The f(a)over-bar' of hypothetical systems in Classical Arabic in: criteria for predicting semantic values def(a)over-bar'

In the Arabic hypothetical systems, a fa- appears very often between protasis and apodosis. According to Classical Arabic grammar, formed on preclassical corpus and for the sole operator in of the hypothetical systems, this f (a) over bar. would mark a formal break as soon as the apodosis cannot be protasis, that is to say when the apodosis is not fa.ala (neutral perfect from the point of view of time) nor yafal (imperfect apocopate). However, in addition to the innumerable cases where this rule is not respected, f (a) over bar. often missing where it was expected, its appearance does not correspond only to a formal necessity, but also seems to match with a semantic one: it indicates that in its presence the relation between protasis p and apodosis q is not a matter of Logic but of Pragmatics. To put it another way with Larcher, f (a) over bar. is functionally and fundamentally a segmentator which marks a pragmatic break indicating that the utterance is at the level of the natural logic of speech acts where the utterance of p is a cause for the utterance of q. There, different interpretative values can be glimpsed (concessional, deductive, justifying, oppositive, etc.). This paper sets out to add one more, that is a causalo-inductive value, and to show how, after recalling a fundamental distinction made by the medieval Arab tradition which distinguishes between f (a) over bar. sababiyya (causal f (a) over bar) and f (a) over bar tal (i) over bar liyya (illative f (a) over bar), the hypothesis of a correlation between the type of apodosis, depending on whether it is semantically an assertion (ihb (a) over barr) or not, and then a performative (ins (a) over bar), and one of the two values of the f (a) over bar seems relevant and functional.