• Khalid Alsalim

  Author

This paper investigates the polysemy of the Arabic verb [dˤɑrɑbɑ] 'hit' within the
theoretical framework of cognitive grammar (CG). (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008). It focuses on
identifying and motivating the related senses of this verb in a variety of its uses, and proposes a
complex conceptual category constituting these interrelated senses in which each sense is
semantically related to the other via well-established patterns of semantic extension. An abstract
semantic meaning will be suggested for [dˤɑrɑbɑ] 'hit' that subsumes all of the concrete senses.
The Romanized form of the original root in the Arabic language of the verb ‘hit’ is [drb],
but, as Arabic uses diacritics to mark vowels, in some cases, this paper will refer to the verb by
the use of IPA. The pronunciation of this verb is [dˤɑrɑbɑ] which represents the 3rd person
singular form in the past tense. All of the Arabic data will be in a broad phonetic transcription to
make it clear and simple for readers.

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