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Cultural ingredients in Arabic lexical pairs

(Binomials)

Alan S Kaye (Professor) (Professor of English, Comparative Literature and

Linguistics)

To cite this article: Alan S Kaye (Professor) (Professor of English, Comparative Literature and
Linguistics) (2009) Cultural ingredients in Arabic lexical pairs (Binomials), Word, 60:1, 65-78, DOI:
10.1080/00437956.2009.11432593

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ALANSKAYE

Cultural ingredients
in Arabic lexical pairs (Binomials)

Abstract. "Irreversible binomials" or "lexical pairs" are word pairs that

occur always or almost always in a specific order: bread and butter, to
and fro. Such pairs exist in Arabic, and a typological characteristic can be
identified: positive before negative. The article largely provides a contras-
tive analysis with English practice.

Keywords: Arabic, Lexical pairs, Irreversible binomials

"White are our deeds Black are our battles

Green are our fields Red is our past"
biiqun $anaa'lifunaa suudun waqaa'lifunaa
xuqrun maraabi funaa humrun mawaaqiinaa

by Safiyyuddiin Al-Hilliy,
b. ca. 1278 A.D. in Baghdad; d. ca. 1350 A.D. in Baghdad 1

1. Universals of language and conjoined nominals (reversible and

irreversible lexical pairs). I first became aware of irreversible binomi-
als (Eng.'hit and run' and Ar. azzayt wa zzaftar 'oil and thyme') in a
graduate seminar in comparative Romance linguistics I was taking with
Yakov Malkiel at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966, where
he lectured on Malkiel ( 1959), still a most perceptive work. Since then, I
have been thinking about them, albeit off and on. At that time, I thought
that I might be the first person to write about this subject using Ar. data,
but as it turns out, this has not been the case. Something, however, tells
me that I will not be the last author to broach this topic, since there is
something fundamentally fascinating about them and their orderings
and idiosyncracies. I hope the reader will come to agree with me by the
end of my remarks.
Let us begin our discussion with the presupposition, borrowed
from mathematics and formal logic, that in languages, A * B = B * A,
where* stands for 'and' or 'or' and where A and B generally match in
terms of part of speech, thus the linguistic term conjoined lexical pairs.

65
66 WORD, VOLUME 60 (2009)

In a compromise of sorts with various linguistic terms, I have decided

to adopt lexical pair as an equivalent to binomial (the standard term em-
ployed).2 This terminology should help the reader grasp the notion of
pairs such as 'to and fro' in addition to 'milk and sugar'. Thus, 'Ar. and
Eng.' = 'Eng. and Ar.' (except for the matter of focus 'an element in a
phrase or sentence given prominence by phonological or other means',
such as It's ME, open up!; see further §2); 'Muhammad and Fatima'
= 'Fatima and Muhammad'; 'I am going to clean the living room and
kitchen'= 'I am going to clean the kitchen and living room'; 'John or
Mary' = 'Mary or John'; 3 etc. However, this is not always the case. 4
In examples such as Eng. 'bread and butter' in 'My bread and butter
is teaching', 'nuts and bolts', 'alive and kicking', or 'odds and ends'
and Ar. xubz (or feeS) u mi/alh, 5 one cannot reverse the words and pre-
serve the same meaning. For cases like these, linguists have adopted the
term irreversible binomial, keeping in mind that we have many cases
with prepositions, etc. (see the beginning of it all, Malkiel 1959 fol-
lowed by Bolinger 1962). Other examples are the common greeting
in Ar. 'lahlan wa sahlan 'welcome' ,6 and Eng. expressions such as 'to
and fro','cats and dogs' (but only in 'It's raining cats and dogs'), 7 'salt
and pepper', 8 'fish and chips', 'up and down', 'flesh and blood', 9 'Mr.
and Mrs.', 'pros and cons', 'quick and dirty', and many hundreds more
of all types cited in the references. 10 Particularly noteworthy are Eng.
cases such as 'off and on'= 'on and off', as in 'I've been seeing Mary
off and on the past two years' = 'I've been seeing Mary on and off the
past two years'. 11 Some examples found in the published literature cited
below seem quite archaic by today's standards; e.g., 'hither and thither'
(Bakir 1999:3, 5). 12

2. Opposite ordering between Arabic and English. The following

exhibit the trend in Ar. of positive before negative 13 on which we shall
elaborate below. They just happen to have the opposite word order from
that of Eng. (see 6.). This list is suggestive, but not cumulative.

