component of social actors can be observed in 14 cases, for example, in verses 16 and 17 of surah An-Naml, the knowledge of talking to birds and having many possessions and armies has been attributed to God and has been done  to activate "Allah"`s role:

And Solomon was David's heir. He said: "O ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds, and on us has been bestowed [a little] of all things: this is indeed Grace Manifest [from Allah.]" (An-Naml, 16) And before Solomon were marshalled his hosts, - of Jinns and men and birds, and they were all kept in order and ranks (An-Naml, 17).

Van Leeuwen (2008, p. 33) “claims that passivation occurs when social actors are represented as those who are undergoing and accepting the activity”. The passivated social actor can be presented as one who is subjected to or benefits. In subjected case, the social actor is assigned a task, but in the latter, the social actor benefits from the result of the action (ibid). In this narrative, the passivation has been seen in 6 cases, for example, He said [to his own men]: "Ye chiefs! Which of you can bring me her throne before they come to me in submission" (An-Naml, 38). In this verse, after introducing Prophet Solomon (AS) as an active actor, The Belqis people are defined as passive actors who are directly influenced and cannot resist. In this narrative, all cases of passivity were concerned with the infidels.

3-2-1-Reference allocation

Van Leeuwen (2008, p. 36) states that “In any discourse, social actors are given human or non-human characteristics”. The following refers to each of these categories and their subcategories:

3-2-2-1- Personalization

How social actors are personalized in discourse has a high impact on the attitudes toward them. The social actor personalization methods not only find the group the actor is a member of it, but also find the relationship between the naming person and the named person (Richardson, 2007, p. 49). Personalization is divided into indetermination and determination. Indetermination occurs when the identities of social actors represented in the form of human characteristics are “anonymous” and determination occurs when their identities are “known” (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 39). Indetermination is commonly represented by indefinite pronouns (“somebody,” “someone,” “some,” “some people”) (ibid). Indetermination occurs 10 times in the narrative of the Prophet Solomon (AS), most of them are the terms "People" and "Chiefs", each with three frequencies. Consider the following verse from the quotes of Prophet Solomon (AS): 

 “And on us has been bestowed [a little] of all things: this is indeed Grace Manifest [from Allah]” (An-Naml/16).

And this is what Hoopoe says about the Queen of Sheba:

“I found [there] a woman ruling over them; and provided with every requisite and she has a magnificent throne” (An-Naml/23).

In the above verses, indetermination occurs in the word “with every requisite “(of anything). The same combination of the phrases in both verses shows that the activation process is attributed to God. But the Queen of Sheba is not guided. Other examples of indetermination can be found in verses 15, 24, 32, 40, and 43. 

On the other hand, if the identities of social actors represented in the form of human characteristics are clearly expressed, the method of determination is used (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p.  37). Determination as another tool of personalization has vital importance in the text. It attributes specific social meanings and values to the social actor and creates a kind of coherence between him/her and the other social actors. Leeuwen (2008: 38) divides determination into four types: association, differentiation, nomination, and categorization. In the association sense, personalized social actors form groups that have the same opinion about an activity or do the same action. 10 cases of association comes in verses 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 25, 33, 34, and 37. For example, in verse 18 which is another example of association, the act of crushing the ants is associated with the Prophet Solomon (AS) and his army using a conjunction (and). 

“When they came to a [lowly] valley of ants, one of the ants said: O ye ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you without knowing It” (An-Naml/18).

Also, by using a conjunction (and), the power of God is well demonstrated in verse 25, that is, revealing what is in the heavens and the earth and what human beings hide and show.

 “Should not worship Allah, who brings to light what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knows what ye hide and what ye reveal” (An-Naml/25).

Differentiation explicitly separates an individual social actor or group of social actors from a similar actor or group, making difference between the “self” and the “other” or between “us” and “them” (Van Leewen, 2008, p. 40).

In the differentiation sense, what is most evident in the Prophet Solomon narrative is God's grace to some of his/her servants. For example, in the following verses, Solomon speaks of the bounty that God Almighty had on him and his father, and that He exalted them over many believers (An-Naml/16). Besides, this issue is emphasized in the rest of the narration and verse 40.

 “We gave [in the past] knowledge to David and Solomon and they both said: Praise be to Allah, who has favored us above many of his servants who believe” (15). “And Solomon was David’s heir. He said: O ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds and on us has been bestowed [a little] of all things, this is indeed Grace Manifest [from Allah]” (An-Naml/16).

Some tools are used to represent social actors in the nomination and categorization processes. The social actors are represented in terms of their unique identities and by being nominated in the nomination process, while the categorization occurs when social actors are represented in terms of identities and functions they share with others (Van Leeuwan, 2008, p. 40). Naming and titling are two sub-categories of nomination. In the naming sub-category, the proper name of the actor is often mentioned, such as Allah, Solomon, David, and Hoopoe. In the titling sub-branch, the title of the actor is stated, such as Lord of the Throne Supreme and Lord of the worlds.

