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The adverbial function of qurʾānic verbal nouns taking the position of ḥāl

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Published/Copyright: October 18, 2019

Abstract

Of Arabic verbal nouns’ various functions, this article focuses on their taking the position of ḥāl ‘circumstantial accusative’. Arab grammarians claim that a plain infinitive may replace a participle in the accusative, assuming the same meaning as the participle. I argue, however, that from the point of view of modern linguistics, these verbal nouns might be interpreted as having an adverbial function; more precisely, they perform the semantic-aspectual features of two types of adverbs: manner adverbs, which specify the mode of action, and state-of-mind adverbs, which describe a state of mind experienced by the agent of the action.

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Appendix 1

Brill’s Arabic Transliteration System.

ArabicRoman letterArabicRoman letter
اaض
بbط
تtظ
ثعʿ
جǧغġ
حفf
خقq
دdكk
ذلl
رrمm
زzنn
سsهh
شšوw, ū
صيy, ī
ءʾ
  1. *Initial hamza is not transliterated

Published Online: 2019-10-18
Published in Print: 2019-09-25

© 2019 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

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