(1) 'labyaqwa 'laswad 'black and white' 14 (lit.,Ar. 'white and black')
(2) (al)xaqaar wa (l)jawaakih 'fruits and vegetables' 15 (lit., Ar.
'vegetables and fruits')
(3) assilm 16 wa lharb 'war and peace' ('peace' is better [i.e., positive]
than 'war') (lit., Ar. 'the peace and the war')
(4) albaarid wa lhaarr 'hot and cold (running water') ('cold' is "bet-
ter" than 'hot' if one is living in harsh desert climates, such as
that ofthe Arabian peninsula, the location of the Ar. Ursprache) 17
(lit., Ar. 'the cold and the hot'); in EA the phrase is ilbaarid wi
ssuxn - ilbaarid wi saaxin.
 KAYE: CULTURAL INGREDIENTS IN ARABIC LEXICAL PAIRS 67

(5) al'ladab wa lluya 'language and literature' (literature is the end

product and is made up of language, so in this light it is better)
(lit., Ar. 'the literature and the language'). 18
(6) 'laxo wa fataa'l (GA 'laxo u raddlfata 'give and take' cited in
Qafisheh 1997:6; EAyaaxud wi yiddi) (lit., Ar. 'take and give'). 19
The EA expression haat wi xud 'give and take' also occurs, and
so does the reverse. Badawi and Hinds (1986:10) further give
'one touch', and I agree with Manfred Woidich (p. c.), who points
out that this is presumably a calque from Eng., as are other terms
in EA soccer language. The expression xad wi 'Jidda 'to discuss
things' is also mentioned (ibid.).
What about the idea of focus mentioned in 1.? Does this im-
ply that 'take' in the last examples cited is somehow more im-
portant than 'give' with the resulting cultural implications? (See
note (19)). Although I am still trying to find cultural underpin-
nings for this expression, it must be admitted that some binomial
or trinomial orderings may be quite arbitrary. Could not 'Tom,
Dick, and Harry' be just as fine a trinomial expression if it were
'Dick, Tom, and Harry'? 20 I know of no compelling reason for
the placement of Dick before Tom. 21 However, it stands to reason
that the bisyllabic Harry should occur at the end due to factors of
syllable weight, word length, and rhythm, when compared to the
other monosyllabic names. Here is an excellent case, in my view,
where phonological matters are relevant for syntactic concerns.
In essence, this point of view argues against the strict autonomy
of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics (see further 9.).
(7) beef w sira- ybiif w yistiri 'buying and selling' 22 (follows the
normal [logical] linear ordering of the real events; however, which
is first, the chicken or the egg?) (lit., Ar. 'selling and buying').
(8) IAyruuh u yijii 'come and go'-'coming and going' (lit., Ar. 'he
goes and he comes') =GAyi wiiruuh < *yiyi wiyruuh 'coming and
going' = EAyiruuh wi yirga f; EA raayih gayy = MSA oahaab wa
'liyaab 'round trip' (lit., Ar. 'going and coming'); MSA ouhuub
wa ma 'laab 'coming and going', but also the reverse in .fii jii 'Ia
wa ouhuub 'coming and going; in a state of fluctuation; having its
ups and downs' (the aforementioned MSA expressions are listed
in Wehr 1994:362).
(9) haamiq hilu 'sweet and sour; a candy' = lit., Ar. 'sour sweet',
seemingly contradicted by 'lilhilwa w ilmurra 'the sweet and the
bitter' .23
(10) alfariis wa lfaruus 'the bride and the groom' (see further 5.) (lit.,
Ar. 'the groom and the bride'); 24 in EA the form is ilfariis wi
lfaruusa, while in GA the parallel is lmifris wi lfaluruus, which
68 WORD, VOLUME 60 (2009)

cannot be reversed, according to the intuitions of numerous na-

tive speakers consulted.

3. Dialectal variants in Arabic dialects. Consider the following vari-

ants: MSAxubz wa milh 'bread and salt'= EA feeS' u malh, where fed
= 'bread' (however, fed u milh means 'rice and salt' in GA). One may
contrast the variation between MSA alxayr wa ssarr = GA azzeen wa
sseen 'good and evil'. 25 The last set of pairs are good examples of di-
glossic variants.

4. Unique expressions in Arabic and English. There are unique bino-

mial expressions in both languages. Consider but one in each:

Eng. 'pots and pans'= MSA ?awfiyatu ['vessels']lmatbax wa ?awaaniihi

(pl. of ?inaa? 'vessel' is ?awaanin), translated into Ar. as (lit.) 'the vessels
of the kitchen and its vessels'.
MSA al?axqar wa lyaabis (= arratib wa lyaabis) 'everything'; how-
ever, the second expression is not so strong as the first, according to some
native speakers. Eng. does not have anything like 'the green and the dry'
meaning 'everything'.

