Arabic Language and Linguistics

A highly readable book, innovative in both coverage and content. Sure to be read with interest and profit by scholars of Arabic language and linguistics. -- Alison Mackey, professor and head of applied linguistics, Georgetown University One of the challenges facing today's research in Arabic linguistics is to connect with recent developments in general linguistics and sociolinguistics. In this volume, Bassiouney and Katz have brought together an impressive collection of articles that take up this challenge. -- Kees Versteegh, emeritus professor, University of Nijmegen A challenging collection of papers providing a snapshot of advanced research in various areas of contemporary Arabic linguistics by scholars in the vanguard of the field. -- Daniel Newman, professor of Arabic, University of Durham

Presents the research in Arabic linguistics from a theoretical point of view, including computational linguistics, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics. This title covers sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and discourse analysis by looking at issues such as gender, urbanization, and language ideology.Arabic, one of the official languages of the United Nations, is spoken by more than half a billion people around the world and is of increasing importance in today's political and economic spheres. The study of the Arabic language has a long and rich history: earliest grammatical accounts date from the 8th century and include full syntactic, morphological, and phonological analyses of the vernaculars and of Classical Arabic. In recent years the academic study of Arabic has become increasingly sophisticated and broad. This state-of-the-art volume presents the most recent research in Arabic linguistics from a theoretical point of view, including computational linguistics, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics. It also covers sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and discourse analysis by looking at issues such as gender, urbanization, and language ideology. Underlying themes include the changing and evolving attitudes of speakers of Arabic and theoretical approaches to linguistic variation in the Middle East.