THE EXPRESSION OF FUTURE IN CONTEMPORARY WRITTEN FUṢḤĀ2 PRAGMATICS: ONE/GRAMMAR: ZERO

Contemporary Written Fuṣḥā (also known as Modern Standard Arabic, MSA) is often perceived as only the lexically modernized form of classical Arabic. However, significant examples of syntactic evolutions are not lacking (amongst others, the conditional systems). To show the evolution of Contemporary Written Fuṣḥā, mainly in Arabic newspapers, this article will look at some cases of so-called “new” constructions, some of them are even ancient but perceived as impossible and faulty to the canons of the classical language. From surveys made on the Internet, in newspapers, and in novels written in Contemporary Written Fuṣḥā, this article shows the existence of other forms of negation in the future than that of lan + subjunctive. It demonstrates that the so-called MSA grammar books are, once again, descriptively inadequate when facing the reality of the texts. While arguing for a renewal of the teaching of MSA grammar, this article shows that these forms are much older than they appear and proposes assumptions to analyze the conditions for their emergence. More specifically, following Larcher and drawing on the principle of non-synonymy, the article proposes that the coexistence of several forms of negation in future contexts signals a probable reorganization of the negation system where, on logical and pragmatic bases, the difference would be made between a descriptive negation on one hand and a modal negation (= denial) on the other. Then the article addresses the combinations involving sawfa where the latter is preposed to sa-yafʿalu, therefore already a future form, as well as to faʿala, so a past while sawfa is supposed to be a marker of future intervening only before a muḍāriʿ. These evolutions, perceived by the supporters of a frozen Arabic language and other deaf and blind guardians of the language as only faults, are nevertheless meaningful, showing the strength of pragmatics over mere reference to a grammatical norm that is quite incapable of so many nuances.