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arabica

RYDING, K.C. — Arabic. A Linguistic Introduction. Cam-

bridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014. (22 cm, XII,
187). ISBN 978-1-107-60694-4. $ 34,99.
Karen Ryding is Professor Emerita of Arabic Linguistics
in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at George-
town University. Besides numerous profound articles and
books in the field of these studies she has published an excel-
lent reference tool for students of Arabic grammar.1)
In the Preface Ryding states that in comparison with her
Reference Grammar the book under review is aimed at a
more specialized audience in the domain of Arabic
linguistics.
She also takes some distance from existing introductory
books about Arabic linguistics and pretends to present here
a framework for a course by means of “a more pedagogically
focused work (...) including discussion topics, questions, and
suggestions for further readings on specific subjects.”
(p. vii). This book is designed as a reference tool and a foun-
dational textbook for learning about Arabic linguistics.
To be short, I think that despite all the merits of the author
the book under review does not come up to my expectations,
as I will show below.

1
) Ryding, Karen C., A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Ara-
bic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2005.
809 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIII n° 5-6, september-december 2016 810

Starting with the title, the book is almost entirely confined Bibliography, and finally an Index (of names and subjects).
to Modern Standard Arabic. The development of Arabic Unfortunately the Glossary does not contain Arabic terms,
from its beginnings is treated very briefly. these terms are for the most part included in the main text,
Talking about linguistics, one would at least expect expla- but some of them are listed in chapters (Chapters 5, 8 and 9).
nations about applications in Arabic of vernaculars, pragmat- The Preface is concluded with a list of abbreviations and
ics, analysis of both discourse and narratives, and stylistics, symbols used in the book. I think it is very confusing that
but unfortunately all of these important linguistic disciplines there is another list of abbreviations appearing on p. 113-114
are missing here. On the other hand Ryding does work out (of syntactical terms). Despite these lists some abbreviations
the areas of applied and computational linguistics (in Appen- are missing, e.g. BLT (p. 5, treated also on p. 110), RG
dix A, p. 141ff). (p. 5), DP (p. 121), LCS (p. 129), SVO and VSO (p. 129),
These omissions are retraceable to the construction of the SVAA (p. 129; see underneath), and CTP (p. 135). Further-
book starting from morphemes to words and parts of sen- more, some selected syntactical terms on p. 113-114 are not
tences and finally phrases and clauses. This approach of mentioned in the Glossary.
Ryding fundamentally deviates from the classical approach At the end of each chapter you will find discussion topics
of classical Arabic linguistics and grammar, with Sibawayhi and questions as well. It’s a pity that contributions to the
(d. 796) as the main founding father. The cornerstone of his discussion of topics and answers to these questions are not
approach is the setting of a communicational environment of included. Taking them up should present a great opportunity
speech with primarily the speaker (1st person), his for the author to expose her many years of experience with
interlocutor(s) (2nd person) and the object (3rd person). In the treated subjects.3)
such a setting the following linguistic aspects are relevant: Chapter One “Arabic linguistics: overview and history”
drawing attention (by the speaker) to some topic, asking provides the reader with sophisticated considerations about
some further information from the interlocutor leading to an linguistics in general, and the author introduces to that pur-
interplay between questions and answers, emphasizing either pose several definitions of linguistics. After that she carefully
the topic or the course of events, making use of previous distinguishes between linguistics and grammar, the last one
knowledge of the speaker’s audience, self-correction by the to be considered as a subordinate concept to linguistics. She
speaker, giving commands and incitements and so on. All proceeds with the concept of linguistics applied to Arabic, to
these aspects seem to have been neglected or ignored, at least be elaborated in a separate paragraph: “Linguistics and Ara-
for the greatest part, by the author. bic”, particularly in the subparagraph titled “Theoretical lin-
As a result of the neglect of the aforementioned speaker’s guistics”. This chapter concludes with a paragraph contain-
perspective on Sibawayhi the whole of discourse analysis, ing a very brief outline of the development of the Arabic
including coordinated and complex sentences is missing, e.g. grammatical tradition. The linguistic part of this chapter fur-
circumstantial structures (ḥāl), conditional structures, and nishes substantial additional value to Ryding’s Reference
exceptive constructions. Grammar.
