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The term ʾaṣl is primarily used as one of the major tools of analysis in Arabic grammatical theory. It is first encountered in the Kitāb of Sībawayhi (d. 180/796) where it occurs 569 times (Troupeau 1976 sub ʾṢL), all of which, with the exception of four instances, indicate a methodological notion. Although the term itself may be generally translated as ‘origin’, ‘principle’, or ‘base’, it is used in a variety of specialized senses, the most basic of which are (for use by Sībawayhi, see Baalbaki 1988:163–164): i.The form, pattern, case ending, etc. which agrees with the qiyās, that is, wit…

The term tamyīz is used by the Arab grammarians to refer to one of the functions of the accusative. Generally translated as ‘specification’ or ‘specifier’, tamyīz, especially in the earlier sources, has the synonyms mumayyiz, mufassir, tafsīr, mubayyin, and tabyīn (see, however, Ibn Šuqayr, Muḥallā 15–16, where tafsīr is reserved for the accusative after numbers; cf. Mubarrad, Muqtaḍab II, 144, 164, 173, III, 32, 91, 259, where tabyīn and tamyīz are distinguished, but not uniformly). Although Sībawayhi (d. 180/796) discusses tamyīz in various places of his Kitāb (I, 204–211, II, …

The term bināʾ is used in Arabic grammar to describe words which have fixed end-vowels. It may be generally translated as ‘indeclinability’, and is thus the antithesis of the term for ‘declinability’, ʾiʿrāb. This meaning most probably developed from the sense of ‘phonetic structure’, which bināʾ (pl. ʾabniya) indicates in expressions like bināʾ li-l-majhūl ‘passive form’, ʾabniyat al-jamʿ ‘plural patterns’, etc. The centrality of bināʾ to grammatical theory is best demonstrated by its discussion, along with ʾiʿrāb, by Sībawayhi (d. 180/796) in the very early parts of his Kitāb (I,…