Browsing by Subject "Arabic"
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Item "Advanced" Arabic : investigating learners’ lexical richness in the context of an oral interview(2013-08) Loomis, Summer; Raizen, Esther, 1951-; Brustad, Kristen; Plakans, Lia; Raz, Adi; Mohammad, MohammadThis study used recordings produced in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPIs) to investigate the quantity and lexical richness of second language (L2) Arabic speakers’ lexical production. The study focused on 28 full-length tests and 53 sub-samples of narration and description, selected from an initial data set of 115 OPIs. The research questions were: 1) What are the average words and words per minute (WPM) produced by Advanced-Mid rating level test takers in this data set? Do Intermediate-Mid rating level test takers produce fewer words and WPM than Advanced-Mid rating level test takers? Do Superior rating level test takers produce more words and more WPM than Advanced-Mid speakers? 2) What is the lexical variation in the Advanced-Mid samples as measured by type-token ratio (TTR)? Is this variation higher or lower than the lexical variation of test taker samples at the Intermediate-Mid and Superior rating levels? 3) How many shared words produced by learners at the Advanced rating levels are from beyond the 2,000 most frequently used words in Arabic according to Buckwalter and Parkinson’s frequency dictionary (Buckwalter and Parkinson 2011)? 4) What qualitative observations can be made about test takers’ narration and description attempts at the Advanced rating levels? How do these attempts compare to narration and description attempts by test takers at the Intermediate and Superior rating levels respectively? The WPM and TTR values for the Advanced-Mid rating level differentiated this test taker speech from the Intermediate-Mid rating level speech. However, the WPM and TTR measures did not distinguish between the Advanced-Mid rating level and the Superior rating level test takers. In regards to word frequency, learners at the Advanced-Mid rating level did not produce shared words that were beyond the 2,000 most frequently used words in Arabic. However, the qualitative observations of the Advanced rating levels’ descriptions and narrations appeared to show a difference between this group’s lexical resources and those of the Intermediate and Superior rating levels. These findings and related suggestions for future research on the advanced L2 speaker of Arabic were also discussed.Item The Arabic verb : root and stem and their contribution to verb meaning(2011-12) Glanville, Peter John; Brustad, Kristen; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Mohammad, Mohammad A.; Wechsler, Stephen; Beavers, John T.This dissertation is a study of the construction of meaning below the word level, specifically how roots and morphemes combine to create verbs, and the contribution of each to the meaning that a verb construes. It uses data from the verb system of Modern Standard Arabic to bring together the theory that roots combine with different structures to produce verbs describing different types of event, and the observation that many roots cannot form verbs on their own, and must combine with other morphemes do to so. The thesis is that Arabic roots lexicalize events, states or things, but remain free to create new meaning in combination with the different verb stems of Arabic, each of which contains one or more morphemes that determine the type of event that a root may come to describe. The findings are that the morphemes present in the different verb stems of Arabic condition verb meaning in four main ways: through reflexivization; through providing an Actor subject argument; through marking plural event phases; and through marking the presence of two relations construed as one event. A root combines with a morpheme that determines the type of event that a verb may describe, and it contributes meaning within the limits set by that morpheme. Thus morphemes do not modify a fixed concept, but root and morpheme create verb meaning together. The implication of this for a theory of meaning below the word level is that the semantic concepts which humans communicate remain relatively constant, but they are expressed at different levels of granularity: at the root level; by combining roots below the word level; by combining roots with morphemes below the word level; and by combining words at the clause level. This opens up avenues for further research to establish the differences, if any, between the meanings construed at these different levels of granularity.Item Behind the Linguistic Landscape of Israel/Palestine : exploring the visual implications of expansionist policies(2014-05) Carey, Shaylyn Theresa; Brustad, KristenThe concept of the Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a relatively new and developing field, but it is already proving to illuminate significant trends in sociocultural boundaries and linguistic identities within heterogeneous areas. By examining types of signage displayed in public urban