The semantic fields of the words of praiseworthy morals in the book “Tanbih al-Khawateer and Nuzhat al-Nawazir” (benevolence, altruism, generosity, and contentment as examples)

Abstract

The semantic fields are based on the general concepts that combine the vocabulary of the language in a regular manner. They showed the strength of the connection between the vocabulary of one field. They also contributed to revealing the relationships, similarities and differences between the vocabulary in one field. The importance of this research stems from the honor of its subject, as its main material relates to a very important topic, which is the moral construction of the nation. This research aims to monitor the words that appeared in the book Tanbih al-Khawatir and Nuzhat al-Nawazir by Abu al-Hussein and Ram al-Maliki al-Ashtari to indicate praiseworthy morals (benevolence, altruism, generosity, and contentment as examples), and then reach a precise definition of their meanings. This definition is an important step for any accurate lexicographic work. And revealing the relationships, similarities and differences between the words of ethics that fall under a specific field, and between them and the general term that brings them together. The research concluded that there is no effect of the partial relationship in all the fields of morality mentioned in the book “Tanbih al-Khawatir wa Nuzhat al-Nawazir.” This, if any, indicates that morals cannot be divided, and that they are absolutely indivisible. This book includes a group of semantic fields that are widely used, namely the field of generosity. The word generosity is mentioned in twenty-nine places. The study followed the descriptive approach in addition to the statistical study of each expression. This study deals with the theory of semantic fields from two aspects: the theoretical aspect and the applied aspect.