oO | - | \ NIT. AU Suibosw A - \ A-CONTRASTIVE GRAMMAR | ; OF ENGLISH AND ARABIC Yowell Y. Aziz Professor of English I University of Mosul | \ pasar Be ox sop tn, ~~ Vetta if ; Tol. 169579 strani oan 07702760126 - e7s01424608PRCER CE ‘This book is written mainly to serve as a textbook, which provides enough Mnaterlal on English and Arabic grammars for one academic yeiar. It is not a comprehensive grammar book of English or Arabic. Such a book, if feasible, would be too bulky to serve as textbook. Nor is it meant to be a contrastive analysts of the two languages, in the proper sense, since a work of this type would be too abstract and advanced for a college student and will interest only a small minority of specialized readers. The book is mainly written for college students who have some knowledge of English and Arabic grammars. It does not, however, assume ‘a mastery of these grammars on the part of the reader. The book therefore attempts to explain certain grammatical areas of the two languages in a brief and simple way. It concentrates on the practical aspects of the grammars of the two languages, and Illustrates theoretical points by adequate examples. The book comprises nineteen chapters covering the main grammatical areas of English and Arabic. At the end of each chapter there is a section devoted to comparison of the main points discussed in the chapter. It ts hoped that the book will interest language students, especially students of translation, and the ordinary educated reader in general. bp eb Le boil Yoweh Y. Aziz « cx Yer Mtosut . July, 1989.Chapter One: Introduction ee 1.1 What is contrastive grammar? 1.2 How are the grammars of two languages contrasted? —13 The sentence _— 1.4 The structure of the sentence _— 1.5 The predicate 1.6 Arabic predicate 1.7 How elements of a sentence are related 7 18 Class and SystemChapter One: Introduction h 1.1 What is Contrastive Grammar The letter field of study has been known by other names: confrontational linguistics, comparative ingulstics, besides contrestive linguistics. However, the term ‘contrastive linguistics’ is probably more established and more widely used. It will therefore be adopted in this book. only certain areas of two grammars are usually compared and contrasted, since dealing with all the detalls of the languages concerned will be.nearly inpossible; it will involve tremendous work and require'a very long tIme. quae objective of the former is to encourage contrastive studies ‘within the framework of general linguistics. Applied contrastive linguistics, on the other hand, has pedagogical objectives; It may be used profitably in second and foreign language learning. Applied contrastive linguistics Is also useful for those who are Interested in translation. 1.2 How ae the srammars of wo languages contrasted? The usual procedure used in contrastive analysis consists of three major stages: (8) description of language A, (b) description of language B and (c) contrasting the results. This is the procedure adopted tn this book.The present book is written for students of translation; its objectives are to furnish these students with a workable knowledge of English and Arabic grammars, and to point out the main points of similarities and differences in the major structures of the two languages. This is why esch of the chapters in the book comprises three main parts: description of English grammar, description of Arabic grammar and comparison of the two grammars. More emphasis ts given to the first two parts since they are essential for a student of translation. The lest part, which is contrastive linguistics proper, 1s treated in some detall-It 1s usually considered a more advanced component of this type of study. Here too the emphasis ts on the practical side rather than on theory. At this level most of the highly abstract details belonging to contrastive linguistics are better avoided. When contrasting the grammars of two or more languages, one should look for a fairly general frame to cover structures of both languages. This general framework is usually provided by the discipline of general linguistics, Contrasting grammars normally requires that one should make use of-higher levels of abstraction. Concrete linguistic manifestations found near the surface do not usually provide a workable bests for contrast or comparison. For example, if one wanted to compare the word ‘the’ in English with the word J) in Arabic, one would make use of the notion of ‘article’ in the two languages, which is more abstract than these two words. ‘One may even go to higher level of abstraction and make use of the notion of definiteness. This notion is more general, it includes, beside the article, ‘such constructions as ‘idhafe’ (43\2\)in Arabic and the genitive in English. The basis of contrastive study may be syntactic (formal) or semantic, among other things. Comparing the markers of definiteness ‘the’ and ‘|? would have a formal basis, if the study is confined to the use of these articles with various classes of nouns. fon the other hand, the discussion goes beyond the concrete reslizetion of the two words to the notion of definiteness, then the basis would be semantic.belong. the basis is semantic. arm They often complement each other, and without the one the other would be incomplete. In the present book therefore, both syntactic and semantic levels of analysis are used. 1.3 The Sentence — __Grammarians usually divide their material into stretches of various sizes =e largest of these units is a sentence. The other units are: jause, the phrase, the word and the morpheme: Units larger than a sentence are not discussed in this book. fi English and Arabic, it is assumed that a sentence consists of one or more clauses; a clause consists f one phrase or more, and soon: the morpheme is the smallest&ntt. In jost grammar books, it Is more practical to stop at the level of words. This 1 the traditional view. 40 Rll Rigaall g SYM! ol ) and (4) are two stretches of utterance taken from English and Arabic. Each stretch is made up of one sentence. Each of the two sentences comprises one clause. This is why (3) and (4) are sometimes called clauses. In these two examples the boundarles of the sentence and the clause are identical. \ The it Abe prs," als is made pane word ony Test of the phrases In the two clauses may analyzed in the same way. The. English word ‘the’ consists of one morpheme, whereas the word ‘boys’ consists of two morpheres ‘boy+s). The Arable word al, has one - The 9 |morpheme; whereas the word' >) may be constdered two morphemes ‘aly+ plural morpheme’, inserted after the second element. ' This method is useful in comparing two or more languages. The plural in : ‘boys’, for example, is realized by the sufflx morpheme ‘s’; thie Arabic plural : in ‘251° ts realized by means of a different, more complicated way, which may be described as ‘prefix and infex’ How clauses, phrases, words and morphemes are identified will be explained later. The main concern of this section is the simple sentence. ~ 14 The Structure of the Sentence ii ~ Bach of the units mentioned above has a structure of tts own, except the smallest unit, the morpheme, which has no structure. A structure ts an abstract pattern which is recognizable because it 1s repeated. ' Traditionally, : . will arrive tomorrow vo lary 4s helping her mother vial The little child ts crying in the next room 1 ' : “Sublet | Predicate i oe a> oe Nelocks 4 psheall Jab! ayledl Bal 8 Se aS SS er eet rors 10Subject / Predicate ~ The structure of the subject is fairly simple; it may be considered homogeneous. The predicate in both languages is less homogeneous; it : comprises a number of elements. 1.5 The Predicate — oth wdc ” netsh, the predate may comprise the ver alone “9. TI OLS Sheiscewr(). _- 1. shets here (A) ae the brackets contain a elements, the verb is the only ‘non-optional element. : In Arabic, the predicate may or may not contain a verb. On the basis of | this fact, ‘verb may precede (14)or follow the subject (15).\ 15. saad) , le GUS Qo, der! (Ahmed put the book on the table.) polall EVI & Sk 092! (His father will come next week.) J WonsinafStH2ices "The subject normally precedes the predicate. If the subject is an indefinite noun it usually follows the predicate (17). 16, - hal e ke — clever.) SL lye —Lell @ fox is a cunning animal.) 7. cy ote (He has ahouse.) fa de) Taal! g (There ts a man in the garden), Since these nominal sentences have no verb, they are considered ‘ timeless. (The English translations have the verb in the present; this is one - ‘ interpretation.) The time reference of such sentences is derived from the | | context. It s to be noted that Arabic verbless sentences are exitenttal or bit possessive. 5 nominal sentences are 19, Baas GU CaS CLaylawas astudent) 20. Sap ove Osa (He will have a house.) (19) and (20) are considered verbal since the predicate contains a verb. i! _ Ii srt of te Arle peat muy be 1 compe one fi ih ‘one-element predicate may’be a verb. a complement ily or Wverbial. The structure of the predicate may be stated as follows: i ! ! The braces refer to alternative structures) The first line describes the structure of verbal sentences: the last two lines, the structures of nominal ” sentences. 12The definition of nomial and verbal sentences in this section Is slightly different from the definition used by traditional Arab grammarians, who | ‘define verbal sentence as one beginning with a verb, and nominal sente | .as sentence beginning with « noun. For these grammarlans eu. is ¢ 1.6 How the Elements of a Sentence are Related: Places and Elements -Asimple sentence tor rather a clause) in English has the following | for example, tl are three places occupied by the three elements $,V,0. 