The polyfunctional lexeme /fard/ in the Arabic dialects of Iraq and Khuzestan (original) (raw)
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Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 13:2 , 2021
The primary aim of this paper is to explore the functions of the word /fard/ in Iraqi and Khuzestani Arabic. The study is based on the analysis of various text corpora and the elicitation of further examples from native speakers of the varieties investigated. The analysis of these data has shown that /fard/ is a polyfunctional item. Its various functions are the result of several grammaticalization processes. In the first stage, the noun "individual" has become a quantifier that expresses singularity. From this stage it developed into an intensifier, a marker of approximation and the scalar adverb "only." It has been demonstrated that, from its use as a presentative marker, it developed toward an indefinite article. In contrast to the definite article, which is a grammatical category in nearly every variety of Arabic, the use of an indefinite article is rarely found in spoken Arabic. In Iraqi and Khuzestani Arabic, /fard/ is an indefinite article that possesses a wide range of applications and only a limited set of constraints. Its use, however, remains optional to a very high degree. Its main function is that of a presentative-i.e., introducing a new referent into a discourse. In addition, it also functions as an individuation marker, as a marker for expressing the speaker's epistemic status (knowledge/ignorance) regarding a referent, and indicating free choice from a set of potential referents. Related to this last function is its use as a mitigating device in imperatives and polite requests.
The multifunctionality of Fii in Gulf Pidgin Arabic
The paper is a descriptive account of the various grammatical functions of the particle fii in the grammar of Gulf Pidgin Arabic, the contact system that has developed in the Arab countries of the Arabian Gulf for use between the Arabic-speaking native citizens and the expatriate work force in these countries. It aims at discussing the grammatical multi-functionality of this element and the factors behind the expansion of its grammatical functions, when it was adopted from the lexifier Gulf Arabic. In Gulf Arabic, fii is used as a preposition and as an existential predicate. When it was adopted into GPA, fii also assumed the role of a predication marker in non-verbal subject-predicate sentences, and sentences with verbal predicates. A similar expansion in grammatical roles has affected its negative counterpart maafii, which is used as a negative of fii in its role as an existential predicate in Gulf Arabic. In GPA the use of maafii has also been expanded so that it is now used as a universal negator in the language, regardless of the predicate or sentence type. The paper investigates the factors that motivated this extension in the uses of fii/maafii and argues that it is not transfer- induced. Rather, language-internal motivation and universal tendencies are more legitimate candidates for the forces lying behind this process.
Grammaticalization in Emirati Arabic
This paper is concerned with the process of language change whereby lexical items and constructions, in specific contexts, come to serve new grammatical functions. Emirati Arabic provides us with a wide range of grammaticalization phenomena. The aim of this paper is twofold: to shed light on the basic concepts relating to grammaticaliza-tion phenomena and to examine the grammaticalization of a number of constructions in Emirati Arabic, investigating their formation and the changes in their functions. The development of these grammatical constructions follows a grammaticalization pathway identified for a wide range of linguistic items cross-linguistically. Résumé Cet article s'intéresse au processus du changement de la langue dans laquelle des élé-ments et des constructions lexicales, dans des contextes spécifiques, viennent assu-rer de nouvelles fonctions grammaticales. L'arabe émirati nous offre un large éventail. I would like to thank the audience for their comments and suggestions. I am also extremely grateful for the insightful comments of three anonymous reviewers whose input has greatly improved this paper. Needless to say, all remaining errors and shortcomings are my own responsibility.
On Definiteness and Information Trigger in Arabic
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2016
The current research argues that definiteness in Arabic can be used for formal purposes. The definite article and the nunnation suffix-n (NnnS) manage the information flow in the sentence through maintaining accepted informativity balance. Additionally, the study assumes that NnnS,-n, is not an indefinite article. Its main function is rather to stimulate the speaker to add information about indefinite nouns. The information triggered by the NnnS is labelled as 'balancing materials', whose aim is to restore sentence acceptability which degrades due to indefinite nouns. Balancing materials can be of two types: semantic and formal. When the speaker balks at adding either types of balancing materials, the definite article is used, instead. Here, the definite article resolves the tension of adding information about the indefinite nouns and refraining from doing so. These issues are supported by empirical evidence. With this new role of definiteness, new insights into some pertinent issues, including sentence building and translation are offered.
