The Absent Grammar: Discriminating figuratively near Equivalent in the Arabic Language A Complement to the Incomplete Arabic Textbooks for Foreign Learners

This research is bi-fold: the first part aims at drawing the attention of linguists to the fact that it is urgently necessary to create two grammars for the Arabic language. One grammar is for foreign learners of Arabic, and the other is for native Arabs learning Arabic. The idea of two grammars leads to two other ideas: common grammar, and absent grammar. The former is common to the two groups of learners of Arabic. Absent grammar is the one Arabic linguists never indicated in their books despite its existence in the rules of the language and its practical evolution. Speakers of Arabic never pay attention to this grammar, and it never crosses their minds. In addition, it never undergoes analysis because it comes to them as they acquire the sense of the language; consequently, this grammar is exclusive to foreign learners of Arabic. The researcher also discusses the idea of absent grammar through examples and application. so he used examples that lie in the figurative level with relation to the structural side. The figurative level of structure is the least used linguistic level in Arabic books for foreign learners, especially when talking specifically about comparison between what is figuratively similar in the elements of the Arabic language. The examples the researcher used in the second part of the paper were derived from the incorrigible verbal and written mistakes foreign learners of Arabic commit, since language books do not usually help in this regard. Consequently, the researcher contrasted the following figuratively similar groups whose elements, at the first sight, are judged mostly to be figuratively synonymous. However, the research will attempt to prove that they are near equivalent and not synonymous: (yajibu / laa budda)1- 2-(>al-yawmu-1-qaadimu / gadan), (>al-yawmu-ttalii) — (>al- yawmu-]-maadii / >ams) and (>al-yawmu-ssaabiq). 3-(nadara >ilaa / >iltafata >i1aa) and (ra>aa /‘saahada / >absara). 4-(hadara/jaa>a/ qadima/ >ataa), (dahaba/saafara), (wasala) and (>ahdara / >ahada). 5-(mundu / Ii-muddati — muddata). (jiddan / katiiran)6-