ABSTRACT
Arabic enjoys special status in the study of language. Especially in the areas of morphology and phonology, several key notions of modern theory have been originally proposed on the basis of Arabic or have been sharpened by research on Arabic. These include the consonantal root, the notion of template and its related parameters of association, morpheme structure constraints, and the contrast between categorical and gradient phonotactics in grammar. Given this legacy, a conceptually clear statement of Arabic’s special status is a prerequisite for drawing key typological distinctions, for assessing the goal of a parsimonious linguistic theory, and for judiciously choosing among the tools used to carry on with that goal.