Another drawback from Ryding’s approach is the lack of Chapter Two “Arabic phonology” deals with phonemes
treatment of function words like participles and verbal nouns and phonemic processes, e.g. vowel lengthening and gemina-
(maṣdars). These function words are now only remarked, but tion. To my surprise Ryding does not pay any attention to the
they are not defined or described. Consequently the reader representation of long vowel /aa/, by far the most occurring
misses some very common practical applications.2) Some letter in Arabic script, by the ᾿alif. This ᾿alif may be spelled
negation markers are now only mentioned in passing (p. 79), regularly (᾿alif ṭawīla, ᾿alif maqṣūra or by ᾿alif madda respec-
but differentiation in usages is lacking. tively normal, short or extended ᾿alif) in unvoweled texts, or
As a reference tool this book is not very successful. For be spelled as dagger-᾿alif (᾿alif qaṣīra), only visible in com-
instance, you will not find in the Index obvious notions like pletely vocalized texts. Surprisingly indeed, because these
the very important modifying verb (which is also a verb of different forms are treated extensively in her own Reference
existence) kān-a, neither negation particles or verbs, nor pas- Grammar.
sive verbs or broken plurals. In Chapter Three “Arabic phonotactics 4) and mor-
The Preface is followed by eleven chapters. After the phophonology”, sound distribution patterns are treated. To
introductory chapter One: “Arabic linguistics: overview and this purpose four phonological processes in the Arabic sound
history” the chapters are arranged according to the usual system are elaborated: assimilation, vowel insertion, vowel
sequence of Arabic grammars: Phonology (ch. 2, 3, 4), Mor- shift, and deletion (of vowel and semi-vowel).
phology (ch. 5, 6, 7, 8), and Syntax (ch. 9, 10, 11). The book The disappearance of /n/ in nouns (sound masculine plural
ends with three Appendices (respectively A: Fields of lin- and dual) in genitive constructs is not mentioned, neither in
guistics and Arabic, B: Arabic transcription, transliteration, this chapter, nor in Chapter Ten (in the paragraph about geni-
and romanization, and C: Arabic nominal declensions), and tive and construct phrases).
a Glossary of technical linguistic terms, followed by a In the last chapter of Part One, Chapter Four “Arabic syl-
lable structure and stress”, the division of words in pro-
nounceable parts is discussed by analyzing the Arabic syl-
2
) Examples for participles include adjectival and circumstantial use.
Maṣdars can be applied in a verbal sense (active or passive) as infinitive,
lable structures and the determination of the (lack of) stress
or as a substitute for ᾿an + subjunctive, but also as a noun with independent on syllables.
meaning as one of the possibilities for the lexical expansion of Arabic
words (which could have been included in Chapter Seven). Another appli-
cation of the maṣdar you may encounter in Media Arabic: qām-a bi + 3
) One of the possibilities to do so is to include the answers and con-
maṣdar, to express an active verb, tamm-a + maṣdar for a passive verb, e.g. siderations in the book itself, or by means of a link to the publisher.
‘the meeting was held’ or in frequently occurring impersonal phrases as ‘it 4
) “The term ‘phonotactics’ refers to the study of sound distribution
is said that ...’. patterns and distribution restrictions within words (…).” (p. 23).
811 boekbesprekingen — arabica812

Part Two about Morphology is starting with Chapter Five, nature and processes of word-change within and as a result
and is titled: “Introduction to Arabic morphology”. This of syntactic structures. Ryding collects the inflection for Ara-
chapter begins with an interesting contemplation about the bic words into eleven categories. These categories may be
nature of the central notion of ‘word’. Generally spoken, either contextual, determined by syntactical rules of agree-
morphology in linguistics comprises analyzing the structure ment and government, or ‘inherent’, not subjected to syntax,
of words in its different forms, components, interactions, and or both. The resulting scheme (p. 92) is clearly arranged,
semantics. In the case of Arabic Ryding pays attention to five each category subdivided into grammatical properties and
different morphological models of present interest, the mod- into their application in function words (verbs, nouns, adjec-
els of respectively ‘item-and-arrangement’, ‘item-and-pro- tives, and so on). I would have liked this scheme accompa-
cess’, ‘word-and-paradigm’, ‘lexical phonology and mor- nied with more clarifications, especially for the notions of
phology’, and finally the model of ‘lexeme-morpheme base ‘voice’ (active and passive), and ‘mood’, by provision with
morphology’. definitions and examples. The scheme itself seems rather
Ryding discerns different decompositional procedures for complete, but the relatively rare energetic mood is missing
nouns and verbs in a very insightful way here, i.e. by subdi- in the category of ‘Mood’.
viding them in their component morphemes. In the following preliminary remarks about inflection
One of the salient features of Semitic languages, and thus Ryding mentions the important topic of “weak or defective
for Arabic, is the possibility to express a full predication in lexical roots” (p. 93) without any further explanation, or elu-
one ‘word’. This ‘word’ consists of a lexeme provided with cidation in examples. Again, a missed opportunity.
