Arabic Linguistics

VI. Sentential predicates:
The grammarians were also interested in constructions with kāna, or any of
its sisters, where the predicate is a nominal sentence (ğumla ismiyya). 18 The model
sentence here is:
20. kāna Zaydun abūhu qā‟imun,
where the nominal sentence abūhu qā‟imun occurs after kāna and its noun.
There are two other possibilities in which the order of the nominal sentence itself is
preserved:
21. kāna abūhu qā‟imun Zaydun
22. abūhu qā‟imun kāna Zaydun.
If that order, however, is not preserved, the resulting sentence will then be: 19
23. qā‟iman kāna Zaydun abūhu.
Sentences 21 and 22 are said to have no parallels in actual usage. As a
result, they are both controversial since the grammarians had to resort to
argumentation in order to accept or refuse them. For sentences 23, see VII below.
VII. Predicate complements:
The complexity of the constructions discussed by the grammarians is
increased further when they introduce a complement after the predicate of kāna or
its sisters – what they call ma„mūl al-hàbar. The first possibility is to separate
between the predicate and its complement by kāna and its noun. We can identify
from the sources four different constructions of this type:
23. qā‟iman kāna Zaydun abūhu
24. ākilan kāna Zaydun t}a„āmaka
25. rāġiban kāna Zaydun fīka
26. musāfiran kāna Zaydun al-yawma.
The first sentence is obviously conjectural and it is said to be impermissible
because abūhu cannot be separated from the noun that governs it, qā‟iman, due to
their interrelatedness. This, however, is not the case in the second sentence where
the complement, or ma„mūl, is the direct object of ākilan and can therefore be
separated from it. Sentences 25 and 26 are also admissible by all grammarians
because the complement of the predicate is either a preposition or an adverb, and
these do enjoy a considerable degree of flexibility in their syntactical position.
Another possibility of word order is to begin with kāna followed by the
complement of the predicate. Based on whether the third element is the noun of
kāna or its predicate, the following two constructions may be considered:
27. kāna t}a„āmaka Zaydun ākilan
28. kāna t}a„āmaka ākilan Zaydun.
The first sentence is admissible by the Kufans, but not by the Basrans,
whereas the second sentence is admissible by the Kufans and some Basrans,
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