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consists of two words: 'istaktabtuhu' and 'risa latan'. The
sentence is modelled on the pattern verb + subject + indirect
object + direct object. The first element of the sentence
'istaktabtuhu' specifies (1) the type of action involved (writing);
(2) the number of actors (1st person singular pronominal subject
'I'); (3) the time of the action (simple past); (4) the
relationship between the participants and the action indicated in
the verb (passive); (5) the mode of the action as deducible from
its pertinent psychological background (non-imperative but
petitive); (6) the aspect of the action (incomplete and non-
habitual); (7) whether the verb is transitive or intransitive (in
Arabic a transitive verb can take an object or more). All the
above implications are specified in the morphological structure of
the first element of the Arabic sentence. When translated into
English the semantic loss, though the information imparted will be
more or less the same, will be compensated for by the lexical gain.
A fairly adequate translation of the above sentence would be: 'I
asked him to write me a letter.' The psychological background of
the event, which is not sufficiently explicated in the
morphological structure of the verbal construction, may dictate
other verbs such as 'forced, coerced, petitioned, implored,
begged...etc.' The choice of the verb and therefore the action, is
determined by the situational context in which th sentence is
embedded. Any misconception of one of the semantic implications
reflected in the morphological structure of the verbal construction
mentioned above will naturally lead to formal morphological
miscorrespondence, and consequently semantic non-equivalence in
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