The Succession of Similar Elements in Arabic : A Study at the Syntactic Level

Abstract

Just as language is a living organism that grows and develops, it is also a living entity that reproduces and generates new forms. This process yields an innumerable series of semantic synonyms within the lexicon and functional counterparts within the domains of syntax and morphology. Because language reproduces according to an inherent wisdom, it carefully avoids—through that same wisdom—the coexistence of two linguistic elements within its structural system that perform the same function or convey the same meaning. In doing so, it is governed by the principles of communicative efficiency, avoidance of ambiguity, maintenance of syntactic well-formedness, fulfillment of the requirements of brevity and conciseness, and aversion to redundancy and repetition. If one of two equivalent elements is sufficient to fulfill the role of the other, it can substitute for it and render its occurrence unnecessary. Arab linguists recognized this linguistic tendency from the earliest stages of Arabic linguistic scholarship, whether in phonetics, morphology, or semantics. It became known under the term “the aversion to the succession of similar elements” (karāhat tawālī al-amthāl). Modern scholars, however, have devoted appropriate attention to the phonological and morphological dimensions of this phenomenon, while showing little interest in tracing its manifestations at the syntactic-structural level. Consequently, this aspect has been largely neglected, despite posing a greater challenge to the grammatical integrity of discourse and exerting a more significant influence on the avoidance of ambiguity. Indeed, there is a substantial difference between similarity at the level of sounds—or sound symbols (letters)—within the structure of a word and similarity at the level of words within a syntactic construction. Likewise, there is a distinction between linguistic elements that resemble one another in form and those that coincide in both meaning and function. This study, therefore, constitutes an original attempt to delineate the features of the phenomenon of the succession of similar elements specifically at the syntactic level. It begins by identifying and illustrating its manifestations and ultimately confirms its relationship to the broader linguistic phenomenon from which it derives. In the course of this investigation, the study also explores the concept of similarity, the mechanism of succession, the governing principles of the phenomenon, and the scope of its application. It is for this