inflection, called declension for nouns, and conjugation for Ryding continues with a figure of verb conjugation of the
verbs. form I verb fa-῾al-a for different moods. Again, the rare ener-
The chapter ends with a list of morphological terminology getic mood is missing, of course, but also the subjunctive,
which is also included in the Glossary. jussive, and imperative mood of the passive voice of the
Chapter Six: “Derivational morphology: the root/pattern imperfect tense are absent.5) In this place Ryding could have
system.” This system is predominant in the Arabic word- employed the classical view of speaker’s perspective, which
formation process, which starts with a meaningful root, con- has very often been useful in analyzing texts: once the
sisting mostly of three consonants. Upon this root a whole speaker has put the timeframe of his utterance in the past by
system of dictionary words is built by means of connecting using a verb in the perfect tense, the following verbs refer to
the root-consonants within certain vowel patterns, and by actions within that timeframe and are set in imperfect
extending through auxiliary consonants and/or long or short tense.6)
vowels. The whole system is described in this chapter in a The presentation of declensions for nouns, adjectives, par-
very clear and analytical way. Ryding notes “(..) six vowels: ticiples, pronouns, and finally locative adverbs is very
/aa/, /ii/, /uu/, /a/, /i/, /u/, and seven consonants: hamza, tā᾿, restricted. Of these only noun declension is further elabo-
mīm, nūn, sīn, yā᾿, and wāw, to constitute the phonemic rated, in Appendix C: “Arabic nominal declensions”. It’s
inventory for pattern formation in Arabic” (p. 65). In the regrettable that the broken plural, which is such a character-
following paragraph the derivational consonant formatives istic feature of Arabic nouns, has not been taking into
are elaborated, but this restriction to consonants leaves the account.
question to the reader if and where the derivational vowel I think the author is mistaken by taking up the paragraph
formatives are treated; Ryding doesn’t provide us with “Key terms for Arabic inflectional morphology” not at the
examples of long vowels /ii/ and /uu/, while long vowel /aa/ end of the chapter. This is contrary to her habit in the pre-
is completely missing in this paragraph. For instance, verb sented lists in other chapters. As a result of this arrangement
forms III and VI: fā-῾al-a and ta-fā-῾al-a, active participle the last paragraph about Arabic inflectional affixes is wrongly
form I: fā-῾il, passive participle form I: maf-῾ūl, maṣdar form numbered, i.e. for 7. and 7.1.-7.8. one should read respec-
VIII: ʼif-ti-῾āl, maṣdar form IV (verb with wāw in initial tively 8. and 8.1.-8.8.
position): ᾿ī-ṣāl, could have been easily incorporated here. The terms in the list itself are more extensively treated
Chapter Seven: “Non-root/pattern morphology and the here than in the Glossary. It is furthermore regrettable that
Arabic lexicon” deals with the formation of the part of the this specific list does not contain an extensive elaboration of
Arabic lexicon based on non-root pattern morphology. To the aforementioned inflectional categories.
this purpose Ryding discerns three sources within this chap- The paragraph of Arabic inflectional affixes shows both
ter, respectively: 1. Solid stems, subdivided into function consonants and vowels which mark inflectional properties.
words like prepositions and conjunctions, pronouns, adverbs, The vocalic applications of yā᾿ and wāw are treated under
and loanwords. 2. Morphological processes, split up in nisba- separate headings. However, the long vowel /aa/ is not men-
suffixation, compounding by putting two or more words tioned here, but appears in various recorded examples in this
together, blending and contraction of two or more words, the paragraph. What I miss here, is a treatise about the disap-
creation of Arabic acronyms mainly by converting them pearance of some letters, in addition to the presented appear-
from foreign languages, and lexical expansion through ance of augmented letters within this framework.
semantic shift by giving an additional, new meaning to
a tradtional Arabic word. 3. Borrowing, realized by taking a 5
) A far more complete presentation of Arabic verb conjugation is
foreign word and pronounce it in Arabic, e.g. tal-fi-zi-yūn for presented in, for example, Barron’s Educational Series inc. by Raymond
television, or by making litteral translations of foreign words Scheindlin, in 201 Arabic Verbs (1978), and in his 501 Arabic Verbs
into Arabic, e.g. naa-din lay-lī for nightclub. (2007).
6
) Ryding presents several examples in her Reference Grammar, e.g.
Chapter Eight “Arabic inflectional morphology”, the clos- p. 452-454, from this phenomenon applied to verbs of appropinquation,
ing chapter of Part Two Morphology, continues from Chap- inceptive verbs, and verbs of continuation. She also records here an exam-
ters Five and Six about root/pattern morphology. It treats the ple of simultaneous verbal action (ḥāl).
