Methodological Determinants and Their Role in Directing the Paths of Syntactic Facilitation: The Manuscript of Al-Nafahat Al-Khasibiyya fi Al-Masa'il Al-Nahwiyya by Qasim bin Muhammad Ridha Al-Gharrawi (d. 1395 AH) as a Model

Abstract

The concept of syntactic facilitation is closely related to grammar instruction. In this context, it emphasizes the necessity of distinguishing between grammar at its scholarly level and its pedagogical level. It focuses on the importance of presenting grammar to learners clearly, unambiguously, and free from semantic complexity and verbal affectation; whether at the level of the structural framework of its syntactic rules, the functional performance of words within a context, or the cognitive level of understanding its terminology. In the absence of clear standards for syntactic facilitation that guarantee the legitimacy of advocating for it, this research, adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, undertakes the observation of three paths for its facilitation: the structural, communicative, and cognitive paths. It directs the majority of its attention toward identifying the methodological determinants that guide and regulate the movement of these paths within a facilitation framework.

To demonstrate the success of this cognitive vision, we applied it to the manuscript (Al-Nafahat Al-Khasibiyya fi Al-Masa'il Al-Nahwiyya) by its author Qasim bin Muhammad Ridha Al-Gharrawi (d. 1395 AH). This aims to identify the determinants that governed the facilitation process, the results yielded by their employment, and to determine their role in regulating the facilitation movement and directing its paths in a disciplined and balanced manner.

The research concluded that the determinants governing the methodology of syntactic facilitation in the manuscript of (Al-Nafahat Al-Khasibiyya) are three: the normative determinant, the functional determinant, and the selective-preferential determinant. Al-Gharrawi employed each of them methodologically within its appropriate path, in a manner consistent with his desire to make grammar more accessible to learners according to the objectives of facilitation; achieved through syntactic facilitation features (syntactic definitions, grammatical disagreement, grammatical evidence, and constructed exemplification). He established that the facilitation procedures within these features are insufficient on their own to achieve facilitation unless they are grounded within the framework of the scholarly application of these determinants. This is due to their significance in sustaining the facilitation vision and preventing grammar from drifting into arbitrary simplification, which this research has undertaken to reveal through a meticulous scholarly reading of this manuscript.