21..My frlend (8) has written (V).a short story (O). The Arabic equivalent of (21) 1s (22), wus the English clause (21) and the Arabic clause (22) ere similar in number of places in their structures and in the elements occupying these Places. They differ in the order of these elements: the English clause is « SVO, the Arabic VSO. It Is to be noted that the order of the dements in the Arabic clause is relatively more flexible than the order of the elements in the English Se Ts St written my friend a short story. . Letus take another example. 23. The child (S)is (V) in the garden (A)_ The | or ic equiy would beSA. Thus the difference between the two clauses is in the number of elements, and of course in the number of places. The English clause has three elements; the Arabic clause has two elements. The difference ts in V. Identifying the number of places in a structure and determining the elements filling the places will not be enough to describe the structure of a clause. The grammarian’ should describe how these places are related to each other. Leruled In modern linguistics; there are two major theories which explain this Point: constituency and dependency. Most of the grammatical methods used in English grammar belong to constituency approsch, whereas the methods followed by Arab grammarians in discussing Arabic grammarare, similar to dependency theory. The constituency theory relates parts to a whole; a number of items are treated as part of a latger item. Within constituency, two approaches may be recognized: the phrase structure marker represented as a tree and places and elements occurring in a larget structure. The phrase structure method mainly followed by Transformational Generative Grammar relates two items to a higher item in the tree. For example, the verb and its object in (25) 25. The man bought the car. are related to each other because they belong to the Verb Phrase (VP) higher in the tree. The object 1s represented as noun phrase (NP) and the function (object) is not stated explicitly.The definite article ‘the’ is related to the noun,‘man’ by,meansof a higher structure termed the Noun Phrase (NP), as in der t of . has NP. v, 7 a Article Noun the . (the) (man) ofa . | to The higher terms, the Verb Phrase and the Noun Phrase are related to each other through a higher structure termed the Sentence (5). his s nds 7 v NP VP lace, ‘The details stated so far may be represented in a tree form: wre py es There is no direct relation between two items on the same level, e.g. ‘al between the article and the noun, or the verb and its object. or “Phe second approach within constituency Is the one followed by most British grammarians, who follow systemic linguistics including Halliday and Quirk. Here items are releted to each other because they fill certain ) places in a larger structure. This is the approach followed in this book. J? ‘Thus, ie subject, the verb and the object (S,V,O) are related to each other ‘because they are part of « larger structure, the clause. | The Clause vthe next level, the phrase, we shall find the ‘the’ and ‘man’ are related tc each other because they fill two places in a larger structure, the Noun Phrase (also called the Noun Group). The Noun Phrase in English has three Possible places: the head (H) preceded by a modifier (M) and followed by a In (25) there are three places filled by the elements $,V,O. If we godownto | quantifier (Q). M and Q are optional. | i NE - | M H Q | The structure of the Noun Phrase, ‘the man; is MH, that of ‘the man in the comer is MHQ and the structure of ‘he’ is just H. Further details concerning this approach will be found in the following chapters. The dependency theory, which 1s in many ways similar to the method followed by Arab grammarians, is not based on part-whole relation; it assumes that the relation between two Items Is'that one of them governs the other. This relation is direct. For example, the verb governs the moun or the noun depends on the verb, V ——+ N. This relation is clear in the Arabic sentence where the verb is said to govern its. subject in the subjective (nominative) case and Its object In the objective (accusative) cese. eat de st 2». LH In the passive sentence the verb governs the ‘object (called subject or acting subject) in the subjective. 