Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics

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Fāʿil
(1,497 words)

1. Definition

The fāʿil (lit. ‘he who does’) corresponds, in the analysis of the Arab grammarians, to the protagonist of the verb. It is the primary element to which the verb relates (Sībawayhi, Kitāb I, 33–34), meaning that the verb “does not go without it” (Sīrāfī, Šarḥ II, 267). In fact, the verb (fiʿl) and its fāʿil constitute a pair “each of whose two elements cannot go without the other, and which the speaker cannot do without” (lā yaġnā wāḥidun min-humā ʿan …

Cite this page
Hassan Salam Bazzi Hamzé, “Fāʿil”, in: Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1570-6699_eall_EALL_COM_vol2_0013>
First published online: 2011
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004177024, 20090831



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