Classical Arabic verb inflection: a WP-grammar, with an introductory phonemic investigation

Abstract

This work presents a new grammar of the Classical Arabic Verb Inflection, carried out within the system of the WP morphological theory (the Word and Paradigm model of analysis as formalized by Professor P. H. Matthews). It is thus basically an application of this structural theory, rather than an assessment of its merits. Yet a general evaluation of characteristics of this theory, compared with two other interrelated systems, is presented with"particular attention to the concept of adequacy' in relation to Arabic grammar. The thesis consists of six chapters, the first of which represents an elaborated introduction meant to define the implicit questionable points that the title may raise. This is followed by a chapter on phonemic investigation, restricted to the problematic areas where the scholarly dispute over a specific number of Arabic phonemes has been building up since the Classical era. The terminological distinctions between the basic traditional terms of Arabic grammar and their presumed equivalents in modern linguistics is discussed in Chapter III as a prelude to the major body of the work. Chapter IV reviews, first, the three relevant linguistic models of analysis in relation to the morphology of Classical Arabic, which is taken here beyond the restrictive study of the individual language to the domain of the general linguistic theory; and, second, it presents a comprehensive summary of WP: its basic terms, rule system and evaluational procedure, followed by the reasons that made it the ideal choice for the present purpose. Chapter V, which serves as a background to the application in Chapter VI, represents the core of the discussions devoted to the Classical Arabic verbal system. It comprises all the explanations that are possibly needed for the making and understanding of the grammatical rules, and which find no room in the final chapter without interrupting the flow of the rule divisions. The final chapter is merely an application of the WP model to the inflectional system of the Classical Arabic verb. It consists of the verbal grammatical rules, preceded by a minimized group of the required guiding notes, and followed by an exemplary demonstration of the drivational system. The thesis is ended with a Summary and Conclusions that survey the work in general and briefly record its findings. In addition to the original views and postulations distributed over almost all the chapters of this work, and apart from the empirical value regarding the theory adopted, the present grammar represents on the one hand a further step in the evolutional course of the Classical Arabic grammar, and on the other it provides a new link between this classical grammar and the continual evolution of the linguistic theory