5. Parallels between Arabic and English. 26 It is not surprising that

there are many parallels between Ar. and Eng. Consider: 'Romeo
and Juliet' = qays wa lay/a; sahryaar wa sahrzaad; 'Adam and Eve'
= aadam wa hawwaa'l; 21 however, some informants have told me
that the order here can be reversed (is there a difference?); fabla wa
fantara 'Abla and Antara'. 28 Cf. the male first in alfariis wa lfaruus
'the bride and the groom' (Mardin Ar., Turkey [George Grigore,
p. c.]).29

6. Near-parallels between Arabic and English. There are some near-

parallels between Ar. and Eng. Consider MSA: 'ladies and gentlemen'
= sayyidaatii wa saadatii; however, in Ar. the wa 'and' is optional,
but the -ii 'my' is not. Ar. has a curious case where the MSA pattern
parallels Eng., but the more classical expression does not: al'libra wa
lxeet = alxeet wa lmixyat 'thread and needle'. The latter expression can
also mean 'everybody'= hawwaa'l wa furuuquhaa, lit., 'Eve and her
descendants/roots'.
Curiously, for 'chicken or the egg', MSA. has (the singulative)
albayqa wa ddajaaja 'the egg and the chicken' or (the collective) albayq
wa ddajaaj 'the eggs and the chickens'. In JA, the expression is jaaji
 KAYE: CULTURAL INGREDIENTS IN ARABIC LEXICAL PAIRS 69

wi lbayqa 'the chicken and the egg', and not the reverse (Mahmoud
Al-Khatib, p. c.). However, Waheed Samy notes that EA has ilbeeqa wi
lfarxa, lit., 'the egg and the chicken'.

7. The trend of positive before negative (mentioned by Kadi 1988:52;

Benor and Levy 2006:236). MSA and colloquial Ar. dialects (following
the trend of many other languages) have many examples of positive
before negative in binomial expressions: alhayaat wa lmawt 'life and
death'; 30 aljanna wa nnaar 'heaven and hell'; 31 assams wa lqamar 'the
sun and the moon' (Koranic ordering); 32 alxayr wa ssarr =azzeen wa
sseen 'good and evil'; allayl wa nnahaar 'night and day' (Koranic or-
dering); almaa'lwa nnaar 'water and fire'; assamaa'lwa l'larq 'heaven
and earth' (Koranic ordering); 33 alhilw wa lmurr 'sweet and bitter' (cf.
Eng. 'sweet and sour'); alyamiin wa lyasaar 'right and left' (cf. Eng.
'left and right' or 'left-right', the cadence of military marching to the
voice of a dtill sergeant); 34 and arribh wa lxasaara 'gain and loss'.

8. Cultural explanation for word order.

Color Terms
The next section deals with the cultural overtones of color terms. I would
like to alert the reader right at the outset that there are a few exceptions
to the following generalizations, as with many things pertaining to lan-
guage. The word 'black' in the context of 'eyes' has positive conno-
tations (e.g., kohl), whereas 'white' is negative. 35 The prophet's battle
flag was black. The word al'laswadaan 'the two black things' refers to
'water and dates', something positive and indicative of traditional Arab
culture. 36 Lane (1872:IV:1463) states that the color of the date, often
black-looking depending on the light available, is the reason for the des-
ignation. This expression (ibid.) can also refer to the 'serpent and the
scorpion' (rather bad creatures) based on their colors. Lane also (ibid.)
mentions that sana sawdaa'l means 'a very severe year'. The word for
'green' can also be negative, as in JA uuduh 'laxqar 'he is inexperienced'.

'white'

The color 'white' is positive37 in Arab culture. How so? Consider the
following: MSA yad bayqaa'l 'generous hand; benevolence; skill;
dexterity'; mawt 'labyaq 'natural death' (Wehr 1994:109); inqilaab
'labyaq 'bloodless coup d'etat'; eawra bayqaa'l 'bloodless revolution';
GA bayyaq (ybayyiq) allaah(u) wajhak!wayhak 'well-done!';
bayaaq alweeh 'good name or reputation'. 38
70 WORD, VOLUME 60 (2009)

MSA ?afyas, fern. faysaa?, pl. fiis is the 'white camel', a very
beautiful and prized creature. This is the etymology of the ubiquitous
YA fiis 'good'. Wehr (1994:775) writes 'of a dirty white color, yel-
lowish white', while about the pl. he states 'camels of good stock;
breeding camels'. The riim 'addax, white antelope' (Wehr 1994:431)
is a beautiful animal and the word also serves as a proper name; yawm
?abyaq 'lucky day'; QAgalbah ?abya() 'he is good natured'; EA ?albu
?abyaq 'he is kind (good-hearted)' (Badawi and Hinds 1986:116);
nahaarak ?abyaq 'have a nice day!' (Badawi and Hinds 1986:116);
naa$if ilbayaaq 'very white'= 'very clean/bright'; MSA $afhal$ahiifa
bayqaa?, lit., 'white page/template = 'good reputation; fine character;
noble deed; honorable name'. 39
Azzabiidi (1979:250) notes that fulaan ?abyaq means a 'person
with purity of honor free from any impurity and disgrace', while Al-
Daaya (2004:67) notes that SA knows bayyaquu lhubuus, lit., 'they
have whitened the prisons'= 'they have freed all the prisoners'. In LA,
dajaaj ?abyaq refers to a 'person who does his work calmly, happily
and professionally', while dajaaj ?aswad refers to someone psycho-
logically nervous in his job or at home (Al-Mi~raati 1993:45).
Let me also mention the mifraaj, the midnight journey of the
Prophet Muhammad on the 27th of Rajab from Jerusalem to the seven
heavens on buraaq 'Alburaq', the white horse or horselike creature.
The fact that it is white is very significant in Arab-Islamic culture.

