THE SIGNS AND FEATURES OF ARABIC NON-DECLINABLE WORDS

Abstract

Medieval Arab linguists traditionally began their scientifc works with questions of inflection [declension]. Case inflection is the main factor that determines the word’s grammatical function in a sentence and the meaning that it carries. It is well known that there are three cases in the Arabic language with special diacritical markings ( تاكرحHarakaat). The ability of a word to have a particular case leads to its categorization as “complete”, “incomplete” or “non-declining”. The endings of a word in a sentence may change due to the [influencing] factor, or even if the [influencing] factors change, their ending may not change. The frst of them is called «mu’rab» which means «declension (conjugation)» and the second – “mabniy” which means “immutability, non-inflection”. Change under the influence of factors [at the end of the word] is called “i’rab” (that is inflection) and non-change under the influence of factors is called “bino” (that is «non-inflection in cases). “I’rab” is a marking that represents an influence factor at the end of a word. The ending of a word as a result of this factor can be “marfuu’ ” [damma-nominative], “mansuub” [fatha-accusative], “majruur” [cassative] or “jazm” [sukunconditional]. Linguists identify the types of “damma”, “fatha”, “kasra” and “sukun” according to the movements at the end of non- declining words. Arab linguists study words by dividing them into two groups in accordance with the case change: these are the words “mabni” and “mu’rab”. If a word is associated with another word or an active factor precedes it but it does not change its case ending (the last pronunciation of the word does not change) such words are called “mabni” and these words do not change at all. Non-declining words include all prepositions, the past tense verb, the imperative mood of the verb, the verb to which the afrmative “nun” is attached or the verb with the ending feminine “nun” and some nouns. Verbs and prepositions do not change initially. It should be noted that the auxiliary words are not changed because there is no need for that. Conjugation is only necessary when there is a basic structural meaning. Auxiliary words by themselves never make sense (semantic meaning)