Partner, Theme, counter-Theme · three verb forms · working claim, revisable
Form III · بادل · partner (accusative) + Theme (a second accusative, where the line has one) + counter-Theme بـ + genitive
Form VI · تبادل · plural or dual subject · Theme accusative · no partner object · مع is printed beside the subject
Form X · استبدل · accusative + بـ + genitive · classical lines put بـ on the thing given up · a second printed ranking puts بـ on the thing received · this page does not choose
مكان · Lane’s ثوباً مكان ثوب · Qur’an 4:20 as al-Muʿjam al-lugha al-ʿarabiyya al-muʿāṣira prints it · the thing left, without بـ
أبدل and بدّل · Thaʿlab’s ring and al-Wasīṭ’s old garment do not put بـ on the same side · صرف · selling gold for silver
An exchange, on this reading, has someone who gives a thing and receives another, and a partner when a line names one. English exchange X for Y with Z keeps for on the thing received and with on the partner. Arabic does not give بـ one of those jobs. The same preposition is printed on the thing given up and, in other lines, on the thing received. The verb form and the ranking decide which reading a line is filed under. They do not decide the question for the language.
Form III بادل. The partner is the direct object. Lane, citing Ibn Durayd, the Muḥkam, and the Qāmūs, glosses بادله as exchanging with him, or giving him the like of what he took from him. The object of that verb is the person. Lisān al-ʿArab prints the same government: بادَلَ الرجلَ مُبادَلةً وبِدالاً: أعطاه مثل ما أخذ منه. al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ splits the verb in two: بادَلَ فلاناً: أعطاه شيئاً منه بَدَلَه, the person as object, and بادَلَ الشيءَ بغيره: أخذه بَدَلَه, the thing as object and بـ on the other thing. Cowan’s English edition of Hans Wehr glosses Form III as exchanging with someone of something. The partner slot of Form III is an accusative, the shape of a direct object, where English uses with.
The two things, on the double-object example. Almaany’s Arabic–Arabic page prints بَادَلَهُ كِتَاباً بِكِتَابٍ and glosses it تَبَادَلَ مَعَهُ، أَعْطَاهُ كِتَاباً وَأَخَذَ مِنْهُ مِثْلَهُ. The person is the accusative pronoun. كتاباً is a second accusative, and the gloss says he gave that book. بكتاب is بـ plus a genitive, and the gloss says he took its like. On that gloss the traded thing is accusative and the counter-thing, the thing received, is the بـ phrase. بادلتُه الكتابَ بالقلمِ is constructed on that example: ـهُ the partner, الكتابَ the accusative thing, بالقلمِ the genitive after بـ. The articles do not print the pen. Wasīṭ’s بادل الشيء بغيره: أخذه بدله has no partner and does not name two goods. “He took it as its substitute” is that gloss. It is not the same sentence as the book example, and this page does not force the two into one direction.
Form VI تبادل. A plural subject, and no partner object. Lane glosses تبادلا as exchanging each with the other: each gave the other the like of what he took from him. Wasīṭ prints تبادلا: بادل كلٌّ منهما صاحبه. The two parties are the subject. al-Ghanī, as Almaany labels it, prints تَبَادَلَ الصَّدِيقُ مَعَ صَدِيقِهِ الكُتُبَ, glossed as taking what the other has and giving what one has, and يَتَبَادَلُونَ السِّلَعَ. al-Muʿāṣira prints تبادلَ الشَّخصان الهدايا: each took the other’s gifts. The thing exchanged is accusative. مع plus a genitive names the other person beside the subject. It is not an accusative partner of the Form III kind. Wehr’s Form VI gloss is exchanging something, also words, views, and greetings.
Form X استبدل. بـ on the thing given up, in the classical line. Qur’an 2:61 has أتستبدلون الذي هو أدنى بالذي هو خير. Lane prints the sentence as ii. 58 and, citing Jalāl, “Will ye take in exchange that which is worse for that which is better?” The accusative relative الذي هو أدنى is what is taken. بالذي هو خير is بـ plus a genitive relative, and it is the better thing, the thing the taker gives up. al-Muʿāṣira defines استبدل الشيء بالشيء as changing it for the other and taking it in exchange, and it adds the parenthesis بإدخال الباء على المتروك, “with بـ introduced on the thing left.” Its filled example is استبدل العفوَ بالعقاب, accusative pardon, بـ on the punishment, and it cites the verse. al-Ghanī prints اِسْتَبْدَلَ قَمِيصاً بِآخَرَ with the same parenthesis, الباء تدخل على المتروك. Lisān al-ʿArab prints استبدل الشيءَ بغيره وتبدَّله به إذا أخذه مكانه. Lane’s other formula, from al-Layth, is استبدل ثوباً مكان ثوب: he took a garment in the place of a garment. مكان plus a genitive is that place-phrase. al-Muʿāṣira quotes Qur’an 4:20, وإن أردتم استبدال زوج مكان زوج, and glosses the noun as making the accusative a substitute for the مكان phrase.
The same verb, with بـ on the thing received. Muʿjam al-ṣawāb al-lughawī files the pattern استبدل بـ under the example استبدل ثوبه القديم بثوب جديد. The opinion line calls that pattern rejected by most, because بـ is not on the thing left. The ranking then prints two lines: استبدل ثوباً جديداً بثوبه القديم, marked فصيحة, بـ on the old garment, and استبدل ثوبه القديم بثوب جديد, marked مقبولة, بـ on the new garment. The comment says the more eloquent use puts بـ on the thing left, that some dictionaries allow بـ on the other thing, that the Cairo Academy took that allowance, and that putting بـ on the thing left is preferable so the two sides are not confused. The verse is the comment’s citation for the first ranking. This page records the فصيحة line and the مقبولة line. It does not promote either one to the only frame of استبدل.
أبدل, بدّل, and صرف. The Lisān prints Abū al-ʿAbbās Thaʿlab: أبدلت الخاتم بالحلقة إذا نحيت هذا وجعلت هذا مكانه. The accusative signet-ring is removed, and the بـ phrase, the plain ring, is put there. Lane prints the same sentence from al-Farrāʾ. His English is exchanging the signet-ring for the simple ring, or replacing the signet-ring with the simple ring, said when one removes the one and puts the other in its place. Wasīṭ’s أبدل الشيء بغيره is “he took it as a compensation for it and a successor to it,” so the accusative is the substitute adopted. Those two glosses of أبدل do not put بـ on the same side. Wasīṭ’s بدّل is explicit about the side it wants: بدّل بالثوب القديم الثوب الجديد, with the parenthesis بإدخال الباء على المتروك. بـ is the old garment. The accusative is the new one. The Lisān, under صرف, prints the excess of one dirham over another, فضل الدرهم على الدرهم, and selling gold for silver, بيع الذهب بالفضة, because one turns thereby from one metal to another. Wehr lists بدّال as a grocer and a money-changer. That noun is not a clause of صرف.
Where this diverges from English for. The Cambridge patterns the Polish page cites keep for on the thing received. بـ is printed on the thing given up in Qur’an 2:61, in the فصيحة ranking, in Wasīṭ’s بدّل, and in the al-Muʿāṣira parenthesis. بـ is printed on the thing put in the place in Thaʿlab’s أبدل, on the new garment in the مقبولة ranking, and on the like taken in Almaany’s بادله كتابا بكتاب. English for does not move. Arabic بـ does, by the verb and by the ranking.