For while the text opens with a declaration of the need to...

For while the text opens with a declaration of the need to classify Arabic Particles along logically perspicuous lines, it goes on to make the bold assertion that the classification of particles offered by the Arabic grammarians themselves is inadequate for this purpose, thereby forcing al-Farabi to borrow the underlying grammatical theory from the works of Greek grammarians, a declaration hardly likely to appease the champions of Arabic grammatical theory (al-Farabi (1968a): 48; Black (1992): 77-83).

The Kitab al-huruf shows another facet of al-Farabi’s approach to the philosophy of language. It opens with an extended classification of Arabic particles in relation to the Aristotelian…