“Measurement at most” according to Arabic grammarians and its consequences

Abstract

The technical terms of the nahw : qiyas, nadir, bab have a mathematical
essence. The qiyäs is a structure’s equivalence. The nadir is the equivalent
element and the bäb a set of nadir or a class of equivalence. Being the
masdar, the giyas is also the generation of an expression on a previous
model. So, “qiyäs ‘ala al-aktar” means that the creation of linguistic
elements has to be done on the basis of the dominant model; i.e., the most
representative model of the class it belongs to. At the present time, a serious
confusion is made betwcen this katra or frequency within a set (bäb) and
“al-katra {i-l-isti‘mal” or frequency in use which is completely different.
This study aims at removing this serious methodological equivocal.