Averroès grammairien

Abstract

The short treatise on Arabic grammar by Averroes (Ibn Rušd) entitled Al-Ḍarūrī fī ṣināˁat al-naḥw (“The Indispensable in the Art of Grammar”) is of considerable interest for the history of linguistic ideas. Although Averroes does not challenge the basic postulates and aims of traditional grammar, he adopts a more universalistic stance, and shows himself strongly critical of the grammarians, whom he reproaches with following an insufficiently rigorous method. This leads him, however, to raise a fundamental issue, already pointed out by Fārābī, the lack of a syntactic component in the traditional theory, and to put forth a quite original solution, reducing all possible constructions to two main types, predicative (tarkīb iḫbār) and determinative (tarkīb taqyīd).

Keywords

• Astarābāḏī (al-)
• Averroes
• Ḍarūrī (al-) fī l-naḥw
• determinative construction
• Fārābī (al-)
• Ibn Rušd