spaces such as street signs, billboards, advertisements, scholars have gained insight into the inter and intra-group relations that have manifested as a result of the present top-down and bottom-up language ideologies. This paper will apply LL theory to the current situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories through a discussion of the various policies that have shaped the Linguistic Landscape. It will begin by examining the Hebraicization of the toponymy after the creation of Israel, then discuss the conflict over the linguistic landscape, which can be seen in several photographs where the Arabic script has been marked out or covered. Moving forward, this work will address the grammatical errors on Arabic language signs, which reflect the low priority of Arabic education in Israel. Finally, this project will expand upon the LL framework by looking at the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian territories and how it is reflected in public places, such as supermarkets, which display an overwhelming presence of Hebrew. Through the use of photographic evidence of the LL from the region, which shows the prevalence of Hebrew place names, Israeli economic goods, and negative attitudes towards the use of Arabic on signage, this paper will take a multidisciplinary approach at examining the history and policies that shape the language used in public urban spaces. The relationship between the state and the Linguistic Landscape sheds light on the power dynamics of a multilingual space. As Hebrew is given preferential treatment, despite the official status of both Arabic and Hebrew, Israel continues to dominate the social space with the use of Hebrew in order to assert their claims to the land. In addition to investigating the power dynamics that are reflected on visual displays of language in this region, this work serves as a meaningful contribution to the Linguistic Landscape by expanding its methodology and units of analysis.Item Border fiction : fracture and contestation in post-Oslo Palestinian culture(2013-12) Paul, William Andrew; El-Ariss, Tarek; Grumberg, KarenThis dissertation delves into a body of Palestinian literature, film, and art from the past two decades in order theorize the relationship between borders and their representations. In Israel and Palestine, a region in which negotiating borders has become a way of life, I explore the ways in which ubiquitous boundaries have pervaded cultural production through a process that I term “bordering.” I draw on theoretical contributions from the fields of architecture, geography, anthropology, as well as literature and film studies to develop a conceptual framework for examining the ways in which authors, artists, and filmmakers engage with borders as a space to articulate possibilities of encounter, contestation, and transgression. I argue that in these works, the proliferation of borders has called into question the Palestinian cultural and political consensus that created a shared set of narratives, symbols, and places in Palestinian cultural production until the last decade of the 20th century. In its place has emerged a fragmented body of works that create what Jacques Rancière terms “dissensus,” or a disruption of a cultural, aesthetic, disciplinary, and spatial order. Read together, they constitute what I term a “border aesthetic,” in which literature, film, and art produce new types of spaces, narratives, and texts through the ruptures and fractures of the border. I trace the emergence of this aesthetic and the new genres and forms that distinguish it from earlier Palestinian literary, political, and intellectual projects through analyses of the works of Elia Suleiman, Sayed Kashua, Raba’i al-Madhoun, Emily Jacir, Yazid Anani, and Inass Yassin. In their attempts to grapple artistically with the region’s borders, these authors, directors, and artists create new codes, narratives, vernaculars, and spaces that reflect the fragmentation wrought by pervasive boundaries. These works, fluent in multiple mediums, genres, and languages, reveal both the possibilities and the limits of this aesthetic, as they seek to contest borders but nevertheless remain bound by them.Item Code-switching in the determiner phrase : a comparison of Tunisian Arabic-French and Moroccan Arabic-French switching(2010-12) Post, Rebekah Elizabeth; Birdsong, David; Bullock, Barbara E.Code-switching (CS) between French and Arabic is common across North Africa and in parts of the Middle East. Many researchers have examined this phenomenon in Tunisia (Belazi 1991, Lawson & Sachdev 2000, Belazi et. al 1994) and Morocco (Abbassi 1977, Bentahila 1983, Bentahila & Davies 1983, Lahlou 1991, Redouane 2005.) Corpus and elicited data from these two countries has helped form the basis of proposed universal constraints on code-switching, specifically the Functional Head Constraint (FHC) (Belazi et al 1994) and the Complement Adjunct Distinction (CAD) (Mahootian and Santorini 1996). However, CS between French and Moroccan and Tunsian dialects has not been directly investigated within