Article published In:
Historiographia LinguisticaVol. 44:1 (2017) ► pp.135–163
From Description to Prescription
The exceptive in Arabic grammatical theory
Once the need to learn a language arises, grammatical instructional manuals evolve from descriptive grammars of that language. Language description involves the uncovering of the rules of the language from collected data, and teaching those rules is the reason grammatical manuals exist. The most comprehensive descriptive grammar of Arabic is Sībawayhi’s Kitāb (d. ca.161–94 AH/777–810 A.D.). He includes the rules of Arabic as he deduced them from the language of the Arabs. As time passed and the need to learn Arabic increased, many grammarians started to write grammatical manuals for beginners. Sībawayhi’s monumental work was too speculative and highly theoretical for this task and was never suitable for instruction. The descriptiveness of Sībawayhi’s Kitāb needed to morph into a more approachable grammar. Zağğāğī’s Ğumal (d. ca.337–340/948–951) and Ibn Bābašāḏ’s Muqaddima (d.469/1077) are two instructional manuals that are concise and more suitable for beginners. This study examines how pedagogy in Zağğāğī’s Ğumal and Ibn Bābašāḏ’s Muqaddima evolved from the descriptive rules of Sībawayhi’s Kitāb through a careful analysis of istiṯnā’ “exception” rules presented by each grammarian in this study. Although the rules are essentially the same in all three books, presentation and description or lack thereof are sufficiently different illustrating their distinct objectives.
Article outline
- 1.Introductory observations
- 2.The role of Sībawayhi’s Kitāb
- 3.Zaǧǧāǧī’s Ǧumal
- 4.Ibn Bābašāḏ’s Muqaddima
- 5.Concluding observations
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
This article is currently available as a sample article.
References (38)
A.Primary literature
Astarābāḏī, Šarḥ al-Raḍī
= Raḍī al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al- Astarābāḏī, Šarḥ al-Raḍī ʿalā Kāfiyat Ibn al-Ḥāǧib Ed. by ʿAbd al-ʿĀl Sālim Makram. Vol. II1. Cairo: ʿĀlam al-Kutub 2000.
Baġdādī, Ḫizāna
= ʿAbd al-Qādir b. ʿUmar al- Baġdādī, Ḫizānat al-ʾAdab wa-Lubb Lubāb Lisān al-ʿArab Ed. by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn.Vol. I1. Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Našr [1967?].
Baṭalyawsī, Ḥulal
= ʿAbdullāh b. Muḥammad b. al-Sīd al- Baṭalyawsī, Kitāb al-Ḥulal fī ʾIṣlāḥ al-Ḫalal min Kitāb al-Ǧumal Ed. by Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Karīm Saʿʿūdī. Beirut: Dār al-Ṭalīʿa li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Našr 1980.
Ibn ʾAbī al-Rabīʿ, Basīṭ
= ʿUbayd Allāh b. ʾAḥmad Ibn ʾAbī al-Rabīʿ, al-Basīṭ fī Šarḥ Ǧumal al-Zaǧǧāǧī Ed. by ʿAyyād b. ʿĪd al-Ṯabītī. Vol. I1. Beirut: Dār al-Ġarb al-ʾIslāmī 1986.
Ibn al-ʾAnbārī, ʾInṣāf
= ʾAbū al-Barakāt Ibn al-ʾAnbārī, al-ʾInṣāf fī Masāʾil al-Ḫilāf bayna al-Baṣriyyīn wa-l-Kūfiyyīn Ed. by Jawda Mabrūk Muḥammad Mabrūk. Cairo: Maktabat al-Ḫānjī 2002.
Ibn Bābašāḏ, Muḥsiba
Ṭāhir b. ʾAḥmad Ibn Bābašāḏ, Šarḥ al-Muqaddima al-Muḥsiba Ed. by Ḫālid ʿAbd al-Karīm 21 vols. Kuwait no pub. 1976 1977
Ibn Bābašāḏ, Naḥwiyya
= Ṭāhir b. ʾAḥmad Ibn Bābašāḏ, Šarḥ al-Muqaddima al-Naḥwiyya Ed. by Muḥammad ʾAbū al-Futūḥ Šarīf. 21 vols. (n.p.): Dār al-Zahrāʾ li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Našr 1978.
Ibn Bābašāḏ, Muqaddima
Ṭāhir b. ʾAḥmad Ibn Bābašāḏ, Kitāb al-Muqaddima al-Muḥsiba fī al-Naḥw. Copied by ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥabašī. Mss. n. 6427. Riyadh: Ǧāmiʿat al-ʾImām Muḥammad b. Suʿūd al-ʾIslāmiyya. Location: London & Cairo: Muʾassasat ʿIlm (al-Maktabah al-Dawliyya li-l-Maḫṭūṭāt al-ʾIslāmiyya), ca.12th century.
Ibn Ḥamza, Ḥāṣir
= Yaḥya Ibn Ḥamza, al-Ḥāṣir li-Fawāʾid Muqaddimat Ṭāhir fī ʿIlm Ḥaqāʾiq al-ʾIʿrāb Ed. by Muḥammad Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ḥinṭāya. Sanaa: Markaz ʿUbādī li-l-Dirāsāt wa-l-Našr 2007.
