Abstract

This study is entitled Ibn Jinni Morphologically Simplified. Since there is a strong relationship between Arabic language and Arab society, all the social variables have influenced the nature of language which in turn responds to these variables .There arose the feature of development which incorporated several linguistic phenomena imposed by the political and social conditions of the Arab society at that time. One of these phenomena was the simplification, specifically in morphology , which seemed to be unclear in many morphological cases ,but we could arrive at them through some signs and words that were used intentionally by one of the prominent scholars of the fourteenth century .That was Ibn Jinni who served Arabic in all his effort and spent most of his time studying it and publishing about it. When he realized the complexity of the morphological subjects, he tried many ways to make it simple and present it to learners in an easy and understandable manner. This thing shows that the idea of simplification was present in Ibn Jinni’s thought. It is clear to us that Arabic had responded to the factors of Arab’s life at the era when Ibn Jinni lived .We mean by this the Abbasyd era which witnessed an exposure to various cultures .According to this cultural and ideological openness, a need for an expansion of the standards of correctness and incorrectness arose in relation to language of Ḍād . Therefore, there was an urgent need for analogy in order to simplify language and make it easy for learners who could not command language by means of hearing only but they can do that through analogy after applying some universal wholes .This can enrich language by thousands of words and meanings , which were not in use by the ancient Arabs, but they were not deviant from their words categories .This can decrease the researchers’ efforts in searching old books and publications for words ,which they need in their researchers , to find their meanings.

         This study is conducted to show that the assumption and interpretation which Ibn Jinni was famous for was a step in achieving the intended goal, that is simplification. The nature of the topic requires an introduction and three chapters .The introduction tackles the concept of morphological simplification. It deals with simplification according to language and usage , the origin of simplification and its principles , morphology till the era of Ibn Jinni , Ibn Jinni scientific status , methods of mental analogy of Ibn Jinni and its relation to simplification , and then the linguistic structure of Ibn Jinni from both phonological and morphological sides.

The first chapter is entitled ” the principles of morphological simplification in nouns” .It deals with fixed structures which Ibn Jinni tried to find for them a simplified explanation. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first focuses on studying “the structure of abstract nouns” ,the second is about “the structure of affixed nouns” , and the third “the structure of broken plural” which includes the plural used with numbers 3 to 10 , and the plural of large quantities from 11 to infinity,.

The second chapter entitled “the principles of morphological simplification of verbs” which is divided into two sections. The first deals with the structure of abstract verbs : tripartite and tetra verbs . The second deals with the structure of prefixed verbs, tripartite and tetra verbs, and the structure of affixation.

The third chapter deals with ” the principles of morphological simplification in derivatives” which includes the most important derivatives which have a relation with simplification. This is divided into five sections. The first deals with ” infinitive” , the second is with ” present participle” , and the third is with ” Superlativisation’ , the fourth deals with ” resembling adjective “, and the fifth is about “past participle”.

The researcher depended on various sources and references in conducting this study or in the understanding of declension cases and disambiguating them. The most prominent sources among these were Ibn Jinni’s books.

The researcher pays tribute to all those who helped in writing this dissertation, in particular Dr. Assist Prof. Ala’ Aldeen Hashim Al-Khfaji , who has been a father as well as a supervisor , not a surprising attribute of such scholars who have spent their life in the field of science and its students.