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Arabic-L: Wed 09 Jun 2010
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1) Subject:Three new publications on Arabic
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1)
Date: 09 Jun 2010
From:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: normal; ">"Prof. Jonathan Owens" <<a href="mailto:jonathan.owens@uni-bayreuth.de">jonathan.owens@uni-bayreuth.de</a>></span>
Subject:Three new publications on Arabic
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; white-space: normal; ">Please note three new publications on Arabic. The first two appear in <br>the Journal of Language Contact:<br><a href="http://cgi.server.uni-frankfurt.de/fb09/ifas/JLCCMS/issues-amp-articles/varia-iii-2010-/index_en.html">http://cgi.server.uni-frankfurt.de/fb09/ifas/JLCCMS/issues-amp-articles/varia-iii-2010-/index_en.html</a><br><br>Andrei A. Avram<br>University of Bucharest<br>Abstract<br>This paper looks at Romanian Pidgin Arabic, a contact language formerly <br>in use on Romanian<br>well sites in various locations in Iraq. The phonology, morphology, <br>syntax and lexicon of the<br>language are described on the basis of a corpus of data collected during <br>fieldwork. The data are<br>discussed in comparison to those from other pidgins, with various <br>lexifier languages. Romanian<br>Pidgin Arabic is shown to exhibit features typical of the so-called <br>pre-pidgins. Also discussed<br>are the implications of the findings for the study of pidgin and creole <br>languages, in general, and<br>of Arabic-based contact languages in particular.<br><br>DEBATES:<br>Jonathan Owens<br>University of Bayreuth<br><br>What is a Language? : Review of Bernard Comrie, Ray Fabri, Elizabeth <br>Hume, Manwel<br>Mifsud, Thomas Stolz & Martine Vanhove (eds.), ‘Introducing Maltese <br>Linguistics.<br>Abstract<br>The notion of ‘language’ is a surprisingly fuzzy concept even among the <br>community of<br>linguistic scholars. This is despite the fact that concepts and <br>methodologies exist to give fairly<br>explicit characterizations of the notion. In the context of a general <br>review of a book on Maltese<br>Linguistics, this article will address definitional issues arising out <br>of the interesting historical<br>and socio-political reality of present-day Maltese, particularly as they <br>relate to comparative and<br>language contact problems.<br><br>Anthropological Linguistics 51: 151-175<br><br>Stability in Subject-Verb Word Order:<br>From Contemporary Arabian Peninsular Arabic to Biblical Aramaic<br>JONATHAN OWENS<br>University of Bayreuth<br>ROBIN DODSWORTH<br>North Carolina State University<br><br>Abstract. This article differs from traditional treatments of <br>subject-verb word<br>order in Semitic in two respects. First, we take as our point of departure a<br>detailed study of word order in contemporary Arabian Peninsular Arabic, <br>which<br>shows that the respective order of the subject and verb in that variety <br>is determined<br>by morpholexical and by discourse-immanent factors. From this starting<br>point, we work backwards, applying the same analytical framework to <br>subject-verb<br>word order in Biblical Aramaic. Secondly, we use corpus-based quantitative<br>methods and regression analysis to determine the degree of similarity<br>between Arabian Peninsular Arabic and Biblical Aramaic. It emerges that, for<br>all intents and purposes, subject-verb word order in Arabian Peninsular <br>Arabic<br>and Biblical Aramaic are governed by an identical set of morpholexical and<br>discourse constraints. Historical explanations for these results are <br>discussed; it<br>is emphasized that, whether the patterns are due to common inheritance or to<br>diffusion, a complex pattern of word order determination is sustained <br>over at<br>least 2,500 years of chronological time.<br><br><br></span>
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End of Arabic-L: 09 Jun 2010
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