Ibn Ḫarūf, Šarḥ
ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Ibn Ḫarūf, Šarḥ Ǧumal al-Zaǧǧāǧī Ed. by Salwā Muḥammad ʿUmar ʿArab. Vol. I1 Mecca Ǧāmiʿat ʾUmm al-Qurā, 1419 AH [1998–1999 A.D.]
Ibn Mālik, Tashīl
= Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAbdullāh Ibn Mālik, Šarḥ al-Tashīl Ed. by ʿAbdulraḥmān al-Sayyid and Muḥammad Badawī al-Maḫtūn. Vol. II1. Cairo: Haǧr li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Našr wa-l-Tawzīʿ wa-l-ʾIʿlān 1990.
Ibn Yaʿīš, Mufaṣṣal
= Muwaffaq al-Dīn Yaʿīš b. ʿAlī Ibn Yaʿīš, Šarḥ al-Mufaṣṣal. Vol. II1. Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub [1970].
Qifṭī, ʾInbāh
= Jamāl al-Dīn al-Qifṭī, ʾInbāh al-Ruwāt ʿalā ʾAnbāh al-Nuḥat Ed. by Muḥammad ʾAbū al-Faḍl ʾIbrāhīm. 41 vols. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya 1952.
Sībawayhi, Kitāb
= ʾAbū Bišr Sībawayhi, al-Kitāb Ed. by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. 51 vols. Cairo: Maktabat al-Ḫānjī 1988.
Zaǧǧāǧī, Ğumal
= ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b.ʾIsḥāq al-Zaǧǧāǧī, al-Ğumal: Précis de Grammaire Arabe Ed. by Mohammed Ben Cheneb. 2nd ed. Paris: C. Klincksieck 1957.
Zamaḫšarī, Kaššāf
= Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar al-Zamaḫšarī, al-Kaššāf ʿan Ḥaqāʾiq Ġawāmiḍ al-Tanzīl wa-ʿUyūn al-ʾAqāwīl fī Wujūh al-Taʾwīl Ed. by Muṣṭafā Ḥusayn ʾAḥmad. Vol. III1. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-ʾIstiqāma 1953
B.Secondary literature
ʿAbd al-Karīm, Ḫālid
1976–1977 See Ibn Bābašāḏ, Muḥsiba.
Baalbaki, Ramzi
1995 “Reclassification in Arab Grammatical Theory”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 54:1.1–13. 
2005 “Theoretical Coherency versus Pedagogical Attainability: The conscious bias of Arab grammarians”. Alttagsleben und materielle Kultur in der arabischen Sprache und Literatur: Festschrift für Heinz Grotzfeld zum 70. Geburtstag ed. by Thomas Bauer & Ulrike Stehli-Werbeck, 39–68. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
2008 The Legacy of the “Kitāb”: Sībawayhi’s analytical methods within the context of the Arabic grammatical theory. Leiden: Brill.
Carter, Michael G.
1972 “ ‘Twenty Dirhams’ in the Kitāb of Sībawayhi”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 35:3.485–496.
1975 “A Note on Classical Exceptive Sentences”. Journal of Semitic Studies 201.69–72.
1985 “When Did the Arabic Word Naḥw First Come to Denote Grammar?” Language and Communication 5:4.265–272.
2004 Sībawayhi. London & New York: I. B. Tauris.
2005 “Sībawayhi.” Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 311: Arabic Literary Culture, 500–925 ed. by Michael Cooperson and Shawkat M. Toorawa, 325–331. Detroit: Thomson Gale.
Dik, Simon C.
1989 “Functional Grammar and its Relevance to Grammar Writing”. Reference Grammars and Modern Linguistic Theory ed. by Gottfried Graustein & Gerhard Leitner, 33–55. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Dirven, René
1989 “Cognitive Linguistics and Pedagogic Grammar”. Reference Grammars and Modern Linguistic Theory ed. by Gottfried Graustein & Gerhard Leitner, 56–75. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Greenberg, Joseph H.
1968 Anthropological Linguistics: An introduction. New York: Random House.
Hārūn, ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad
1988 See Sībawayhi, Al-Kitāb.
Ḥasan, ʿAbbās
1968 Al-Naḥw al-Wāfī. Vol. II1. Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif.
Lehmann, Christian
1989 “Language Description and General Comparative Grammar”. Reference Grammars and Modern Linguistic Theory ed. by Gottfried Graustein & Gerhard Leitner, 133–162. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Newmeyer, Frederick J.
1978 “Prescriptive Grammar: A reappraisal”. Approaches to Language: Anthropological Issues ed. by William C. McCormack & Stephen A. Wurm, 581–593. The Hague: Mouton.
Owens, Jonathan
1993 “Arabic Syntactic Theory”. Syntax: An international handbook of contemporary research ed. by Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld & Theo Vennemann, Vol. I1, 208–215. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Šarīf, Muḥammad ʾAbū al-Futūḥ
1978 See Ibn Bābašāḏ, Naḥwiyya.
Tomlin, Russell S.
1994 “Functional Grammars, Pedagogical Grammars, and Communicative Language Teaching”. Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar ed. by Terence Odlin, 140–178. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sezgin, Fuat
1984 Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Band IX1: Grammatik. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Widdowson, Henry G.
1991 “The Description and Prescription of Language”. Georgetown University Round Table of Languages and Linguistics 1991 ed. by James E. Alatis, 11–24. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Versteegh, Cornelis H. M.
1977 Greek Elements in Arabic Linguistic Thinking. Leiden: E. J. Brill.