"Allah" and "Solomon" are two examples of naming that each was mentioned 6 times in the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS). Also, the word "Lord" is considered as a sample of title in this narrative. It is mentioned 5 times and refers to “Allah”.

In the categorization process, social actors are represented in terms of identities and functions they share with others, not their unique identities (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 40). Three key types of categorization are functionalization, identification, and appraisement. Functionalization occurs when social actors are represented in terms of an activity they do (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 42). There are two types of positive functions (8 times) and negative functions (2 times) in the narrative of the Prophet Solomon (AS), for instance, when Queen Belqis receives the letter of Solomon (AS), she gathers the heads of states and consults with them. In doing so, she is giving them a positive function: “She said: Ye chiefs! Advise me in [this] my affair: no affair have I decided except in your presence” (An-Naml/32).  The word "Chiefs” refers to the aristocracy class because their awe conquers the hearts (Tabarsi, 1998, p. 134).

Considering the main theme of the story, Satan plays a negative function due to preventing the people of Sheba from worshiping God and keeping them away from the Path of guidance:

“I found her and her people worshipping the sun besides Allah: Satan has made their deeds seem pleasing in their eyes, and has kept them away from the Path, so they receive no guidance” (An-Naml/24).

Identification occurs when social actors are introduced, not regarding what they do, but regarding what they are inevitable to do (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 42). Its three types are classification, relational identification, and physical identification. In terms of classification, social actors are represented concerning the major categories that a given society differentiates between the groups of people, like wealth, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, provenance, and so on. In relational identification, the social actors are represented regarding their personal, kinship, friendship, or work relations with each other, and are understood by a closed set of nouns standing for such relations: “brother,” “friend,” “aunt,” “mother,” “colleague,” etc. (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p.43). Physical identification occurs when social actors are represented concerning their distinctive physical characteristics in a given context (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 44).

23 types of identification occur in the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS). Examples are given below:

  “…she was of a people that had no faith [sprung]” (An-Naml/43). (Classification)

 “And Solomon was David’s heir. He said: O ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds, and on us has been bestowed [a little] of all things, this is indeed Grace Manifest [from Allah]” (An-Naml/16). (Relational identification)

“And before Solomon were marshaled his hosts of Jinns and men and birds and they were all kept in order and ranks at length” (An-Naml/17). (Physical identification)

In the appraisement sense, social actors are referred to in terms that assess them as admired or pitied, good or bad (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 45). Also, appraisement is shown in 9 terms: Believers, Righteous Servants, Absentees, Liars, Muslims, Humiliated, Infidels, Ignorant, and Unguided. Except for Ignorant, these terms were quoted by the Prophet Solomon (AS).

A social actor can play one or more social roles simultaneously. If the actor plays only one social role, it is a single-case specification, and if it plays more than one social role, it is a multi-case specification (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 46).

The single-case specification occurs 5 times in the narrative of the Prophet Solomon (AS). For instance, “I found [there] a woman ruling over them; and provided with every requisite and she has a magnificent throne” (An-Naml/23).  The only role of Hoopoe is to convey the message that is mentioned in this verse and verse 28 of Al-Naml Surah.   

Multi-case inversion occurs when the multi-case roles of the social actor are in contrast with each other such as good and bad, black and white. Symbolic multi-case occurs when the multi-case role of the social actor is imaginary. In multi-case connotation, the social actor occupies an implicit and virtual role other than the main role. The multi-case compression refers to the abstract role of the social actor in which a specific attribute is taken from a group of social actors and then is assigned to each member of that group (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 40). In the aforementioned narrative, the multi-case method has been used 12 times, for example:

 “I found her and her people worshipping the sun besides Allah…” (An-Naml/24). (Symbolic multi-case, the Queen of Sheba and her people besides their various roles, symbolically worship the sun).

“That they [kept them away from the path] should not worship Allah, Who brings to light what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knows what ye hide and what ye reveal” (An-Naml/25). (It is multi-case inversion due to two opposite roles of actors (what is hidden and what is revealed)).

“They said: we are endued with strength, and given to vehement war: but the command is with thee; so consider what thou wilt command” (An-Naml/33). (Multi-case compression, strength and bravery of actors are two roles that have been given to the actors in line with each other).

 “Said one who had knowledge of the book: I will bring it to thee within the twinkling of an eye! Then when [Solomon] saw it placed firmly before him, he said: this is by the Grace of my Lord…” (An-Naml/40). (Multi-case connotation, the actor is responsible for moving the throne of Queen Belqeis as well as the role of the consultant).

