The Feminine in Arabic Grammatical Thought: An Epistemological Review

Abstract

This study explores certain linguistic phenomena related to the feminine and its role in generating grammatical meaning in Arabic. It seeks to uncover the Arab perception of femininity as the original speakers of the language and its originators. The feminine structure, in language, allows it to become a mirror that lays the thought of its native speakers bare, making of this unintended disclosure a psychological and social phenomenon that’s inextricably tied to them. This study reveals that the image of femininity is reflected in some grammatical phenomena, carrying with it entrenched connotations of gentleness, tenderness, fertility, and growth. However, some linguistic scholars, through their interpretations of linguistic phenomena, disconnect language from life, and explain it from a purely intrinsic viewpoint, depriving it of any interaction with external factors, such as psychological and social circumstances. This approach typically results in an incomplete understanding of the feminine in Arabic thought during the codification of grammatical rules. Despite this, Arabic grammar treated the feminine fairly, offering specific structures to address the Her, reaffirming the language’s role as a reflection of thought, and that the linguistic phenomena exhibited within it are inextricable from the psychological and social contexts contemporary to the time that language was codified.