The Forms of the Trilateral Root in Arabic

A study on the Semantic Hierarchy of Morphological Forms

Abstract

This research is part of a re-examination of the basic trilateral forms in Arabic by having a profound investigation of how they were categorized and the characteristics that led the ancients to consider them as formative beginnings, as well as the features that led them to consider [Fa'al] as the model and (proto)typical element within the group. We intend to reconsider the classification of adjectival forms, which enabled the grammarians to overcome the diversity and differences between them and to categorize and visualize them in a non-arbitrary way. Although this choice may be sufficient in itself, what prompted us to return to this topic was the shortcomings we noticed in a number of recent studies interested in this topic. They seemed to fall short of representing the theoretical background that guided the grammarians in their dealings with the study of forms, which made them, in our opinion, insufficiently descriptive. A number of studies also seemed to be in need of a more in-depth examination of what grammarians have written on the subject because of their reliance on the teaching requirements of forms, which requires methodological choices and selection processes that would neglect the most important characteristics of forms.