Abstract

The research compares our Arabic linguistic heritage with the modern semantic theory today on three major issues: 1) the issue of meaning structure, is it a composite entity composed of elements or a simple entity; and 2) the issue of assignment, does the term refer to an external entity independent of the speaker or an internal entity of his or her perception; and the issue of perceiving the meaning, or the qualities in which the meanings and role that different mental abilities can play in this realization. The research suggests that the answers given by our ancestors agree, in their broad outlines and in terms of general principles, the answers presented by the most prominent contemporary semantic theories.