Some Findings of the Structural Features of the Quotations in Kissa-i Musa at the Syntactic and Text-linguistic Levels

Abstract

Turkish literature has a rich text corpus in the genre of the Parables of the Prophets (Qisas Al-Anbiya). Among this corpus, Kissa-i Musa is distinguished from the other texts as the only separate prose tale known today of the Prophet Moses. In this work, verses from the Quran were used for reasons such as grounding the word on solid foundations and keeping the interest of the reader and listener alive. In the analysis section, the rate of the use of these verses together with Turkish sentences was determined according to syntactic and text-linguistic levels. After that, the structural features of the Quran verses associated with quotations were investigated. Unlike the previous studies that were primarily based on poetry examples, the appearance of quotations in a prose sample was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative methods in this study. According to the findings, the percentage of the intersentential and intrasentential quotations was 27% and 73%, respectively. The structural features of the quotations were grouped under four headings different from the classical classification: incomplete quotations (60%), complete quotations (20%), combined quotations (13%), and mixed quotations (7%). Among these categories, the titles combined quotations and mixed quotations were offered for the first time in this research. Finally. it has been understood that the usage of quotations in prose differs from that in poetry, and the types of quotations have expanded in prose.