The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics ─ Sabawayhi and Early Arabic Grammatical Theory

The first in what is projected to be a series of conferences was held in September 2010 at Cambridge and focused on eighth-century linguist 'Amr ibn "Uthman Sibawayh and his work Kitab. Scholars of Arabic and Middle Eastern and Semitic languages present 11 papers on such topics as the term maf'ul the Kitab, the relation between frequency of usage and deletion in the Kitab, the theory of proper names and reference in early Arabic grammatical tradition, a comparison between the usage of laysa in theQur'an and in the Kitab, and elements of the Syriac grammatical tradition as these relate to the origins of Arabic grammar. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Amal E. Marogy, Ph.D. (2007) in Oriental Languages and Cultures, is lector of Arabic at Cambridge University. She is organiser of the Foundations of Arabic linguistics Conferences, FAL1 (2010) and FAL2 (2012) and her publications include Kitab Sibawayhi: Syntax and Pragmatics (2010).