La langue in the Hadith's Structures in the Light of Optimality Theory:
Ibn Malik’s Book (Shawāhid al-Tawḍīh) as a Model
Mohd Nizwan bin Musling, Faculty of Major Languages Studies, Islamic Science University of Malaysia (USIM), Malaysia.
Abstract
This study aims to prove the existence of Arabic language structure in the Hadith text which is in contradiction with the grammar or known as La langue. Furthermore, this study sheds some light on the application of Optimality Theory to evaluate and to describe such Arabic language structure. The result shows the application of Optimality Theory requires two main criteria: grammatical optimality and linguistic usage optimality. In addition, these two criteria are used to measure as to what extent the structure complies in accordance with the element of optimality. Thus, by applying Optimality Theory, one can avoid using multiple grammar and get rid of passing judgments or evaluations of bad or wrong ungrammatical structures. However, it can be categorized as La langue or alternative linguistic forms and play an important role as a medium of transferring messages which cannot be done by any language structure with correct grammar as a whole.
Keywords: La langue, Hadith, grammatical optimality, linguistic usage optimality, alternative forms.