The concept of shāḏ usage in conjugation of verbs in Arabic language: The case of Ibn Manẓūr's Lisān al-ʿArab

The phenomenon of shāḏ (exception) in Arabic language is a concept used by early linguists to describe language materials that are not in line with the general grammatical rules. The phenomenon of shāḏ has taken its place in Arabic linguistic studies as a controversial issue among classical and contemporary grammarians in terms of its definition, justifications and usage. With the efforts to clarify the disputes on these points of disagreement, this research primarily aims to seek to reach to a satisfying answer to the questions on how shāḏ was handled by classical linguists, what grounds it was explanied, what interpretations contemporary grammarians have provided for it, in what ways it was included in the issue of istişhâd(providing proof), which is the backbone of the grammatical rules' determination process, what kind of relationship shāḏ has with ancient dialects and in what ways shāḏ materials are included in the Holy Quran, Hadīths and poems. An examination of the existing literature reveals that there is a need to explain, on the basis on classical sources the concept of shāḏ in conjugations of verbs in Arabic, and especially in exploring the relationship between shāḏ and dialects on the basis of the explanations provided by grammarians and language scholars regarding the phenomenon of shāḏ. Our study aims to fill this gap. The secondary aim of our research is to identify the uses of shāḏ verbs in Ibn Manẓūr's dictionary "Lisān al-ʿArab", and to reveal the relationship between this material and the reasons presented by scholars for shāḏ usages and especially with dialects, which is one of suggested reasons. Our study is conducted with a mixed method; descriptive, which is to determine the historical journey of shāḏ and inductive, which is to review the data about shāḏ verbs, with the aim of determining shāḏ usages in verb conjugation. Conducted as such, this study found that due to the lack of a common and established terminology regarding shāḏ among classical linguists, different words such as nādir and qalīl were used to describe the phenomenon of shāḏ in classical literature. We hope that our study will make a contribution to the literature in honing our understanding of the phenomenon of shāḏ in classical works and investigating the reasons behind it. In fact, our study claims that, in the light of the data analysed in Lisān al-ʿArab, the use of shāḏ in verb conjugations is mainly related to dialects. Key Terms: Shāḏ (exception), Verb Conjugation, Arabic Dialects, Lisān al-ʿArab