'black'

The color 'black' has negative connotations in Ar. culture (this is true
of many languages): sihr ?aswad 'black magic'; alwajh al?aswad 'very
bad; guilty of a bad deed'; lA wijh ?aswad 'ashamed'; QA galbah
?aswad 'he is malicious';40 EA ?abu l?iswid 'opium (slang)'; baxti?is-
wid 'my luck is awful' (Badawi and Hinds 1986:440); MSA sawda?
- suwaidaa? 'melancholy; sadness; gloom'; sawdaawii 'melancholic';
sawwada wajhahuu 'disgrace or dishonor s.o.'; yawm ?aswad 'unlucky
day'; qaa?ima sawdaa? 'blacklist' (Wehr 1994:513).

'green'

The color 'green' is positive in Arab culture since it was the Prophet
Muhammad's favorite color. Also, the positive imagery of the color
 KAYE: CULTURAL INGREDIENTS IN ARABIC LEXICAL PAIRS 71

green is reinforced by the Prophet's mosque in Medina having a

green dome. Consider: (al)xaqaar wa (l)fawaakih 'fruits and vegeta-
bles';41 and al'laxqar wa lyaabis 'everything' .42 EA has 'liidu xadra 'he
has a lucky touch' (Badawi and Hinds 1986:254). For older Ar., Lane
(1872:IV: 1463) gives fiisa xaqraa'l 'a pleasant mode of life'. One can
only imagine that a desert people would value 'green' as a lush color of
gardens and paradises.
The words 'vegetable' and 'green' share the same root: v'xqr. This
makes sense since many vegetables are green (indeed the unmarked
color of 'vegetable' in general). Why does this root occur in first po-
sition in the aforementioned binomials? Because the 'color' green
has a positive cultural connotation in Arab-Islamic culture, and be-
cause the color 'green' represents freshness, cleanness, lushness, new
growth, etc., vs. yaabis = lack of life, dry, desert conditions, lifeless,
etc. Wehr (1994:283) cites alxuqairaa'l 'paradise' and xaqraawaat,
muxaqqaraat, xuqar and xaqaar for 'vegetables' (Wehr 1994 does not
list xuqraawaat). The following MSA expressions are noteworthy:

'lanaanu zzaytuun ilxaqraa'l, lit., 'green olive branches' = 'symbol

of peace'
eawb 'laxqar ~ hulm 'laxqar, lit., 'green garment' ~ 'green dream' =
'symbol of fertility and life'
hubb 'laxqar 'green love'= 'pure or budding love'
'liqfaal 'laxqar (very modern expression), lit., 'green closure' = 'rise in
the stock market'
bisaat 'laxqar, lit., 'green carpet'= 'green and fertile land'
hizaam 'laxqar 'green belt' around a city

EA
'lisartak xaqra, lit., 'your sign is green' = 'you're so lucky, especially
with women'; 'you are good to go'.
sana xaqra faleek, lit., 'green year for you' ~sana beeqa faleek, lit.,
'white year for you'. The meaning for both of these expressions is for a
prosperous and happy year.
72 WORD, VOLUME 60 (2009)

JA
galbu 'laxqar, lit., 'he has a green heart' = 'he is still young; he has a
thing for young girls'
JAandGA
darbak xal)ra 'have a nice trip!' (= EA tarii'lak 'laxqar)

9. Is phonology relevant here at all? This essay does not deal specifi-
cally with phonology. I wish, however, to go on record affirming that
it is relevant to the word order of lexical pairs. Gargis and AI-Tamimi
(2005) have concluded their study saying: "Contrary to the claim made
by Bakir (1999), formal principles pertaining to syllable structure are
not seen to govern word order preferences. Rather, pragmatic and to a
lesser degree semantic, constraints determine order" (2005: 145). They
continue: "Semantic criteria, e.g., positiveness, proximity, opposite-
ness, etc. are not given much credit" (ibid.). Elsewhere, they assert:
" ... our data have shown that neither phonology nor morphology plays
any role in determining order" (2005: 139). In my view, phonology
plays a role in word order choices, for as Ferdinand de Saussure apoc-
ryphally claimed so long ago (it was really Antoine Meillet), language
is basically a system where everything comes together (un systeme ou
tout se tient). 43 I believe Bakir (1999: 15) is right (contra Gargis and
Tamimi 2005) in postulating a general tendency of a shorter item to
precede a longer one in terms of syllabic and phonemic length as well
as "syllabic economy" (Bakir 1999:16-17). This explains Ar. hala
wa marhaba 'welcome' but does not explain sayyidaatii wa saadatii
'ladies and gentlemen' .44 It further explains Eng. 'safe and sound', 'pick
and choose', 'cease and desist', 'will and testament' and Ar. jumfa
wa xamiis 'Friday and Thursday' (Bakir 1999:16). 45 It should be kept
firmly in mind, however, that there are always exceptions to rules and
general tendencies (such as rhyming and alliteration in lexical pairs) in
language as well as in other aspects of human behavior.

