In this bilingual volume Hans Lagerqvist presents to the reader four linguistic essays
previously discussed at the Semitic seminar at Uppsala University. (1) The essay Definite and
Indefinite Relative Clauses in Literary Modern Standard Arabic: An Outline of a Structural
Analysis is a study of the so called definite relative clauses which leads the author to
consider their pronouns as split morphemes. (2) Contribution à l'étude de l'inaccompli en b(i)-
is an essay that tries to explain the origin of the verbal prefix b(i)- and in which four
Mashreq dialects are analysed: those of Egypt the Saoudi Arabian Najd Syria and the Persian
Gulf countries. (3) La Proposition nominale: une structure en quête de clarté takes up to
discussion a phenomenon that has been much debated amongst linguists Semitists and Slavists
viz. the nominal or verbless sentence. The nominal sentence is primarily analysed as it appears
in Biblical Hebrew and Quranic Arabic (4) A Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Study of the
Triglossia in the Novel Ya Maryam by Sinan An un is a story that takes place in Baghdad and
presents a number of characters who express themselves in Christian Baghdadi or Muslim
Baghdadi.