a single study. This study is a step in filling that gap. Using a web-based survey, the present study examines native dialect speakers’ ratings of authenticity of sentences that contain both French and Arabic with a switch occurring in the Determiner Phrase (DP). The syntactic structure of the DP in the dialects examined is the same, (DP = D (D) N (A)). This is similar to the DP in French (DP = D (A) N (A)) with a few key differences that make it possible to test the FHC and CAD within the DP alone. An example of one of the eight possible switch types, between an Arabic Demonstrative Determiner and a French Definite Determiner, is seen here between Moroccan Arabic and French: Men dima had l’homme n’aime pas les chiens. (Since always this the man doesn’t like dogs.) A mixed-model ANOVA performed on the participants’ ratings reveals main effects for dialect, sex and switch type. Significant interactions also exist, including an interaction between switch type, sex and dialect. While further research is needed, the results indicate that syntactic constraints may not be the only way to understand the practice of CS. Instead, a typological approach, as suggested by Muysken (2000), may lead to a more complete understanding of why and how communities use multiple languages.Item A cross-dialectical comparison of epistemic modals of possibility in spoken Arabic(2014-05) Cooper, Ethan Alexander; Brustad, Kristen; Wechsler, StephenThis paper examines three dialects of spoken Arabic: Egyptian, Iraqi, and Levantine, which each contain in their respective lexica certain sentential modal expressions. I analyze patterns of usage of these modal expressions by looking at the degree to which the expressions can be considered interpersonal -- that is, the degree to which their use emphasizes the relationship of the speaker and hearer - to the propositional content that he or she is uttering. Ultimately, I conclude that across the dialects of Arabic modals that serve an interpersonal function are considered more objective and appear in contexts that call for propositional content. This contrasts with English, in which modals that serve an interpersonal function do not appear in such contexts.Item Definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic : contact, divergence, and semantic change(2013-08) Turner, Michael Lee; Brustad, KristenThe aim of the present study is to cast new light on the nature of definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic (MA). Previous work on the dialect group has described its definiteness system as similar to that of other Arabic varieties, where indefinite entities are unmarked and a "definite article" /l-/ modifies nouns to convey a definite meaning. Such descriptions, however, do not fully account for the behavior of MA nouns in spontaneous natural speech, as found in the small self-collected corpus that informs the study: on one hand, /l-/ can and regularly does co-occur with indefinite meanings; on the other, a number of nouns can exhibit definiteness even in the absence of /l-/. In response to these challenges, the study puts forth an alternate synchronic description the system, arguing that the historical definite article */l-/ has in fact lost its association with definiteness and has instead become lexicalized into an unmarked form of the noun that can appear in any number of semantic contexts. Relatedly, the study argues that the historically indefinite form *Ø has come under heavy syntactic constraints and can best be described as derived from the new unmarked form via a process of phonologically conditioned disfixation, represented {- /l/}. At the same time, MA has also apparently retained an older particle ši and developed an article waħəd, both of which can be used to express different types of indefinite meanings. To support the plausibility of this new description, the study turns to the linguistic history of definiteness in MA, describing how a combination of internal and external impetuses for change likely pushed the dialect toward article loss, a development upon which semantic reanalysis and syntactic restructuring of other forms then followed. If the claim that MA no longer overtly marks definiteness is indeed correct, the study could have a significant impact on work that used previous MA descriptions to make grammaticality judgments, as well as be of value to future work on processes of grammaticalization and language contact.Item The development the use of the negation particles miš and mā…š in Egyptian colloquial Arabic(2010-05) Town, Rosalie Melissa; Pat-el, Na'ama; Schulte-Nafeh, MarthaThe negation system in Modern Egyptian Colloquial Arabic does not follow an obvious set of rules. The particle that negates most verbal predicates also negates nominal predicates, and the particle that negates most nominal predicates also negates verbal predicates. By examining the behavior of these particles over time and comparing them to negation systems in other languages, it is possible to see the reasons for this complicated negation system.Item Dialects in the Arabic classroom : a pedagogical survey of Arabic language learners(2012-08) Weinert, John Orbison; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Brustad, KristenThe study of Arabic as a foreign language in the US has witnessed a tremendous increase in recent decades, especially in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001. Implementation of modern communicative language teaching methodologies has been complicated by the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, as well as the wide variations between the many varieties of spoken colloquial Arabic; only recently has the field seen a widespread shift towards the teaching of the Arabic dialects at beginning levels of study. As a result of this shift, there exist increasing numbers of Arabic learners who have been exposed to one or more Arabic dialects in addition to the formal written language. This thesis presents the results of an interview-survey of Arabic learners who had studied more than one dialect of Arabic in structured classroom contexts, either in the US or the Arab world, with the goal of determining to what extent such instruction had helped or hindered their progress in the language. Results indicated that a majority of participants believe that despite increased challenges, exposure to multiple Arabic dialects was beneficial to their learning experience, and would advocate for such exposure in beginning and intermediate-level Arabic courses. However, many respondents also cautioned that alternate dialect forms should not be presented with the expectation of active production in class. Participants also commented on the ways in which they felt Arabic dialect instruction could be improved; frequently mentioned issues included further development of formal written materials for dialect study, and increased flexibility and understanding on the part of instructors with regard to classroom use of alternate dialectal forms.Item Does gender affect translation? : analysis of English talks translated to Arabic(2014-05) Hayeri, Navid; Pennebaker, James W.; Hillmann, Michael Craig, 1940-When a text in a foreign language is translated into English, many of the features of the original language disappear. The tools described in this paper can give people who work with translators and translations an insight into dimensions of a culture that may escape the notice of someone not familiar with the source language or culture. A set of computer programs are described that analyze both English and Arabic texts using each language's function word or closed-class words categories. First, the LIWC (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) text analysis program was translated into Arabic. Then, the grammatical dimensions of Arabic function words was determined that served as a basis for the Arabic LIWC designed for Arabic texts. These same Arabic dimensions were used to fit English words into the same categories. A large corpus of Modern Standard Arabic and English text files that have been translated in both directions were used to establish the equivalence of the translated word lists. Then, the uses and applications of the dictionaries for computer-based text analysis within and across cultures are described in the study of influence of gender on translation of TED talks between English and Arabic. Differences were identified in language style between men and women in their English language TED talks, and these features were examined whether they were faithfully maintained in translations to Arabic. The rates of function word use was employed to measure language style. Function words (e.g., pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions) appear at high rates in both English and in Arabic, and they have been shown to provide social, demographic, and psychological information about authors and speakers in English and a variety of other languages. The sample included 328 (196 male and 132 female) TED talks delivered in English from 2004 to 2010 and their translations to Arabic. Rates of function word use in the original and translated texts were examined using the English version of the word counting software. The function word use compared between male and female speakers, male and female translators, and their interaction. The results confirmed gender differences in language style for English texts found in previous studies in English. For example, women used more pronouns, more negatives, and fewer numbers than did men. It was further found that several of the distinguishing language style features between men and women in English disappeared in Arabic translations. Importantly, there was a significant gender difference in the language style of male and female translators: first person singular pronouns, second person pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions were used more by female translators, and quantity words were used more by male translators, regardless of the gender of the original speaker. This study presents one application of computerized text analysis to examine differences in language style that may be lost