Arabic as a Polysynthetic Language: Evidence From the Holy Qur’an

Abstract

Arabic is a Semitic language that has a rich morphology and a relatively free word order. This research paper attempts to demonstrate that Arabic could also be classified as a polysynthetic language. To this end, ten morpho-syntactically structured words from the Holy Qur’an were chosen, presented according to their sequence of occurrence and analyzed in light of the Government and Binding Theory (GB). The results of the analysis of the ten examples provide a strong evidence supporting our argument that Arabic actually is a polysynthetic language. The sample of our study is a comprehensive one; it contains declarative, imperative and even question sentences. The data presented in the analysis are, as well, varied in terms of word order; a VSO, a VOS, and an SVO order which presents further evidence in support of our argument.