2m edls at {in these examples, J! and ,The other basic forms, which are less common than the first, are the ‘quadriilteral forms ‘2° *.They are made up of four radicals. The generic forms for these two types are given as: li and lea . A. Trititeral Classes The triliteral basic form + has three subtypes according to whether the second radical has of 7 (the vowels /a/, /I/ orful These basic forms are: |\ss as ine 3 aS Jas ins jas as in The last two forms are usually intransitive and express a state or quality. nd (with /1/) normally denotes a temporary quality; 33 (with /u/) denotes hormally a permanent quality or state. It 1s to be noted that the meanings of these two forms may be rendered Into English by using a combination of an intensive verb and an adjective, e.g. ,,. became or be sad ¢9 = became or be happy; |! : became or be heavy;:,"_-b e or became beautiful.B. Quadriliteral Classes The basic quadriliteral form Jis3 has four subtypes. ) The frst two radicals are repeated (reduplicatives), ¢8. 3 Gargle) .->~2 (whisper), «=> (neigh), These verbs usually°denote sounds as n the examples above or movement as in J); (shake). "~ (b) Verbs derived from nouns of more than three redicals, ¢.g. wast lto put stockings on a person) from ,,>-(stockings), ‘15 (to become a student) fromi.l;(student, disciple). “© Verbs of the form,+++(be proud) probably connectd with Ax! by suffixing the radical /1/; ,¢=-(collect), probably connected with <= and. Sto deceive with gentle words) probably connected with ds Phese should not be considered derived forms because they are not derived according to a certain rule or form; the connection between the words Is not Productive, as is the case in the derived forms which will be discussed in the next section. (G) Verbs consisting of combining two abbreviated forms (blends), e.g. J—tto say a! ez) formed from aii.) Jus> (Lo say ay win! ) formed. from. ais ssl 2.10 Derived Forms of the Verb in Arabic From the triliteral form and quadriliteral form are derived several other (oon-basic) forms. The two generic forms' Jas and \lasare usually used to explain these derived forms. There Is usually some semantic rélation between the basic and the derived forms. A. Derivation from Triliteral Base There are altogether fifteen verb forms related to the triliteral base, Including the basic form }.3 ,which 1s considered Form I. However, only ten of these forms are in common use and even the ‘tenth form is infrequent. Only 2 brief account of these forms will be given here. Form i has slready been discussed. Three of the derived forms have one radical added to the base. They are: MH Jas, I \cbend IV (js3l Tl \s5 ts derived from .|.3 by duplicating the middle radical. It may express Intensification, e.g. «35 (to cut), .L5 (to cut into pleces, 5 (to break): 5-5(to break into pieces). It may also mean causation or transfer an adjective into a transitive verb: e.g. c* (be happy) c>? (make happy), i (know): le (to teach). Ul Je'd Is derived from 3 by adding a radical after the first one. This form may express an attempt or effort, e.g. {15 (to try to kill to fight),¢ (to wrestle), 5:\-(to run a race) This form may also indicate reciprocal actions: IS(to correspond with), --!~ (to sit with), Verbs denoting a quality such as <=> (to be rough) become transitive In an adverblalsense, e.g.:2> (treated him roughly),4-_\,,aL, (treated him gently). TV J\slis derived from ||,sby adding a radical at the initial position. It may have causative meaning, e.g._,-\-(to sit) ) paLeltto ask him to sit). This form is often used to derive verbs from nouns, €.g. 3,5! (to produce leaves), saul S Jat(to produce rain), ins (to make mistakes). The form may denote movement and direction, ..,| (to go to Yamin), ,{:1 (to go to Syria »12i1). This use 1s becoming raré in Modern Arabic. Finally, this form ts commonly used to express the meaning of an intensive verb (become) and a quality, €.8..-\(to become dry), i! (to become desert), _\:}(lo become penniless). Five forms are derived by adding two radicals: VJai, VIJc\SVII j.i5! VIE je3'1X “ai V Ja4sis derived from the second form (,}%\ by prefexing the radical =,to It. This form often expresses reflexive meaning ( f-s\J2 ) which Is often tendered into English by the passive voice, e.g.» ,5 (be made homeless), oou(be destroyed). Sometimes the form has the meaning of an intensive verb and a complement, ¢.g. (to become a Christlan), 5,5 (to become a Jew), .-i;(to become brave as a lion). VI Jel is derived from the third form Jc'3 by prefixing the radical to it. It often expresses the sense of reflextveness: .c\5 (kept himself away). The reciprocity of the third form becomes obvious here and is usually rendered into English by, ‘each other, ‘one another, ‘together’, etc. For example ‘545 (he two fought with one another). 0!! |jc 3) ).They argued with one another), 31.25 ic.:'5'(The victories followed one anothers, éi_L.5 (the team neld together). _ Vil \aistis derived from the first form by adding the radicals 3! at the initial position. The general meaning Is again reflexive, which comes very near to 31the passive sense: PLS Ls qa (the electricity was cut off, wel! cis! (the door wass ‘opened; the door opened), VIII «3s derived from the first form by adding the radicat | Initially and 5 after the first. It is the reflexive of the first form, ¢.g.