Computable Difference Matrix for Synonyms in
Holy Quran
Mohamed Ali AlShaari

LIKE ELA SKRI WROT E A BOOK CALLED THE DIFFERENCES,
Abstract—In the field of Quran Studies known as GHAREEB
AL QURAN (The study of the meanings of strange words and
structures in Holy Quran), it is difficult to distinguish some pragmatic
meanings from conceptual meanings. One who wants to study this
subject may need to look for a common usage between any two
words or more; to understand general meaning, and sometimes may
need to look for common differences between them, even if there are
synonyms (word sisters).
Some of distinguished scholars of Arabic linguistics believe that
there are no synonym words, they believe in varieties of meaning and
multi-context usage. Based on this viewpoint, our method is that to
start looking for synonyms of a word, then the differences that
distinct the word and their synonyms.
There are many books use such a method e.g. synonyms books,
dictionaries, glossaries, and some books on the interpretations of the
Holy Quran strange vocabulary, but it is difficult to looki up words in
these written works.
For that reason, we proposed a logical entity which we called
Differences M atrix (DM ).
DM groups the synonyms words to extract the relations between
them and to know the general meaning, which defines the skeleton of
all word synonyms, this meaning is expressed by a word of its sisters.
In Differences M atrix, we used the sisters(words) as titles for
rows and columns, and in the obtained cells we tried to define the
row title (word) by using column title (her sister), so the relations
between sisters appear, the expected result is well defined groups of
sisters for each word. We represented this result formally, and then
we tried to use these groups as a base for building the ontology of the
Holy Quran synonyms.
.
Keywords— Quran, synonyms, Differences M atrix, ontology.
I. INT RODUCT ION
T
HE GAINSAYS (DISPROVE ).
T HE SYNONYMS IN A RABIC LANGUAGE ; ESPECIALLY IN T HE
HOLY QURAN, AND BELIEVES IN VARIET IES OF MEANINGS AND
MULT I -CONT EXT USAGE .
THE
RESEARCH
PROBLEM
IN
DIFFERENCES
BET WEEN
SYNONYMS IN HOLY QURAN LAY IN CHOOSING ACCURAT ELY
T HE MEANINGS OF WHAT SUPPOSED T O BE SYNONYMS;
MOREOVER, HOWT O EXT RACT T HE REQUIRED MEANING.
THE RARIT Y OF REFERENCES AND SCHOLARS' DISAGREEMENT
ABOUT
VOCABULARY 'S SYNONYMS IN
T HIS FIELD ARE
PROBLEMS T HE RESEARCHER IN T HIS FIELD MAY FACE..
II. THE IDEA
The idea is based on grouping of the synonyms words or what
supposed to be synonyms in a Difference Matrix (DM); to
extract the relations between them, we use synonyms (sisters)
as titles for rows and columns, in each obtained cell; we try
to define the column title by using the row title; the
definition summarized in a single word called servant word so
the relations between sisters appear, the cell considered empty
HE ST UDY OF VOCABULARY OF HOLY QURAN IS A
if it has the same title for row and column, or the cell contains
GREAT SCIENCE ; ANCIENT A RABIC SCHOLARS ST UDIED IT
general
definition
for titles. By
DM,
we
can know
DEEPLY, T HEY HAD HAD KNOWN T HAT T HE HOLY QURAN IS
the general word (based word or mother of sisters) which
MIRACULOUS DUE T O T HE MEANINGS IN IT S VOCABULARIES,
involves overall meaning that defines all word synonyms; it
T HE MOST IMPORT ANT VOCABULARIES CALLED GHAREEB A L
lies on the most filled row.
QURAN (THE ST UDY OF T HE MEANINGS OF ST RANGE WORDS
Example: in table (1) there are five sisters and eleven relations
AND ST RUCT URES IN HOLY QURAN). A BET T ER WAY T O KNOW
between sisters (servants), Word4 is the mother of the five
A
sisters, because it has relation with most of the sisters.