10. Is frequency of occurrence relevant here at all? Assuming that

Ar. works like Eng., frequency is an important factor which is relevant
to binomial word order. Benor and Levy (2006:255) have this to say
about their work on Eng.:

In summary, we found that Frequency, when viewed alone or as secondary

to semantic constraints, seems strongly justified as a determinant of bino-
mial order.
 KAYE: CULTURAL INGREDIENTS IN ARABIC LEXICAL PAIRS 73

It is strongly correlated with semantic and perceptual markedness, and it

has tight connection with word length that causes a superficial correlation
with other metrical constraints.

11. Conclusion. More than likely, then, some other Ar. binomial order-
ings may have cultural underpinnings (such as those associated with
'white', 'black', and 'green' noted in 8.) that have been lost or have
become obscured over time. 46 One can only speculate about how many
other orderings there are in the language which can be accounted for by
recoverable "cultural" collocations and circumstances engraved in the
language's (as yet unknown) history or prehistory.

Acknowledgment:
The article's author, Professor Alan S. Kaye, passed away in May 2007.
Mr. Peter T. Daniels, his friend for 30 years and sometime collaborator,
a scholar of writing systems, had kindly undertaken to read the page
proofs of this article, for which the Editorial Board would like to extend
to him its heartfelt thanks.
Professor Alan S. KAYE
Professor of English, Comparative Literature and Linguistics
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
California State University, Fullerton

ENDNOTES

1
Some assert that the colors of the Iraqi flag emanate from the colors mentioned in this poem,
the significance of which will become obvious as the reader continues to peruse the following
lines.
I wish to offer my sincere thanks for stimulating comments to the participants and organizers
of the first international conference "Linguistics of the Gulf," held at the University of Qatar in
Doha on March 14th-15th, 2007, at which a preliminary version oftbis paper was presented.
2 It is important to keep in mind that many lexical pairs are idioms, which further explains

why they are irreversible. One good example is 'sick and tired'. In its literal sense, it can be
reversed. In its idiomatic sense ('I'm thoroughly disgusted'), it cannot. Consider also 'back and
forth' (not an idiom), but not *'forth and back', and 'yes or no', but not *'no or yes': 'Which is it?
Yes or No?', but not *'Which is it? No or Yes?'. The latter strategy is but part of a general tendency
of positive before negative which will be discussed later.
The following abbreviations are used throughout: Ar. =Arabic; EA =Egyptian Ar.; Eng. =
English; GA =Gulf Ar.; lA =Iraqi Ar.; JA =Jordanian Ar.; Leb. Ar. =Lebanese Ar.; LA= Libyan
Ar.; MSA =Modern Standard Ar.; QA = Qatari Ar.; SA= (Greater) Syrian Ar.; YA =Yemeni Ar.
I wish to thank the following who commented on a preliminary version of this work: Hana
AI Ameri; Mahmoud Al-Khatib; Khudooma Said AI Na'imi; Bernard Comrie; Federico Corriente;
74 WORD, VOLUME 60 (2009)

Michael V. Diboll; Mohammed Farghal; George Grigore; Stephen Hewitt, Bob Hoberman; Grover
Hudson; Adrian Miicelaru; Bahaa-Eddin Mazid; John McWhorter; William Moore; Paul Newman;
Vema Rieschild; Waheed Samy; Ali Shehadeh; Said Shiyab; Avi Shivtiel; Laurence (Tawfiq) Sur-
fas; Kees Versteegh; Rainer Voigt; and Janet Watson. Needless to say, the usual disclaimers apply.
3 On the ambiguity of 'and' and 'or' see Adams and Kaye (2006).
4
Semitic languages have other cases of N + N constructions (status constructus) that are dif-
ferent from the aforementioned A+ B context. This structure (kitaabu lwalad[i] 'the boy's book',
lit., BOOK+ NOMINATIVE +THE + BOY+ GENITIVE) is not going to be discussed in this
work.
5 Kadi (1988:46) maintains: " ... the whole binomial refers to a relationship devoid of any

