Reflection of Multiple Verbal Nouns of Triliteral Bare Verbs in Dictionaries for Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

Background/purpose. The phenomenon of multiple verbal nouns for the triliteral bare verb in Arabic represents a distinctive linguistic feature shaped by social and linguistic factors across historical periods. This study pursues two primary objectives: (1) to reassess the phenomenon from the perspectives of classical Arabic linguistic heritage and modern usage; and (2) to examine how monolingual and bilingual dictionaries used in teaching Arabic as a foreign language adapt to this phenomenon.

Materials/methods. The study employs descriptive statistics to determine the frequency of the phenomenon in Classical Arabic and compares it with Modern Standard Arabic using a modern, comprehensive dictionary. Additionally, the study counts instances of the phenomenon in four monolingual and bilingual teaching dictionaries to examine how they have adapted to these linguistic changes.

Results. The study concluded that the phenomenon of multiple verbal nouns for a single verb has noticeably declined in Modern Standard Arabic. While this feature was prominent in classical linguistic references, it is now far less common in contemporary usage. This shift is clearly reflected in educational dictionaries used for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers, which tend to mostly list one verbal noun per verb. The representation of verbs with multiple verbal nouns has become increasingly rare, indicating a broader trend toward simplification and standardization in modern lexicographic practices.

Conclusion. The study underscores the importance of monitoring linguistic phenomena within the Arabic language, particularly in the context of Modern Standard Arabic. It highlights the necessity of updating educational tools and dictionaries in accordance with these phenomena. Such efforts support the advancement of high-quality, sustainable Arabic language education and ensure its alignment with contemporary linguistic and pedagogical developments, contributing directly to SDG 4: Quality Education.

Keywords: Multiple verbal nouns, triliteral bare verb, Classical Arabic, modern Standard Arabic, Monolingual and Bilingual Dictionaries, Quality Education

References

Abdulhadi, K., & Arafeh, A. (2023). Nizwa’s Liste zu den gebräuchlichen Verben im zeitgenössischen Arabisch (1st ed.). Leipzig: Hamouda.

Abdullatif, M. H. (1996). Lughat al-shi'r: Dirasa fi al-darura al-shi'riyya [The Language of Poetry: A Study of Poetic Necessity] (1st ed.). Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq. https://down.ketabpedia.com/files/bkb/bkb-ar08869-ketabpedia.com.pdf

Aiegh-Haddad, E., & Joshi, R. M. (2014). Handbook of Arabic literacy: Insights and perspectives. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7

Alam, Y. M., & Alazmi, F. (2023). Verbal nouns of triliteral verbs in the computational lexicon: A statistical, analytical, and comparative study. Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition, 21, 27–96. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/jalt/wp-content/uploads/sites/1121/2024/02/MirAlamAlazmi_JALT212.pdf

Aldawoud, A. A. (2020). Taʿaddud maṣādir al-fiʿl, maẓāhiruhā wa-asbābuhā, dirāsa taṭbīqiyya ʿalā Muʿjam al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ [The Multiplicity of Verb Nouns, Its Manifestations and Causes: An Applied Study on Mu'jam al-Qamus al-Muhit] (1st ed.). Jiddah: The Literary and Cultural Club.

Aldrich, M. (2013). Lingualism Arabic Learner's Dictionary: Arabic-English. Lingualism.

Alfawzan, A., Al-Tahir, M., & Abd al-Khaliq, M. (2004). Al-Muʻjam al-ʻArabī bayna yadayk [The Arabic Dictionary Between Your Hands]. Riyadh: al-ʿArabiyya li-l-Jamīʿ. https://archive.org/details/5136pdf

Alhroot, M. (2023). Religious Illustrative Evidence in (Al-Muʿǧam Al-ʿarabī Baina Yadaik) in Light of the Modern Lexical Industry. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 50(1), 612. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v50i1.4447

Alhroot, M. (2024). At-Tāʼān of the Present Tense Verb Patterns tatafaʻʻalu, tatafāʻalu, and tatafaʻlalu in Initial Position and Whether Either One Is Retained or Omitted: A Statistical Study Covering the First Half of the Period of Reliable Grammaticality Judgments. Al-ʿArabiyya: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic, 57, 127-163. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/950186