813 bibliotheca orientalis lxxIII n° 5-6, september-december 2016 814

Chapter Nine “Syntactic analysis and Arabic” is the intro- particles hal and ᾿a- are missing here. Case theory is concen-
ductory chapter of Part Three about Syntax. In this very trated on the number of arguments that the verb takes, includ-
chapter a firm basis is laid for the two remaining chapters. ing the study of the forms of the Arabic verb with respect to
Ryding shows here her educational skills in transmitting their valency alternations. Then Ryding proceeds with the
essential recent developments in the study of Arabic syntax very clearly written treatment of ditransitive structures,
by treating this subject in a concise but clear way. including the double-object construction and the li-construc-
After presenting a description of traditional Arabic syntax, tion, with separation of the last one in the to-dative and the
with prominent roles for the notions of agreement and gov- for-dative. Finally, some attention is paid to complement or
ernment (which were already introduced in Chapter Eight), subordinated clauses by means of ᾿inna and its comparable
Ryding proceeds with commenting on modern theories of complementizers (‘sisters’ in Arabic treatises), followed by
generative grammar (Chomsky c.s.) and of predicate/argu- a noun in the accusative case, or by ᾿an, immediately ensued
ment syntax. In the ensuing chapters some of these theories by a verb in the subjunctive mood.8)
are illustrated in relevant grammatical relations in phrases The verbless or equational clause is extremely productive
and clauses. in Arabic, in order to express verbs of existence and posses-
This chapter finishes with a list of syntactic terminology. sion. Ryding has missed here the chance to express such kind
Because only a few of these terms appear also in the Glos- of verbs also with Arabic verbs, e.g. the passive verb wu-jid-
sary you have to switch between these lists. That is not prac- a or the active kān-a to denote existence9), and the verb
tical. Besides, most of the terms are more extensively lays-a for non-existence and the verb ma-lak-a to designate
described in this list than in the Glossary. possession.
Chapter Ten “Arabic syntax I: phrase structure” smoothly The usage of a copula pronoun in a verbless clause is quite
continues the previous chapter, starting with phrase structure usual to point out the definiteness of the predicate.
as one out of the two key sites of syntactic analysis (the other
is clause structure, to be dealt with in the last chapter). Conclusion:
Absence of predication is the significant feature of phrases. I have noticed a lot of shortcomings in the book under
Again, agreement and government, the dominant principles review. This is partly because of my high expectations after
of Arabic syntactic structure, function as guidelines to the exploring Karin Ryding’s Reference Grammar. Some of the
analysis of phrase structures. Agreement-based phrase struc- merits of that book show also here: analytical arrangement,
tures are demonstrated for several noun phrases, in succes- enlightening explanations, clear definitions. But a lot of con-
sively nouns in apposition, nouns in coordination, noun- tents of Reference Grammar has been lost in composing her
adjective phrases and determiner phrases. Government-based work on linguistics. To express my feeling after reading Ara-
phrase structures, which are also very frequent in Arabic, are bic: a Linguistic Introduction, concerning mostly the gram-
shown for prepositional phrases (prepositions followed by a matical part of it, I would like to paraphrase a variation on a
noun), and construct phrases or ᾿iḍāfa, to express a close quote attributed to the famous sculptor Michelangelo: “the
connection between two (or more) entities in construct. Here horse was already in the marble, but it wasn’t carved out
Ryding could have paid attention to the possibility to express properly”.
the denial of nominal forms by means of the nouns ῾adam
‘lack; absence; nonexistence’ and ḡayr ‘other than; non-’ as Zuidhorn,Wim van Thes
first members in an ᾿iḍāfa, as she did in Reference Grammar August 2016
(p. 648-650).
Chapter Eleven: “Arabic syntax II: clause structure”, the
final chapter of Part Three about syntax is at the same time
the last chapter of the book. This chapter is clearly distin-
guished from Chapter Ten in emphasizing the necessity of
the presence of a predicate in a clause. The clause may be
with a verb or verbless; in the latter case with or without a
copula pronoun.
In specifying verbal predications Ryding deals respec-
tively with Word order, WH-movement, Case relationships,
Dative structures, and Complement clauses. The paragraph
about Word order is focused on SVAA (Subject-verb agree-
ment asymmetry): starting the sentence with a verb, this verb
only agrees in gender with the following subject. Ryding
presents some views of linguists about this asymmetry. How-
ever, I miss here the view of Clive Holes, for example, about
Word order, especially his finding of the usage of Verb-­
Subject-Object word order primarily when relating events by
the speaker, in contrast with Subject-Verb-Object word order
if the speaker wants to draw attention in the first place to the
topic.7) WH-words is the usual collective name for ques-
tion words and relative pronouns; unfortunately question 8
) Like noticed earlier, the latter construction can be replaced by a
maṣdar.
9
) In Chapter Eight the application of kān-a is restricted to the usage
7
) Holes, Clive. Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties. as an auxiliary verb with a main verb to precisely denote tense or aspect
Georgetown University Press, Washington DC. 2004, p. 324-328. (p. 94).