A thesis entitled "The Grammatical Time in Najeeb Mahfooz's Tripartite" was defended in the department of Arabic/ College of Arts.
The thesis, submitted by Suroor Abdul Kareem Abdul Yimmah, included three chapters: the first chapter discussed the temporal semantics of the verb; the second one dealt with the temporal contexts. The third chapter examined the temporal semantics of derived categories and time references.
The study aimed at showing Arab scholars' attention to the study of time and its implications in the past and now. This is because time represents the hub of Arabic lessons. Thus this study examined the issues of this topic and the potentiality of applying this to a literary text per excellence. These literary texts include the tripartite of Mahfooz where his novel represented the scientific brush to apply the theoretical aspect of grammar books. In addition, the time reference was also examined in light of the availability of contextual factors of fictional texts.
The researcher arrived at the fact that grammatical time in these three novels is indicated by single and complex forms with its co- verbal and implicational contexts. The internal structure of the text plays a role in deciding time reference. The researcher also refers to the Arab interests of time though they neglected the difference between it and tense where the two items were similar to them.
