A modal interpretation of the Arabic apocopate: morpho-syntax and semantics

Basing myself on Sībawayhi’s, Ibn Jinnī’s, Zamakhsharī’s, Ibn al-Ḥājib’s, and Ibn Mālik’s treatment of conditional sentences, I shall argue that the supposed semantic equivalence between in yafʿal and in faʿala is in fact a primary opposition that leads to a re-interpretation of the apocopate verbal form as being the one dedicated to the representation of the highest degree of uncertainty or unreality of the action in every pragmatic context. From this semantically unifying perspective, the apocopate in the structure in yafʿal - within the opposition in yafʿal vs in faʿala, and within the oppositions in yafʿal vs law faʿala and in yafʿal vs idhā faʿala/yafʿalu – would not refer to the past, likewise the apocopate in the structure lam yafʿal – within the oppositions in lā yafʿal vs in lam yafʿal and lam yafʿal vs lā yafʿalu vs lan yafʿala – would not refer to the past. This would imply that the protosemitic modal *yiqtúl, and not the preterite *yíqtul, would be the semantic ancestor of the Arabic apocopate.