Kalla ‘No’ in Glorious Qur’an: Semantico-Syntactico Study

Abstract

This study aims at identifying different meanings of theresponse particle (kalla) ‘No’ and tracing its usage in theglorious Quran.Kalla had many functions: negating, restraining andrepelling what precedes it and confirming what follows it.Negation with Kalla differs from other negation particles; itdenotes that what precedes it cannot be, at any rate, truewhereas other particles negate the action without wonderingabout its reliability. Therefore, unlike other particles, thenegated action precedes Kalla, and the sentence that follows itusually signifies confirmation, swearing, reassuring theaudience/hearer and restraining which requires a reaction to apositive context some scholars count Kalla as having themeaning of ‘yes’ in fact, just the opposite, Kalla means ‘no’; itnegates the positive ness of an action.