A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LINGUISTIC UNITS ‘ADVERB’ IN ARABIC AND IN PERSIAN AND ENGLISH

This article is based on a doctoral thesis and compares syntactic characteristics of linguistic units that modify verb (adverbial) as well as adjective in Arabic on one hand and adverbial in Persian and English languages on the other. This comparison first tries to see is it ever possible to find in Arabic what other languages regard as adverb; and then seeks to develop an equivalent balance between Arabic on one hand and Persian and English on the other hand in terms of adverbial affinities and disparities between these languages that might be used to shed more light on Arabic adverbial rules. In theory, we must first let go of traditional grammar which is mostly based on final word declension (suffix vocal inflection) and considers words as the basic linguistic unit. Instead, we should focus on syntactic function or parts of speech. Second, this study distinguishes the lexical category ‘adverb’ and syntactical function ‘adverb’ in order to demonstrate what constructs can qualify as the latter. The scope of the study includes grammar and particularly adverb and adverbial constructs without dwelling upon other areas of this science. Research population also is modern Arabic; therefore, does not include traditional usage or the dialects and colloquial Arabic. In addition, the Persian and Arabic items are derived from contemporary sources. This article employs some useful tools from structural linguistics, namely, transformational - generative grammar (TGG) and applies syntactic analytical concepts like adjunction, substitution and movement. In this manner, an adverbial from English and Persian is presented along with examples; and we try to find if that form exists in Arabic. It was found that Persian, English and Arabic languages all contain constructs, other than category adverb, such as ‘prepositional phrase,’ ‘noun phrase,’ ‘adjective phrase’ and ‘adverbial clause’ which function as adverb. These construct are as follow: 1- Lexical adverb: made of a word belongs to adverb category and appear in adverb function. Such as "never" in English example (1) , "هرگز" in Persian (2) and "ابدا" in the Arabic example (3). (1) I'll never forget you. (2) هرگز تو را فراموش نخواهم کرد. (3) لن انساک ابدا. 2- Adjectival phrase: A word that belong to adjective category, with its modifiers, may appear in adverb function. Such as "very well" in English example (4), "بسیار خوب" in Persian (5) and "جیدا جدا" in Arabic (6). (4) She plays piano very well. (5) او بسیار خوب پیانو می نوازد. (6) هی تعزف البیانو جیدا جدا. 3- Noun phrase as adverb: Sometimes, a noun head or a noun phrase can take adverb place. For example "last year" in (7), "سال گذشته" in Persian (8) and "السنه الماضیه" in the Arabic (9). (7) I saw him last year. (8) سال گذشته او را دیدم. (9) السنه الماضیه التقیت به. In fact, this kind of adverb structure has a preposition in the deep structure which reduced in the surface structure. 4- Prepositional phrase as adverb: A structure made of "preposition + noun phrase" can also take adverb rule in the any of these three languages. Such as "with a load angry voice" in the English example (10), "با صدای خشم آگین بلندی" in the Persian (11) and " بصوت عال غاضب" in the Arabic example (12). (10) My mother called me with a load angry voice. (11) مادرم مرا با صدای خشم آگین بلندی صدا زد. (12) نادتنی امی بصوت عال غاضب. 5- Adverbial clause: A structure made of "adverbial particle + sentence" can make an adverbial clause and take adverb rule in the any of these three languages. Such as "When I arrived" in English example (13), "وقتی که من رسیدم" in the Persian (14) and also "حین وصلت " in the Arabic (15). (13) When I arrived, she was waiting for me. (14) وقتی که من رسیدم، او منتظر من بود. (15) حین وصلت ، کانت بانتظاری. 6- Adverbial phrase: This construct was found only in Arabic while neither Persian nor English has similar category. The core of this construct is made of lexical items such as ‘ بعد, قبل, حین, اثناء, قباله … ’ that, despite being nouns, function preposition and appear before noun phrases to make new phrase which we call ‘adverbial phrase.’ Look at examples (16) to (18): (16) بعد وصولی، بدات المحاضره. (17) غرقت السفینه قباله السواحل المصریه (18) اربط حزام المقعد اثناء الجلوس Finally, several results led from this research and the most important ones are: those constructs which are regarded as adverb are also available in Arabic. However, they are known by different names. By virtue of substitutional transformation, all Arabic adverbial constructs can potentially replace each other.