barriers between the two parties once they have shared basics of food: bread and salt."
6
As a joke or for effect, an Egyptian actor such as Adel Imam can get away with reversing
the word order (getting big laughs), yielding *sahlan wa ?ahlan; however, this order is positively
bizarre under "normal" circumstances.
7
The meaning is preserved in the reversible binomial 'cats and dogs' in the following: 'The
pet store sells cats and dogs' = 'The pet store sells dogs and cats'. In the sentence cited in the text,
'cats and dogs' reflects idiomatic usage (see further note 2).
8
Although some dictionaries list 'pepper and salt', this sounds bizarre in many, perhaps most,
contexts; e.g., in 'Please pass the salt and pepper'. If one were to say *'Please pass the pepper and
salt' (at least in my dialect), it sounds most awkward. Perhaps the speaker is being cute or doing it
for fun, displaying his or her sense of humor (a joke!). It is a bit like saying 'gentlemen and ladies'
for 'ladies and gentlemen' (or 'ladies and germs'). One can do this sort of thing in language FOR
EFFECT (metalanguage). The reader should make a mental note of this generalization because it
applies across the board to most if not all of the examples cited in this essay. Eng., however, does
have 'pepper-and-salt hair' = 'composed of a fine mixture of black and white' (Webster's New
Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 2003: 1436). This might be relatable to 'black and white', in
which the darker color comes first.
9 This is a calque from Biblical Hebrew along with 'milk and honey' (see Benor and Levy

2006:269 quoting Malkiel ( 1959: 153-154).

10
Gorgis and Al-Tamimi (2005: 147-151) have a list of some 150 binomial expressions; and
Ben or and Levy (2006) have researched 692 binomials of the form A and B only correctly predict-
ing about 80% of the word orders.
11
The pair 'off and on' is a fully reversible binomial preserving the same meaning. Cf. a
similar case of variation to be found in 'me and you'= 'you and me'- 'you and I', but not *'I and
you'. Benor and Levy (2006:270) have this to say about reversing frozen binomials: "We found
a few instances where purportedly frozen binomials appear in reverse: principal and interest also
appears as interest and principal, and near and dear is also dear and near. There are also a number
of binomials where both orders are frozen, such as left and right and right and left, off and on and
on and off, and night and day and day and night."
12
I cannot imagine an American or British teenager using this expression today in a natural
speech situation. Let me also mention a variant expression, also archaic, viz., 'hither and yon'.
Bakir (1999:4) also mentions 'divide and rule' (a Latinism <divide et impera.). I only know this
expression as 'divide and conquer'. Do we have evidence for two different Eng. dialects here?
Similarly, his (1999:6) 'cow and bull' sounds awkward and much more natural to me as 'bull and
cow' (male first), at least in many contexts that readily come to mind. On the other hand, 'widows
and widowers' (Bakir 1999: 14, quoting Malkiell959: 141), does not sound too bad were it to read
'widowers and widows'. Cf. 'This room is filled with widows and widowers'= 'This room is filled
with widowers and widows'. I accept both of them as grammatical (with the unmarked ofthe pair
first). Two irreversible binomials are becoming rarer and rarer in contemporary Eng.: kith and kin
and kit and caboodle.
 KAYE: CULTURAL INGREDIENTS IN ARABIC LEXICAL PAIRS 75

13 Benor and Levy (2006:236) discuss semantic-pragmatic constraints, including positive >

negative. They summarize the findings of Cooper and Ross (1975) by stating that tbe 19 con-
straints posited reduce to "one umbrella principle, called Me First. This constraint says that 'first
conjuncts refer to those factors that describe the prototypical feature'."
14
Bakir (1999:1) affirms: "In lA one can have the more frequent 'laswad wa 'labya4 'black
and white', and the less common 'labya4 wa 'laswad." Gorgis and Al-Tamimi (2005:141) also
note ?aswad wa ?abyaq (also given again in their Table, number 48, 2005: 148). They never men-
tion that the reverse word order is even possible. I have not been able to confirm the word order
* ?aswad wa ?abyaq thus far from the numerous native Ar. speakers I have consulted on the matter
(and there have been many). However, there are many instances of the black-first word order on
Google.com pages, specifically in the context of films and photography. Many or most could be
due to Eng. influence. It also might be a possible but not a preferred word order. Insofar as Eng. is
concerned, no native Eng. speaker would, I believe, accept *'I saw a movie in white and black last
night' for the grammatical 'I saw a movie in black and white last night'. I am at a loss to explain
the published remarks by Bakir ( 1999) and Gorgis and Tamimi (2005) on Ar. referred to above on
the word order of this particular irreversible lexical pair.
I am also aware that many other languages put 'white' before 'black' (e.g., Hungarianfeher
es fekete, Spanish blanco y negro, Portuguese branco e negro, Italian bianco e nero, Romanian
alb ~i negru, etc., but not French noire et blanche); however, to compare what other languages do
in this regard (even other Semitic languages) goes beyond the dimensions of the present work.
Bakir(loc. cit.) also asserts that 'socks and shoes' is a reversible binomial. In some contexts, I
believe this is so; however, "Go put your shoes and socks on!" sounds bizarre, or at least awkward,
were it to read; *"Go put your socks and shoes on!," even though the latter reflects the logical
order of getting dressed. Similar sentiments apply to this construction were it to read: *"Go put on
your socks and shoes!". Bernard Comrie (p. c.) notes that, as a result of a Google search, 'shoes
and socks is twice' as frequent as 'socks and shoes'. Bakir (1999:15) also cites the old-fashioned
(what he calls) irreversible binomial 'shoes and stockings' to which the aforementioned usage is
certainly related.
15
The form xuqaar 'vegetables; herbs' is colloquial Ar. Wehr (1994:283) has only xa4aar.
Here is a good case of where, it seems, the colloquial vocalism has influenced the MSA pronuncia-
tion. Cf. MSA taokira ~ *taolkara 'ticket' or jubna > jibna 'cheese'.
16 Said Shiyab (p. c.) suggests salaam here for 'peace' as being more common. There exists a

