Review: [untitled]

Author(s): David Testen

Reviewed work(s):
The 'Broken' Plural Problem in Arabic and Comparative Semitic: Allomorphy and Analogy
in Non-Concatenative Morphology by Robert R. Ratcliffe
Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Jan., 2002), pp. 61-62
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/546066
Accessed: 18/03/2010 10:10

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JANUARY2002 BOOK REVIEWS 61

The 'Broken' Plural Problem in Arabic and anticipating a plural of the shape "Y"-a con-
Comparative Semitic: Allomorphy and Anal- venient overview of such singular-plural pair-
ogy in Non-Concatenative Morphology. By ings will be found, for example, in Wright's
ROBERT R. RATCLIFFE.Amsterdam Studies Grammarof the Arabic Language (?304-5). Rat-
in the Theory and History of Linguistic Sci- cliffe suggests, however, that the systematicity
ence, Series 4-Current Issues in Linguistic of the connection between "X" and "Y" in such
Theory, vol. 168. Amsterdam and Philadel- cases proceeds from the fact that, at an abstract
phia: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 1998. level, "Y" has been formally derived from "X"
Pp. xi + 261. $84. via a coherent set of rules of affixation and
Based upon the author's 1992 Yale disserta- apophony. Ratcliffe thus sees a far closer for-
tion, this book presents a formal model designed mal link between the shapes assumed by the
to account for the morphology of literaryArabic singular and plural stems than is customarily en-
and extrapolates from this model in order to visioned. While he is aware that it is not difficult
speculate about the prehistory of the number- to adduce examples that run counter to the pat-
markingsystem of early Semitic substantives. A terns that he finds significant, he presents the
further dimension of the problem of the mark- reader with a systematic juxtaposition of the
ing of plurality among these languages, viz., the various classes of singular and plural stem-
evidence provided by the non-Semitic languages shapes, designed to demonstrate that it is pos-
of the Afro-Asiatic group, was included in the sible to identify statistically significant correla-
original dissertation but is not contained in this tions connecting subsets within the overall mass
monograph; for the author's assessment of this of lexical data.
dimension of the material, see his recent article Diachronic analyses of Semitic plurality
in JNES 57 (1998): 81-123. must arrive at a plausible historical explanation
After a brief introductory chapter on the for the existence of two contrasting morpholog-
methodology of historical linguistics, Ratcliffe ical systems among the Semitic languages-the
presents a survey of the recent research of such broken plural-type, which is restrictedto Arabic
formal linguists as McCarthy and Prince into and the Southwest Semitic branch, and the
various problems of discontinuous (non-concat- "sound" (stem-suffixing) type, which is found
enative) morphology. Ratcliffe follows this tra- throughout all of Semitic. The distribution of
dition in fashioning his own theoretical model the two plural systems might in principle be
for Arabic, which he proposes to be applicable explained by positing either that broken plurals
(with minimal adjustments) to the remainder were already in use at the earliest stage of Se-
of the Semitic languages. A key innovation in mitic but have been lost outside of the southern
Ratcliffe's approach is the contention that it is languages or alternatively that the broken plu-
possible to account for a considerable number rals arose as a southern areal innovation. Rat-
of the broken plural formations by means of a cliffe follows a middle course in that, while
set of derivational processes that generate the ascribing the majority of the broken-pluralcon-
plural stem out of the singular stem, with the figurations to secondary developments peculiar
quality of the voweling of the derived plural to the Arabic/Southwest Semitic area, he as-
predicated upon the nature of the singular-stem sumes that the roots of the broken-pluralsystem
vowel-hence the high vowel -f- of plurals were already in place at the Proto-Semitic level.
such as nujum- 'stars' and quliib- 'hearts' is re- He justifies this perspective by adopting the
garded as a reflection of the low-vowel found in view of several recent writers (p. 155) who take
the corresponding singular stems (najm-, qalb-), the peculiarities of the Northwest Semitic "seg-
while the low vowel -a- of 0aOqal-'weights' and holate" stems-which are characterized by the
Silal- 'shadows' is ascribed to the high vowel of presence of an inserted extra vowel in conjunc-
