We present in this paper a contrastive study of the broken plural patterns taken by the singular pattern faʿal (by way of example), according to the information provided by Sībawayhi, the most renown of Arab grammarians. His data are confronted with the information gathered in some Arab lexicographical works and a corpus of Arab texts in some available databases. After analysing the method of the ...
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We present in this paper a contrastive study of the broken plural patterns taken by the singular pattern faʿal (by way of example), according to the information provided by Sībawayhi, the most renown of Arab grammarians. His data are confronted with the information gathered in some Arab lexicographical works and a corpus of Arab texts in some available databases. After analysing the method of the Basra grammarian in his collection and systematization of data, the goal is to check if the information collected by him matches the information provided by Arabic dictionaries and texts. We study in particular the discussion of allomorphy cases, that is to say, the use of several plural patterns for a given singular, trying to elucidate whether this kind of allomorphy is free or conditioned.
The present article discusses the use of the term šuġl and related terms in Arabic grammatical tradition. The lion’s share is dedicated to Sībawayhi’s Kitāb; it is shown that it is used there in three related senses: priority (i.e. an operator assigns case to some constituent, hence it is said to be ‘occupied’ by that constituent, and correspondingly ‘diverted’ from another constituent, which rend...
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The present article discusses the use of the term šuġl and related terms in Arabic grammatical tradition. The lion’s share is dedicated to Sībawayhi’s Kitāb; it is shown that it is used there in three related senses: priority (i.e. an operator assigns case to some constituent, hence it is said to be ‘occupied’ by that constituent, and correspondingly ‘diverted’ from another constituent, which renders it free to be operated on by some other operator); satisfaction of an operator’s requirement to syntactically effect some constituent; and the verb-subject relationship. Among later grammarians most occurrences of the term conform with its usages in the Kitāb, although the extent to which it is used significantly varies among authors. Several ninth/tenth-century grammarians also use it in a fashion which we dub ‘reverse’, as it is applied not to an operator but rather to the constituent that is operated on.
This paper details the demonstratives’ functions and semantic characteristics, according to Sībawayhi’s Kitāb. Although Sībawayhi does not devote a separate chapter to demonstratives, a scrutiny of their occurrences in his Kitāb shows that for Sībawayhi demonstratives pertain to the group of al-ʾasmāʾ al-mubhama ‘the dubious, or vague, nouns’; they serve to indicate, or point to, nearby or far obj...
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This paper details the demonstratives’ functions and semantic characteristics, according to Sībawayhi’s Kitāb. Although Sībawayhi does not devote a separate chapter to demonstratives, a scrutiny of their occurrences in his Kitāb shows that for Sībawayhi demonstratives pertain to the group of al-ʾasmāʾ al-mubhama ‘the dubious, or vague, nouns’; they serve to indicate, or point to, nearby or far objects or persons; they have diminutive and dual forms; and they can be used as names of persons. Among the demonstratives in Sībawayhi’s example sentences there are quite a few that have the meaning of a verb in the imperative, ‘behold!’ or ‘see!’, a meaning that Sībawayhi explicitly mentions.
The Kitāb Sībawayhi, produced in the 8th century and considered the first complete and the most representative treatise of Arabic grammar, introduces for the first time an almost full inventory of linguistic and grammatical terms. Assuming that it was not Sībawayhi himself who devised the specific terminology in its entirety, there must have been something that prompted the formation of the specia...
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The Kitāb Sībawayhi, produced in the 8th century and considered the first complete and the most representative treatise of Arabic grammar, introduces for the first time an almost full inventory of linguistic and grammatical terms. Assuming that it was not Sībawayhi himself who devised the specific terminology in its entirety, there must have been something that prompted the formation of the specialized lexicon. As summarized by Versteegh (1993), there might have been parallel ways out of which grammatical terms developed, for instance (i) out of non-technical terms, later specialized by scholars, or (ii) composed by borrowing or calquing single items as well as full concepts from a foreign model. This contribution aims at presenting an overview of the matter, gathering theories on the evolution of the grammatical model considering both internal and external perspectives. Finally, the paper focuses on one case study, presenting the hypothesis that the formation of the technical meaning of ʾiʿrāb could be traced back to a calque of the Greek hellēnismós.
