Emphasis by using Nafs and 'Ayn: The Controversy of Right and Wrong

Abstract

This research deals, through analysis and investigation, with incorrect normative restrictions imposed by some scholars in linguistic correction on the use of the terms (nafs) and ('Ayn) in terms of emphasis. Such linguists issued two judgments each considering the use of the target items nafs and 'Ayn erroneous: annexation or prefixed with a preposition. Their judgments were based neither on conventional usage nor on adhering to grammatical rules.

The problem of this study lies in the extent of the accuracy of the erroneous forms, and in the reason that prompted some linguists to spread it until it became more like postulates in the field of linguistic correction, although it was not built on a sound basis.

This piece of research has adopted the descriptive-analytic approach in which language has continued to be the point of reference in the various proposed arguments. Prescriptive rules were disregarded in the course of both presentation and discussion. The study concludes that the accumulative views which consider both usages erroneous is based on a false tradition that has been proposed by some linguists and adhered to by their successors without any serious scrutinization and/or examination.