| This is a study of the problematic relationship between language, grammar, and logic in the linguistic thought of Abū Sa`īd al-Sīrāfī (d. 979), the judge and grammarian. It offers an analytical study of the first seven chapters of his famous work on grammar, Sharh&dotbelow; Kitāb Sībawayhi within the context of the famous debate over Arabic grammar and Aristotelian logic that took place in Baghdad, in 932 C.E, between him and Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus (d. 940), the philosopher and logician. In the debate, against Mattā's thesis that logic is an instrument by which we differentiate correct speech from incorrect and sound meaning from unsound, al-Sīrāfī argues that correct speech can only be distinguished from incorrect by grammatical investigation, and sound meaning from unsound by reason. Al-Sīrāfī further argues that grammar includes logic, and thus there is no need to study logic separately. This study examines al-Sīrāfī's Sharh&dotbelow; to investigate whether these ideas are based on a verifiable linguistic theory found in his Sharh&dotbelow;, or stated only for the sake of discussion during the debate.;At the end of the study it is concluded that al-Sīrāfī's approaches to linguistic issues are consistent and complementary to each other in both the debate and the Sharh&dotbelow;. However, there is no evidence found in the Sharh&dotbelow; to support his criticism of logic put forward in the debate. |
