Current Research on Linguistic Variation in the Arabic-Speaking World
نویسندگان
چکیده
Given its abundance of dialects, varieties, styles, and registers, Arabic lends itself easily to the study of language variation and change. It is spoken by some 300 million people in an area spanning roughly from northwest Africa to the Persian Gulf. Traditional Arabic dialectology has dealt predominantly with geographical variation. However, in recent years, more nuanced studies of interand intra-speaker variation have seen the light of day. In some respects, Arabic sociolinguistics is still lagging behind the field compared to variationist studies in English and other Western languages. On the other hand, the insight presented in studies of Arabic can and should be considered in the course of shaping a crosslinguistic sociolinguistic theory. Variationist studies of Arabic-speaking speech communities began almost two decades after Labov’s pioneering studies of American English and have f lourished following the turn of the 21st century. These studies have sparked debates between more quantitatively inclined sociolinguists and those who value qualitative analysis. In reality, virtually no sociolinguistic study of Arabic that includes statistical modeling is free of qualitative insights. They are also not f lawless and not always cutting edge methodologically or theoretically, but the field is moving in a positive direction, which will likely lead to the recognition of its significance to sociolinguistics at large.
منابع مشابه
Revisiting the Arabic Diglossic Situation and Highlighting the Socio-Cultural Factors Shaping Language Use in Light of Auer’s (2005) Model
In the field of Arabic sociolinguistics, diglossia has been an interesting linguistic inquiry since it was first discussed by Ferguson in 1959. Since then, diglossia has been discussed, expanded, and revisited by Badawi (1973), Hudson (2002), and Albirini (2016) among others. While the discussion of the Arabic diglossic situation highlights the existence of two separate codes (High and Lo...
متن کاملPragmatic expressions in cross-linguistic perspective
This paper focuses on some pragmatic expressions that are characteristic of informal spoken English, their possible equivalents in some other languages, and their use by EFL learners from different backgrounds. These expressions, called general extenders (e.g. and stuff, or something), are shown to be different from discourse markers and to exhibit variation in form, funct...
متن کاملThe Role of Ethnicity in Integrative Tests Performances of Male/ Female Iranian English Learners of Different Language Proficiency Levels
Linguistic/cultural differences of learners’ native language with English as a foreign language, gender and English proficiency level are among those numerous variables which affect English learning and its quality in Iranian context. The present study was an attempt to illuminate the effects of these variables on performing integrative approach of general English tests (cloze test and recall t...
متن کاملCross-linguistic Validation of Processability Theory: The Case of EFL Iranian Students’ Speaking Skill
Abstract This study investigated the validity of processability theory proposed by Pienemann (1998/2015) among Iranian EFL learners’ oral performance. The theory defines six procedural stages for learners in the process of second language acquisition. In order to conduct the study, 10 intermediate EFL learners were selected based on their performance on Oxford Placement Test. Then, they partici...
متن کاملComputer Processing Of Arabic Script-Based Languages. Current State And Future Directions
Arabic script-based languages do not belong to a single language family, and therefore exhibit different linguistic properties. To name just a few: Arabic is primarily a VSO language whereas Farsi is an SVO and Urdu is an SOV language. Both Farsi and Urdu have light verbs whereas Arabic does not. Urdu and Arabic have grammatical gender while Farsi does not. There are, however, linguistic and no...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Language and Linguistics Compass
دوره 10 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2016