Syntax of Modern Arabic Prose

Description

In order to cover as many aspects of modem literary Arabic as possible, I have selected illustrative materials from the works of authors in a variety of fields and genres: literary prose, fiction, drama, travelogues, and political, social, and historical writings. Newspapers have generally been disregarded, since Arabic journalism—like most news writing around the world—does not necessarily offer the best or most representative standars of literary language. The examples (some 13,000) finally selected during my years of extensive reading have been gathered from the authors mentioned in the table of Abbreviations. The complete work has been divided into three volumes which will complement each other, but which are conceived as structurally autonomous. Volume I deals with the simplest units in sentence structure: nominal and verbal sentences considered in their affirmative, negative, and interrogative forms. Volume II, which is divided into two sections, deals with the simple sentence expanded into more elaborate syntactical structures. In the first section, the components of the expanded sentence are studied: modifications of nouns and verbs; in the second section, the use of specific parts: numerals, elatives, infinitives, participles, etc., as well as special constructions or literary devices (anacoluthon, paronomasia, word union, ellipsis, etc.). Volume III deals with the grouping of sentences into compounds; here the coordination and subordination of sentences are studied. This volume includes the index for the whole work. The study is so arranged that the grammatical observations are presented with commentary and explanation based upon the quotations that follow them. These quotations do not necessarily illustrate given rules, nor should they be regarded as standards of ،،correct” usage. They are intended rather to illustrate the grammatical observations, the commentary, and the explanation that they follow. V.1. The Simple Sentence 1974 V.2. The Expanded Sentence 1975 V.3. The Compound Sentence 1975