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Auxiliary Verbs in Arabic

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Auxiliary Verbs in Arabic Auxiliary verbs in Arabic Martine Cuvalay 0. Introduction' This paper discusses the treatment in Functional Grammar of auxiliaries in Arabic. An earlier attempt to account for verbs with auxiliary and copular functions in Modem Standard Arabic by Moutaouakil (1986) will be re- viewed in the light of later developments in FG theory. After an outline of the verbal system in Arabic, arguments will be advanced against Moutaouakil's proposal to describe all the verbs in question as being the direct expression of predicate or predication operators. The main point to be made concerns the special status of the verb капа 'to be',^ which should be distinguished from the other verbs on the basis of distribution and meaning. It will be argued that the occurrences of this verb can best be accounted for by a copula support rule that in the case of Arabic must be adapted to allow for the insertion of kâna in verbal sentences too. The operation of such an "auxiliary support rule" will be demonstrated with examples from Modem Standard Arabic and from some of the spoken dia- lects of Arabic. With respect to the other auxiliary verbs, it will be questioned whether they are all grammaticalized to the extent that their insertion should be cap- tured by expression rules. A more differentiated approach will be advocated by positing altemative solutions. 1. The verbal system in Arabic 1.1. The Arabic language The Arabic language group contains many dialects without a standardized written form. There is a formal language, called Modem Standard Arabic, which is practically uniform throughout the Arab world and quite close to Classical Arabic, the old literary form which is associated with the early Koranic tradition. The contemporary spoken dialects as a group are called New Arabic. The New Arabic dialects are learned as native languages and are used in informal situations. Modem Standard Arabic is taught in school for written and formal communication. Brought to you by | University of Haifa Authenticated Download Date | 7/24/19 2:12 PM 266 Martine Cuvalay 1.2. The opposition between prefixed and suffîxed verb forms In all varieties of Arabic, there is a basic morphological opposition between two sets of verbal forms. In the first set, inflection for person, number and gender is achieved by adding suffixes to a stem. The forms in the other set consist of a stem with a prefix, or, for some person, gender and number combinations, a circumfíx. All verbs^ can be inflected in both ways. Most grammarians have described the main fiinction of this opposition in terms of being either aspectual or temporal,"* and the forms have been called "preterite and future", "perfective and imperfective", and "completed and uncompleted", to name but a few. In this article I will use the neutral terms "suffixed form" (SF) and "prefixed form" (PF) to avoid the confusion that arises from a functionally based terminology.^ In fact, the description of the functions that the two main verb forms may fulfil is not limited to the domain of tense and aspect alone. Beeston (1968: 48-49) recognizes three levels of differentiation: aspectual: "the perfect [SF] points to a single action, regarded as instan- taneous in its occurrence [perfective], the imperfect [PF] to habitual or repeated action, or to one visualized as covering a space of time [imperfective]" temporal: "the perfect points to past time, the imperfect to present or future time" modal: "the perfect points to a fact, the imperfect to a conceptual idea not necessarily realized in fact" Even this semantic classification does not account for all the ñmctions in- volved, like for instance the expression of wishes with the SF in Classical Arabic and Modem Standard Arabic, and the obligatory use of this form in the protasis of most types of conditional sentences. 1.3. The subdivisions of the PF In Classical Arabic and Modem Standard Arabic a further subdivision of the PF is achieved by different endings: и for indicative, a for subjunctive, and the absence of a short vowel for jussive forms.^ There is also an optional preverbal fiiture marker sawfa or sa-, used with the indicative PF. The New Arabic dialects have PFs without such different endings, but most of them do have a pair of preverbal markers to indicate tense, aspect or mood distinctions. The meanings and forms of these preverbal markers are not necessarily the same for the individual dialects. Brought to you by | University of Haifa Authenticated Download Date | 7/24/19 2:12 PM Auxiliary verbs in Arabic 267 In Colloquial Egyptian Arabic, for instance, the preverbal marker bi- ex- presses progressive or habitual aspect. The preverbal marker ha- is used to indicate prospective aspect or future tense. In most Moroccan dialects the preverbal markers ka- (or ta-) and gadi- (ga-) cover more or less the same values. Although the way in which