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This book offers a wide range overview of current research issues in Arabic linguistics, extending from the general to the specific. It includes in depth investigations of theoretical and applied topics that are of interest to general and Arabic linguistics: computational analysis of Arabic, Arabic dialectology, acquisition of Arabic as a native language, learning and teaching Arabic as a first or foreign language, sociolinguistic analysis of Arabic, and the status of Arabic in European academe. Despite the seeming diversity of the topics, they fall thematically into two major inter-related categories, analysis and learning. Each chapter is a thoughtful reflection of a major current trend in the study of Arabic.

This book explores speakers’ intentions, and the structural and pragmatic resources they employ, in spoken Arabic – which is different in many essential respects from literary Arabic. Based on new empirical findings from across the Arabic world this book elucidates the many ways in which context and the goals and intentions of the speaker inform and constrain linguistic structure in spoken Arabic. This is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of information structure in spoken Arabic, which is based on language as it is actually used, not on normatively-given grammar. Written by leading experts in Arabic linguistics, the studies evaluate the ways in which relevant parts of a message in spoken Arabic are encoded, highlighted or obscured. It covers a broad range of issues from across the Arabic-speaking world, including the discourse-sensitive properties of word order variation, the use of intonation for information focussing, the differential role of native Arabic and second languages to encode information in a codeswitching context, and the need for cultural contextualization to understand the role of \"disinformation\" structure. The studies combine a strong empirical basis with methodological and theoretical issues drawn from a number of different perspectives including pragmatic theory, language contact, instrumental prosodic analysis and (de-)grammaticalization theory. The introductory chapter embeds the project within the deeper Arabic grammatical tradition, as elaborated by the eleventh century grammarian Abdul Qahir al-Jurjani. This book provides an invaluable comprehensive introduction to an important, yet understudied, component of spoken Arabic. Jonathan Owens is Professor of Arabic Linguistics at Bayreuth University, Germany. He has published extensively on many aspects of Arabic linguistics; his most recent publications include Arabic as a Minority Language and A Linguistic History of Arabic . Alaa Elgibali is Professor of Arabic and Linguistics at the University of Maryland, USA. He is the author of several seminal publications, including Arabic as a First Language: A study in language acquisition and development , and is associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics . Introduction: The once and future study of information structure in Arabic: from Jurjani to Grice - Jonathan Owens . 1: Explaining null and overt subjects in spoken Arabic - Jonathan Owens, Bill Young, Trent Rockwood, David Mehall, Robin Dodsworth . 2: Word order and textual function in Gulf Arabic - Clive Holes. 3: Information structure in the Najdi dialects - Bruce Ingham . 4: Word order in Egyptian Arabic: form and function - Malcolm Edwards . 5: The information structure of existential sentences in Egyptian Arabic - Mustafa Mughazy . 6: The pragmatics of information structure in Arabic: colloquial tautological expressions as a paradigm example - Mohammed Farghal . 7: From complementizer to discourse marker: the functions of ’inno in Lebanese Arabic - Marie Aimée Germanos . 8: The (absence of) prosodic reflexes of given/new information status in Egyptian Arabic - Sam Hellmuth . 9: Moroccan Arabic—French codeswitching and information structure - Karima Ziamari . 10: Conversation markers in Arabic—Hausa codeswitching: saliency and language hierarchies - Jonathan Owens, Jidda Hassan . 11: Understatement, euphemism, and circumlocution in Egyptian Arabic: cooperation in conversational dissembling - David Wilmsen .

This book represents a major contribution to the field of Arabic linguistics. It gives in depth treatments of the current issues in Arabic linguistics and makes excellent readings for graduate courses and for linguists at large.

The distribution of six sociolinguistic markers in the Arabic dialect areas of Cairo (Egypt) & Kuwait City was analyzed to determine the degree of stability & discreteness of different levels of language. Three intermediate levels between Classical Arabic (CA) & illiterate colloquial (IC) are defined: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), educated colloquial, & literate colloquial. Formal & informal registers were investigated in combination with written & oral modes of expression wherever appropriate to a level. Pairs of phonological, morphological, & syntactic markers were selected from data collected from literature, media, & various speech situations, including different types of conversational settings. Results show an interrelationship among the three intermediate levels with concomitant lack of discreteness. Stability decreases toward the middle & increases toward both ends of the CA-IC continuum; however, MSA is the least unstable of the intermediate levels. The social context of this distribution is explored. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 20 References. J. Hitchcock

This study investigated the relationship between classical and colloquial Arabic in the speech areas of Cairo and Kuwait City. Discussing the Arabic language situation, Ferguson (1959) recognizes only two discrete levels (High and Low) and suggests that the transition between these two levels would be abrupt, while Badawi (1973) recognizes five: Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, Educated Colloquial, Literate Colloquial, and Illiterate Colloquial. Badawi argues that the transition among his five levels would be gradual. Badawi's Classical Arabic and Illiterate Colloquial correspond to Ferguson's High and Low, respectively. Ferguson and Badawi agree on the independent status of only the classical and illiterate-colloquial Arabic--an agreement which conformed to my native speaker's intuition. Consequently, it was the status of Modern Standard Arabic, Educated Colloquial and LC especially that needed evaluation. Evaluating these claims of Badawi (1973) and Ferguson (1959), and utilizing quantitative empirical data collected in Cairo and in Kuwait City, the study confirms Badawi's claim of gradual transition. The findings also indicate that Arabic allows for a maximum of 11 percent of occurrence differences in classical or colloquial Arabic. Using this value as a criterion for discreteness and stability, the findings show that Badawi's proposed \"Modern Standard Arabic,\" \"Educated Colloquial,\" and \"Literate Colloquial\" are not discrete levels. The study also affirms Ferguson's characterization of these \"middle levels\" as unstable. In both Cairene and Kuwaiti dialect, \"Modern Standard Arabic\" is the least unstable middle \"level.\" In Kuwait City and Cairo, \"Educated Colloquial\" and \"Literate Colloquial\" follow \"Modern Standard Arabic\" respectively. In addition, the findings suggest Egypt and Kuwait would enhance their language planning policies by expediting the stabilization and codification of \"Modern Standard Arabic\" as a first step for its institution as the standard language in education.

\"Understanding Arabic: Essays in contemporary Arabic linguistics in honor of El-Said Badawi,\" edtied by Alaa Elgibali, is reviewed.