The Impact of Meaning on the Construction of Grammatical Rules: The Conditions Set by Grammarians for the Semantic of What Governs the Accusative of the Present Tense Verb with an Implied “an” as a Model

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of meaning on the formation of the Arabic grammatical rule by analyzing the phenomenon of the subjunctive mood of the present tense verb governed by the obligatorily implicit particle “an” (أنْ). The study addresses a central question concerning the nature of the grammatical operator responsible for assigning the subjunctive case to the present tense verb: Is it the preceding particle itself, the implicit “an” (أنْ), or are meaning and context the principal determinants of the grammatical judgment? The study adopts the descriptive-analytical, inductive, and semantic approaches by examining Qur’anic and poetic evidence and analyzing the views of grammarians, particularly those of the Basran and Kufan schools, regarding this phenomenon. The analysis demonstrates that the disagreement between the two schools does not concern the fundamental grammatical ruling itself, but rather centers on the interpretation and explanation of the mechanism of grammatical operation. The study concludes that meaning and context play a fundamental role in directing grammatical judgments. The Basran school tends to rely on grammatical estimation, whereas the Kufan school tends to attribute the grammatical operation directly to the particles based on usage and transmitted evidence. The study also highlights the multiplicity of functions of grammatical particles and their semantic interaction, reflecting the flexibility of the Arabic grammatical system and its close connection with semantics. It concludes that the relationship between meaning and grammatical structure is complementary, and that a full understanding of grammatical rules can only be achieved in light of the semantic context, which contributes to determining grammatical analysis and the governing operator.