Аннотация:This article concerns a problem of syntax and pragmatics of circumstantial clauses (jumal ḥāliyya) in Egyptian Arabic, and particularly, in Egyptian proverbs. According to the most common definition, a circumstantial clause characterizes a state or condition (ḥāl – lit. “state, condition”) of a main clause subject or object at the moment described in the main clause. In Arabic, it is used “to express an action or event which took place simultaneously with the situation or event expressed in the main clause” (modal and temporal circumstantial clauses) [Woidich 2004: 191]. Firstly, we claim that ḥāl is not a clause, it is a syntactic position that could be represented by a single word (a participle) or a clause. In traditional Arabic grammar ḥāl is described as a “second predicate” (ḫabar), or comment, that forms the semantic and pragmatic focus of the sentence [Pak, Soukhareva, 255]. So, when it occurs in Egyptian paremia, ḥāl represents the essence of a proverb.
Secondly, the structure of a proverb which contains a circumstantial clause is one of three types: a circumstantial clause may accede a noun, a genitive construction or a clause; the conjunction w(i)- (waw al-ḥāl) is optional.