MEANING OF A VOCABULARY AND IT S CONT EXT IS T O
DEEPLY ST UDY WHAT WORDS GUESSED AS SYNONYMS, AND
T HE SEARCH FOR WHAT CAN COLLECT BET WEEN T HE
SYNONYMS, OR CAN DIFFER BET WEEN T HEM .SOME SCHOLARS
III. T HE MET HOD
1. Firstly, we chose the sisters’ words
Word1
2. In DM, put sisters as rows and columns titles
3. Use respectable dictionaries to fill DM cells
4. Find the most filled row cells, and regard its title as the
mother of sisters
5. From the filled cells try to determine the relation between
rows and columns titles, then try to summarize each relation in
one word (servant)
Word1
Word2
Word3
Word4
Word5
Servant3
Servant6
T ABLE I
W ORDS SISTER
Word2
Word3
Servant1
Servant7
Servant10
Word4
Servant2
Servant4
Servant8
Servant5
Servant11
T ABLE (2)-A
DM OF (AL KAUF) SISTERS
6. Following the previous steps the mother of sisters, and
servants were determined. For ontology emergence, we
formally represented that using set theory, predicate logic and
formal concept analysis [5]
IV. THE IMPLEMENT AT ION
To Clarify the idea, we collected words that look like
synonyms from the Holy Quran, i.e.- ‫الْفَشَع‬- ‫الْخَشْيَت‬- ‫ الْحَذَر‬- ‫ (الخُف‬:.
,)‫االّتِقاء‬- ‫الٍَْلَغ‬- ‫الَُْجَل‬- ‫الْجَشَع‬- ‫الزٌَْبَت‬- ‫ الشَفَقَت‬, each of these words
reflects the meaning of the fear, they look like synonyms, but
there are differences in meaning between them. The meanings
of the chosen words in Arabic are as follows :
ٍ‫ ٌُ ّتُّقُغ مَكْزَُيٍ ػهْ أمارة مظىُوتٍ أَ مؼلُمت‬:‫الخُف‬
-
‫ ٌُ خُفٌ مغ احتزاس‬:‫الْحَذَر‬
-
ٌ‫ خُفٌ يشُُبًُُ ّتؼظيم‬:‫الخشيت‬
-
‫ خَُفٌ مُفاجِئ‬:‫الفَشَع‬
-
ٍ‫ ػِىايَتٌ مُختَلِطَتٌ بِخَُْف‬:ُ‫الشَفَقَت‬
-
ّ‫ خَُْفٌ مُسْتَمِز‬:ُ‫الزٌَْبَت‬
-
ًُُ‫ ٌُ حُشْنٌ يَمْىَغُ اإلوسانَ َيَصْزفًُُ ػمَا ٌُ بِصَذَدِيِ َيقطَؼ‬:‫الْجَشَع‬
-
ً‫ػى‬
‫ استشْؼارُ الخُف‬:‫الَُْجَل‬
-
ٍ‫ ٌُ الفَشَع مغ اضطِزابٍ شَذِيذ‬:‫الٍَْلَغ‬
-
1 ُ‫ جَؼلُ الىَفْسِ في َِّقايَتٍ مِمَا يُخَاف‬:‫االّتّقاء‬
-
Apparently these words have the same meaning and have
semantic relations between them. It is noted that the word
(‫ الخُف‬,Al Kawf) is repeated in most definitions of other sister
words, therefore we could infer the relations between the
sisters by using DM, see table(2)
Word5
T ABLE (2)-B
DM OF (AL KAUF) SISTERS
Servant9
-
T ABLE (3)
RELATIONS BETWEEN SISTERS AND SERVANTS WORDS
Looking at the DM matrix and analyzing its components we
inferred the following:
1. The Al Khawf word is the mother of sisters, because it is
the title of the most filled row, the other titles in DM are the
sisters; they are the components of the Al Khawf set (W), I.e. :
W= { W 1 , W 2... , W 11
2. Let A be a set of servants; these words help in
distinguishing the relations between the mother and their
sisters, i.e.:

 







3. To generalize we can define classes for mother words; one
for each; and every word in a class represent sisters e.g.:










From table (2) the word (‫ )الجشع‬is not in Al Khawf class, and
may be added to other class called (‫)الحشن‬.
