A look at the Arabic grammarian Ibn Jinnī

Abstract

This paper looks at one of the most representative Arabic grammarians in the history of Arabic linguistics, the 10th century Iraqi grammarian Ibn Jinnī. One of the paper's aims is to contribute to the dissemination of Arabic linguistics studies, as a means of promoting their inclusion in general linguistics, since Arabic linguistics currently occupies only a marginal place in this field. As this paper shows, with the figure of Ibn Jinnī, the Arabic linguistics tradition has had important peaks, especially during the Middle Ages and more specifically starting in the 10th century, with the emergence of a series of linguistic ideas that today's scholars often find surprising, for their singularity and even their similarity to current linguistic paradigms. Ibn Jinnī is especially noteworthy because he applied logic to the linguistic fact, offering readers meticulous and detailed studies on a wide range of fields, such as the foundations of language, phonic and morphological analysis, and others, all of which he infused with his particular innovation and idiosyncracy.