The formulation and generation of terms for phonetics and phonology in the Classical Arabic linguistic treatises

Abstract

This study seeks to uncover the theoretical bases for the production of the classical Arabic phonetic terms and their elements in the means of generating terms for both lexical semantics and conceptual semantics. The research problem is concerned with examining the roots of generating these phonetic terms and determining the categories of their elements in order to inspect the development of the generation of the terms and investigating the relationship between the specific lexical meanings and their change to figurative meanings. The study is based on the content analysis in terms of classifying the elements and analysing the roots of the qualitative data at the level of the features of the generation of terms' procedures. The findings indicate that the classical phonetic terms were subject to the parameters of the morphological derivation and based on three categories ranging from simple, to complex and compound, in addition to the change of the lexical meanings of the terms to figurative meanings. The study suggests linking the elements and methods of generating these phonetic terms with their partial and detailed definitions in these treatises. This is due to the interest of the ancient phoneticians in the explanation of the concepts more than the formulation of the terms.