http://arabling2.blogspot.com

>Language acquisition as computational resetting: verb movement in L3 initial state

mqzungo — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:36:00 +0000

>Hermas, Abdelkader. 2010. Language acquisition as computational resetting: verb movement in L3 initial state. International Journal of Multilingualism 7: 343-362.

This study considers the acquisition of the verb movement parameter in L3 English by adult Arabic–French bilinguals. The focus is on the nature of the L3 initial state and the contribution of the syntactic (CHL) and post-syntactic (phonetic form) modules to the process of parameter resetting. The results of acceptability judgement tests and preference tests show that the initial state of L3 English is influenced exclusively by the final state of L1 Arabic. It also reveals that the universal mechanisms of the computational modules operate according to the L1 specifications, resulting in the misrepresentation of L3 target structures. The concept of parameter resetting is consequently redefined as a computational readjustment at the (post-) syntactic levels.

>THE ROLE OF illi ‘that’ IN THE GRAMMAR OF EGYPTIAN ARABIC

mqzungo — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:28:00 +0000

>Gad, Rehab. 2010. THE ROLE OF illi ‘that’ IN THE GRAMMAR OF EGYPTIAN ARABIC. Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics 15: 14-39

This paper investigates the role of illi in the grammar of one of the colloquial dialects of Arabic; that is Egyptian Arabic (EA). It investigates how illi affects the formation of wh-questions (with initial and in-situ wh-phrases) and relative clauses. Since the classification of illi has been a subject of debate in the literature, the study aims at providing a new analysis for it. The major claim is that illi belongs to the class of functional categories which serves the grammatical function of a relative pronoun. This paper presents data where illi acts as both a relative pronoun and a licensor for wh-fronting. The following questions are addressed:
1. If illi is analysed as a relative pronoun, how can we account for its occurrence in an initial position within some wh-questions without having to propose a movement analysis?
2. Can illi be classified as a complementizer that shares some syntactic properties with the complementizer inn ‘that‟?
3. Within wh-questions, does illi behave as a question particle?
4. How can we account for the EA data where illi has the dual function of a relative pronoun and a complementizer?
The major claim is that illi does not belong to the class of question particles which mark a yes/no question and a wh-question. Though illi and inn „that‟ occur as C elements equivalent to the English „that‟, illi does not exhibit the morphological or the functional properties of inn „that‟, hence it cannot be classified as a complementizer. Within wh-questions, the position of illi depends on the position of the argument wh-phrases which can either occupy the Spec CP position when followed by illi, or remain in situ with illi in an initial position. I conclude that illi shares the structural position of complementizers while carrying out the grammatical function of relative pronouns.

FULL TEXT HERE

>New Website: Rural Society in Medieval Islam, History of the Fayyum

mqzungo — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:18:00 +0000

Rural society in Medieval Islam: ‘History of the Fayyum’

The ‘History of the Fayyum’ is a unique tax register, in Arabic, listing revenues from 130 villages and hamlets in one Egyptian province for AD 1245. It is the most detailed tax survey to have survived from any region of the medieval Islamic world, a Domesday Book for the medieval Egyptian countryside.

This website offers the tools for a quantitative and qualitative micro-study of society, economy, and agriculture of medieval Fayyum. It gives access to:
Full fiscal and demographic data set, presented in 17 Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets.
Spatial representation of the data, presented in 14 Geographical Information System (GIS) maps.
Extracts from the English translation and Arabic edition of the work.

It also includes resources for teaching the rural history of the Middle East, and a forum area for postings on the history of the Fayyum (available from September 2011).

The website is part of the ‘Rural Society in Medieval Islam’ project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, and based at the School of History, Queen Mary University of London.

http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/ruralsocietyislam/

>Mediterranean Language Review 17 (2006–2010)

mqzungo — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:52:00 +0000

Mediterranean Language Review 17 (2006–2010)

Y. Marom & A. Geva- One Soul, Two Lifetimes: A Druze Text from Kleinberger Mount Carmel on Reincarnation 47

R. Henkin Bilingual Humor in Written Negev Arabic and Its Oral Roots 65

V. Ritt-Benmimoun Knaben- und Männerspiele der MaRAzIg (Südtunesien) 89

>The gradual emergence of phonological form in a new language (On As Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language)

mqzungo — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:32:00 +0000

>Sandler, Wendy; Mark Aronoff; Irit Meir; Carol Padden. 2011. The gradual emergence of phonological form in a new language. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29: 503-543.

