The Surnames of Saudi Families: A Syntactic Study of the Problems of Titling and Inflection

Abstract

This study addresses the syntactic features that are inconsistent with the Standard Arabic in the use of surnames by contemporary Saudi families, whether the surnames appear in conjunction with given names or independently. It seeks to solve their problems according to the rules of classical Arabic syntax and grammar, as a contribution to standardizing and refining the colloquial language and narrowing the gap between it and the Standard Arabic language.

 This   study is divided into two parts:  the first part discusses the problems of inconsistency of surnames with their original form, their improper use in the Standard Arabic language, or the addition of definite article “Al” to these surnames. As for the s part, -it discusses the problems related to the grammatical inflection when surnames occur with given names in the same context or whose wordings were reported without changes.

 The study concludes that certain surname usages among Saudi families conform to Standard Arabic or can be interpreted in ways consistent with it, while others deviate from standard norms and cannot be justified, or can only be explained through weak grammatical interpretations.