Sibawaihi E-Book

El Mouatamid Ben Rochd

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 50

Beschreibung

THE BOOK THIS BOOK is a short glimpse on the huge encyclopaedic work on Arabic grammar, achieved by Persian Sibawaihi ("apple smell"). To put it in Mazini's terms: "Whoever wants to write about (Arabic) grammar after Sibawaihi, let him feel humble". This book further shows that the transformational grammatical operation suggested in Chomsky's Syntactic Structures (1957) onward, is a fundamental principle of this masterpiece. It cuts across all levels of linguistic analysis, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax and stylistics.

Leseprobe

SIBAWAIHI

TitleAuthorContentsFirst a story!TransformationMorphologyPhonetics & PhonologyA Summary of Theoretical Background of Sibawaihi’s Al-KitabConclusionBIBLIOGRAPHYGLOSSARYCopyright

Title

El Mouatamid Ben Rochd

SIBAWAIHI’S 

TRANSFORMATIONAL

GRAMMAR

Books On Demand

THIS BOOK is a short glimpse on the huge encyclopaedic work on Arabic grammar, achieved by Persian Sibawaihi (“apple smell”). To put it in Mazini’s terms: “Whoever wants to write about (Arabic) grammar after Sibawaihi, let him feel humble”. This book further shows that the transformational grammatical operation suggested in Chomsky’sSyntactic Structures (1957) onward, is a fundamental principle of this masterpiece. It cuts across all levels of linguistic analysis, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax and stylistics.     

THE AUTHOR is a scholar, who has contributed much to the field of linguistics, including his latest publicationTraditions in Linguistics(Books-On-Demand). He has lectured extensively about Sibawaihi’s Grammar in different countries, notably Volgograd (Russia), Wien, Berlin, Frankfurt, Baden Baden (Germany) and Leiden (Holland).

Dr. El Mouatamid Ben Rochd

Contents

First a story!

1.Introduction

1.1.Chomsky’s TG

1.2.Islamic culture

1.3.The Status of Arabic

1.4.Sibawaihi’s Life

1.5.Sibawaihi’s Al-Kitab

1.6.Basra and Kufa Schools

2.Transformation

2.1.Deletion Transformation

2.2.Assimilation

2.3.Re-syllabification

2.4.Transformations

2.4.1.FOCUS

2.4.2.DELETION

2.4.3.AGREEMENT

2.4.4.CASE

2.5.Movement  Transformation

3.Morphology

3.1.Verb Forms

4.Phonetics & Phonology

5.A Summary of Theoretical Background of Sibawaihi’s Al-Kitab (Volume I)

6.Conclusion

7.BIBLIOGRAPHY

8.GLOSSARY   32

First a story!

My speciality is Chomsky’s syntax. I once met a bitter confrontation from some colleagues from the Arabic department, who are specializing in Arabic nahw. They criticised, even ‘insulted,’ Chomsky grammatical theory! Giving them the credit of the doubt, I asked: ‘What is the alternative!’ They boastfully answered ‘The Ocean!’ ‘What is the ocean?’ they answer kitab Sibawayh!’ I went to buy it and then spent much time reading it and finally debating it with them. They didn’t have much to say after that. I did learn much from this incident. I wish I could thank them! Now I know Chomsky’s theory and have crossed the ‘Ocean’!

Thanks Friends! [cf. John Dos Passos!]

Introduction

Chomsky’s TG

The title ‘Sibawaihi’s TG grammar’ may sound as an anachronism since it is well known that the notion ‘transformation’ was promoted by Noam Chomsky ever since he published his first book Syntactic Structures in 1957. Chomsky’s contribution was dubbed ‘major break’ (Robins), even ‘revolution’ (Smith & Wilson). Still the reader of Sibawaihi’s Al-Kitab finds that the notion ‘Transformation’ is present in the kitab and indeed cuts through the three levels of linguistic analyses viz. phonetics, morphology and syntax.

Islamic culture

Islamic culture was a mixture of Arabic, Greek, Persian, Moorish, Indian and even Chinese cultures! The Umayyad dynasty promoted medicine and astronomy, whereas the Abbasids focused on the Arabic language that had become the instrument and container of all sciences. Iraq in particular became the focal center of learning as Europe and the U.S.A. are nowadays! Sibawaihi came as the culmination of that enormous linguistic endeavor with his notorious book Al-Kitab, that was labeled ‘king’s gift.’

The Status of Arabic

There are more than 3.000 languages in the world (SIL). The linguists have grouped them into families viz. Germanic, Celtic, Romance, Indic, Finno-Ugric, Sino-Tibetan, Polynesian, Mayan, etc. While linguists assert absolute equality among languages, Gleason states, “The Semitic branch is the best known… Hebrew …is of importance chiefly as the vehicle of the large part of the Old Testament…” (Gleason 1969: 464). French Diderot (and Pascal) stated:

« Le bon sens choisirait la langue française ; mais…l’imagination et les passions donneront la préférence aux langues anciennes et à celle de nos voisins…Notre langue sera celle de la vérité, si jamais elle revient sur la terre ; et…la grecque, la latine et les autres seront les langues de la fable et du mensonge. »

Diderot (1751).

Others have suggested other languages as having priority viz. Sanskrit, Berber (the mother of languages!) Concerning Arabic, American Bernard Comrie from the University of California states: “the Arabic language is already studied intensively as the language of a major culture and of a major religion; here I want to adopt a narrower perspective, to show even those linguists who do not, or do not yet, share such broader cultural perspective on Arabic studies that the Arabic language has much to offer them.” (Comrie 1990: 4)

“As with any language that is no longer living, Biblical Hebrew is subject to conflicting interpretations of the orthographic record. On the other level, the fact that no aspect of the orthography other than the consonants demonstrably dates earlier than the sixth century AD has led some scholars to conclude that certain aspects of the traditional pronunciation were borrowed from the native language of post-biblical speakers of Hebrew. On the other hand, we know that a long oral tradition of study and memorization preceded the fixing of the non-consonantal orthography. The parallel to the reputed accuracy of transmission of Vedic Sanskrit is not inappropriate here.” (McCarthy 1990: 35)

“The centrality of the Koran in the Moslem religion and the fact that it is written in Arabic have probably prevented the Arab language from breaking up into mutually unintelligible dialects, which otherwise have occurred in the intervening thirteen centuries.” (Hart 1995 : 10)

“I have read, I believe, nearly everything that has been published of late years upon this subject…my standpoint remains, however, nearly the same as it formerly as. The ancient Semitic languages –Arabic and Ethiopic, Assyrian, Canaanitic (Phoenician and Hebrew), and Aramaic…-are as closely connected with each other as the romance languages-Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Provencal and French: they are all daughters of a deceased mother… Arabic and Ethiopic, -but essentially the former, -have, I think, preserved a higher degree of likeness to the original Semitic language. The Hebrew of the Pentateuch, and the Assyrian, as it appears in even the oldest inscriptions, seem to me to have already attained nearly the same stage of grammatical development or decay as the post-classical Arabic, the spoken language of…modern times.” (Wright 1979: vi)

“In the 17th c. (german philosopher) Leibniz … considered Arabic to be the mother of Hebrew.” (Robins 1980, p. 167)

Sibawaihi’s Life

In the 8th