Sa- and Sawfa as Modal Forms New Evidence from Informant Testing

Abstract

Most of the Western writers, especially when they come to compare the English modal verbs with their equivalents in Arabic, claim that there are no modal verbs in Arabic (see, for example, Swan and Smith's (1987) Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and other Problems). There are probably two reasons why they make this assumption. The first one is that modality in Arabic has not yet attracted much attention from either Arabic or Western linguists. The second is the scarcity of information about these modal forms in Arabic grammar books. Arabic does have different realizations at the level of form for 'modal' meanings, e.g. as verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and particles. But these verbal and non-verbal forms do not form a distinct, formally recognizable set of modal forms, as is the case with the English modals. The result is that discussions of them are scattered throughout different chapters of the traditional Arabic grammar books. (This is possibly a third reason that has led some writers claim that there are no modal verbs in Arabic). But, whether they are verbs, adjectives, or particles, these forms express a wide range of 'modal' meanings (see Abunowara, 1996). This paper shows that the two particles sa- and sawfa, beside their meaning as future markers, can cover a range of volitional and prediction meanings if they are used in different contexts..