ABSTRACT
The form of Arabic under investigation is Standard Arabic (henceforth Arabic), also known as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and Modern Literary Arabic (MLA). It is the uniform variety of Arabic which is used all over the Arabic-speaking world as the usual medium of written communication in books, periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, signs, business, and personal letters. It is also the formal means of communication in radio, television, lectures, sermons, debates, interviews, and in general on occasions accompanied by some degree of formality and solemnity, that is, it covers most forms of the formal spoken language. In many ways, SA continues, but only to a certain degree, the phonology, morphology, syntax and largely the vocabulary of Classical Arabic, the revered language of the Holy Koran, pre-Islamic and post-Islamic poetry, literature, philosophy, theology, mathematics, sciences, and so on. It should be stressed, however, that although there is no clear-cut distinction between Classical Arabic, on the one hand, and SA, on the other hand, there are cases where a distinction should be made. Indeed, the more we read classical Arabic grammar books (e.g. Sibawayhi 796, Ibn-Hishaam 1359, among many others) the more we notice differences rather than similarities (see verbal forms and negation p. 50).3 This interrelatedness is best characterized through a continuum with Classical Arabic on one end, and SA on the other end. Each end contains the defining characteristics of each form, with various degrees of interaction in-between.
