Studies in the Linguistic Structure of Classical Arabic (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics)

289 Pages·2001·12.18 MB·English

by  Naphtali Kinberg

STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE
OF CLASSICAL ARABIC
STUDIES IN SEMITIC
LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
EDITED BY
T. MURAOKA AND C.H.M. VERSTEEGH
VOLUME XXXI
STUDIES IN THE LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE
OF CLASSICAL ARABIC
STUDIES IN THE
LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE
OF CLASSICAL ARABIC
BY
NAPHTALI KINBERG
EDITED BY
LEAH KINBERG
AND
KEES VERSTEEGH
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN
2001
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek-CIP-Einheitsaufhahme
Qinberg, Naftali:
Studies in the linguistic structure of classical Arabic / by Naphtali
Kinberg. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill, 2000
(Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics ; Vol. 31)
ISBN 90-04-11765-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LC card number 00040336
ISSN 0081-8461
ISBN 9004117652
© Copyright 2001 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by Koninklijke Brill provided that
the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
Danvers MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Preface vii
1. An investigation of the combination 'n law in
Classical Arabic 1
[Journal of Semitic Studies 25, 1980, 34-45]
2. Notes on the shift from accusative constructions to
prepositional phrases in Hebrew and Arabic 12
[Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44,
1981, 8-14]
3. A study of la-'in phrases in Early Literary Arabic 21
[Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 3, 1981-1982, 203-222]
4. Adverbial clauses as topics in Arabic: Adverbial clauses in
frontal position separated from their main clauses 43
[Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 6, 1985, 353-416]
5. Causal and adversative meanings of the particle lakin
in Arabic 103
[Journal of the American Oriental Society 107, 1987, 61-765]
6. Some temporal, aspectual, and modal features of the
Arabic structure la-qad + prefix tense verb 112
[Journal of the American Oriental Society 108, 1988, 291-295]
7. Some modal, aspectual and syntactic constraints
on the use of gad in the verbal system of Classical
Arabic 121
[Studia Linguistica et Orientalia Memoriae Haim Blanc Dedicata,
ed. by Paul Wexler, Alexander Borg, Sasson Somekh,
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1989, 170-179]
8. Figurative uses, polysemy and homonymy in systems
of tense, mood and aspect 132
[Lingua 83, 1991, 319-338]
9. Semi-imperfectives and imperfectives: A case-study of
aspect and tense in Arabic participial clauses 153
[Lingua 86, 1992, 301-330]
10. The concepts of elevation and depression in
Medieval Arabic phonetic theory 183
[zeitschrift fur arabische Linguistik 17, 1987, 7-20]
VI CONTENTS
11. Treatise on the pronunciation of the dad
Introduction by Kees Versteegh 197
Identification of the author and the title 199
Structure of the treatise 201
Translation of the treatise 207
References 227
Arabic text 229
Index 269
PREFACE
On August 6, 1997, our friend and colleague Naphtali Kinberg died;
he was just 49 years old. Naphtali's death came as a shock to us
all. We had all been aware of the fact that he had been seriously
ill for quite some time, but we believed or wished to believe that
he had recovered and was starting again with his research projects.
In 1996 he had been corresponding on his latest project, an edi-
tion, translation and critical study of a phonetic treatise on the pro-
nunciation of the letter dad, which he was very enthusiastic about.
Since his dissertation, which he submitted at Ann Arbor in 1977,
Naphtali had worked in two fields, the history of the Arabic lin-
guistic tradition and the structure of Classical Arabic. But the two
fields were closely interrelated for him and in his study of Classical
Arabic he was always acutely aware of the mass of information con-
tained in the corpus of the Arabic grammarians.
The first time I met Naphtali was during the second Nijmegen
workshop on the history of Arabic linguistics in 1987. All partici-
pants in the workshop were passionate researchers in this field of
interest. What Naphtali introduced us to was a new angle to the
history of Arabic linguistics: he had become interested in a gram-
marian we all knew existed, but about whom we knew preciously
little, the Kufan grammarian al-Farra3. He had been studying al-
Farra' for a long time and he showed us how al-Farra''s main work,
the Ma'ani l-Qur'an could be used for a reevaluation of the history
of Arabic linguistics. Together with Kinga Devenyi and Rafi Talmon,
who had also become interested in al-Farra', Naphtali set out rewrit-
ing the early history of Arabic grammar.
Already during this workshop Naphtali told us about the index of
al-Farra''s Ma'ani, which he was preparing and which was to pro-
vide us with the means to use this work to the full for our own
research. We knew that it would take some time before the index
would appear, nonetheless whenever we needed a couple of quota-
tions for a specific term, Naphtali was always willing to help us out.
The last time I saw him was during a conference organised by
Yassir Suleiman at the University of Edinburgh in August 1996. He
had just undergone therapy for his brain tumor and seemed tired,
Vlll PREFACE
but healthy again. His voice had not yet completely recovered from
the therapy, but his enthusiasm and interest in the Arabic gram-
matical tradition remained unabated. Even though his wife Leah
had to read the paper, he insisted on answering the questions after
the paper himself. We were all convinced that it would only be
a matter of time before he would be as active and productive as
before.
Indeed, the publication of the index on al-Farra''s Ma'am, a very
large volume in Brill's prestigious series Handbuch der Orientalistik
(Leiden, 1996) must have been a joyful event for him. Time and
again we had asked, even begged him to publish it, but he was never
completely satisfied. When the book finally appeared we realised why
he had chosen to wait for so long: he wanted it to be the ultimate
research tool for all those who were engaged in this field of Arabic
grammar.
A few months later the illness reappeared and took him away.
This is not the place to go into Naphtali's other qualities, as a
friend, as an administrator at the Department of the University of
Tel Aviv, and as a karate expert, whose black belt (third dan) strangely
contrasted with his gentle nature and natural friendliness. Our aim
here is to pay tribute to him as a scholar. Almost spontaneously
Naphtali's colleagues at the University of Tel Aviv decided after his
death to edit a memorial volume with contributions from many of
his colleagues in Israel and abroad; this volume has now appeared
in the series of Israel Oriental Studies.
But we also wished to do something with his own legacy. At an
early stage Leah asked me to look into the possibility of publishing
a collection of his papers in Brill's series Studies in Semitic Languages
and Linguistics. She also gave me the unfinished manuscript of the
treatise on the pronunciation of the dad to see what could be done
with it. In the end we decided to incorporate the translation and
the study in the collection of articles.
In this volume we therefore present a number of articles dealing
with the structure of Classical Arabic, which have been already been
published elsewhere. Although not directly related to Naphtali's work
on the history of Arabic grammar, they all contain references to the
grammatical tradition and show how he always attempted to link
his own linguistic analyses to that of the Arab grammarians. Most
of the articles deal with the syntax of Classical Arabic, but one arti-
cle treats one aspect of the phonetic ideas of the grammarians, the
PREFACE IX
concepts of "high" and "low". This article ties in very well with the
appendix containing the treatise on the dad in translation. Both arti-
cles and treatise are presented here as a memorial to Naphtali
Kinberg.
Kees Versteegh
Batenburg, January 6, 2000