Views on Renewing Arabic Grammar

Abstract

(Renewing Arabic grammar) is one of the topics that has occupied a wide range of interest from modern researchers and cultural and educational institutions. This was a result of the learners’ complaints about the difficulty of the Arabic language and the problems of teaching it. The outcome of the researchers’ efforts and proposals in this field have led to three directions: 

The first one calls for the development of a new grammar based on the colloquial and dialectal forms of Arabic; the second calls for the necessity of modifying Arabic grammar, reconstructing it according to the requirements of the descriptive approach, and abandoning some of its origins which, as claimed by the researchers, were the dominance of logic over language. The third calls for renewing grammar through facilitating it, and separating its scientific properties from the educational ones.

These trends, with the exception of the last, did not have a significant impact on the study of Arabic grammar. Researchers and specialists received the first trend with complete rejection due to its infringement on classical Arabic and an attempt to legislate colloquial Arabic, with the resultant loss of our national language, the most important component of our unity and identity. As for the second trend, it quickly declined with the decline of the descriptive approach in studying language around the world, and the emergence of the school of Transformational Generative Grammar, which agrees, in many of its principles, with the origins of Arabic grammar, despite the virtue of precedence and leadership possessed by Arabic grammar.

It can be said that the trend in which the concept of renewal led to facilitation is what contributed to solving the problems of Arabic grammar through facilitating works that became the norm in education for the pre-specialization stage.

Whatever the calls for facilitating or renewing grammar, experienced specialists agree that grammar is not an end in itself, but rather a means of correcting the tongue and freeing it from accidental errors. It is believed that the issue of acquiring the correct language is separate in its entirety from knowing grammar. The main thing is building linguistic instinct through developing a wide repertoire of classical Arabic in the early stages of the child's development. It is a responsibility that must be carried out by government-run cultural, and educational institutions, in accordance with well-thought-out plans, drawn up by experts, and not dependent on individual efforts or limited collective attempts.

Perhaps the best way to facilitate grammar is for its rules to be a reflection of the linguistic knowledge that comes from the speaker in an unconscious way, and the problem of young learners with grammar is in reality an image of their problem with classical Arabic itself, because the language they acquired throughout their journey is colloquial.  Care must be taken to gradually change this reality through scientific methods. Finally, replacing the colloquials with classical Arabic is a national duty that preserves the nation’s one language and its authentic identity.