Arabic-L:GEN:Test Message #1

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 302 May 2007
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Test Message #1

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1)
Date: 30 May 2007
From:moderator
Subject:Test Message #1

[Dr. Deeb's original formatting]



On the "broken plurals," my colleague, Dr. Schub, raises a few  
probing questions:


(1) He wonders why the plural / أسباط / is used instead of the  
singular / سبط / in the qur'anic verse: / وقطّعناهم  
اثنتي عشرة أسباطا أمما /, VII: 160.

I'm afraid there is no violation of the grammatical code here.  We  
are to be alerted that / أسباطا / is not a noun of distinction / 
تمييز /; rather, it is a noun in apposition / بدل / to the  
number / اثنتي عشرة /.   As a relevant detail, may I add that  
even the masculine singular / سبط / would not fit as a noun of  
distinction after the feminine composite number / اثنتي  
عشرة /.   Exegetes and grammarians construe the verse as:

/                     اثنتي عشرة ، أسباطا أمما   
[ فرقا] قطّعناهم /.

Incidentally, the word / سبط / has / سُبطان / as another, yet  
rarely used, plural of abundance.


(2) As I probably had pointed out in one of my earlier posts on the  
"broken plurals," the sound feminine and masculine plurals are  
plurals of abundance, yet they may be used to indicate paucity either  
(a) by default or (b) on contextual and syntactic grounds.   The  
word / مرة / has several plurals, the most common of which are / 
مرات / & / مِرار /, the latter being a broken plural of  
abundance.  Thus, the sentence / رأيته مرات / would mean  
"I've seen him" anywhere from three times to infinity, whilst / 
رأيته مرارا / emphasizes the more repeated action of seeing  
as counting starts from eleven to infinity.   All that  
notwithstanding, practitioners of Arabic don't use pocket calculators!

    (In parenthesis, I'm often tempted to think of / مرار / as a  
verbal noun, not a plural , which is lexically justified.)


(3) On /آلاف / (plural of paucity) & / ألوف / (plural of  
multiplicity or abundance), Dr. Schub observes correctly that /  
ألوف / "is found in contexts meaning 'thousands upon thousands,'  
etc."  Unfortunately, with the disturbing Arabic illiteracy and  
growing use of local dialects, very few, if at all, would tell the  
distinction between plural forms, let alone use them properly.

With my 'abundant' and kind regards.

--------
* MD



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