OVERVIEW

ARABIC PHILOLOGY I

This course aims at introducing students to the foundations of Arabic linguistics, to the Arabic grammatical tradition, and to the study of the structure of the Arabic language within the Arabic linguistic tradition.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing the course students will have acquired knowledge regarding the origin, development and structure of the Arabic language, as well as the relationship between language and culture. Particular importance will be given to the science of language in the Arab-Islamic cultural context, to the structure of classical Arabic in the Arabic grammatical tradition, Arabic philological thought as cultural heritage, and to the attitude of the Arabic linguistic community towards the Arabic language, Arabic as a cultural landmark, the issue of diglossia, the relationship between spoken and written language, Middle Arabic as spoken and written expression, ancient and modern, in the linguistic continuum.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing the course the student will have acquired knowledge regarding Arab linguistic vision of syntax and morphology, phonology and phonetics, rhetoric and semantics.

TEACHING METHODS

The course includes 36 hours of lectures and / or seminars.

Attendance is strongly recommended.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Arabic Philology I program consists of an introduction to the Arabic linguistic tradition through discussion of grammatical theory as well as the context of language as it is used in religion, literature, law, and other disciplines, and includes:

1. The Arabic linguistic tradition;

2. The canonical theory of grammar (I): syntax (naḥw);

3. The canonical theory of grammar (II): morphology, phonology and phonetics (taṣrīf);

4. Rethoric and semantics.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Bohas, Georges, Jean-Patrick Guillaume and Djamel Eddine Kouloughli (1990), The Arabic Linguistic Tradition. New York and London: Routledge.
• Carter, Michael G. (1981), Arab Linguistics: An Introductory Classical Text with Translation and Notes. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. (2017), Les systèmes hypothétiques de l’arabe classique. Étude syntaxique et sémantique: une hypothèse modale. Avant-propos par Giuliano Lancioni, (Studi e Testi di Palazzo Serra, 8), p. 7-230, ROMA: Aracne Editrice.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. and Wilfrid Hodges (2016), “The System of the Sciences of the Arabic Language by Sakkākī: Logic as a Complement of Rhetoric”. In: Manuel Sartori, Manuela E.B. Giolfo, Philippe Cassuto (eds.). Approaches to the History and Dialectology of Arabic in Honor of Pierre Larcher (STUDIES IN SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS 88). LEIDEN BOSTON: Brill.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. (2015), “Real and irreal conditionals in Arabic grammar: From al-ʾAstarābāḏī to Sībawayhi”. In: Amal E. Marogy and Kees Versteegh (eds.), The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics II. Kitāb Sībawayhi: Interpretation and transmission (STUDIES IN SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS 83). LEIDEN BOSTON: Brill. ISBN: 9789004302297.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. (2014), “‘Arab Linguistics’ and ‘Arabic Linguistics’: After a Quarter of a Century”. In: Manuela E.B. Giolfo (ed.), Arab and Arabic Linguistics: Traditional and New Theoretical Approaches (JOURNAL OF SEMITIC STUDIES, Supplement 34), p. 1-7. OXFORD: Oxford University Press.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. (2014), “A modal interpretation of the Arabic apocopate: morpho-syntax and semantics”. In: Manuela E.B. Giolfo (ed.), Arab and Arabic Linguistics: Traditional and New Theoretical Approaches (JOURNAL OF SEMITIC STUDIES, Supplement 34), p. 119-143. OXFORD: Oxford University Press.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. and Wilfrid Hodges (2013), “Syntax and Meaning in Sīrāfī and Ibn Sīnā”. ROMANO-ARABICA, vol. XIII, p. 97-116.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B. (2012), “Grammaticalization of the Arabic negative particle mā: mā faʿala vs lam yafʿal, and mā yafʿalu vs lā yafʿalu”. In: D. Eades (ed.), Grammaticalization in Semitic (JOURNAL OF SEMITIC STUDIES, Supplement 29), p. 31-48. OXFORD: Oxford University Press.
• Giolfo, Manuela E.B.  (2012), “yaqum vs qāma in the Conditional Context: A Relativistic Interpretation of the Frontier between the Prefixed and the Suffixed Conjugations of the Arabic language”. In: Amal E. Marogy (ed.). The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics: Sībawayhi and the Earliest Arabic Grammatical Theory, Foreword by Michael G. Carter, (STUDIES IN SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS 65), p. 135-160. LEIDEN BOSTON: Brill.
• Giolfo M., Sinatora F. (2016). “Modern Standard Arabic and the Teaching of Arabic as a Foreign Language. Some Cultural and Linguistic Considerations.” In: Quaderni di Palazzo Serra 29, (QUADERNI DI PALAZZO SERRA), Genova: Dipartimento di Lingue e Culture Moderne, Università degli Studi di Genova, p. 263-288.
• Giolfo, M., Salvaggio, F. (2017). “A Digitally Assisted Model of Integration of Standard and Colloquial Arabic Based on the Common European Framework”. In: Mahmoud Al-Batal (ed.). Arabic as One Language. Integrating Dialect in the Arabic Language Curriculum. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, pp. 93-113.
• Giolfo, M., Sinatora, F. (in print, March 2018). “Orientalism and Neo-Orientalism: Arabic Representations and the Study of Arabic”. In: Tugrul Keskin (ed.) Neo-Orientalism, American Hegemony and Academia after September 11th. (STUDIES IN CRITICAL SOCIAL SCIENCES).
• Larcher, Pierre (2012), Le système verbal de l’arabe classique, 2e édition revue et augmentée, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, Collection Didactilangue.
• Retsö, Jan (2013) "What is Arabic?". In: Jonathan Owens (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 19, pp. 433-450.
• Suleiman, Yasir (1999), The Arabic Grammatical Tradition. A Study in taʿlīl. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Versteegh, Kees (1997), The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MANUELA ELISA GIOLFO (President)

ABDELJALIL BENTAJAR

FELICE ISRAEL

FEDERICO SALVAGGIO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

LESSONS START: Term Two

Class schedule

ARABIC PHILOLOGY I

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Final oral exam

Online registration for the final exam from the University website is mandatory.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The final oral exam consists of an interview aimed at verifying acquired knowledge and skills.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Prerequisites: enrolment in the second year.