The Formation of Verbs of Emotion in Arabic
This study aims to explore the characteristics of the formation of Arabic verbal forms within the semantic field of emotions. The paper adopts an analytical statistical method to provide a comprehensive analysis involving three aspects: word-formation of each verbal form; syntactic behaviour of each verbal form in terms of transitivity; and the existence of underived verbal forms in Jordanian Arabic. It examines the derivation of the ten verbal forms (Form I – Form X) from 100 roots within the semantic field of emotions by checking their existence in Arabic dictionaries. The analysed data shows that a Form I verb (the base form in Arabic) is derived 171 times by applying six canonical patterns to 100 roots, generalising that Form I verbs of emotions tend to follow the pattern C1aC2iC3. On the other hand, each of Form II – Form X has a single canonical pattern; applying these patterns to a given root leads to an augmented verb. However, the analysed data shows that 350 Form II – Form X verbs have been derived. The study concludes that the highest derivable form is Form IV, while Form IX is not derived within this semantic field. The study also examines the syntactic behaviour of Form I – Form X verbs, and the analysed data shows a sharp shift from one form to another. Furthermore, in terms of the underived Arabic verbal forms (Form II – Form X) which are not listed in Arabic dictionaries, this study examines their existence in Jordanian Arabic. The findings could be the basis of further work on other semantic fields such as verbs of motion, verbs of social interaction, and verbs of mental process. The outcome of this study will be also useful for NLP applications such as Arabic e-dictionaries, wordnet and ontology applications. Keywords: Verbs of Emotion, Arabic Morphology, Verbal Derivation, Jordanian Dialect.