أضواء على تركيب الإضافة في العربية الكلاسيكية والحديثة- دراسة تتبعية لثلاث ظواهر تركيبية

Insights into the Structure of the Iḍāfa Construction in Classical and Modern Arabic: A Diachronic Follow-up Study of Three Syntactic Phenomena

This study investigates three distinctive syntactic phenomena within the structure of the Arabic iḍāfa (construct phrase): (1) the syntactic detachment of the head noun from its genitive complement for the purpose of coordination, as in kitāb wa-qalam Fāṭima (“Fatima’s book and pen”), where the genitive phrase is semantically shared but syntactically omitted in the first element; (2) the insertion of intervening elements between the head and the dependent, which disrupts the linear unity of the iḍāfa; and (3) the assignment of grammatical gender features based on the base rather than the head noun. These phenomena are analyzed primarily in Classical Arabic sources—such as the commentary of Ibn al-Ḥājib—and are also examined in their continuities and adaptations in Modern Standard Arabic. The present study builds on a previous structural analysis that divided the iḍāfa into head, filler, and base (Arabic Language & Literature, Vol. 28, No. 3), expanding it by addressing phenomena that were previously overlooked. Adopting a comparative and analytical methodology, the research highlights how certain marginal syntactic configurations have become more conventional in contemporary usage, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the diachronic development and evolving syntactic behavior of the iḍāfa in Arabic.