the PF is ftirther differentiated creates a rather sharp distinction between Classical Arabic and Modem Standard Arabic on the one hand, and the colloquial dialects on the other hand, the general set- up of the verbal systems is essentially the same. 1.4. Simple verb forms For all varieties, there are only a few simple verb forms."' If they occur without auxiliaries or particles that emphasize the intended meaning, their interpretation is dependent on the context. In sentences (la) and (lb) from Classical Arabic, the intended time references are made explicit by the ad- verbials min qablu 'before' and yawma l-qiyamati 'the Day of Resurrection' (which is supposed to be located in the future). Classical Arabic (Fischer 1972; Koran 2: 91) (1) a. lima taqtulma l-'anbiyä'a min qablu? why kill:PF.2mp the prophets before? 'Why did you use to kill the prophets before?' Classical Arabic (Comrie 1976; Koran 2: 113) b. llahu yahkumu bayna -hum yawma l-qiyämati ... God judge:PF.3ms between them day resurrection... 'God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection...' In both sentences we have prefixed forms, but their interpretation is different. In (la), the adverbial situates the predication in the past, so the PF (which refers to nonpast on the temporal level) is not used to indicate time reference. It has to be interpreted on the aspectual or modal level and is here taken to be the expression of imperfective aspect, pointing at habitual action. In example (lb), the intended time reference as indicated by the adverbial and the interpretation of the verb form on the temporal level are compatible. Interpretations on the modal (not presented as a fact) or aspectual (ongoing or habitual/repeated action) level seem to be less likely. It should be noted that the obligation to express a certain category is hard to define, owing to differences in style and discourse type. Within the tem- Brought to you by | University of Haifa Authenticated Download Date | 7/24/19 2:12 PM 268 Martine Cuvalay poral category present time reference is not necessarily expressed, but past and future tense generally are, at least in Modem Standard Arabic and most New Arabic dialects. 1.5. The relation between meaning and form From the above description of the verbal system in Arabic it will be obvious that simple verb forms do not have a specific meaning that can be established without considering the context. Although all the different functions of one verbal form could be accounted for by postulating a rather vague unified semantic inteφretation, like, for instance, "closedness" for the SF, I will not try to do so, and take the position that the use of these forms can best be described in the way Dik (1989: 302) proposed for verbal categories which serve a variety of puφoses. Dik (1989: 300-303) distinguishes three types of morphosyntactic oper- ators (μ-operators) that together determine the form of an expression by ap- plying rules of the format: (2) Operator[Operandum] = Value Primary μ-operators are present in the underlying clause structure and have a direct semantic inteφretation. Auxiliary μ-operators do not occur as such in the underlying clause structure, but are introduced by expression rules in order to trigger later expression rules. These auxiliary μ-operators serve to express a variety of semantic relations, but have a unified formal effect on their operandum. Contextual μ-operators are primarily used to capture agree- ment relations. According to Dik, verbal categories such as "infinitive", "present parti- ciple" and "subjunctive", that appear to have no specific unified meaning, are best accounted for by auxiliary μ-operators. They first translate a semantic category, like for instance Progressive Aspect, into the verbal category "pre- sent participle", and then proceed to effectuate the corresponding formal in- flection. In the case of Arabic, different predicate, predication, proposition and illocutionary operators (π-operators) in the underlying clause structure may be expressed through the same verb form. I will therefore consider these primary operators to get their expression through auxiliary μ-operators, that first assign a formal category (SF or PF) to the semantic value of a π-operator, and then apply the expression rules corresponding to this formal category. Brought to you by | University of Haifa Authenticated Download Date | 7/24/19 2:12 PM Auxiliary verbs in Arabic 269 One of the theoretical implications of this approach is that I consider the SF and PF to be ambiguous rather than vague. So instead of presupposing one meaning with different "implicatures" according to the context, I assume that there are conceptually different meanings in the clause structure which eventually get the same expression. I take the same position with respect to New Arabic verb forms like the ¿г-PF in Colloquial Egyptian and the ka-?V in Moroccan Arabic, which also may have two or more different meanings.
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