Semantic Fields and Human Nature Relations in Pre-Islamic Poetry: A Semantic-Ecocritical Reading of Diwan As-Syanfara

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the semantic field and human nature relations in pre-Islamic poetry through a semantic-ecocritical study of the Diwan As-Syanfara. This study uses a qualitative-descriptive method with an integrated semantic approach, employing John Lyons' semantic field analysis theory to map the lexical relationships between word elements, and an ecocritical approach (from the perspective of Cheryll Glotfelty and Lawrence Buell) to examine how human-nature relations are represented in the ecological context of the desert in pre-Islamic Arabia. The results show that the semantic field in this diwan is divided into: (1) the "field of fauna" that establishes the hierarchy of life; (2) the "field of death" that demonstrates the naturalness of destruction; (3) the "field of movement" which affirms dynamic existential ; (4) the "field of the body" which presents the materiality of existence; and (5) the "field of the desert landscape" which becomes the total domain that encompasses everything. The ecological relationship between humans and natures in the text is not merely decorative, but rather relational and structural, where the biological nature of animals is projected into the formation of the subject's identity in the poem. This research contributes to the development of semantic studies of classical Arabic literature using modern theory, by expanding it into the perspective of modern semantics and ecocriticism.