or gained in translations. Future research and applications within personality, forensic, and literary psychology, linguistics, and foreign language studies are discussed.Item Enhancing the capabilities of Arabic learners : language learning strategies in the Arabic classroom(2012-05) Ebner, Gregory Ralph; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Horwitz, Elaine K.; Raizen, Esther L.; Brustad, Kristen; Raz, AdiSince Joan Rubin opened the discussion of the existence of techniques of memorization, recall, and production that marked the performance of successful learners of foreign languages, the study of Language Learning Strategies (LLS) has expanded into innumerable directions. Such studies have attempted to establish a link between LLS use and improved student performance in the classroom and beyond, determine what drives students to select particular strategies for use, and analyzed the effectiveness of LLS instruction. Few studies have examined the relationship between LLS and the study of Arabic as a foreign language. The present study identifies, among university-level students of Arabic, the LLS whose use is associated with student language success. Using a combination of survey response analysis and classroom observation, the study highlights the benefits of 17 separate strategies and recommends a phased introduction of those strategies to students in order to maximize their potential effect. The study then moves on to explore the role of the Arabic instructor in student strategy use, determining the effectiveness of current methods of strategy instruction and provides recommendations to the Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) field that may improve the techniques used to impart strategic learning competence to students of the language. In the final section of analysis, the study turns toward the Arabic textbooks that most commonly used in American colleges and universities and examines the level of support that these texts provide to the development of strategic learning methods within students, providing advice to instructors and learning materials developers intended to enhance presentation of strategies. The ultimate goal of these suggestions is improving the overall strategic capability of students of Arabic so that they can become more independent learners, capable of continuing study of the language beyond the boundaries of the university classroom.Item Grammar sequencing in the communicative Arabic classroom : students’ written production(2013-05) Kauffman, Alan Ray; Al-Batal, MahmoudOver the course of the past 20 years, the rise in popularity of communicative language teaching as an alternative to traditional methodologies in Arabic-language pedagogy has led many within the field to re-examine their instructional priorities and methodological tenets. In general, traditional pedagogical approaches in the field of Arabic-language instruction dictate front-loaded presentation of grammatical concepts. The premise of communicative language teaching, on the other hand, is based on the primacy of successful foreign language interactions, where students are sequentially provided the grammatical concepts that are required to accomplish specific and targeted communicative functions and tasks. Concordantly, the instruction of grammar concepts that are deemed surplus to the requirements of level-appropriate interactions is deferred until the student has become linguistically prepared to incorporate and effectively utilize more complex grammatical structures. This thesis presents the results of a study of students’ spontaneous and planned written production in Arabic focusing on the production of dual and feminine plural forms, which have been strategically delayed in the sequence of grammar presentation. Additionally, individual interviews with both students and instructors were conducted to gather their impressions of, and strategies for, dealing with the sequence of grammar presentation in which these concepts are delayed. Results indicate that students who were not presented detailed instruction regarding the dual and feminine plural constructs early in their pedagogical sequence displayed level-appropriate patterns of avoidance and generalization in their early language production. As students progressed through the third-year courses and into post third-year courses, they displayed high levels of successful incorporation of the Modern Standard Arabic dual and feminine plural forms in their written production. With their successful conceptual uptake, the learners demonstrate their ability to acquire grammatical concepts despite the sequential delay in presentation thereof. Interview results show students’ and instructors’ awareness of the intent and focus of the pedagogical sequence. Based on their personal experience in studying and/or teaching Arabic, and despite instances of frustrations or challenges arising from the delay in grammar sequence, all interviewees expressed their support and endorsement of the methodology.Item I Heart Arabic : online "working procrastination" resources