___-<\(to earn one’s living). Like the sixth form (! (to become red), 35-1" (to become black). It may also indicate defect, €.8.J5>l(to become squint), ext {to become crooked). The remaining forms are derived by adding more than two radicals. X Jails derived from the first form by prefixing to It the radicals |The form often expresses the idea that a person thinks that a thing possess the Guality expressed by the first form. It is often rendered into English by the verb and the object complement ,»YL_isx_\(He thought the matter light.), la. (He thought it heavy.), ala! (He thought it lawful), aie thought it good or beautiful). It may also mean.‘ask for, seek, etc” : ii | (ask for pardon), .2..\(to ask for water to drink),.2.\=_\ (to ask for help). The classes from X1 to XV are rare. It is enough to give a few examples for each, XI iad! Is used as the ninth form to express colour See! (to become yellow), 51,.1(to become black). XU Je ysilas in 3525 | (tobecome rough); + ,*cl (to become covered with grass). XAT jail as 1n351- {to last long)>"sle\to be heavy), XIV jLaitas in Sis. (to become black). XV sbaslas in, S21c! (to be stout and strong). B. Derivations from Quadriliteral Base Three torms are derived from the quadriliteral base .jlai.The first form dashes already been discussed. The other three are: 32fo II jl ts derived by adding the radical 5 to the beginning of the base. This form may be transitive Indicating ‘to wear, or put on’as In—Las(to put on a Lic), It may also be Intensive, e.g..,41.5(to make oneself, or behave like, USL) & pda! (to become ance ie). TIT JLsslis derived from the base by adding | initially and the radical > after the second radical. This fa a rate form; .g.z-l:L.I(to le on one’s face) >! (to gather into a crowd). IV ji.3l Is derived from the base by adding | initially and doubling the last radical. It often expressesa high degrec of intensive actorstate, €.8. oaci(to vanish away), °{.L i (to be at rest), - { | 2\(o stretch the head out); “U1 (to shudder with horror). 2.11 Forms and Combinations of the Arabic Verb A, Verb Form The Arabic verb form changes according to tense / aspect, gender, number, person, mood and volce. There are only two forms which indicate tense/aspect contrasts: the perfect >Uland the imperfect Lal!) The triliteral and quadriliteral forms are listed in a dictionary tn the form of the perfect. The imperfect ts derived from the perfect by prefixing one of the four radicalsc..s\, e.g 2510 write), Shwe write), She writes) 2 (you, she, write(s)). To these may be added other forms, which are used for dual and plural number and normally follow the subject (or rather the theme or topic termi: 1), These are; 525(you-pl-mase. write), :,:55 (you-pl-fem, write), SL=Ss(you-dual ~masc-& fem. write). 525 (they-pl-mase, write), :.5c (they-pLfem, write) and 5155 (they-two-masc. write). Finally a seventh form should be Mentioned which indicates singular feminine and may precede or follow the subject: |.5S (Y ou-sg—fem. write). The imperfect form of the triliteral base 1s not predicatble in that the second radical may have “,—,or-# and have to be looked up in a dictionary The quadriliteral is predicable in that the first radical has “*— and the last but one — otal gol Hp 33The forms used in the perfect expressing number, gender and person (-sg- masc. fem. wrote). \_:S (we-pl-masc.— fem. wrote), 2_-s (you-sg-mase. wrote), 5 (you-sgfem. wrote), \ax-5 (You-dual, masc & fem wrote), 5 (you-pl-mase wrote) ;5 (you -pi-fem wrote). <5 the wrote), <5 (she wrote), LS (they two mas. fem wrote),\,-5 (they - pl- masc wrote), :,(they — pl fem wrote), ‘The Gender contrast has two forms: masculine and feminine: e.g@<<(he 4 writes)/\l! and the imperfect etal! ) which express,among other things,time reference. The imperfect “Sand the perfect 5 express present / past contrast when they are used as absolute tenses, Le. taking the moment of speaking as their reference point. It should be noted however that the same two forms may be used for relative tenses, In which cdse the point of reference is not the present moment of speaking but other points In the sentence. Here are two examples which iIlustrate absolute and relative tense of the Imperfect, ~».i, n. rx JS us JIS! Cok (Absolute: point of reference the moment of speaking (now) My brother goes there Bev JS Sea! cay (3! ol Mlsl cule Relative: point of reference Past cole ; the tense refers to the past. Then I knew that my brother went there every day.) 3.1 The present tense The verb form called the imperfect (yall) bastcally refers to. Present time if the point of reference is the moment of speaking. (a) As in English, the present tense may refer to the general present, namely Arepeatedaction , a custom, a fact or an ability in the present.