Alhroot, M. A., & Al-Hawawsheh, S. H. (2025). Al-‘Anqāʼ in Arabic Poetry from the pre-Islamic era to the Late Andalusian era Between the Mythological Symbol and the Metonymy. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 52(5), 7419. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v52i5.7419

Alhroot, M. A., & AlBdairat, B. Y. (2024). The Verbal Nouns of Trilateral Transitive Verbs Within Theory and Practice in Modern Standard Arabic: A Statistical Analytical Study. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 51(1), 527-539. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v51i1.1112

Alhroot, M., & Alhroot, A. (2022). The Statistical Approach and Its Impact on the Teaching of Modern Standard Arabic Language for Non-Native Arabic Speakers (The Plural Form Used for Singular Triple Non-Feminist Nouns as a Model). Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 49(5), 339-351. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v49i5.2762

Alhroot, M., & Al-tarawneh, A. (2025). Plurals in Al-Munawwir dictionary: Presentation and Critique. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(8), 143–155. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i8.10308

Alsalih, S. (2009). Dirāsāt fī fiqh al-lugha [Studies in Philology]. Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm li-l-Malāyīn.
https://down.ketabpedia.com/files/bkb/bkb-ar06292-ketabpedia.com.pdf

Al-Suyuti, J. (1998). Al‑Muzhir fī ‘Ulūm al‑Lugha al‑ʿArabīya

[Al-Muzhir in the Sciences of the Arabic Language] (1st ed.). Lebanon: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. https://archive.org/details/AlmuzhirS/MuzhirS-00/

Amin, A. (2023). Fayd al-khaṭīr [The Beneficial Thought] (1st ed.). Damascus: Dār al-Miʿrāj.

Anis, I. (1985). Min asrār al-lugha [From the Secrets of Language] (7th ed.). Cairo: Anglo Library. https://archive.org/details/lis_m224/lisanarb_m2422/

Baalbaki, R. M. (2012). Fusha: Research into its Categorization and Features. Tabayyun, 1(1), 19-40. https://doi.org/10.31430/BLFA6662

Belinkov, Y., Magidow, A., Barrón-Cedeño, A., Shmidman, A., & Romanov, M. (2019). Studying the history of the Arabic language: Language technology and a large-scale historical corpus. Language Resources and Evaluation, 53(4), 771–805. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-019-09460-w

Boudelaa, S., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2015). Structure, form, and meaning in the mental lexicon: evidence from Arabic. Language, cognition and neuroscience, 30(8), 955–992. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2015.1048258

Brockelmann, C. (1916). Semitische Sprachwissenschaft (2nd ed.). G.J. Göschen.
https://archive.org/details/semitischesprac01brocgoog

Danks, W. (2011). The Arabic verb: Form and meaning in the vowel-lengthening patterns (Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics (Vol. 63) Brill. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.63

Düzgün, O. (2021). Türkçe‑Arapça/Arapça‑Türkçe Karşılıklar Kılavuzu. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.https://tdk.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2019/pdf

Fox, J. (2003). Preliminary Material. In Semitic Noun Patterns. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004369863_001

Gordon, M. J. (2019). Language Variation and Change in Rural Communities. Annual Review of Linguistics, 5, 435–453. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011817-045545

Haddad, Y. A. (2023). Introduction to Arabic linguistics (1st ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Hamzawi, M. R. (1995). Al-naṣṣ al-muʿjamī fī al-muwalladāt wa-l-aʿjamiyyāt: ḥarf al-tāʾ min al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ namūdhajan [The Lexicographic Text in Loanwords and Foreignisms: The Letter Tā’ in Al-Muʿjam Al-Wasīt as a Model]. Al-Muʿjamiyya Journal, 11, 9–21. https://archive.alsharekh.org/Articles/311/21110/478787

Heeringa, W., & Nerbonne, J. (2001). Dialect areas and dialect continua. Language Variation and Change, 13(3), 375–400. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394501133041

Hitchcock, C., & Shakkour, E. (2025). A learner's grammar of Levantine Arabic. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Huehnergard, J. (2017). Arabic in its Semitic context. In A. Al-Jallad (Ed.), Arabic in context, celebrating 400 years of Arabic at Leiden University, Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 89 (pp. 3–34). Leiden/ Boston: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004343047_002

Huisman, J. L. A., Majid, A., & van Hout, R. (2019). The geographical configuration of a language area influences linguistic diversity. PLoS One, 14(6), e0217363. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217363

