--- title: "\"Combination\" and \"Derivation\" in Persian and Arabic grammar" description: "Arabic builds most words from consonantal roots, yet some of its compounding is more regular than Persian's, especially Naht (blending…" authors: ["Vajihe Zamani Babgohari", "Mohammad Sadegh Basiri"] year: 2018 venue: "Literary Arts 10" source: "http://liar.ui.ac.ir/article_22680_3bbb31d195f3b7424e25bf9462546538.pdf" doi: "10.22108/liar.2018.93960.0" licence: "CC BY-NC-ND (journal licence per DOAJ; Literary Arts)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/babgohari-2018-combination-derivation-persian-arabic-grammar/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/babgohari-2018-combination-derivation-persian-arabic-grammar/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2018](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2018/page/8/) / "Combination" and "Derivation" in Persian and Arabic grammar # "Combination" and "Derivation" in Persian and Arabic grammar **Authors:** Vajihe Zamani Babgohari and Mohammad Sadegh Basiri · **Year:** 2018 · **Venue:** Literary Arts 10 · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-ND (journal licence per DOAJ; Literary Arts)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.22108/liar.2018.93960.0) · [PDF](http://liar.ui.ac.ir/article_22680_3bbb31d195f3b7424e25bf9462546538.pdf) · [DOI 10.22108/liar.2018.93960.0](https://doi.org/10.22108/liar.2018.93960.0) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2886856254) **Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary This is a descriptive, comparative study in traditional grammar, not a computational paper. It asks how two word-formation processes, compounding ("combination") and affixal or root-based derivation, work in Persian and Arabic. Persian is usually labelled a combinatorial language because it is Indo-European, and Arabic a derivational one because it is Semitic. The authors test that contrast against classical and modern Persian and Arabic grammatical literature, using illustrative words rather than a corpus. They find that both languages use both processes, but each language understands and relies on them to a different degree: - In Persian, everyday and poetic coinage favours compounding. - Arabic builds most words from consonantal roots, yet some of its compounding is more regular than Persian's, especially Naht (blending several words into one). No quantitative data, treebank or model is involved. The talk of "percentage of use" is impressionistic. The value of the paper is a clear typological contrast between root-and-pattern morphology and concatenative stem-plus-affix morphology. ## Key points - Published in Literary Arts, vol. 10 (2018), by Vajihe Zamani Babgohari and Mohammad Sadegh Basiri of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. It is literature-based, with no corpus or experiments. - In both languages, compounding occurs across all three traditional word classes: noun, verb and particle ("letter"). - Naht (blending) exists in both languages. Arabic applies it to nouns, verbs and particles, while Persian shows it only rarely, in some nouns. - Arabic derivation rests on consonantal roots shared by all cognates. These roots are mostly three consonants, with a few of four or five. Persian derivation attaches prefixes and suffixes to a root that stays unchanged. - Following Daraei, each Persian verb should be given two derivational bases: a present stem and a past stem. Arabic has a few Persian-like suffixal derivations, such as the nisba -i (Ansari) and -iyyat (kamiyat, keifiyat). ## Interesting ideas - The two traditions define "derivation" differently: Arabic counts only formations from a verbal root, while Persian counts any affixed formation, so a single label hides two notions. - A verb may need more than one base for word formation, as with the Persian present and past stems, rather than one canonical lemma. - Blending (Naht) is treated as its own process, distinct from ordinary compounding, because the parts fuse and lose their boundaries. - Derivation is mostly verb-based, but both languages also allow formations from nouns, which the authors explain as a way to expand the lexicon. - An invariant core, the consonant skeleton, unites a whole family of cognate words despite heavy surface changes. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (tokens): the morphology layer should explicitly record which definition of "derived" it uses, separating affixal derivation from compounding, so lemma and word-family decisions stay explainable. - **I2** (tokens): the English lemmatizer could store several stems per verb and link each derived form to the stem it actually builds on, which helps with irregular verbs. - **I3** (tokens): a separate "blend" analysis that points to its source words would let unknown fused words be decomposed transparently instead of being treated as opaque tokens. - **I4** (frames): nominalizations should map back to their verb frames and roles, while noun-based verbs should map to the noun's concept, keeping who-did-what-to-whom readings consistent. - **I5** (world): word families could be anchored to one shared concept node in the compiled ontology, so links between related words are stored as explicit, inspectable relations. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* ## Institutions Also on the byline: [Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman](https://ror.org/04zn42r77). 📚 Shelves (2): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 17,450 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 17,296 works 🧭 Topics (1): [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) · 3,066 works ## Cite Cite as: Vajihe Zamani Babgohari and Mohammad Sadegh Basiri. 2018. "Combination" and "Derivation" in Persian and Arabic grammar. Literary Arts 10. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{babgohari2018combination, title = {{"Combination" and "Derivation" in Persian and Arabic grammar}}, author = {Vajihe Zamani Babgohari and Mohammad Sadegh Basiri}, booktitle = {Literary Arts 10}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.22108/liar.2018.93960.0}, url = {https://doi.org/10.22108/liar.2018.93960.0} } ``` - [← previous Word Translating Image. In Search of Modern-Language Equivalents for Syriac and Coptic Terminology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/polanski-2026-word-translating-image-search-modern/) - [next → #SarcasmDetection is soooo general! Towards a Domain-Independent Approach for Detecting Sarcasm](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/parde-2018-sarcasmdetection-soooo-general-towards-domain/) - [↑ back to papers of 2018](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2018/page/8/) *Updated 29 October 2026*