the singular Oiql-, Sill-). tion with the addition of the plural suffix-to
To be sure, traditional Arabic grammar has reflect a broken-pluralpattern that has been ob-
long known that, given a singular of the stem- scured through the later introduction of a pleo-
shape "X," one is quite frequently justified in nastic plural ending. Ratcliffe suggests that the
62 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES
difference between stems such as *kalb- 'dog'
and its plural counterpart *kalab- (cf. Hebrew
keleb, plur. kdalb-im, and Syriac kalba, plur.
kalb-e) arose through the same vowel-affixation
process that yielded the Arabic type kalb-
(sing.) vs. kildb- or 'aklab- (plur., both forms of
which Ratcliffe traces back to earlier *klab-).
This evaluation of the segholate stem-pattern
cannot be ruled out, but the argument would be
stronger if there were a principled means of ac-
counting for the discrepancy in the quantity of
the inserted vowels (*-a- in *kalab- vs. *-a- in
*klab-).
Ratcliffe's comparative survey of the broken-
pluralsystems found in Arabic and the Southwest
Semitic languages (the Ethiopic, Modern South
Arabian, and Epigraphic South Arabian groups)
provides an invaluable service in assembling a
large amount of data from a wide range of
sources. While these languages share obvious
similarities within the core of their broken-
plural systems, Ratcliffe finds at the periphery a
number of details that lead him to assume that
a series of innovations has taken place within
local subsets of these languages, with the plural
system of Arabic standing at the greatest re-
move from the starting point. While the provi-
sional Arabic/SWS "family tree" that Ratcliffe
thereby sketches is ultimately based upon nega-
tive evidence (in that it assigns historical pri-
ority to feature absences, presuming that the
changes undergone by these languages are best
viewed as innovations rather than as losses), it
is worth noting that, if true, Ratcliffe's view of
the broken plural might well constitute the
strongest evidence yet presented in support of a
"South Semitic" branch, a period of common
development shared specifically by Arabic and
the Southwestern languages.
While the development of the number-mark-
ing systems of the Semitic languages will long
remain a matter of disagreement among histori-
cal linguists, the book under review represents
an importantadvance in the natureof the debate.
Future researchers investigating these problems
will be remiss if they do not take the contents of
Ratcliffe's study into serious consideration. The
careful reader, whether Semitist or linguist, will
be rewardedwith a number of valuable insights
into the structuresof these languages and with a
VOL. 61 No. 1
thought-provokingpicture of how the ancestral
language might have operated.
DAVID TESTEN
The University of Chicago
Astronomische Konzepte und Jenzeitsvorstel-
lungen in den Pyramidentexten. By ROLF
KRAUSS. Agyptologische Abhandlungen 59.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997. Pp. xvi +
297. EUR 65.45.
It has long been recognized that the Pyramid
Texts reflect both a solar vision of the afterlife,
in which the deceased'sba follows the sun's daily
cycle of death and rebirth,and a stellar concept,
in which the deceased becomes one of the stars
of the night sky. Ourunderstandingof the first of
these was enhanced significantly by Barta's 1981
study showing the vision of the PyramidTexts to
be essentially that of New Kingdom theology,
wherein the ba, like the sun, unites with Osiris
at night and thereby receives the ability to come
to life again at dawn.1 Rolf Krauss'sbook now
sheds equal light on the Pyramid Texts' stellar
concept of the hereafter.
Krauss's work combines a textual investiga-
tion of the celestial cosmology of the Pyramid
Texts (enhanced, where necessary, by relevant
passages from the Coffin Texts and later funer-
ary literature), with a study of the astronomical
phenomena in the night sky of ancient Egypt.
The former is based on his Habilitationsar-
beit, presented to the University of Hamburgin
1992. Data for the latter were updated for this
book with the help of a computerprogramdevel-
oped at the Vienna Planetarium.Such programs,
which make it possible to observe the night sky
from any location at any point in history, have
become commerciallyavailablefor personalcom-
puters in recent years. Their use helps in follow-
ing Krauss'spresentation, since the illustrations
in the book are rather schematic and occasion-
ally lack relevant information.
1WinfriedBarta,Die
Bedeutungder Pyramiden-
textefiir den verstorbenen
Konig,MinchnerAgypto-
logische Studien 39 (Munich, 1981).