Generative linguistics and Arabic metrics

Abstract

The classical theory of Arabic metrics has been reinterpreted numerous times in a variety of theoretical frameworks, notable among them Metrical Phonology (Prince 1989 & Schuh 1996) and Optimality Theory (Golston & Riad 1991), which we briefly examine to show that they do not permit an adequate account of the structure of Arabic verse-patterns. The analyses that have been proposed, by simply reinterpreting classical analyses, suffer from the same failings as the classical theory, whose descriptive adequacy (or inadequacy) is never discussed. To these failings we can add the problems inherent in the basic presuppositions of these theories (hierarchical organisation of meter, constituency and, above all, binarity), whose relevance (their explanatory power) and universality deserve to be seriously questioned. Finally, it is shown that a detailed descriptive analysis of actual instances of classical verse-patterns in terms of free and fixed metrical positions reveals a system which relies on principles and constraints that consistently depart from the classical framework and should thus serve as the basis for future analyses of Arabic meter.

Optimising Classical Arabic metra

“…Classical Arabic poetry has always been in the forefront of major studies on poetic metre. To name but a few, generative and constraint-based accounts of Classical Arabic metre include Maling, 1973;Prince, 1989;Schuh, 1996;Golston & Riad, 1997;Bohas et al, 2006;Fabb & Halle, 2008;Paoli, 2009;Schuh, 2011;Golston & Riad, 2016. These works and those of almost all Arab prosodists are mainly based on, or in some cases critical responses to, the findings and theoretical analyses of Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi, an 8th century CE prosodist who has always been considered as the founder of the science of Arabic poetic metrics.…”

Arabic influence on metre in Somali Sufi religious poetry

“…One further approach to mention is Paoli (2009), who also presents a matrix, including one specifically for the kāmil majzū' (Paoli, 2009, p. 205) which is given in (31). In this what is represented by X is a 'free metrical position (˘˘or )' (Paoli, 2009, p. 204) (this is the same as the set of bimoraic metrical positions in Golston and Riad (1997)).…”