The Term "al-fiʿl al-mutaʿaddī bi-ḥarf jarr" (lit. “the verb which ‘passes over’ through a preposition”) in Medieval Arabic Grammatical Tradition

Abstract

Contrary to the categorization of verbs with regard to their taʿaddin which modern scholarship has customarily ascribed to the medieval Arab grammarians, the term al-fiʿl al-mutaʿaddī bi-ḥarf jarr is generally not regarded by these grammarians as a subcategory of al-fiʿl al-mutaʿaddī. Furthermore, Arab grammarians do not restrict the application of the term al-fiʿl al-mutaʿaddī bi-ḥarf jarr to constructions in which the prepopositions in question are governed; this has far-reaching repercussions on the notion of ẓarf. The grammarians’ conception of al-fiʿl al-mutaʿaddī bi-ḥarf jarr, surveyed in this article, is explained both against the backdrop of the early transformations the term taʿaddin underwent, and within the grammarians’ general theoretical framework.