Liwāṭ : « agir comme le peuple de Loth… », Formation et interprétation lexicales en arabe classique

According to early Arab lexicographers, the Koranic personage of Lūṭ (the biblical Loth) is at the origin of a lexical family of Classical Arabic. The object of the present article is to reflect, as a linguist, on the formation and interpretation of each member of this rather large family, whose core is liwāṭ. Besides two nouns directly derived from Lūṭ, it includes several verbs formed thereon as well as a number of nominal forms associated with such verbs. The scope of this case study lies in calling into question the formal and semantic relations currently regarded as the best established in the field of lexical derivation in Classical Arabic.Key-words: Classical Arabic ; lexicology ; derivation from proper nouns ; word-formation ; lexical semantics