for Arabic language learners(2014-05) Thong, Claire Mei Li; Lee, GloriaReaching proficiency in Arabic requires a lengthy commitment, and as a result, it is important that students have access to resources that will help them maintain their motivation to learn. Many students are motivated to study because they want to experience the culture of Arabic-speaking countries; however, although the situation is improving, cultural awareness in Arabic language curricula at the elementary level has traditionally been overshadowed. While there are an abundance of online resources available for languages such as Spanish and Japanese that have a consistently strong focus on culture, there are very few comparable online resources for introductory-level Arabic language learners. To address this gap in the resources available to Arabic language learners, I created a website and accompanying social media system called I Heart Arabic. It is directed at introductory students of Arabic and aims to promote cultural awareness, introduce multiple forms of colloquial Arabic, and challenge negative stereotypes of the Arab world. In short, it provides what I have termed "working procrastination" to students of Arabic. "Working procrastination" acts as a break from the rigors of studying Arabic grammar and vocabulary. By focusing on Arab culture in a light-hearted manner, I Heart Arabic can re-motivate students of Arabic language, allowing them to return to their daily studies refreshed and re-energized.Item Identity and anxiety in teachers of Arabic and Hebrew : the native vs. nonnative speaker question(2013-08) Caravita, Joanna Ruth; Raizen, Esther, 1951-This study examines the beliefs of foreign language teachers regarding the relative positions of native and nonnative speakers in foreign and second language education. In particular, I am concerned with the idealization of the native speaker in this context and the foreign language anxiety that may occur in nonnative speaker language teachers if they internalize this idealization. I collected data from 29 college-level Arabic and Hebrew teachers using four methods: (1) a questionnaire on their background and beliefs regarding native and nonnative speaker language teachers, (2) a version of the Teacher Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, 2007), (3) a one-on-one interview, and (4) class observation. By and large, study participants believed that native speakers, because of their nativity, have reached higher levels of linguistic and cultural proficiency with relative ease, and as a result are more readily granted credibility as teachers of their native language. Participants believed that nonnative speakers are more empathetic and understanding of their students' problems because of their own experience and efforts as students of the language. With regard to foreign language anxiety, the main sources of anxiety among the nonnative speaker participants were the fear of making mistakes (and losing credibility as a result), of not having the authority to speak on cultural issues, of not being hired when competing with native speakers, and of addressing professional audiences. Native speakers feared that they cannot anticipate or understand as easily as nonnative speaker teachers the difficulties their students have in learning their language, because they cannot relate to their experiences in the same way. Neither group, however, reported feeling particularly anxious overall. I argue that anxiety was minimal for both groups because of specific steps that participants have taken to overcome the perceived disadvantages of their group and thereby bolster their confidence. Participants reported gaining confidence through some combination of the following factors: (1) gaining experience and education, (2) improving their linguistic and cultural proficiency, (3) presenting the persona of a credible language teacher through extra preparation and language choices, (4) receiving external validation, and (5) realizing that everyone can learn from and teach others.Item An instrumental study of pausal vowels in Il-Ǧillī Arabic (Southern Turkey)(2015-08) Zúñiga, Emilie Pénélope Elisabeth Durand; Brustad, Kristen; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Huehnergard, John; Bullock, Barbara; Myers, Scott; Arnold, WernerThis phonetic study explores the pausal form, a very old feature of Arabic. More specifically, it looks at the effect of the pause on vowels in word-final syllables in a non-emphatic environment. Five female native Arabic speakers from the village of Il-Ǧillī in Southern Turkey were interviewed by the author and their speech was recorded. After a canonical pausal environment and a canonical non-pausal environment were defined based on existing literature and the present data, the non-emphatic vowels in word-final syllables found in the five interviews were selected and organized into one of two categories: pausal and non-pausal. The following features of each vowel was measured in PRAAT: vowel duration, amount of formant movement throughout the vowel, and F1, F2 and F3 