Reflexives and Reciprocals in English and Modern Standard Arabic: An Investigation and a Comparison

The aim of this paper is to investigate the typology of reflexives and reciprocals in English and MSA, which is a variety of standardized, literary Arabic used throughout Arab countries. It has shown that MSA morphologically encoded reflexives and reciprocals are in fact syntactically and semantically asymmetrical. It will be argued that morphologically encoded reflexives do not project an anaphor (an internal argument) syntactically and their morphological marker semantically serves as a reflexivizer, whereas morphologically encoded reciprocals do project an anaphor syntactically, realized either overtly or covertly. Concerning the distribution of such anaphor, the paper elucidates the admissible and in admissible environments. It is argued that MSA does not allow possessive reflexives, but allow possessive reciprocals such as the construct-state, whether it be a noun phrase or a locative prepositional phrase. This variation is accounted for by assuming that reciprocals occupy Spec of DP and therefore can be bound by an NP from a higher phase, whereas reflexives occupy a position lower than the D head and thus must be bound within their DP phase. Finally yet importantly, MSA override reflexives and reciprocals unlike their English counterparts, are always subject to the Principle A of the Binding Theory.

The Linguistic Ecology of the Sahel

The topic of this chapter is the linguistic ecology of multilingualism in the Sahel. Based on the premise that named languages are social and often colonial constructs, the chapter focuses on the speaker-centered notion of linguistic repertoire and the ways in which Sahelians use their linguistic resources. French and standard or literary Arabic are important languages in the Sahel, and they reflect strong regimes of language that are reinforced through education, both secular and Quranic. Communication in the multilingual Sahel is facilitated by indigenous languages that have become local or regional lingua francas. There are a number of writing practices generally overlooked in official statistics on literacy, including the use of the Arabic and other scripts to write indigenous languages. Orality is widely valued, and mastery of eloquent language has resulted in the differentiation of a caste of verbal artists or griots within the social hierarchy.

MEDIA ARABIC LANGUAGE

Over time with the development of human society, besides communication, language started being used in other domains, the media being one of them. Language, as the main means of the media, and the media through which language is spread and popularized among people are closely related and complementary. Media Arabic, which appeared with the foundation of the first print media in the Arabic world, was additionally popularized with the foundation of the first radio and TV stations in that area. All the conditions and circumstances following the foundation and development of Arabic media affected the formation of media Arabic, so its three sources are: literary Arabic, colloquial Arabic and foreign languages. Literary Arabic gives it authenticity and currency, from colloquial language it has inherited simplicity, clarity, and preciseness, while the foreign element secures its actuality and modernity. Media Arabic constantly develops and, in that way, contributes to the development and update of language in general.

EXPRESSION OF POSSESSIVE RELATIONS IN THE ARABIC LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS USING PREPOSITIONS

Постановка задачи. В отличие от европейских языков в арабском языке выражение притяжательных отношений происходит иными способами, а именно приименными, в первую очередь это конструкции с идафой ( ´iḍāfah ), а также конструкции с предлогами. В данной работе мы рассматриваем конструкции с предлогами li - и min, как одно из средств выражения притяжательности в арабском языке. Результаты. Конструкции с предлогами li - и min наиболее часто используются в арабском языке для выражения поссессивных отношений, поскольку могут выражать различные случаи поссессивности. В функции предлогов для выражения притяжательных отношений, кроме этих предлогов, могут употребляться «несобственно предлоги», которые в качестве самостоятельных имен обычно не используются. Притяжательные отношения в арабском языке могут выражаться частицами, выполняющими роль предлогов ( inda ), также используются служебные слова ( siwa , gayra ). Подобная картина наблюдается и в арабских диалектах. В некоторых (мавританский) сохранились старые предлоги из литературного арабского языка. В других (марокканский) эту функцию выполняют служебные слова ( d, dyāl, mtāε ). Выводы. Предлоги принимают активное участие в выражении притяжательности в арабском языке и его диалектах. Функции предлогов в арабском языке перенимаются частицами. С помощью частиц и слов, выполняющих роль предлогов между компонентами словосочетаний, может осуществляться притяжательная связь. Синтаксически и семантически предлоги могут быть заменены родительным падежом или идафной конструкцией, но в некоторых случаях предложная группа предпочтительнее. Problem statement: In contrast to the European languages in Arabic, the expression of possessive relations occurs in other ways, namely, well-known, and in the first place these are constructions with idafa (´ iḍāfah ), as well as constructions with prepositions. In our work, we consider constructions with the preposition li- and the preposition min , as one of the means of expressing possession in the Arabic language. Results. In the function of prepositions to express possessive relations, in addition to the mentioned prepositions, “improper prepositions” can be used, which are usually not used as independent names. Possessive relations in the Arabic language can be expressed by particles playing the role of prepositions ( inda ), and official words ( siwa, gayra ) are also used. A similar pattern is observed in Arabic dialects. In some (Moorish) old prepositions from literary Arabic are preserved. In others (Moroccan), this function is performed by service words ( d, dyāl, mtāε ). Conclusion. Thus, prepositions take an active part in the expression of possession in the Arabic language and its dialects. The functions of prepositions in the Arabic language are taken over by particles. With the help of particles and words playing the role of prepositions between the components of phrases, a possessive connection can be made. Syntactically and semantically, prepositions can be replaced by the genitive or idafa construct, but in some cases the prepositional group is preferable.

ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF AUTONOMOUS SECONDARY NAMING PROCESS (IDIOMATIC USAGE) IN THE MODERN ARABIC LANGUAGE

The article is devoted to the study of the theoretical basis of autonomous secondary naming processes and scrutinizing the issues, related to this type of naming in the scope of modern Arabic lexicology as a productive means of assigning meanings to concepts.The article reviews approaches of native and Arabic authors to the comprehension of the phenomenon and features of autonomous secondary naming (in modern Arabic linguistics – ‘Al-Majaaz’).The paper deals with morphological nuances of word formation and specific aspects of functioning of lexical units formed as the result of Al-Majaaz. It also touches upon semantics of secondary autonomous units.The article shows the correlation between autonomous secondary nomination units and single-word semantic borrowings (loans). Morphological characteristics of single-unit loan words and the reasons of their functioning in Modern Literary Arabic are also subject to study.The paper considers the prospects of autonomous secondary units functioning in the context of their interconnection with polysemy, homonymy and synonymy.This paper will be of interest for students, who study Arabic and lexicology, semantics and morphology issues, as well as for translators interested in word formation processes.

Zenaga

This chapter describes Zenaga as the chief representative of Western Berber (Afro-Asiatic), spoken by a few thousand bilingual (Zenaga/Hassaniyya) people of over 45 years of age. Their homeland forms a linguistic island in southwest Mauritania. Zenaga is highly endangered. In spite of intensive and long-lasting contact with both dialectal and literary Arabic it has retained major characteristics of Berber languages such as emphatic phonemes and a rich and complex morphology. But it also exhibits numerous peculiar features whose emergence is likely to be explained by Zenaga’s very remote geographical position. Certain conservative features (e.g. a laryngeal stop, vocalic alternation in verbal morphology) occur side by side with others that are, or could be, innovations (e.g. diminutive derivation, future marker).

Syntax of literary Arabic language with examples of analysis

The textbook is intended for 2-4 year students of the Chair of Arabic Studies of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, as well as for those engaged in comparative linguistics.

Cross-lingual phonological effects in different-script bilingual visual-word recognition

To isolate cross-lingual phonological effects during visual-word recognition, Arabic–Hebrew bilinguals who are native speakers of Spoken Arabic (SA) and proficient readers of both Literary Arabic (LA) and Hebrew, were asked to perform a visual lexical-decision task (LDT) in either LA (Experiment 1) or Hebrew (Experiments 2 and 3). The critical stimuli were non-words in the target language that either sounded like real words in the non-target language (pseudo-homophones) or did not sound like real words. In Experiment 1, phonological effects were obtained from SA to LA (two forms of the same language), but not from Hebrew to LA (two different languages that do not share the same script). However, cross-lingual phonological effects were obtained when participants performed the LDT in their second language, Hebrew (Experiments 2 and 3). Interestingly, while the within-language effect (from SA to LA) was inhibitory, the between-language effect (from SA to Hebrew) was facilitatory. These findings are explained within the Bilingual Interactive Activation plus (BIA+) model which postulates a fully interconnected identification system that provides output to a task/decision system.