Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

First Advisor

Toorawa, Shawkat

Abstract

This dissertation examines the early development of Arabic grammar, up to its canonical founding text, the Kitāb of Sībawayh (d. c. 180 AH / 796 CE). It centers the competitive relationship between two social groups as key to understanding the beginnings of grammatical inquiry. These are the 'arab (conventionally, "Arabs"), and the naḥwiyyūn (conventionally, "grammarians," though generally with a connotation as well of "non-native speaker"). Sībawayh regards these groups as the two primary authorities of the linguistic data that comprise his Kitāb, and he devotes much of his energy throughout the Kitāb to adjudicating their arguments. Using the Kitāb and other linguistic works chronologically and geographically close to it, I investigate who the 'arab and naḥwiyyūn are to Sībawayh and his colleagues, and how Sībawayh and his colleagues use them in articulating a system and theory of linguistic analysis. Finally I reconstruct a prehistory of Arabic grammar up to Sībawayh, with emphasis on the personal relationships - often rivalries - between 'arab and naḥwiyyūn, which I understand as a major driver behind the development of grammatical study. The dissertation consists of an Introduction, three chapters (with appendices to two of them), and a Conclusion. In Chapter 1, I analyze the early linguists' references to 'arab and naḥwiyyūn in order to advance a working definition of each group, as Sībawayh and his colleagues conceived of them. This entails unpacking the meanings and associations of many technical terms, most importantly samāʿ (attestation), qiyās (analogy), naḥw (pattern), and, in an appendix, ʿarabiyyah. In Chapter 2, I examine the corpora-registers - speech (kalām), poetry, and the Qurʾān - that comprise the data of Sībawayh’s Kitāb, and the relative authority in each register that Sībawayh accords each group. The assymetry in each group's authority that I find across the registers leads to Chapter 3, where I outline a history of grammatical study, particularly in Sībawayh’s adopted city of Basra, from the discipline's origins until the time of the Kitāb. My account highlights the competitive relationships between individual ʿarab and naḥwiyyūn for social authority, that drove much of the development of early grammar. Appreciation for this aspect of the Kitāb's social background brings into clearer focus the data sources with which Sībawayh constructs and fills his Kitāb, and can even elucidate his purposes for writing it.

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