Arabic-L:'head' and 'dependent' responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 14 Mar 2001
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: 'head' and 'dependent' response
2) Subject: 'head' and 'dependent' response
3) Subject: 'head' and 'dependent' response

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1)
Date: 14 Mar 2001
From: Michael Fishbein <FISHBEIN at humnet.ucla.edu>
Subject: 'head' and 'dependent' response

I wonder whether the difficulty in translating these terms has to do
with the way in
which the older Arabic grammarians analyzed sentences. They thought in terms of
'amil (or, 'aamil, if you prefer), which is generally translated as
'regens' (pl.
regentia). G. Weil, whose article 'Amil was written for EI-1, but
also appears in
EI-2, defines an 'amil as: "a word, which, by the syntactical
influence which it
exercises on a word that follows, causes a grammatical alteration of the last
syllable of the latter, i.e. a change of case or mood. Given the structure of
Arabic, the 'amil almost always precedes the word it governs, and so
can be called
"head" of the construction.

However, I have been unable to find the term for the word on which the 'amil
exercises its influence. Is it al-ma'mul fihi? Logically, one would
expect it to be
this, but I have no text to cite. Can anyone help?

Michael Fishbein

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2)
Date: 14 Mar 2001
From: Kaseh Abu Bakar <kaseh at pkrisc.cc.ukm.my>
Subject: 'head' and 'dependent' response

How about 'ra's' and 'mahmul '?

Kaseh

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3)
Date: 14 Mar 2001
From: alhawar at american.edu
Subject: 'head' and 'dependent' response
If I understand you correctly, you want to avoid using more than one
term: e.g.,

-Sifah & mawSuuf (within Noun-Adjective phrase)

-muDaaf & muDaaf ?ilay (within N-N appoistion phrase)

How about "musnad & musnad ?ilayh" (used in Arabic grammar to refer
to subject-predicate & subject-verb relationship) although your
students may encounter obvious predictable problems in the future.
Personally, I recommend using original terminlogy as used in Arabic
grammar to provide students with smmooth transition if they decide to
expand their knowldge of Arabic grammar (or consult additional
descriptions of Arabic) by using materials other than yours.

Mohammad T. Alhawary

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End of Arabic-L: 14 Mar 2001