A View at the Term of Alwasitah in Arabic Syntax

Abstract

Many syntactic and morphological features of Arabic language are considered to have an ambivalent status in the language system, i.e., their status is undetermined. Grammatical features of this kind were either discussed in specific chapters, or were subject to various comments in various chapters of Arabic syntax. This paper will therefore review and analyze the different opinions regarding such features in order to reach to a definite stand. Examples of such features are the so-called laam algar almuqawiyah ‘the genitive particle indicating emphasis’ which may be considered either as a prefix or transitive particle. Similarly, the annexing noun, the noun made definite by al- ‘the’, the dual forms and the regular (sound) masculine plural forms which are in a position of compromise between triptote (fully inflected) and diptote (partially inflected) categories. Another case is the genitive preposition rubba ‘maybe’ which occurs in a middle position between primitive and augmented forms. Other examples include the object pronoun carrier iyyaa- and the demonstratives which are perceived as substantives and pronouns; in addition to the annexation to the first person pronoun and the words amsi ‘yesterday’ and sahara ‘dawn’ which may be either fully inflected or just indeclinable.