values at three different time points throughout the vowel. The data were analyzed using a series of linear mixed model analyses. The results show that pausal vowels differ significantly from non-pausal vowels in the following ways: first, pausal vowels have greater duration than non-pausal vowels. Second, pausal vowels undergo more formant movement than non-pausal vowels. Finally, pausal vowels occupy a different area of the vowel space than non-pausal vowels, and this effect varies based on vowel quality (a/i/u) and syllable type (CV/CVC). This dissertation ends with a brief discussion of the distribution of pausal forms in the data.Item Jarīr and al-Farazdaq's Naqa'id performance as social commentary(2012-12) Jorgensen, Cory Alan; Ali, Samer M.; Brustad, Kristen; Al-Batal, Mahmoud M; Azam, Hina; Arens, Katherine MThe pre-Islamic genre of poetry known as naqā’iḍ (flytings) was performed as a contest between two competing poets representing opposing tribes and served the important social function of determining tribal supremacy: the winning poet’s tribe was victorious and the contest itself sometimes replaced an actual battle. In the Umayyad era, however, tribal sedentarization coupled with the advent of Islam contributed to social changes as the landscape became more and more citied. The result was a realignment of traditional tribal relations that changed the context of naqā’iḍ poetry. Yet the genre survived. Scholars have dismissed Umayyad-era naqā’iḍ poetry as a form of entertainment with little purpose, but have failed to explain on what terms it persisted through the Umayyad era. This dissertation examines the effects of the cultural gradations that had been occurring from pre-Islamic times through the Umayyad era on the naqā’iḍ genre by examining the naqā’iḍ of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq. Their new discourse represented a departure from the traditional, agonistic naqā’iḍ of the pre-Islamic era. I compare the discourse of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq’s naqā’iḍ to other diverse lampoon genres, among them the “Dozens,” to illustrate literary theoretical issues they raise. I use Goffman’s concept of “team collusion” to illustrate how Jarīr and al-Farazdaq “colluded” to promote interest in their performances and maintain suspense for their audience. Using Bauman’s theory of “emergence” I show that Jarīr and al-Farazdaq performed the naqā’iḍ as comic entertainment for their audience, which allowed the poets to gain influence over them. The naqā’iḍ of Jarīr and al-Farazdaq represent a form of negotiating the turmoil of tribal relations via tribal competition and social satire in an increasingly urbanizing world.Item Language attitude and change among the Druze in Israel(2012-05) Isleem, Martin A.; Brustad, Kristen; Raizen, Esther; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Mohammad, Mohammad; Shemer, YaronThis study examines language attitudes and behaviors among the Druze in Israel in order to assess the roles of Arabic and Hebrew in this community. The study utilizes four different approaches: attitude surveys, a survey of linguistic landscapes, a study of language choice in the Internet and an analysis of codeswitching. The results of the language attitude survey indicate that a significant number of Druze exhibit inconsistent attitudes toward their first language and linguistic behavior patterns that are in line with general sociolinguistic patterns of language change. Young people, those with less education, and females all express significantly positive attitudes toward Hebrew. As reported in the literature, these groups have been instrumental in the process of language change. Patterns of language production and consumption in both street signage and websites affirm Bourdieu’s (1991) ideas regarding linguistic market capital as Hebrew is found to have greater value than Arabic in the Mount Carmel area, where the Druze maintain a strong connection with the Jewish-Israeli economy. In contrast, Arabic has a stronger presence in Druze neighborhoods in the Lower Galilee area. This is also true of Druze websites, particularly those that address the Palestinian-Israeli community, the majority in the Lower Galilee area. The study finds that while mixed language is the most common code of younger Druze Internet users, a relatively high percentage of cultural tradition and creative writing works were posted in Arabic. This study also investigates Druze spoken and written codeswitching behavior within the framework of Myers-Scotton's MLF model (1993, 2002). The analysis reveals that Arabic is the Matrix Language of the mixed constituents, although it is not the most common code in overall language produced. Although Arabic does not show signs of waning in the mixed languages’ syntactic structure, and is dominant in cultural tradition and literary works, there is manifest evidence of a language shift toward Hebrew, and the leading groups are: youth in general, and speakers in Mount Carmel.Item Letters from the Goodwill Brothers of Basra : a medieval Islamic message