The circumstantial clause (al-ǧumla al-ḥāliyya) is one of the syntactic structures in Arabic that received due attention in Arabic grammatical description throughout the time span from the era of classical Arabic until the present day. Various forms of the circumstantial clause were therein described, including its syndetic and asyndetic, nominal and verbal form, the form it takes depending on the time of events in the main clause and the circumstantial clause, as well as the relationship between the circumstantial clause and the circumstantial accusative as its non-finite equivalent. Still, in the extensive and widespread description of the circumstantial clause, fully justified by its frequent use in Arabic, the syntactic functions of this clause are mentioned only rarely and sporadically, lacking a systematic analysis. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is the analysis of various syntactic functions that circumstantial clauses can take in the Arabic complex sentence. Such an analysis shows that this syntactic category, special in so many ways, whose subordinating conjunction is at the same time the most frequent coordinating conjunction in Arabic, covers a wide spectrum of syntactic functions in Arabic clauses, from verb phrase modifiers to noun phrase modifiers and, although less frequently and with limited distribution, to verb phrase complements. Such a wealth of syntactic functions certainly deserves to be a subject of a systematic description.

From the point of view of syntactic analysis, the main features of texts belong­ing to literary style are the unlimited freedom and absence of rules which in other functional styles dictate the characteristic use of syntactic patterns and structures, as well as means of text cohesion. That is why it is difficult to discuss the specific features of the syntax of literary style in general. Instead, it is possible to analyze the use of syntax as an element of style of individual authors, literary movements or genres. However, it is not the syntactic features that could be analyzed as building blocks of unique, homogenous style of Yusuf Idris that served as motivation for writing of this paper. Quite the contrary, the paper draws attention to markedly different syntactic devices used by this writer in different short stories. The central focus of the paper is the analysis of these syntactic devices in several short stories of Yusuf Idris, which aims to show that the use of syntax therein is not simply means or form used by the writer to convey the content of the story. Actually, this syntactic warp and woof of the story, packed with various syntactic figures, not only works together with the story content and tells one part of it but often speaks louder than words, forming unique narrative devices.

Polazeci od postojecih opisa semantike razlicitih formi atributa u arapskom jeziku, rad se u nedostatku sistematicnog modela lingvistickog opisa znacenja atributa, okrece kognitivnoj psihologiji i relacijskom pristupu razumijevanju atributa. Uz pomoc relacijskog pristupa, rad ne samo da uocava nova, dosad neopisana znacenja arapskog posesivnog genitiva i atributa opcenito, kao sto su izvor i instrumental, nego uspijeva uvesti i sistematican i jednostavan nacin opisa drugih znacenja posesivnog genitiva, kroz upotrebu simetricnih parova relacija unutar znacenja posesiva, gradivnog kvalitativa, kvalitativa, lokativa, protemporala, kauzativa i instrumentala. Na osnovu poređenja sa znacenjima posesivnog genitiva, u radu je ponuđen i opis znacenja drugih formi atributa u arapskom jeziku siri i obuhvatniji od onog koji se može naci u literaturi. Konacno, prihvatanjem postojanja niza tematskih relacija kodiranih u formi posesivnog genitiva u arapskoj genitivnoj vezi, objasnjeno je kako veliko semanticko bogatstvo ove forme, tako i njena elipticnost i veca stilska efektnost u poređenju s drugim formama atributa u arapskom jeziku. --------------------------------------------------  The semantic scope of attributive noun phrase modification in Arabic Starting with the discussion of existing semantic descriptions of various forms of Arabic attributive modifiers, the study, due to absence of a systematic model for linguistic description of attributive modifier semantics, reaches out to cognitive psychology and relation-based approach to understanding of modifier-noun combinations. The application of relation-based approach both helps find new and so far not described meanings of Arabic possessive genitives and attributive modifiers in general, like source and instrument, and allows for the introduction of a systematic and simple model for description of other meanings of possessive genitive through the use of symmetrical pairs of relations within its possessive, material, quality, location, duration, causative and instrument meaning. Based on comparison with the meanings of possessive genitives, the study offers a description of other forms of Arabic attributive modifiers that is wider and more inclusive than those found in literature. Finally, by means of accepting of existence of a number of thematic relations encoded in the form of possessive genitive in Arabic status constructus, the study explains both the semantic abundance of Arabic possessive genitive, and its elliptic character and higher stylistic potential as compared to other attributive modifiers in Arabic.

