Intended Meaning
The word is merely the emission of sounds, whether these sounds signify a meaning or not. For the author, it precedes signification, and it is not required to be meaningful speech.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Movement of the argument: it makes the word an emission of sounds that may carry meaning or may not.
- Key terms: word, sounds, meaning, signification.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It separates sound from signification, thereby preventing every word from being equated with meaningful speech, and lays the groundwork for a later distinction between bare sound and semantic articulation.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism
- Critique of Heritage, Jurisprudence, and Exegesis
Grounding
- Supporting text: «Word: the emission of sounds, whether they signify a meaning or not».
Place of Grounding in the Book
- Book: Drying Up the Springs of Terrorism.
- Location: in the final section of the book
- Type of grounding: close evidence.
- Marker helping verification: the word is the emission of sounds
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as support because it provides successive definitions of word, speech, and utterance, thereby clarifying what is meant by word.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted textually.
Editorial Note
The atom is a prelude to a broader concept of clear exposition.