What is a Word?

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Böhm ◽  
Ulrich Mehlem
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Word Segmentation ◽  
Striking Feature ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Moroccan Arabic ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Different Orthographies ◽  
Classical Arabic

Abstract Practices of word segmentation in French and Moroccan Arabic by beginning and advanced bilingual writers in two historically and linguistically divergent settings are analysed in a threefold perspective: (1) In the different sociocultural contexts of linguistically heterogeneous France in the 1870’s and a town with remarkable immigration from Morocco in Germany in 2000, dictations constitute monolingual settings of language policy and normativity; (2) structurally, open and closed spellings of (clitic) function and content words indicate constraints of different orthographies, focussing either phonology or morphosyntax; (3) in the framework of contact linguistics, bilingual students write in one of their languages (French, Moroccan Arabic) with resources of other languages (like Breton, German, Classical Arabic). The results show that the students’ writings are influenced by graphematic structures not directly related to the language dictated. In French Brittany, a great importance of closed spellings may be supported by the agglutinative feature of the Breton language, while the apostrophe as a striking feature of French orthography is used primarily, but often only emblematically, by the students in Gascony. Moroccan Arabic writers in Germany are influenced indirectly by their first school language, German, in the way they mark word boundaries in prepositional phrases (PP) and imperfective verb forms. Classical Arabic, however, remains of marginal influence although both varieties are historically and structurally closely related.

Opening doors for bilingual students: Recommendations for building linguistically responsive schools

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy J Heineke ◽  
Elizabeth Coleman ◽  
Elizabeth Ferrell ◽  
Craig Kersemeier
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Effective School ◽  
Bilingual Learners ◽  
School Structures ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collaborative Efforts

In this article, we outline the necessary action steps for schools to improve the achievement of bilingual students. We review, summarize, and utilize the pertinent scholarly literature to make suggestions for school-wide, collaborative efforts to support the achievement of bilingual learners through linguistically responsive pedagogy and practice. Our research-based recommendations include the need for school actors to negotiate language policy and mandates, lay the necessary ideological foundations, build effective school structures and systems, and foster meaningful collaboration with families and communities. When teachers, administrators, counselors, families, and community members work together, schools can improve to promote the social, cultural, linguistic, and academic achievement of bilingual students.

A Disputed Sabaic ‘Relative’ Pronoun

1976 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-422
Author(s):  
A. F. L. Beeston
Keyword(s):  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Arabic Poetry ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Relative Interpretation ◽  
Classical Arabic

The following note, though drafted by A. F. L. Beeston, is essentially the result of co-operative discussion between him, A. K. Irvine, W. W. Müller, M. Rodinson, and J. Ryckmans; all of whom are now in agreement on the issue. The discussion originated from the question whether four words beginning with t- in CIH 540 (tbs2nf line 15, ts3n/ts1n lines 16 and 19, tbn line 18) are to be explained as containing a feminine relative pronoun t as a variant of the normal Sabaic form ḏt, as Praetorius suggested; or are t-prefix verb forms. In favour of the relative interpretation are the facts, firstly that in classical Arabic poetry we find a masculine ḏā contrasting with feminine tī, and the same type of alternation is widely attested in vernacular dialects, including Yemeni ones; secondly, that in all four cases there is a defined feminine antecedent (‘glmtn, k'btn, k'bt/ġyln, k'bt/mfllm—assuming, as is most probable, that the last word is a proper name). Against it was the fact that such a pronoun appeared to be attested nowhere in all Sabaic except in this text. G. M. Bauer (Yazyk yuzhnoarabiyskoy pis'mennosti, Moscow, 1966, 92) accepted the relatival interpretation, but describes it as a ‘late’ use; while M. Rodinson (‘Sur un pseudo-relatif sudarabique’, Actes du premier Congrès international de Linguistique Sémitique et Chamito-semitique, Paris, 1969, ed. by Caquot and Cohen, Paris, 1974, 290–1) and W. W. Müller (in an article for AION, 1975, sent to press before our discussions took place) were inclined to deny the existence of this relative and adopt the verbal interpretation.

scholarly journals Verb Form and Tense in Arabic

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 284
Author(s):  
Yasir Alotaibi
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Neutral Context ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Classical Arabic ◽  
English Verb ◽  
Modern Standard

This paper discusses tense in Arabic based on three varieties of the language: Classical Arabic (CA), Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and the Taif dialect (TD). We argue against previous analyses that suggest that Arabic is a tenseless language, which assume that tense information is derived from the context. We also argue against the suggestion that Arabic is tensed, but that its tense is relative, rather than absolute. We propose here that CA, MSA, and TD have closely related verb forms, and that these are tensed verbs. Tense in Arabic is absolute in a neutral context and verb forms take the perfective and imperfective aspect. Similar to other languages including English, verb forms in Arabic may take reference from the context instead of the present moment. In this case, we argue that this does not mean that tense in Arabic is relative, because this would also imply that tense in many languages, including English, is relative. Further, we argue that the perfective form indicates only the past tense and the imperfective form, only the present; all other interpretations are derived by implicature.

