Аннотация:Key words: Egyptian proverbs, syntax of Egyptian Arabic, circumstantial clauses, pragmatics.This research concerns a problem of syntax and pragmatics of circumstantial clauses (jumal ḥāliyya) in Egyptian Arabic, and particularly, in Egyptian proverbs. 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 – as any other position in Arabic sentence. Secondly, the structure of a proverb which contains a circumstantial clause is that of three types: S + (w(i)- + S) (1), GC + (w(i)- + S) (2), N/Adj + (w(i)- + S) (3), a conjunction w(i)- (waw al-ḥāl) is optional. A circumstantial clause may accede a noun, a genitive construction or a clause.
