Two Types of Taqdīr? A Study in Ibn Hišām's Concept of 'Speaker's Intention'

Abstract

AbstractThe term taqdīr is mostly used in Arabic grammatical tradition to refer to underlying structures, i.e. to sentences, forms etc. intended by the speakers but which differ from the sentences, forms etc. which they actually utter. This is also the sense modern scholars have in mind when discussing taqdīr. Yet the term proves to have a significantly wider extension, embracing also cases where it pertains not to underlying structures, but to properties possessed by constituents at surface structure, such as the syntactic functions they assume and the parts of speech to which they belong. Both usages of the term taqdīr, however, are derived from the single basic sense it conveys, viz. speakers' intention. This argument is illustrated in the present article through Ibn Hišām's writings.