Glide Distribution in Classical Arabic Verb Stems

2006 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Rosenthall
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Input Output ◽  
The Core ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
High Vowels ◽  
Classical Arabic ◽  
Complex Distribution

The seemingly idiosyncratic distribution of glides in the weak verb stems of Classical Arabic is given a coherent analysis as the consequence of constraint interaction, as defined by Optimality Theory. At the core of the analysis are two constraint rankings that determine the vowels of the verb stem. One ranking, which ensures harmonic parsing of a low vowel over high vowels, is based on input/output faithfulness; the other ranking, which ensures harmonic parsing of high vowels over a low vowel, is based on intercandidate faithfulness, as defined by Sympathy Theory. These constraint rankings interact with generally defined markedness constraints to account for glide distribution in all measure I verb forms without specific reference to morphological contexts. As a result, the complex distribution of glides in Arabic is not typologically anomalous.

scholarly journals English Language in Pakistan: A Policy Analysis of Past and Present of Linguistic Contact with Urdu and Pashto

2020 ◽  
Vol V (II) ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Ayaz Ahmad ◽  
Liaqat Iqbal ◽  
Irfan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Language Attitude ◽  
Policy And Planning

The paper revisits the diachronic evolution of the belief, practices, and attitudes of Urdu and Pashto speakers towards English and ascertains the drivers and effects of such changes. The changes are explored at two levels, micro and macro. The macro-level perspective concerns the 'use' interface while the microlevel concerns the 'code'. The study hinges on the theory of contact linguistics' approaches such as language shift, hybridization and domain conquest. In the wake of this study, the scholars revisit the value of 'Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scales' (GIDS) in the assessment of language prospects of survival. The study finds that Pashto and Urdu both underwent substantial changes as a result of contact with the English language. The study also proposes revisiting definitions of some popular terms used in the evaluation of language policy and planning as the proposal to use more discrete terms that can be easily understood and applied by the practitioners of the fields, such as the distinction of language attitude and belief

The main functions of theophoric formulae in Moroccan Arabic

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Procházka
Keyword(s):  
Moroccan Arabic ◽  
Classical Arabic ◽  
Grammatical Functions

AbstractThis article examines the discursive and grammatical functions in Moroccan Arabic of some frequently used expressions that contain the word ‘God’. Most of them are rooted in Classical Arabic but have undergone significant phonological and semantic developments. Some of them have become grammaticalised and appear in linguistic constructions remote from their original meanings.

The Detribalization of Arabic Poetry

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arieh Loya
Keyword(s):  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
World History ◽  
Steel Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Striking Feature ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Arabic Poetry ◽  
Classical Arabic

The forms, themes and patterns of classical Arabic poetry were laid down in the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam. Indeed the oldest poem of which we have any record dates back to the period of Jâhiliyya, a derogatory term meaning ‘ignorance’ coined by the early Muslims to denote the state of religious and moral depravity of pre-Islamic Arabs. This period covers scarcely more than a century and a half (c. a.d. 500–622). Yet when the Arabs first sprang onto the stage of world history to carve an empire for themselves, they already had an extremely complex and refined poetic art. This remarkable phenomenon has baffled the student of Arabic literature and history: ‘The most striking feature in Arabic literature is its unexpectedness’ remarks Gibb, while Goitein refers to it as ‘the miracle of pre-Islamic poetry and literary language’. The Jâhili poets, though springing from primitive and illiterate nomadic tribes, were no beginners declaiming shaky lines in a mixture of dialects in prevalence at the time. These were a host of poets erupting all over northern Arabia, from Syria to Yemen and from the fringes of Iraq to the borders of Egypt, masterfully reciting highly developed qasîdas (odes) in one and the same language, betraying little of the dialects of their region. Above all, their poetry, vigorous and vivid as it was in general, was cast in the same, steel structure of a set of complex metrical schemes.

The Origins of Andalusi-Moroccan Arabic and the Role of Diglossia

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-195
Author(s):  
Jamal Ouhalla
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Moroccan Arabic ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Classical Arabic

This article aims to make a contribution to the debate concerning the origins of the Moroccan Arabic genitive preposition d(yal) and its implications for the emergence of Moroccan Arabic recently reignited in Heath (2015). The latter sources the preposition to a combination of Late Latin allative dē and pronouns in the context of a language shift that took place in Roman cities in the Maghreb. This hypothesis is shown to be inconsistent with both the linguistic and historical evidence, which favour the alternative hypothesis that the preposition arose from merger between the Old Romance genitive preposition de/i and the Classical Arabic definite article (ʔ)al (Ouhalla 2009a&b). This development took place in the context of Andalusi Arabic, which emerged in Spain in the ninth and tenth centuries and subsequently spread to Morocco by migration. In addition to outlining further linguistic evidence for the hypothesis, the article highlights the role of diglossia in the emergence of Andalusi Arabic, where Classical Arabic was the High variety that accounted for much of the vocabulary and Iberian Old Romance as the Low variety that accounted for the syntax base.

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