Arabic-L:LING:Broken Plurals

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 25 May 2007
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1) Subject:Broken Plurals

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1)
Date: 25 May 2007
From:"Dr. M Deeb" <muhammaddeeb at gmail.com>
Subject:Broken Plurals



  Random Notes and Assumptions on the "Broken Plurals"    (2)

Todavía con Señor Ferrado.

The problem of quantity has always been part of the landscape of  
plurals in Arabic, and consequently figured among the perennial  
linguistic concerns.   Examples are too many to include in this  
post.  Perhaps, it would suffice to mention only two illustrations  
from different ages.

On hearing Hassā n b.Thābit's verse:

(لنا "الجفنات" الغر يلمعن في الضحى        
و"أسيافنا" يقطرن من نجدة دما),

the pre-Islamic poet, an-Nā bigha, criticizes Ibn Thabit by saying:

(لقد قلّلت جفانك وسيوفك. )


Centuries later, al-Harīrī, a purist linguist and a BaSrite at that,  
censures his contemporaries for their grammatical errors.  He  
reproaches them, among other things, for their neglect of the paucity  
plural when they use:

/ ثلاثة شهور    / instead of / ثلاثة أشهر /. (*)

To address this concern, the Arabic Academy in Egypt has passed a  
resolution that sound and broken plurals signify paucity and  
multiplicity, thus bringing down the quantity barrier.   Without  
holding a brief for the Arabic Academy, its decision is an  
acknowledgement of the status quo.  In practice, Arab writers,  
classical and modern, do not closely follow the quantity rules,  
whereas, in theory, the morpho-grammatical code fails to lay down  
hard and fast categories.

Areas of confusion and respective examples are also too many to  
discuss individually. Two examples may well illustrate the point.   
Multiplicity plurals, such as: /كتب /, /قلوب / & / رجال /  
are used variously for both quantities.  Similarly, paucity plurals  
such as / أعناق /, / أفئدة / & / أرجل / (= necks, hearts  
and legs), are used for both categories.   The first set of words  
does not have paucity forms; the second set of words does not have  
multiplicity forms.  Practically, the four forms of paucity are used  
for plurality, irrespective of quantity.    One of these forms,  
i.e., / أفعال / is the most commonly used in Arabic.   Arabic  
teems with words in this paucity category, such as / أحياء /, / 
أحرار /, / أعمال / & / أيام / which have no form of  
multiplicity.

It is time to reconcile ourselves with the fact that broken plurals  
transcend the quantity barrier.  Context and syntax, not form, decide  
the quantity of the plural.   Consider this qur'anic verse:
/سخرها عليهم سبع ليال وثمانية أيام  
حسوما    /
The quantity of / ليال / & / أيام /, in the forms of /  
فعالي (indefinite genitive) / & / أفعال / (for multiplicity  
and paucity respectively), is decided by the context and the  
numbers / سبع / & / ثمانية /, and not by the grammatical form.
Con saludos cordiales a todos.

<>M. Deeb

(To be continued)

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* See / درة الغواص في أوهام الخواص   /, (The  
Diver's Pearl for the Elites' Errors).


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End of Arabic-L:  25 May 2007