Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The form of Urdu ghazals presents an interesting example in understanding the relation between cohesion and coherence in discourse. It is found that all the ‘ashaar’ (two-line verses) of a ghazal are thematically related to its main idea, and yet, a single ‘shir’ (a singular two-line verse) can stand independently and can be comprehended fully without its being situated in the textual context. The present study is an attempt to systematically analyze the connection between the form and the content of Urdu ghazals, based on the theme of love. Also, the ghazals selected for the present study are those which are performed musically in India and Pakistan. The paper explores two basic points related to the structure of Urdu ghazals: (i) what are the cultural assumptions required on the part of the readers/listeners to see cohesion at the textual level, and (ii) what are the devices (linguistic as well as musical) which conjoin each independent verse of a ghazal together to create a coherent, pervasive mood. The analysis is carried out within the frame of discourse semantics, in which the knowledge integration device can explain the grammatical as well as socio-cultural elements in the data effectively. The result of the analysis indicates that it is the readers’/listeners’ socio- cultural and musical knowledge about the cultural background of ghazals which provide them the main frame to relate different verses of a ghazal with its central idea or mood.