Examining Interface of Al-Azhari’s Grammatical Reasoning: Quranic Readings as a Model

Abstract

This paper examines a well-known Arabic phonological phenomenon called grammatical reasoning. The study addresses four forms of reasoning in the Arabic Case system: alleviating, heaviness, meaning-carrying, and adjacency. The study categorizes the data linguistically and phonologically adopting a descriptive qualitative methodology by presenting a sample of Quranic verses carrying the target reasoning forms. The study findings reveal that Arabic via syntacticphonological interface utilizes different strategies of phonological reductions that result in alternative phonological readings of some Quranic lexicon. The study contributes to understanding Arabic phonological reductive processes by reflecting on the multiplicity of phonological readings of the Quranic language. The study has shown that this phonological reduction includes phonological elision, vowel alterations, consonantal shortening, as well as assimilation processes. By assessing the distinction of the application of these process in Al-Azhari’s grammatical categorization, the study distinguishes between four phenomena explicated in Arabic classical grammar, but underexplored in modern linguistics and phonology (alleviating, adjacency, heaviness, and semantic concord). Therefore, the study contributes on the one hand to casting novel modern linguistic analysis on classical interpretations of different phonological readings, while on the other hand the study sheds light on the interplay between phonological processes and Quranic readings, emphasizing the micro coordination between syntax and phonology while showing relevance to the macro interpretational levels of Quranic studies.