Consideraciones a tener en cuenta en la electrificación

As noted above, Arabic has syntactically relevant (or inherent) inflec- tional categories such as number and gender which are less bound to syntax but which trigger agreement processes; and it also has syntactically determined (or contextual) categories such as case and mood which are more tightly bound to syntax and even determined by syntactic rules. Inflectional categories or paradigms are characteristic of particular lexical classes. Each class has a range of paradigmatic values (“cells” in the paradigm chart) that are distinctive to that class. Nouns and adjectives fall into specific “declensions” that show case and definiteness, whereas verbs fall into “conjugations.” Verb conjugations in Arabic are extraordinarily regular and predictable; complexities arise, however, when the inflectional markers of conjugations encounter weak or defective lexical roots, with resulting stem allomorphy. Inflectional markers in Arabic may take the form of prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or circumfixes (also referred to as “trans- fixes” [Bauer2003: 30–31]). Larcher maintains that the Arabic verb fascinates linguists because the regularity of its inflection contrasts so starkly with the complexities of its derivation and stem variation.5

5.1.

Verbs

These “conjugate,” showing six morphological distinctions: tense, per- son, gender, voice, number, and mood.6 Arabic distinction in tense is often portrayed as a difference in aspect (perfect and imperfect rather than past and present). The difference between these two usages reflects the way time is viewed, either as a linear stretch of points from past to future, or with reference to completion of an action (complete or incomplete). Soltan makes the proposal that“the tense-aspect debate can actually be captured if the language is assumed to have both tense and aspect categories, but that tense is syntactically prominent in certain grammatical contexts, while aspect is prominent in others, with syntactic prominence yet to be defined” (2011: 245). I think that Soltan is on the right track, here, and that ambiguity about tense or aspect relates to speaker/hearer perspective. I would suggest that one could replace Soltan’s “syntactically prominent” with the concept of“semantically prominent,” inasmuch as it is not so much the grammat- ical structures at play in the differences between tense and aspect interpretation as it is the meaning of such structures and utterance context.

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Verbal expression also includes compound tenses, where the verb kaana is used as an auxiliary with a main verb to precisely denote tense or aspect. These compound verbs include: past progressive (kaana [past tense] + present tense main verb), past perfect or pluperfect (kaana [past tense] + past tense main verb), future perfect (present or future tense of kaana + past tense of main verb), and contrary to fact condition (kaana [past tense] + future tense of main verb) (seeFigure 4).

5.2.

Nouns

These“decline,” showing distinctions for case and definiteness. They also inflect for number and (in some instances) gender. Most Arabic nouns have

Active

From I Sound root: AP: PP: VN: ‘to do; to make’

Perfect

Indicative Subjunctive Jussive Imperative

Imperfect Imperfect Imperfect Imperfect Perfect Imperfect Active Active Active Active Passive Passive

Figure 4 A typical verb conjugation in all moods of the verb Source: From Ryding (2005)

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inherent gender (feminine or masculine [although a few are both]), but nouns that refer to gendered beings such as male and female authors, engineers, chefs, or surgeons; or that refer to animals, inflect to indicate biological gender.7

5.3.

Adjectives

Adjectives also“decline,” showing the same range of case distinctions as nouns. they also inflect for number and gender. In addition, they inflect for comparative and superlative.

5.4.

Participles (deverbal adjectives)

These inflect as nouns do, but exhibit the additional feature of “voice” – i.e., they are either active or passive.

5.5.

Pronouns

These divide into three classes:

5.5.1.

Personal

Independent personal pronouns (ʔanaa, ʔanta, ʔanti, huwa, hiya, ʔantu- maa, humaa, naħnu, ʔantum, ʔantunna, hum, hunna) show inflection for number, gender, and person.8 The suffix personal pronouns (-ii/-nii, -ka, -ki, -hu, -haa, -kumaa, -humaa, -naa, -kum, -kunna, -hum, -hunna) realize either possessive func- tion (when suffixed to nouns) or object function (when suffixed to verbs).

5.5.2.

Demonstrative

Demonstrative pronouns (haadaa,‘this’; dhaalika ‘that’ and their variants) in Arabic inflect for number, gender, case (in the dual), and deixis (distance-relation).

5.5.3.

Relative

Relative pronouns inflect for number, gender, and case (in the dual). They also exhibit differences in definiteness, with one set (alladhii ‘who, which’ and its variants) marked for definiteness (the initial al-) and others, i.e., maa (‘what, whatever’) and man (‘who, whoever’) serving as indefinite relative pronouns.

Adjectives and pronouns are“referential” rather than denotational in function. Therefore they“agree” with nouns and reflect their inflectional categories.

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5.6.

Locative adverbs (of time and space)

These may inflect for case under specific conditions:

(1) When the adverb is not followed by an object noun, it is inflected with đamma:

xaraj-tu min taħt-u I emerged from below.

(2) When the adverb is preceded by a preposition, it inflects with kasra: xaraj-tu min taħt-i l-shajar-i. I emerged from under the tree.

(3) When the locative adverb is followed by a noun in the genitive or a pronoun, it inflects with fatħa:

kutub-ii taħt-a l-shajar-i. My books are under the tree. kutub-ii taħt-a-hu. My books are under it.