Abstract

This study aims at exploring demonstratives in two dialects: Hodeidi Yemeni Arabic and Taizi Yemeni Arabic, and comparing them to Modern Standard Arabic. The description of the demonstratives in the two dialects along with Modern Standard Arabic focused on tracing the syntactic and semantic evidence they are like to exhibit. The model used to undertake the analysis follows Diessel (1999). Although demonstratives attracted considerable scholarly attention, the literature reflects a scarcity of research on the two dialects chosen for this study. The findings reveal that the two dialects somehow differ from Modern Standard Arabic. It is concluded that the differences between Modern Standard Arabic and the two other dialects are confined to a semantic aspect. As for the similarities, the study evidences that demonstratives in Modern Standard Arabic, Taizi Yemeni Arabic, and Hodeidi Yemeni Arabic syntactically belong to two categories (demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adverbs) and they can occur in more than one syntactic context. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that Taizi Yemeni Arabic and Hodeidi Yemeni Arabic almost share similar linguistic features as far as demonstratives are concerned. The study ends up recommending further research on more Yemeni dialects.

Keywords

Demonstratives, MSA, TYA and HYA, Deictic Points, Category, Distribution,

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

  1. Al-Aubali, F. (2015). Deixis in Arabic and English: A contrastive approach, International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 4(4), 118-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.4p.118
  2. Alsaif, F.H.A. (2008). Deixis in English and Arabic: A semantic-pragmatic study and its pedagogical implications, University of Pune.
  3. Al-Samei, A. (2004). The structure of the determiner phrase in Arabic and English: An antisymmetric approach, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
  4. Diessel,H. (1999).Demonstratives: Form, function, and Grammaticalization, John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.42
  5. Dixon, R.M.W. (2003). Demonstratives: A cross linguistic typology, Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language”, 27(1), 61-112.https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.27.1.04dix
  6. Ibn Hisham, J. (1964). Mughni Al-labeeb, Damascus: Darul feker.
  7. Khalfaoui, A. (2009). A cognitive approach to analyzing demonstratives in Tunisian Arabic, University of Minnesota.
  8. Manfredi, S. (2014). Demonstratives in a Bedouin Arabic Dialect of Western Sudan, Folia Orientalia, 51, 27.
  9. Rabadi, R.I. (2016). Demonstrative pronouns in English and Arabic: Are they different or similar? English Language and Literature Studies, 6(1), 16-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ells.v6n1p16
  10. Richards, J.C. & Schmidt, R.W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315833835
  11. Ryding, K.C. (2005). A reference grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486975
  12. Saaida, Z. (2017). Deixis in spontaneous speech of Jordanian urban Arabic native speakers, Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 8(1), 88-94. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.1p.88
  13. Sibawayeh, A. (1977), Al-Kitaab [The book], Dar Al-Qalam Press.