Understanding Arabic: Essays in Contemporary Arabic Linguistics in Honor of El-Said Badawi

Arabic, like any other natural language, has evolved throughout its long history, but its traditional mode of study has remained relatively unchanged and has continued to dominate the investigation of the language for some thirteen centuries. It has been perceived as a language immune to change on account of its intimate link to Islam; consequently, new ideas, findings, and approaches of modern linguistics have been routinely dismissed as irrelevant.

One linguist, El-Said Badawi ventured to swim against the current and proposed a novel theoretical rendering of contemporary Arabic.