Abstract
The Maqayis al-Lughah dictionary is a practical application of the derivational concept, but it did not receive sufficient attention of the researchers, as comprehensive statistics were not presented on the quantity of its roots, its structures, and its letters, which led to a disagreement among Arab researchers over the number of origins of the root structure letters, where they differed in the origin of the Arabic roots, with discrepancies arising between the binary and triple origin of the root structure. In addition, the researchers have also differed in determining the derivation type between verbal derivation and semantic derivation. Furthermore, the studies neglected the verbal structure of the roots, as well as the related interpretation of the overlapping between the roots in terms of their structures and semantic, as well as the failure to explain the criteria of Ibn Faris in the transition of semantics from one origin to another. This study aims to count the Arabic roots present in the Maqayis al-Lughah lexicon, delimit the origins of its structures and their number of conflicting roots among the researchers. Also, this study aims to disclose the type of derivation that Ibn Faris employed in his lexicon through an examination of its concept, terminology, expressions and lexical semantics. Moreover, the study aims to analyze the roots and identify the overlapping between them based on their phonetic, morphological, and semantic structures. as well as identifying its causes, and deducing how the semantics of the roots is transmitted from one origin to another. In order to achieve these objectives, the researcher employed the statistical method to track the roots, count them and determine their structures. Additionally, a descriptive analysis approach was used to describe the phenomenon of derivation at Ibn Faris and observe the phenomena of derivation and semantics. The present study concluded that the number of Arabic roots contained in the Maqayis al-Lughah dictionary amounts to 4963 roots. Additionally, it has been established that the triple roots the most frequently used roots. Furthermore, the present study has brought to light that the Maqayis al-Lughah dictionary primarily utilizes small derivation in terms of verbal. As for semantic, the lexicon employs the Axial Semantics type. This finding is noteworthy as there appears to be no inconsistency between these two types of derivations. Also, the intersectionality between the roots phonetically and morphologically can be attributed to the Qualities of letters or their place of articulation. The intersectionality was because of the assimilation of two letters or substituting one letter in place of another letter or metathesis in the place of the letters, or due to huruf illah (vowel letters). This study also deduced the methods used by Ibn Faris for shifting the semantic from one semantic origin to another, as well as measuring the secondary semantic on its semantic origin through relying on various methods, which are: shifting by diacritic or by morphological scale or by slimily or by metaphor), and these methods are the most important tools that Ibn Faris used for his measuring on origin semantic, which he called it term Maqayis Al-Luġah [The Language measurements] in the title of his lexicon.