Hussein, M. A. K. (1960). Dirāsāt fī al-ʿArabiyya wa-tārīkhihā [Studies in Arabic and Its History] (2nd ed.). Damascus: Al-Maktab al-Islāmī & Dār al-Fath. https://archive.org/details/1960_20211030/page/n5/mode/2up

Ibn al-Hajib, J. (1982). Sharḥ Shāfiyat Ibn al-Ḥājib [Commentary on Ibn al-Hajib's Shafiyah]. Lebanon: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. https://archive.org/details/3930pdf/page/n1/mode/2up

Ibn al-Qatta', A. (1999). Abniyat al-asmāʾ wa-l-afʿāl wa-l-maṣādir [Structures of Nouns, Verbs, and Verbal Nouns]. Egypt: The Printing House of the National Books and Documents.
https://down.ketabpedia.com/files/bnr/bnr5847-1.pdf

Ibn al-Qutiyah, M. (1993). Kitāb al-afʿāl [The Book of Verbs]. Ed. Ali Fouda (2nd ed.). Egypt: The Khanji Library. https://archive.org/details/20200829_20200829_2336/page/n1/mode/2up

Kaye, A. (2007). Morphologies of Asia and Africa. University Park, USA: Penn State University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065663

Kentner, G., & Kremers, J. (2020). Prosody in Syntactic Encoding. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110650532

Koile, E., & Moroz, G. (2024). Detecting linguistic variation with geographic sampling. Journal of Linguistic Geography, 12(1), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1017/jlg.2024.8

Kungl, A. (2024). Verbal noun formation in Mehri. In F. Gasparini, K. Russell, & J. C. E. Watson (Eds.), Diversity across the Arabian Peninsula: Language, culture, nature (pp. 197-240). Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0411.06

Mantiri, O. (2010). Factors affecting language change. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2566128

Muhammad, A. (2020). Deviation from the Standard Pattern while Structuring Verbal Nouns from Augmented Triliteral Root Verbs, Journal of Arabic Language Sciences and Literature, 12(2), 1116–1143. https://asjp.cerist.dz/en/article/127224

Muslikhin, M. (2018). Kamus Fiʻil-Kata Kerja (Arab–Indonesia, Indonesia-Arab), Indonesia: Trimus Press.

Omar, A. M. (2008). Muʿjam al-lugha al-ʿArabiyya al-muʿāṣira [Dictionary of Contemporary Arabic Language] (1st ed.). Beirut: ʿAlam al-Kutub. https://archive.org/details/20230219_20230219_1908

Ratcliffe, R. (1998). The Broken Plural Problem in Arabic and Comparative Semitic: Allomorphy and analogy in non-concatenative morphology. John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.168

Rosenhouse, J. (2003). On verbal nouns in colloquial and literary Arabic. In M. Haak, R. de Jong, & K. Versteegh (Eds.), Approaches to Arabic dialects: A collection of articles presented to Manfred Woidich on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday (pp. 275–289). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047402480_019

Ryding, K. (2005). A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486975

Scholfield, P. (1982). Using the English Dictionary for Comprehension, TESOL Quarterly, 16(2), 185–194. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586791

Sibawayh, A. (2015). Al-Kitāb [The Book] (1st ed.). Lebanon: Zain Al-Huquqiyya. https://archive.org/details/kitab_saibawih/001/page/n1/mode/2up

Sirhan, N. R. (2023). Mastering Arabic Vocabulary: For Beginner to Intermediate Learners of Modern Standard Arabic (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003250890

Wieling, M., Nerbonne, J., & Baayen, R. H. (2011). Quantitative social dialectology: explaining linguistic variation geographically and socially. PloS one, 6(9), e23613. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023613

Wright, W. (1966). Lectures in the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages. Amsterdam: Philo. https://archive.org/details/lecturesoncompar00wrig/page/n5/mode/2up

Yahya, H. (2011). Al-ḥafr fī al-lugha: dirāsah muqārabah li-baʿḍ al-masāʾil al-lughawiyya [Digging in the language: A historical approach to some Arabic linguistic issues] (1st ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. https://dn790000.ca.archive.org/0/items/lis_arb86/lis_arb8603.pdf

Announcement

EDUPIJ Citation Metrics

EDUPIJ News!