Double-meaning verbs

Hi everyone!

In this post we’ll be looking briefly at a feature of the Arabic lexicon. Specifically, we’ll be thinking about verbs like the following, which typically correspond to two different verbs in English:

The two different meanings are obviously closely related. The verbs in the first column (meaning 1) all express a state, while the verbs in the second column (meaning 2) express the action that brings that state into being. Now, not all pairs of this kind are clearly distinguished in English. Consider:

The verbs in the first column clearly have the ‘state’ meaning: they describe being in the position of standing/sitting for a particular amount of time. Those in the second, meanwhile, have the ‘action’ meaning: they describe the action of moving between a standing and sitting position (and vice versa).

Why are these distinctions important? They’re probably useful to be aware of just on their own merits. But there’s more to it than that.

In the last few posts we’ve been looking at various grammatical constructions, including the ‘continuous participle’ and the continuous form 3am. Equipped with an understanding of the difference between these ‘state’ and ‘action’ meanings of different verbs, we can more easily understand what’s going on with some of the distinctions between participle and verb:

As we would expect, the participle corresponds to the ‘state’ meaning, while 3am corresponds to the ‘action’ meaning.

That’s all for now. Next time, with this distinction in hand, we’ll look at the broader distinction between the participle and 3am. And if you want to keep up with this and other translation/Arabic-related content, follow me on Twitter at Chris Hitchcock (@chm3na).