Westernizing form of this as alharb wa ssalaam and alharb wa ssi/m (cf. Tolstoy novel, War and
Peace).
17 Bakir ( 1999:3) has IA haarr u baarid. So, too, EA and many Gulf Ar. dialects. This seems

to be a reversible pair; however, baarid first appears to be preferable.

18
This can be reversed in some contexts, such as for university departments (Bahaa-Eddin
Mazid, p. c.). Many GA native speakers have told me that the order for them is alluya wa l'ladab
'language and literature', and that this could not be reversed.
19
Are Arabs famous for taking more than they give? Quite the contrary! Arab hospitality is
well known. If one must somehow try to justify the 'take' first order, perhaps tbe following sce-
nario is applicable: one takes someone in when they are in need, and then the person taken in is
free to give later on in return.
20
The subject of trinomial expressions in Ar. has never been researched, to my knowledge.
One such is Leb. Ar.: 'led fandik lilfasa'l xara wi xall wi 'lisir bee4 ='What's for dinner (f. sg.)?'
'Shit, vinegar, and egg shells.' Two more are: xfiifwi nqiifwi bin naas -hayyis u kwayyis wibin
naas 'a good buy'.
21 Rainer Voigt (p. c.) suggests that the back vowel in Tom vs. the front vowel in Dick may

account for the ordering. I doubt very much that tbe spellings of the proper names (3, 4, and 5
letters respectively) has anything at all to do with the word order. Vowel backness and alphabetic
76 WORD, VOLUME 60 (2009)

ordering have been researched by Benor and Levy (2006:246) in their study of binomials with no
direct correlation.
22
Informants have told me that it is OK to reverse this expression in EA.
23
Gorgis and Al-Tamimi (2005: 144) note:" ... for once you put the candy in your mouth,
you first sense sourness. Sourness stimulates, then sweetness soothes." They then mention the pos-
sibility that this is governed by metrical structure (ibid.), which contradicts their overall conclusion
that phonology is irrelevant to the ordering. Waheed Samy (p. c.) notes the reverse for MSA and
EA hilu haamiq.
24 According to Wehr (1994:704), faruus means both 'bride' and 'bridegroom'. The plurals

are distinguished, however: faraa? is for the feminine and furus for the masculine. The word
Yariis can only mean 'bridegroom', however.
25
Bakir (1999:3) has zeen u muuzeen for lA; yet he also mentions lA zeen u seen ( 1999:6-7).
My guess is that both of these occur in lA.
26 It seems that Ar. /eel u nhaar 'night and day' contrasts with Eng. 'day and night' (an ir-

reversible binomial, according to Bakir 1999:7); however, both word orders can occur in Eng. Cf.
the Cole Porter tune 'Night and Day'. Cf. 'I'll be with you night and day'= 'I'll be with you day
and night'. Both of the preceding sentences are grammatical.
27 Mahmoud Al-Khatib and Said Shiyab (p. c.) note that the word order may be reversed

here and elsewhere, netting: hawwaa? wa aadam; fabla wa fantar(a) 'Abla and Antar(a)'; and
alfaruus wa 1 fariis.
28
Some informants have told me that the final vowel can be deleted from An tara and that the
order is reversible. Waheed Samy notes fantar wi fabla. Note, however, the female-first order of
lay/a wa majnuun 'Layla and Majnuun', the title of the most important work by Fudhuli (1556?,
Baghdad) (George Grigore, p. c.).
29 Many languages, it seems, put the male first in many expressions. Consider further:

'husband and wife'; the 'king and queen'; 'Mr. and Mrs.'; 'brothers and sisters'; etc.
30 Although the opposite word order occurs in the Koran, e.g., Surat Al-Mu/k, verse 2, the

preferred word order is for 'life' first to become (positive before negative).
31
One can leave off the definite article in this and many other expressions: }anna w naar
(Bakir 1999:7).
32 The sun is, of course, bigger, brighter, and necessary for life, thus "better." Although this

seems contradicted by allay/ wa nnahaar 'night and day', it may be concluded that a Koranic
citation is most important for word-order considerations and would override other principles, if
applicable.
33 Kadar ( 1988:48) states that the Koran records 173 cases of assamaawaat wa 1 ?arq, 'heaven

and earth' (keeping in mind there are many heavens, thus the suffix -aat 'feminine plural' of the
first word) while the reverse only occurs three times.
34 According to Arab culture, the right hand is good and is used to eat with, e.g., while the left

hand is bad (cf. in Eng. the etymology of the word sinister) and cannot be used with food.
35
In Chinese and Japanese cultures, white is worn at funerals, and thus is not a color associ-
ated with positive characteristics or experiences.
36
Cf. al?abyaqaan 'milk and water' and a/?a$/araan 'gold and crocus'.
37
There are cases of the reverse. Consider EA yaa xabar ?abyaq 'Oh, my goodness!' = also
yaa xabar (?)iswid. The original expression, in my view, is with ?iswid 'black'. Just as it is polite
to use ba$iir 'the seeing one' for ?afmaa 'blind', so it is polite to reverse the color words from
'black' to 'white' via euphemism in this type of expression. Cf. also ?abyaq = ?abyaq yaa ward,
lit 'white, oh roses!'= 'penniless; clueless'; and ?abyaq min a$$iini bafd yasiilu, lit.,'whiter than
porcelain after its washing' = 'penniless'. The EA word for 'black' is itself a euphemism: ?iswid
(and not ?aswad), which also have two variants: ?iswix- ?iswih.
 KAYE: CULTURAL INGREDIENTS IN ARABIC LEXICAL PAIRS 77
38 Interestingly enough, both Ar. and Eng. have 'white lie' = ?ukiJuuba bayqaa?. I cannot

rule out the possibility of total coincidence here. Linguistic typologists should survey the world's
languages in this connection. 'White lies ' are harmless, innocent, almost good ones.
39 1 wish to thank Bahaa-Eddin Mazid for many relevant examples in this section.
40
It is important to point out that insofar as my experience is concerned, few mosque domes
are black; however, one notes exceptions such as the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
41 Said Shiyab (p. c.) informs me that the reverse order is possible and not strange usage at

all. I have seen the printed listing (al)xaqaar wa (l)fawaakih hundreds of times in many Arab
countries (also a/xarjraawaat wa lfawaakih). Not once have I seen the reverse order. I have seen
fawaakih wa xatjraawaat but once (near Sohar, Oman), and that sign may have been written by a
nonnative Ar. speaker. (I have seen alfawaakih written on shop signs as <alfw?kt>, albeit rarely.
The final grapheme is the taa? marbuuta.) In many Gulf Ar. dialects xuiJaar- xaiJra means 'fruits
and vegetables' without any need for specific mention ofjawaakih 'fruit'.
42
The word order can be reversed if the context is on the subject of destruction (Hana AI
Ameri, p. c.); e.g., dammarat alyaabis wa l?axqar 'everything was destroyed'. This bolsters the
negative of a/?axtjar in final position since it is positive (or at least neutral) to put it first.
43
The entire story of this phrase is elegantly told by Laurie Bauer of the Univer-
sity of New Zealand on the Internet at http://linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-1954.html#l.
I am grateful to Stephen Hewitt, who reminded me of this fascinating scenario.
44
Traditionai Arab culture, as is still practiced in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, does not al-
low mixed public gatherings of males and females. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that the
female-first word order in this expression is based on Eng. ladies and gentlemen and/or French
mesdames et messieurs (i.e., a calque). There are two variations to this: assaada- assayyidaat
wa ssaada. Ar. also knows the following calque: sayyidaatii wa aanisaatii wa saadatii 'Ladies,
Misses, and Gentlemen'. The phrase of saadatii wa sayyidaatii 'ladies and gentlemen' is very rare,
yet may occur (Bahaa-Eddin Mazid, p. c.).
Arguing against the occurrence of male + female are the following: Eng. mom and dad -
mom and pop (also 'mother and dad', Benor and Levy 2006:253) and Ar. ?umm wa ?ab 'mother
and father' (Bakir 1999:20). The Ar. normal word order is maamaa u baabaa 'mom and dad',
especially for children for whom 'mother' is more important for variety of reasons; however,
many native speakers disagree with Ar. 'lumm wa ?ab 'mother and father' reversing them. GA has
yurfit 'lummi wa ?abuuy 'my mother and father's room,' yet some people can reverse it. Many GA
speakers have told me that although alwaalid wa lwaalida 'the mother and father' is preferred, it
could be reversed.
45
Many Ar. native speakers consulted told me that the word order here is very strange and that
it should be reversed. Both words contain two syllables, so both may occur first, phonologically
speaking. Although Friday is far more important than Thursday in the Islamic world since it is the
communal day of prayer, the logical sequence is for Thursday to be followed by Friday.
46 One very good parallel here is the etymology of Eng. 'cock-and-bull' story, which has its

origins in a 16'hcentury fable (Websters New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 2003:396). This
is a frozen binomial to the point where *'bull-and-cock' story sounds utterly preposterous.

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