The Impact of Linguistic Methodologies on the Compilation of Arabic Dictionaries: A Study in Arabic Linguistic Thought

Abstract

This study investigates the linguistic methodologies that shaped the compilation of classical Arabic dictionaries by identifying the methodological principles adopted by early Arab lexicographers and examining their influence on lexicographic practice. Understanding these methodologies helps explain several long-debated issues, including the marginalization of certain Arabic dialects and the classification of many authentic linguistic forms as erroneous, which ultimately contributed to the emergence of works on linguistic correction and the treatment of solecisms.

The study analyzes a representative selection of classical Arabic dictionaries to determine the methodological frameworks underlying their compilation. It examines the descriptive approach, which records language as it is used and whose roots can be traced in the treatment of dialectal variation and the attribution of phonological and semantic changes to regional dialects. It also explores the prescriptive (normative) approach, which confines linguistic authority to Classical Arabic as attested during the period of linguistic evidence (ʿaṣr al-iḥtijāj), accepting only standard forms while classifying other varieties as weak, obsolete, or merely dialectal.

The research further discusses the historical approach, which traces the development and semantic evolution of lexical items, demonstrating that early lexicographers made important contributions in this regard. In addition, it examines the historical-comparative approach, through which early scholars identified the foreign origins of certain Arabic words, relating them to Persian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, and other languages, despite the limited comparative linguistic resources available to them.

The study addresses two principal questions: (1) Which linguistic methodologies formed the basis of classical Arabic lexicography? and (2) To what extent did these methodologies influence the compilation of Arabic dictionaries? Owing to the vast scope of the Arabic lexicographical tradition, the analysis is confined to selected representative dictionaries. Adopting a descriptive-analytical method, the study seeks to clarify the methodological foundations that guided early Arabic lexicographers in the compilation of their dictionaries.