Force Augmentation, Polysemy, and the Semantics of Form Il Verbs in Arabic

Abstract:     
This study investigates the conceptual interrelatedness between grammatical forms and their associated meanings in human language. In contrast to traditional accounts, we provide evidence for the non-arbitrary relation between the Form II verb morphology pattern in modern standard Arabic (MSA) and the varied meanings evoked by this form (including causativity, intensitivity, frequentivity, and estimativity), which we argue are related to each other via coherent, demonstrable patterns of semantic extension from a prototypical causative sense. We also show that these particular senses comprising the family resemblance polysemy category evoked by Form II morphology are all instantiations of a "force augmentation" conceptual schema that represents the abstract cognitive unity of the semantic pole of this morphology, a finding which poses interesting ramifications for semantic theory in general.

The basic Form II morphological template in MSA is C₁aC₂C₂aC₃a, with each C a consonant of the corresponding triliteral root (C₁-C₂-C₃) and /a/ the associated vowels. Traditionally, the meaning associated with this pattern has been classified as causative. E.g., Form II kattaba 'he made someone write' corresponds to the root k-t-b and evokes a prototypical causative reading in comparison to Form I kataba 'he wrote'. Other representative Form II causative examples (and their corresponding Form I forms) include jallasa 'he made someone sit' (jalasa 'he sat'), šarraba 'he made someone drink' (šariba 'he drank something'), and fahhama 'he made someone understand something' (fahima 'he understood'), which evokes causativity in a more abstract mental domain. The Form II causative senses evoke the notion of an extra force/energy (force augmentation) imposed upon a core event from outside that event. Examples of more obscure causative senses which still evoke aspects of force augmentation in Form II (vs. Form I) forms will also be discussed and semantically motivated.

Intensives and frequentives evoked by Form II morphology include such forms as kassara 'he smashed' (kasara 'he broke something') and qattala 'he massacred' (qatala 'he killed'), respectively. We argue that such meanings are related to prototypical Form II causatives via the imposition of additional force/energy onto the core event evoked by the corresponding parenthesized Form I forms, but that they are semantic extensions from prototypical causativity, because this additional force emanates from the instigator of the original core action rather than from a source external to that core event. Specifically, addition of extra force onto a breaking event by the agent of that event results in the notion of smashing something; analogously, the addition of extra force onto a killing event results in multiple (frequentive) iterations of killing, hence a massacre.

Finally, the notion of estimativity associated with some Form II verbs evokes an evaluative meaning, as illustrated in sarraqa 'he called someone a thief' (saraqa 'he stole') and kaððaba 'he called someone a liar' (kaðaba 'he lied'). We argue that estimatives represent a different semantic extension from causativity, whereby the additional force augmentation onto the core event is now construed as a kind of evaluative mental energy directed toward the core event from outside that event. This mental evaluation directed toward the core event is distinct from the more concrete notion of a causative force, but shares with it the abstract idea of being augmented onto the original event.

We conclude that the semantics of MSA Form II morphology supports the claim of a non-arbitrary relationship between the Form II pattern and the meaning(s) evoked by that form, and that the Arabic data provide evidence for the conceptual relationship between the semantic notions of causativity, intensitivity, frequentivity, and estimativity.

Keywords: verbs, polysemy, cognitive linguistics

Working Paper Series