As times change and new concepts become part of our reality, Arabic, just like any other language, is facing the challenge of building new lexical units into its vocabulary. However, its word formation system, relying heavily on derivation based on root and pattern system, characteristic of Semitic languages, defies the use of affixation, conversion and compounding as major word formation methods in English and other Indo-European languages. Although there are some examples of affixation and compounding in Modern Standard Arabic, their use remains largely limited, with blurred boundaries in linguistic description between the two and the Arabic equivalent of blending, i.e. naḥt. Therefore concepts expressed by compounds in other languages are usually rendered by the construct state or annexation construction in Arabic. Still, such structures manifest a high degree of variation in terms of their lexicalization and semantic compositionality, thus ranging from free word combinations to multi-word lexical units. The paper focuses on description of lexicalized non-compositional instances of Arabic construct state, including examples from Modern Standard Arabic, as well as a phenomenon dating from Classical Arabic. In addition to analysis of syntactic and semantic structure of Arabic construct state multi-word lexical units, based on which they are divided into several classes, discussion centers on different stylistic mechanisms operative in formation of their meaning. Keywords: Arabic, lexical, units, formation, construct, state.

Although there are no formal differences between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses in Arabic, these two types of Arabic relative clauses function in significantly different ways. Restrictive relative clauses, aiming to delimit the reference of the head noun, fully deserve their role as noun-phrase modifiers, and can usually be replaced by other noun-phrase modifiers, such as adjectives and prepositional phrases. Unlike their restrictive counterparts, non-restrictive relative clauses operate based on the assumption that the head-noun reference is already defined. Thus they aim merely to present new information and can consequently be replaced by a wide range of structures, from various types of adverbial clauses to independent sentences. This paper focuses on analysis of semantic implications of non-restrictive relative clauses in Arabic. Although there have been references in literature linking non-restrictive relative clauses with reason adverbials, the paper aims to show that non-restrictive clauses, given their semantic independence, are used to express a wide variety of relations, from those usually expressed by adverbial clauses to those so difficult to define that they tend to take the form of independent sentence. The diversity of semantic implications of Arabic non-restrictive clauses is discussed both based on mechanisms of their paraphrase, i.e. replacement in Arabic, and their existing translations into other languages. Finally, Arabic non-restrictive relative clauses are shown to be stylistically more effective and attractive means of conveying the same meaning than other structures they can be replaced by.

Key words: relative clauses, adverbial relativizers, relative clause formation strategies, equi type, relative-pronoun strategy ABSTRACT Relative clauses in Arabic choose among a range of relativizers, including adjectival and substantive pronouns and adverbial relativizers. Depending on a number of factors, including the choice of relativizers, they also embrace different relative clause formation strategies. Based on the typology of relative clause formation strategies proposed by E. Keenan and B. Comrie, this paper focuses on description of the formation strategy, or rather strategies of Arabic relative clauses introduced by adverbial relativizers. In attempt to define the formation strategy of this type of Arabic relative clauses, the paper distinguishes between free relative clauses introduced by adverbial relativizers in Arabic and those with antecedents. As shown in examples of sentences taken from modern Arabic literature, the two mentioned classes of Arabic relative clauses introduced by adverbial relativizers seem to involve different relative clause formation strategies. Thus, while free relative clauses show a striking similarity with the equi type of relative clauses, relative clauses with antecedents fit much better into the relative-pronoun strategy.

Slips of the tongue are almost inevitable. It is proven that for every thousand words spoken, people make one or two errors, which means that a slip is bound to occur about once every seven minutes of continuous talk. The average person makes between 7 and 22 verbal slips every day. This paper aims to analyse both linguistic and psychoanalytic aspects of slips of the tongue, as well as describe their prevalence in the Bosnian language. Freud insisted that slips of the tongue represent repressed thoughts or motives, while his contemporary, philologist Rudolf Meringer, said that they are just accidental shifts of linguistic units. By contrast, cognitive scientist Gary Dell contends that slips of the tongue reveal a person's capacity for using language and its components. In order to analyse the most prevalent slips of the tongue that usually occur within a group of native speakers of Bosnian, a random sample of 100 Bosnians (50 males and 50 females, aged 25–55) filled in a questionnaire designed to identify their awareness of the number of slips in their everyday speech, as well as their willingness to describe them as either repressed thoughts or motives or accidental shifts. It is concluded that people are less likely to adhere to Freudian principles of unconscious motives than the description of slips as ordinary errors. The results are further described in the context of Dell's idea of spreading activation according to which language is error prone, which allows for the novel production of words, and is prima facie evidence of linguistic flexibility and proof of the great dexterity of the human mind.