Division of words and their definition between Sibawayh and the hadith scholars (a linguistic view) through the book “Logic of the Arabs” by Professor Dr. Haj Saleh

Abstract

The classification of words (kalim) into three categories known for the first time by Sibawayh was badly exploited by orientalists, and was misunderstood by some contemporary Arab researchers.

Orientalists, seeking to justify their classic pretention that Arabic grammar had been influenced by Greek logic, claimed that Sibawayh’s classification is aristotelian in origin , forgetting that aristole had adopted a classification into four categories, from one hand , and that the Greek grammar, divides the types of words into eight categories, from the other hand.some contemporary arab researchers, influenced by these orientalists, criticise the classification of sibawayh, forgetting that Sibawayh’s method of definition and inference is not related neither to logic nor to syllogim.