The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify an accurate means of analyzing these elements within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. The article opens by describing auxiliaries in MSA and then attempts to identify evidence that supports their classification as auxiliaries. The article then discusses the possible means of analyzing auxiliaries presented in the literature: aux-feature and aux-predicate analysis approaches. In the former, the auxiliary is classified as a feature and the lexical verb is classified as a predicate, while the auxiliary is examined in the latter as a predicate and the lexical verb serves as a complement. This article argues that auxiliaries in MSA should be classified as predicates during aux-predicate analysis.
Demonstratives and the emergence of a definite article in Juba Arabic and Ki-Nubi
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 2017
In this study I provide a description of the morphosyntax and the functions of demonstratives in Juba Arabic and Ki-Nubi, two closely related Arabic-based contact languages. The study describes the process of acquisition of demonstrative pronouns and determiners and it explains the formal and functional changes that have taken place in the demonstrative system of Arabic as a consequence of pidginization and subsequent creolization. Broadly speaking, the reduction of the inflection of Arabic demonstratives and the gradual loss of their deictic value corresponds to a change of their grammatical functions along the common grammaticalization path deictic demonstrative > anaphoric demonstrative > definite article. However, Juba Arabic and Ki-Nubi clearly differ in terms of both forms and functions of pronominal and adnominal demonstratives. If Juba Arabic demonstratives are characterized by a certain morphological continuity with those of its Arabic lexifier, Ki-Nubi gives evidence of an innovative, and rather complex, system of demonstrative pronouns and determiners. This morphosyntactic divergence is also reflected on a functional ground insofar as the adnominal demonstrative de “this” is mainly used as a tracking device in Juba Arabic, while it can mark nominal definiteness in Ki-Nubi. The study thus proposes a unified diachronic hypothesis that accounts for a greater degree of grammaticalization of nominal determination in Ki-Nubi as a result of its radical creolization.
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft , 2020
It is customary in modern scholarship to classify exceptive sentences such as mā qāma ʾillā zaydun 'no one stood except Zayd' (the so-called al-istiṯnāʾ al-mufarraġ) as containing a restored general term (mustaṯnā minhu), that is, to posit for the abovementioned sentence an underlying structure such as mā qāma ʾaḥadun ʾillā zaydun. Moreover, it has occasionally been claimed that this view was also held by Arab grammarians. However, the writings of Arab grammarians present a much more complicated picture. In this article three different analyses of al-istiṯnāʾ al-mufarraġ will be discussed: whereas the first is completely distinct from the foregoing analysis, and the third shows remarkable similarity with it, it is on the second analysis, which posits an underlying general term, but only at the semantic level, that our discussion will concentrate.
The Noun Phrase in Gulf Pidgin Arabic
to be published in 'Awraq Lisaaniyya 'Linguistic Papers'
This study is a descriptive account of the grammatical properties of the noun phrase in Gulf Pidgin Arabic (GPA), a reduced linguistic system widely in use in the region of the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. The description deals with the morphological and the syntactic properties of each of the components of this phrasal category; the head noun, the determiner system, demonstratives, definiteness, quantification, and the system of noun modifiers, pre- and post- noun modifiers and possessive constructions. It also discusses the grammatical categories that are closely linked to them, such as case, gender and number, and how these are signaled. The description is placed within the context of the corresponding phrases in the lexifier Gulf Arabic and the substrate languages, which shows clearly that GPA differs significantly from them. The properties that the GPA noun phrase exhibits seem to stem from general features and tendencies that characterize the structure of pidgins in the world. Thus, we argue that these structural properties ascertain the pidgin status of GPA and establish the developmental stage of this pidgin system in relation to other pidgin systems.