of tolerance and pluralism(2012-05) Fares, Michael James; Ali, Samer M.; Spellberg, Denise“We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.”Newt Gingrich said the above words in reference to the recent “ground-zero mosque debate”, a heated media controversy which surrounded plans for the Park 51 Islamic Community Center to open in downtown Manhattan on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Assuming a necessary enmity between America and Islam, Gingrich’s claims seem rooted in the theory of a “Clash of Civilizations”. This theory envisions “the West” and “Islam” as diametrically opposed entities with no common values, and has become widely pervasive in informing much of post-9/11 America’s political and academic discourse. When chalked up against the social, cultural, and literary history of Islam, however, the Clash of Civilizations theory is a poor fit. For medieval Arabo-Islamic culture saw a vast rise of humanistic literature bearing a clear multi-civilizational influence. The Letters of the Goodwill Brothers of Basra constitute one of the most overlooked of these works. Composed by a group of 10th century Abbasid Muslim littérateurs, the 52 Letters draw parallels between the teachings of Islam and those of prior great wisdom traditions, including Indian and Ancient Greek wisdom, Judaism, and Christianity. Focusing on the way the Letters frame Islam in the context of perennial human wisdom, I show how this text is ultimately an irenic text aimed at promoting religious tolerance and cooperation in the tumultuous sectarian atmosphere of 10th century Abbasid Iraq. I argue ultimately that the irenic message of the Letters presents an alternative narrative to the Clash of Civilizations theory, a narrative of tolerance from the Islamic past by which our own society may benefit when it comes to the relationships between American Muslims and non-Muslims.Item Patterns of dialect accommodation to phonology and morphology among Sudanese residents of Cairo(2014-05) Leddy-Cecere, Thomas Alexander; Brustad, KristenThis study analyzes the accommodation strategies of Arabic-speaking Sudanese immigrants to Cairo toward the dominant Cairene Arabic variety. Accepted wisdom across much of variationist sociolinguistics views phonology in dialect contact scenarios as highly mutable and readily altered, while imputing to morphology a far greater degree of “staying power;” however, analysis of the Cairo-based fieldwork reveals a situation in which speakers freely accommodate to morphological forms, while adapting in only minimal and restricted ways to phonological differences. This finding, discussed in relation to both structural and social motivating factors, has the potential to inform conceptions of both the synchronic mechanics of dialect interaction and diachronic understandings of inheritance and stability across linguistic domains.Item Phonetic training for learners of Arabic(2013-08) Burnham, Kevin Robert; Al-Batal, MahmoudThis dissertation assesses a new technique intended to improve Arabic learning outcomes by enhancing the ability of learners to perceive a phoneme contrast in Arabic that is notoriously difficult for native speakers of English. Adopting a process approach to foreign language listening comprehension pedagogy, we identify and isolate an important listening subskill, phonemic identification, and develop a methodology for improving that skill. An online training system is implemented that is based upon known principles of speech perception and second language speech learning and has previously been used to improve phonemic perception in a laboratory setting. An empirical study investigating the efficacy of the training methodology was conducted with 24 2nd and 3rd year students of Arabic in several different intensive Arabic programs in American universities. The contrast under investigation was the Arabic pharyngeal (/h̄/) versus laryngeal (/h/) voiceless fricatives. Training participants completed 100 training modules, each consisting of a 24 item minimal pair test featuring the /h̄/-/h/ contrast in word initial position for a total of 2400 training trials over 4 weeks. The training website design was based on the high variability training protocol (Logan, Lively & Pisoni, 1991). The experiment finds significantly greater improvement (F₁,₂₂=8.89, p = .007, [mathematical symbol]₂ = .288) on a minimal pair test contrasting /h̄/ and /h/ for a group that received approximately 5 hours of phonetic training (n=10) compared to a control group (n=14) with no training. Critically, these perceptual improvements were measured with stimuli that were not part of the training set, suggesting language learning and not just stimulus learning. Qualitative data from participants suggested that these perceptual gains were not restricted to the simple minimal pair task, but carried over to listening activities and perhaps even pronunciation. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of phonemic perception and foreign language instruction and implementation of phonetic training within an Arabic curriculum.