Abstract
Against the usual assumption that Arabic grammatical operators based on reflexes of šay
derive from the Arabic word for ‘thing’ šayʔ, it is argued here that indefinite quantifiers
and partitives instead derive from an existential particle šay that is present in some
spoken Arabic dialects of the Arabian Gulf, Om an, and the Yemen. The ambiguity of
the existential particle in constructions in which it sets off items in a series lends itself
to its reanalysis as a quantifier, and its ambiguity as a quantifier motivates its reanalysis
as a partitive. This is consistent with grammaticalization theory, whereby lexical forms
give rise to grammatical forms, which themselves give rise to even more grammatical
forms. Yet, existential šay likely did not arise from a lexical form. Instead, it is either
a borrowing from Modern South Arabian or it is an inherited Semitic feature, ultimately
deriving from an attention-focusing demonstrative. Either way, the grammaticalization
of a quantitative šī/šē/šay cannot have proceeded directly from word ‘thing’. To the
contrary, the word šayʔ meaning ‘thing’ can easily derive from an indefinite quantifier
or partitive šay, in a process of degrammaticalization.
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