Understanding Arabic : essays in contemporary Arabic linguistics in honor of El-Said Badawi
"Arabic, like any other natural language, has evolved throughout its long history, but its traditional mode of study has remained relatively unchanged and has continued to dominate the investigation of the language for some thirteen centuries. It has been perceived as a language immune to change on account of its intimate link to Islam; consequently, new ideas, findings, and approaches of modern linguistics have been routinely dismissed as irrelevant." "In 1973, with his unusual combination of a deep knowledge of the vast traditional literature and a thorough training in modern linguistic principles, one Arab linguist, El-Said Badawi, ventured to swim against the current and proposed a novel theoretical rendering of contemporary Arabic. Badawi's theory of interrelated language levels that are ever changing along a sociolinguistic continuum acknowledged and demonstrated the dynamic nature of Arabic, thereby opening the gate for studies that investigate aspects of the contemporary language as it interacts with the individual, with society, and with the outside world." "Understanding Arabic is an exciting new collection of studies by authors who investigate and outline the practical corolaries of Badawi's theory of Arabic. The topics span a wide spectrum and include a historical account of attitudes to language and the origin of speech in the Arab world, an analysis of contemporary Arabic, a theoretical framework for teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, considerations for lexicography in collocational dictionaries, a new perspective on diachronic morphological innovation in Arabic, intra-systemic variability in Arabic syntax, the mutual interaction of language and society as a source of language change, and the dynamics of language attrition and loss in migrant communities."--BOOK JACKET
Print Book, English, ©1996
American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, Egypt, ©1996