3-2-2-2- Impersonalization

Whenever a social actor is represented with inhuman characteristics, the method of impersonalization is used (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 46). Two types of impersonalization are abstraction and objectivation. The social actors in abstraction are represented using a quality assigned to them by and in the representation (Ibid). Impersonalization occurs once in verse 36:

“Now when [the embassy] came to Solomon, he said: will ye give me abundance in wealth? But that which Allah has given me is better than that which He has given you! Nay, it is ye who rejoice in your gift” (An-Naml/36). (The social actor "wealth" has been introduced as a tool by the people of Sheba to help Solomon).

In objectivation, the social actor is represented by another actor. One type of objectivation is spatialization in which the social actor is represented using a reference to a place with which it is in the given context. Instrumentalization is another form of objectivation in which the social actor is represented via reference to the instrument with which it performs the action. In utterance autonomization, which is another form of objectivation, a social actor is represented by reference to its utterances. If the social actor is represented by reference to a part of its body, somatization occurs which is the last form of objectivation (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 46). Objectivation occurs three times in the narrative of the Prophet Solomon (AS):

 “But the Hoopoe tarried not far: he [came up and] said: I have compassed which thou hast not compassed, [territory] and I have come to thee from Sheba with tiding true” (An-Naml/22).  (There is no news about the social actor “Sheba”, but the people of this land are meant. “Spatialization”).

“Said: Ye chiefs! Here is [The queen] delivered to me a letter worthy of respect” (29) “It is from Solomon, and is [as follows]: In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, and Most Merciful” (An-Naml/30).  (“Worthy of respect” is an attribute of man and is attributed to the letter which is the writing of the actor, Solomon (AS). “Autonomization”).

“But I am going to send him a present, and [wait] to see with what [answer] return [my] ambassadors” (An-Naml/35). (Attribute waiting to the eye, instead of man. “Somatization”).

3-2-3- Type allocation

As previously mentioned, inclusion includes allocation, reference allocation, and type allocation. Type allocation occurs when the social actor is represented in general (gender) or specific (type) (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 37). Two kinds of type allocation are genericisation and specification. Genericisation occurs when the social actor denotes something general like human, animal, evil, goodness, and etc. (ibid).

In this narrative, the genericisation component is used in 9 cases. For instance:

“I found her and her people worshipping the sun besides Allah…” (An-Naml/24).

In this verse, the word "people" which refers to the general, is considered as genericisation.

Specification occurs when the social actor refers to a specific thing or a specific group, like Muslims and Christians (Van Leeuwen, 2008, p. 37).  Leeuwen (ibid) classifies specification into individualization and assimilation. In individualization, the social actors are represented as individuals. In assimilation, the social actors are represented as groups (ibid).

In the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS) specification occurs in 7 cases. For example:

 “…praise be to Allah, who has favored us above many of his servants who believe” (An-Naml/ 15). “….for she was of a people that had no faith [sprung]” (An-Naml/43).

"Believers" and " Infidels” refer to a specific group and fall into the category of specification.

Table 1: Frequency of Van Leeuwen discourse-oriented components in the narrative of the Prophet Solomon (AS)

4- Conclusion

The results of examining the narrative of Prophet Solomon (AS) based on the Van Leeuwen discourse model showed that in this narrative, the inclusion component with 134 items has a very high frequency compared to the exclusion component with 38 items. Considering this result, God Almighty has placed the greatest emphasis on meaning, but He also has shown social actors in different situations. Analysis of the exclusion component with its sub-components, i.e., backgrounding (29 cases) compared to suppression (9 cases) shows that using backgrounding causes the main actor to be marginalized in many cases so that the main focus is on God.

Giving a role to God has received much attention in the components of reference allocation and activation and infidels have become more passive in passivation. Personalization with 94 cases is at a higher level than the impersonalization with 4 cases in reference allocation. In the same component of personalization, the actors of this narrative were prominent using the higher frequency of the process of determination with 84 cases compared to indetermination with 10 cases. In the same section, giving special attention to the appraisement process shows that the narrative discourse seeks to appraise the actors.

Although some components such as innocent exclusion and multi-case connotation were not found in the mentioned narrative, the evaluation of socio-semantic discourse features in this narrative shows that these components can identify social actors. Referring to each of the social actors in the narrative of Prophet Solomon as the main actors of the text helps to a better understanding of the speech act and the semantic structure of the text. In other words, paying attention to the discourse-oriented components in the verses of  Prophet Solomon's narrative shows the high frequency of using speech acts concerning the social context which leads to an increase in the efficiency of discourse-oriented analysis in this narrative and gives us a deeper understanding of Qur’anic verses.