The Semantics of Form in Arabic: In the mirror of European languages

437 Pages·1987·19.39 MB·English

by  David Justice

THE SEMANTICS OF FORM IN ARABIC

THE SEMANTICS
OF FORM IN ARABIC
in the mirror of European languages
DAVID JUSTICE
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1987
STUDIES IN LANGUAGE COMPANION SERIES (SLCS)
The SLCS series has been established as a companion series to
STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, International Journal, sponsored by
the Foundation "Foundations of Language".
Series Editors:
John W. M. Verhaar Werner Abraham
Divine Word Institute & University of Groningen
Madang The Netherlands
Papua New Guinea
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Justice, David.
The semantics of form in Arabic in the mirror of European languages.
(Studies in language companion series, ISSN 0165-7763; v. 15)
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Arabic language-Semantics. 2. Arabic language-Rhetoric. I. Title. II. Series: Studies
in language companion series; v. 15.
PJ6585.J87 1987 492'.72 87-13180
ISBN 90 272 3016 1 (alk. paper)
© Copyright 1987 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 7
PART ONE: An overview of the language
Chapter 0: Definition of the language of study 11
Chapter 1: The difficulty of Arabic 17
Chapter 2: Thumbnail sketches of Arabic 33
PART TWO: Theoretical questions-Aesthetics and form
Chapter 3: The form-use connection 53
Chapter 4: The grammar of duality and the duality of
grammar 97
PART THREE: Form of the lexicon
Chapter 5: L'Arbitraire du signe 153
Chapter 6: Accumulation 175
Chapter 7: Enantiosemantics 195
Chapter 8: Nouns of manner 217
PART FOUR: Form in syntax
Chapter 9: The shape of syntax 235
Chapter 10: Pleonasm 277
Chapter 11: Specification 289
Chapter 12: Causatives and ascriptives 363
REFERENCES 411
INDICES 419

3
TRANSCRIPTION
Values for Arabic letters, where practice is not uniform, as follows:
' except where elided or predictable. Thus sa'ala but
li-l-ard
Phonemic /â/ is written â ([a:], [æ:]) whether or not it is
graphic/morphophonemic

5
ABBREVIATIONS
Arberry = A. Arberry, Arabic Poetry (see bibliography)
Brockelmann I, II = vol. I, II of C. Brockelmann, Grundriss der
vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen
De Sacy = Silvestre de Sacy, Grammaire arabe, 2nd ed.
Fischer = W. Fischer, Grammatik des klassischen Arabisch
Fleischer = H. Fleischer, Kleinere Schriften
Freytag = G. Freytag, Lexicon Arabico-Latinum.
Hava = J. Hava, Arabic-English Dictionary
Jesp. MEG = O. Jespersen, Modem English Grammar.
Lane = E. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon.
Monroe = J. Monroe, Hispano-Arabic Poetry
(Reck.) AS = H. Reckendorf, Arabische Syntax
(Reck.) SV = id., Die Syntaktischen Verhältnisse des Arabischen
Socin-Brockelmann = C. Brockelmann ('s revision of A. Socin's) Ara­
bische Grammatik
Wehr = H. Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th ed.
Wright = W. Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language
CA: Classical Arabic
MSA: Modern Standard Arabic
SAE: Standard Average European
Of citation and hypostasis, there are too many logically different sorts,
complicated further by being sometimes embedded in one another, for
us to be exhaustive or even quite consistant, but roughly: double quotes
surround actually occuring forms, single quotes glosses, angle brackets
more abstract entities like underlying structures or form-classes: thus
<fueayl>, with the usual Arabic schematic triplet of consonants f-ε-1,
denotes Arabic words having the shape C uC ayC , and
1 2 3
< 'diminutive'> would denote the class-meaning of that class, as
against the individual kulayb 'doggie'.
Arabic numerals in references refer to pages, even when the book in