Norm, Variation, and Hermentics
The eighth edition of the “Foundations of Arabic Linguistics” conference series will explore how scholars defined, negotiated, and interpreted the norms of the Arabic language.
Building on foundational studies and more recent inquiries into the transmission, development, and reception of the Arabic linguistic tradition, it seeks to bring together investigations of several key aspects of classical Arabic linguistic heritage.
Topics of particular interest include the connection between norms, variation, and the impact of these on linguistic models and discussions, the influence that specific interpretative needs could exert on the development of central theoretical concepts as well their intersection with trends in broader Islamic intellectual history, and the way in which Arabic linguistic lexicon embodied the categories and interpretative frameworks that shaped linguistic inquiry.
This event is part of the ALiDim project (ERC 101115616).
| September 16ᵗʰ | September 17ᵗʰ |
| 10:00‒10:30 Registration & Opening Remarks by Laura De Giorgi, Head of the Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Simona Olivieri | |
| 10:30‒11:00 Georgine Ayoub “Variation and maʿnā: A paradigm shift between Sībawayh (d. 180/796) and Ǧurǧānī (d. 471/1078)” | 10:30‒11:00 Almog Kasher “The Yemeni grammatical sub-tradition: The case of classification of ʾanna and ʾan” |
| 11:00‒11:30 Coffee break | 11:00‒11:30 Manuel Sartori “Echoes of Hellenism in Arabic: Greek legacy and the development of Arabic grammatical concepts” |
| 11:30‒12:00 Beata Sheyhatovitch “Between bināʾ and iʿrāb: Challenging dichotomies in medieval Arabic grammatical theory” | 11:30‒12:00 Coffee break |
| 12:00‒12:30 Hideki Okazaki “The evolution of terminology for ‘deletion’ in Arabic grammar: A focus on the verb taraka and wadaʿa” | 12:00‒12:30 Francesco Grande “Variation is not enough: Two commentators of al-Âjurrûmiyyah on Arabic declension” |
| 12:30‒13:00 Ramzi Baalbaki (via Zoom) “Deviation from the norm in the theory of parsing (iʿrāb) in words and sentences” | 12:30‒13:00 Arik Sadan “Verbs that take three direct objects in Sībawayhi’s Kitāb and later grammatical treatises” |
| 13:00‒14:30 Lunch break | 13:00‒14:30 Lunch break |
| 14:30‒15:00 Francesco Binaghi “The extension of taʿaddī and its reception in the Andalusi grammatical sub-tradition” | 14:30‒15:00 Jean Druel “Authorities quoted in the recensions of the Kitāb: Different sets of glosses signed ʾAbū ʿUbayda” |
| 15:00‒15:30 Simona Olivieri “Between nouns and verbs: Participles as predicates” | 15:00 ‒15:30 Haruko Sakaedani “Rhetorical functions of interrogatives in the Qur’ān: A comparison of mā and māḏā questions” |
| 15:30‒16:00 Conference meeting | |
| 19:00 Conference dinner | 19:00 Conference dinner |
The proceedings will be published in the FAL series. Please send your articles for review to simona.olivieri [at] unive.it before June 27ᵗʰ, 2027.
