The Early Islamic Grammatical Tradition

Contents: General editor's preface; Introduction.The Beginnings of Arabic Grammar: The origins of Arabic grammar, M.G. Carter; The logic of Ibn al-Muqaffa` and the origins of Arabic grammar, G©rard Troupeau; Grammar and exegesis: the origins of Kufan grammar and the Tafsir Muqatil, Kees Versteegh; On the Greek influence on Arabic grammar, Frithiof Rundgren; Schacht's theory in the light of recent discoveries concerning the origins of Arabic grammar, Rafael Talmon; Indian influence on early Arab phonetics - or coincidence?, Vivien Law. Analytical Methods of the Grammarians: Language and logic in classical Islam, Muhsin Mahdi; Aspects of debate and explanation among Arab grammarians, Georges Bohas; The relation between nahw and balaga: a comparative study of the methods of Sibawayhi and Gurgani, Ramzi Baalbaki; The fundamental principles of the Arab grammarians' theory of `amal, Aryeh Levin; The notion of `illa in Arabic linguistic thinking, Yasir Suleiman. Major Themes in Grammatical Study: The syntactic basis of Arabic word classification, Jonathan Owens; Speech consists entirely of noun, verb and particle:elaboration and discussion of the theory of parts of speech in the Arabic grammatical tradition, Jean-Patrick Guillaume; Noun, substantive and adjective according to Arab grammarians, Werner Diem; Subject and predicate in Arab grammatical tradition, Gideon Goldenberg; Relationships between linguistics and other sciences in Arabo-Islamic society, Pierre Larcher. Index.