La sintaxis del elativo en árabe clásico y árabe moderno escrito

The paper attempts to present a diachronic view of some syntactic constructions with the Arabic elative. The point of departure is its early stage in Classical Arabic. Since then, it has undergone substantial development, resulting in modern syntactic uses unknown to traditional Arabic grammarians. Of special interest are the historical trajectories of and semantic relations between the three constructions conveying the meaning of the superlative that are in current use in Modern Written Arabic: (i) elative + indefinite singular noun in the genitive (e.g. akbaru madīnatin), (ii) elative + definite plural noun in the genitive (e.g. akbaru l-muduni), and (iii) elative used as an attribute of a definite noun (e.g. al-madīnatu l-akbaru) – all of them translatable as ‘the largest city’, but different from each other in certain respects. A tendency to create symmetry can be observed in the system of the syntax of the elative used in adjectival attribution on the one hand and the manner of expressing a gradation comparative-superlative by means of the same syntactic construction (adjectival attribution) differing only in (in)definiteness, on the other hand. In addition, a construction only marginally attested in CA, viz. elatives following the pattern C1uC2C3ā + definite plural noun in the genitive, turns out to be used widely in MWA. Its plural counterpart, C1uC2C3āayāt, is an innovation whose expansive usage, especially in the journalistic style, can be attributed to the tendency of disambiguation.El presente estudio ofrece una visión diacrónica de algunas de las construcciones propias del elativo árabe, partiendo de las etapas tempranas del árabe clásico. Desde entonces, el elativo ha experimentado un desarrollo notable y ha producido varios usos sintácticos desconocidos para los gramáticos árabes clásicos. Especialmente interesante es la evolución histórica y las relaciones semánticas entre las tres estructuras que expresan habitualmente la noción del superlativo en el árabe escrito moderno: 1) elativo + sustantivo singular indeterminado en genitivo (akbaru madīnatin), 2) elativo + sustantivo ñural determinado en genitivo (akbaru l-muduni), y 3) elativo usado como atributo de un sustantivo determinado (al-madīnatu l-akbaru), todas ellas traducibles como “la ciudad más grande”, pero diferentes entre sí en ciertos aspectos. Se puede observar una tendencia a crear simetrías en el sistema sintáctico del elativo como atributo adjetival, por una parte, y, por otra parte, la forma de expresar una gradación comparativo - superlativo mediante la misma estructura sintáctica (atribución adjuetival) que solo difiere en cuanto a la (in)determinación. Además, una estructura que solo se documenta de forma marginal en árabe clásico, es decir, los elativos de esquema C1uC2C3ā + sustantivo plural en genitive, pasa a ser usado de forma frecuente en el árabe escrito moderno. El plural que le corresponde, C1uC2C3āayāt, es una innovación cuya expansión, particularmente en el lenguaje periodístico, se puede atribuir a la tendencia a la desambiguación

Literatura niemal nieobecna – polskie przekłady współczesnych powieści arabskich

Almost absent literature: Polish translations of contemporary Arabic novels The article discusses translation of contemporary Arabic novels into Polish, from 1982 (when the fi rst versions were published) to the present day (2009). Over these years eighteen contemporary Arabic novels, mostly by Egyptian authors, have been rendered into Polish. The study presents statistical data that illustrates the scrarcity of Arabic novels published in Polish by comparison with other languages. Moreover, each of the discussed novels is presented briefl y, highlighting differences between the novels’ original titles and their translations. Appended is the full chronological list of the translations