In the table; the sisters title the rows and the servants title the
Now, every sister in Al Khawf set can be represented by the
columns, Boolean value; e.g. tick (); in cell (x,y) when word
following relation:
(sister) x has Attribute y . the context compromise from group
Wi= W1+ Ai
of words X and group of attributes A, and pointer link each
For example:
word by proper attribute/s, formally, this table can be
W2= W1+ A2, (‫ االحتزاس‬+ ‫)الحذر = الخُف‬,
considered as binary graph I ⊆ W × A, and every concept is
W4= W1+ A4, (‫ المفاجأة‬+ ‫( َالفشع = الخُف‬
an ordered pair (Wi, Ai) as following:
W8= W4+ A9
 W8= W1+ A4+ A9
Some sisters may be related to mother via two servants
1.
S⊆W
2. P ⊆ A
3.  s, s  p
4. sisters in Al Khawf may be members in other classes
we can use Formal Concept Analysis to deduce concept
4. w, (w  W )  (w  S )   a, a P
hierarchy or its ontology from group of objects and their
6. w, (w  W )  w = S // P
5. a, (a  A )  (a  P )   w, w S
properties, and suppose that the objects are sister words, and
the properties or attributes are the servant words, e.g. Al
EXAMPLE:
Ehteraz (‫ )االحتزاس‬represents the difference between the mother
1. S =
(main word) Al Khawf and one sister word Al Hather (‫)الحذر‬:
2. P = { a1 a2 a3
W2= W1+ A2, (‫ االحتزاس‬+ ‫)الحذر = الخُف‬
3.
w2  a1 a2 , w3  a1 a3
We can represent the context of ElKawf sisters in table (3)
4.
w4  a1 a4
w2 w3}
5. w2   a4
We can represent Dm graphically by bigraph (fig 1,2)
collected from what were scattered in language dictionaries
FIG 1: BIGRAP H FOR P ART OF DM
and glossaries. The holy Quran interpreters who are concerned
and focused on language appreciate a matrix thatcan be used
to collect the words supposed to be synonyms, and can easily
exclude those that are not.
abstraction used
In addition, the idea for
to reach a logical formula nearing to
represent language, and trying to attain understanding may be
employed to lay down the foundations for Formal logic that
can
better deal with
language
problems
i.e.
machine
translation than other usually Logics, because the language is
the
source
of
logic, and the logic is
an
inactive
language, therefore it is better to deduce logical formulas from
FIG 2: GRAP H FOR P ART OF DM
the source; language; instead of using ready templates; any
logic may be hard to adapt to representing language, for that;
proper
methods
for
idea used
to simplify
the
computability, Formal concept theory was used, and in the
future some ontology language may be capable of represent it.
This paper deals only with real meanings; the metaphorical
meaning needs more extensive research to to find out if DM
could properly represent it.
.
REFERENCES
V.RESULT S
DM can be represented by using predicate logic, which is
]1[
computable logic e.g.
)‫ الخُف‬,‫احتزاس(الحذر‬
-
)‫ الخُف‬,‫ّتؼظيم (الخشيت‬
-
)‫ الخُف‬,‫مفاجأة (الفشع‬
-
...
-
Each one of the sisters (word or concept) become main set
]2[
]3[
or main ontology. It is considered as another sister but in
another semantic domain, which is in set of servants
(attributes). These concepts can be represented by lexical map
or concept map or bigraph (fig 1,2).
]4[
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presented Difference Matrix; it was an idea of
moral built on some language concepts; the DM could be
]5[
R. Wille, Formal Concept Analysis as Mathematical Theory of
Concepts and Concept Hierarchies, Technische Universit¨ at
Darmstadt, Fachbereich Mathematik, Schloßgartenstr. 7, D–
64289 Darmstadt