Properties of the Arabic language
4.2 Morphological properties
4.2.1 Productivity of derivation
Arabic has a very productive and to a large extent regular derivational system.
Each verb in Arabic generate one or more nominal forms (deverbals) and at least two participles (a passive participle and an active participle) (Table 4.2).1 Similarly, all adjectives in Arabic have at least one nominal form and one verbal
Verb Deverbal Participle
kataba ‘write’ kitaaba ‘writing’ kaatib‘writer’
tasallaqa‘climb’ tasalluq‘climbing’ mutasalliq ‘climber’
tacaawana ‘cooperate’ tacaawun ‘cooperation’ mutacaawin ‘cooperator’
Pistacmala ‘use’ Pisticmaal‘using’ mustacmil ‘user’
dah˙raja‘roll’ dah
˙raja‘rolling’ mudah
˙rij ‘roller’
ta-dah
˙rja‘INTR-roll’ ta-dah
˙ruj ‘INTR-rolling’ mutadah
˙rij ‘the rolled thing’
Table 4.2: Verb to noun derivation
form (Table 4.3). Unlike verb-to-noun derivation, noun-to-verb derivation is not
Adjective Verb Noun
kabiir ‘big’ kabbara‘biggen’ kibar ‘bigness’
jamiil‘beautiful’ jammala ‘beautify’ jamaal ‘beauty’
Pah˙mar ‘red’ Pih
˙marra ‘to turn pink’ Pah
˙mar ‘The colour red’
Table 4.3: Adjective to verb and noun derivation
regular. However, nouns are more productive in deriving adjectives (Table 4.4).
1The treatment of about 8000 verbs in this dissertation did not reveal any case where the nominalization of a verb was not possible.
Noun Verb Adjective
saqf ‘roof’ saqqafa ‘roof’ saqfii ‘relative to the roof’
jild ‘leather’ jallada ‘cover with leather’ jildii‘leather’
muPassasa ‘institution’ maPsasa‘institutionalize’ maPassasii ‘institutional’
Table 4.4: Adjective to verb and noun derivation
In category-changing derivations, two different morphological operations are involved: Analytic, concatenative operations and fusional non-concatenative operations. In many cases, both operations combine with each other to form new words, which have to fit one pattern in a set of predefined patterns associated with the category they belong to. Which pattern is selected to build the new word depends on the pattern of the base word and its phonological properties. As is shown in example (5), the derivation of the deverbal form of the verb tacaawana
‘cooperate’ is done using a fusional operation (replacing the third vowel awith u).
The derivation of the participle is done using affixation and infixation (adding the participial prefix mu- and replacing the third consonant a by the infix i). The pattern ta-CaaCul used in the derivations of the two items are respectively and mu-ta-CaaCiC, typically used for verbs with the pattern taCaaCaCa.
(5) Verb =⇒Deverbal=⇒Participle
tacaawana‘cooperate’ =⇒ tacaawun ‘cooperation’ =⇒ mu-tacaawin ‘co-operator’
A zero-derivation or conversion is not attested in the derivation of a different syntactic word category.
A derivation which does not alter the syntactic category of a word attests a high degree of regularity among verbs, but less with nouns and adjectives. For instance, intransitive base verbs systematically derive transitive counterparts and vice versa (Tables 4.5 and 4.6).
Similarly, verbs that involve two animate participants often derive reciprocal verb forms (Table 4.7). Again, the derivation engages analytic and fusional morphological operations, a combination of both or the process of conversion.
In verb derivation, the affixes used in the derivation add pieces of meaning or
Intransitive Transitive farih
˙a ‘gladden’ Pa-frah
˙a ‘TR-gladden’
h˙azina ‘sadden’ Pa-h
˙zana ‘TR-sadden’
jaffa ‘dry’ jaffafa ‘TR-dry’
¯daaba ‘melt’ Pa-d
¯aaba ‘TR-melt’
ˇsah˙a/uba ‘pale’ Pa-ˇsh
˙aba ‘TR-pale’
˙a ‘cause to tremble’
saqat
˙a ‘fall’ Pa-sqat
˙a ‘TR-fall’
Table 4.5: Intransitive-transitive derivation Transitive Intransitive
kasara ‘break’ Pin-kasara ‘INTR-break’
qat˙aca ‘cut’ Pin-qat
˙aca ‘INTR-cut’
mazaja ‘mix’ Pin-mtazaja ‘INTR-mix’
sah˙aba ‘draw’ Pin-sah
˙aba ‘INTR-draw’
fatah
˙a ‘open’ Pin-fatah
˙a ‘INTR-open’
qaada ‘lead’ Pinqaada INTR-lead
˙saba˙ga ‘color’ Pin-s
˙aba˙ga ‘INTR-color hazama ‘defeat’ Pin-hazama ‘INTR-defeat’
qalaba ‘change’ Pin-qalaba ‘INTR-change’
Table 4.6: Transitive-intransitive derivation
delete them from the semantic structure of the base verb. These affixes are multifunctional and in some cases cumulative (they introduce more than one piece of meaning). Table 4.8 presents a list of chosen verbal affixes and the meaning they contribute to different types of verbs.
Verb-to-verb derivation in Arabic also shows cases of conversion where a verb form is created from a base form without appending any affixal material. Table 4.9 shows examples of a transitive-to-intransitive conversion, where the causativisation is done without any additional morphological material. It is worth noting that the conversion concerns not only simple verbs, that is, forms directly derived from the root and without derivational affixes, but also verbs that already have such affixes. For instance, the verb Pa-ˇskala with the causativity marker Pa-has the
Verb Reciprocal d˙araba ‘hit’ ta-d
˙aaraba ‘INTR-hit-RECP/hit each other’
laqiya ‘meet’ ta-laaqaa ‘INTR-meet-RECP/meet each other’
˙sah
˙iba ‘accompany’ ta-s
˙aah
˙aba ‘INTR-accompany-RECP
accompany each other’
˙safaca ‘slap’ ta-s
˙aafaca ‘INTR-slap-RECP/slap each other’
Pah˙abba ‘love’ ta-h
˙aabba ‘INTR-love-RECP/love each other’
Pact
˙aa ‘give’ ta-caat
˙aa ‘INTR-give-RECP/give to each other’
Table 4.7: Transitive-reciprocal derivation
Affix Meaning Example
ta- inchoative ta-maddada ‘INCH-dilate’
reflexive ta-cat
curative Pista-clama ‘CUR-informe/ask for information’
causative Pista-cbada ‘enslave’
inchoative Pista-qaama ‘INCH-stand’
Pin- inchoative Pin-qalaca ‘INCH-extirpate’
reflexive Pin-cazala ‘REFL-isolate’
ta-
-aa-reciprocal ta-caawana ‘cooperate’
pretention ta-d
˙aah
˙aka ‘pretend to laugh/force a laugh’
iterative ta-maayala ‘dangle’
sociative ta-raakad
˙a run together’
Table 4.8: Verbal affixes and their meanings
meaning of ‘become difficult’ (the base meaning) and‘cause to be difficult’ (the derived meaning).