The division of linguistic structure into a meaningless (phonological) level and a meaningful level of morphemes and words is considered a basic design feature of human language. Although established sign languages, like spoken languages, have been shown to be characterized by this bifurcation, no information has been available about the way in which such structure arises. We report here on a newly emerging sign language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, which functions as a full language but in which a phonological level of structure has not yet emerged. Early indications of formal regularities provide clues to the way in which phonological structure may develop over time.

FULL TEXT HERE AND THERE

>Symbolic Dimensions of Arabic, English and Verlan in French Rap Texts

mqzungo — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Hassa, Samira. 2010. Kiff my zikmu: Symbolic Dimensions of Arabic, English and Verlan in French Rap Texts. The Languages of Global Hip Hop, ed. Marina Tekourafi, 44-66. London: Continuum.

Text available at Google Books

mqzungo — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:48:00 +0000

>Dickins, James. 2010. Junction in English and Arabic: Syntactic, Discoursal and Denotative Features. Journal of Pragmatics 42: 1076-1136.

Using Standard Arabic original texts and idiomatic English translations, this paper considers syntactic, discoursal and denotative similarities and differences between English and Arabic in respect of junction. In order to define the basic analytical scope, a composite definition of ‘sentence’ is developed, integrating grammatical, semantic and punctuational/intonational criteria. It is argued for both English and Arabic that the adjunction–disjunction distinction is properly syntactic, but that disjunction–coordination is perhaps better understood as a semantic cline. The relationship between thematic structure, mainness–subordination and grounding is investigated. While English typically backgrounds rhematic subordinate clauses, with disjuncts more likely to be foregrounded than adjuncts, Arabic readily allows foregrounding of rhematic subordinate clauses. The Arabic disjuncts (‘id) and () ‘since, as’ may display discoursal independence beyond that possible for a foregrounded subordinate disjunct rheme in English. While English standardly requires both main coordinate clauses to be foregrounded, Arabic allows either clause to be foregrounded or backgrounded. Denotative differences are illustrated by the greater capacity of Arabic adjunct-heads () and (ila ‘an) ‘until’ for denotative independence from their main clause than English ‘until’. Discoursal and denotative factors may interact to produce Arabic coordinate-clause types which are strikingly unlike English ones.

mqzungo — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:30:00 +0000

Alfaifi, Abdullah Ahmad M.; Peter Behnstedt. 2010. First Notes on the Dialect of Ǧabal Fayfā’ (Jazan Province/Saudi Arabia). Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 52: 53-67.

>Against Underlying Mid Vowels in Cairene Arabic

mqzungo — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:24:00 +0000

>Youssef, Islam. 2010. Against Underlying Mid Vowels in Cairene Arabic. Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik 52: 5-38.

Mid vowels in Cairene Arabic (CA) are claimed to have historically developed from Classical Arabic (CLA) diphthongs through monophthongization. Despite the claims that this is a historical process which no longer applies and that long mid vowels are underlying in CA, the absence of short mid vowels in this dialect raises certain theoretical concerns. This paper examines the distribution of mid vowels and diphthongs in CA and provides evidence that all mid vowels are synchronically derived from underlying diphthongs. Diphthongs, however, surface in systematic environments: after the shortening of underlying long low vowels, across morpheme boundaries, when a geminate glide is involved, and in a few lexical exceptions – contexts which resist various phonological processes across languages. I argue that the appearance of CA long mid vowels is the result of total assimilation of two adjacent vocalic root nodes. As a consequence, CA and CLA surface forms can both be derived from diphthongal underlying representations with minimal constraint re-ranking.

>The Discourse on Lahn in Arabic Philological and Literary Traditions

mqzungo — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:21:00 +0000

>Sanni, Amidu. 2010. The Discourse on Lah˙n in Arabic Philological and Literary Traditions. Middle Eastern Literatures 13: 1-19.

The Arabic terminological tradition is remarkably unique for the application of a single
referential word to a variety of concepts across subjects. One such term is lah˙n, which, in
the sense of a terminus technicus, became a familiar topos in philological, jurisprudential,
literary, and Qur’ anic discourses. The present study re-examines the referential terrain of
the term, taking as its point of departure, Johann Fu¨ ck’s (d. 1974) seminal discussion of
it. An entirely new area to which the term came to be applied relates to the aesthetic genres;
namely, the poetic and prose forms where particular manipulation of meanings or
expressions became interpretable as rhetorical lah˙n. From Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933) down
to Ibn Rash ıq (d. 456/1063), this study examines the trajectory of the evolution and
formalization of the term lah˙n in the context of allusive tropes established by theorists and
literary legislators. The study also demonstrates that, its strong referential attachment to
incorrect idiom notwithstanding, the application of the term lah˙n to other phenomena in
the scholarly discourse was all the more remarkable in regard to the literary, theoretical
tradition where the elasticity of the terminological convention is once more established.