Ba'da and Qabla in Online News: a Corpus-Based Study
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences ba’da and qabla in Online News: A Corpus-Based Study A Thesis Submitted to The Department of Applied Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Ayman Eddakrouri Under the supervision of Prof. Zeinab Taha Department of Applied Linguistics May 2016 This thesis is dedicated to my lovely wife, Dr. Amani Ramadan, who is indeed a gift from Allah. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Zeinab Taha, not only for her guidance, comments, and notices during the whole period in which the research of this thesis was conducted, but also for her personal advice, encouragements, kindness, and thoughtfulness. I cannot capture in words what it has meant to me to have had the privilege of working with her. Indeed, she is more than a supervisor to me. I am most grateful to my first reader, Prof. Raghda Elessawi. Her guidance and patience with me, both during the writing of this thesis and over the entire course of my time at the American University in Cairo, were invaluable. I am deeply indebted to her. Also, I would like to thank my second reader, Prof. Amira Agameya, for her distinguished suggestions, notices, and feedback. I have greatly profited from her insightful responses to my work. A very special gratitude goes to Dr. Ashraf Abdou who helped me at the very beginning and initiated my knowledge in Corpus Linguistics. I owe a debt of gratitude to him. Sincere thanks go to Mr. Nidal Esh-shurbaji, Mr. Muhammed Ameen, Dr. Abdelfattah Shahda, Mr. Sameh Elmoghazi, Mr. Hassanein Younis, Mrs. Maryam Salah Eddeen, Mrs. Suzan Masoud, Mrs. Ameena Abdelaleem, Dr. Mona Kamel Hassan, Mrs. Mayy Rami, and Mrs. Sara Aboulmajd for their kind cooperation and/or pleasant company. Finally, I cannot forget the first one who embraced me in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Prof. Alsaid Badawi, may Allah bless his soul! ABSTRACT This thesis offers a corpus-based analysis and description of two of the most ba‟da/ (after, after/ رَ ؼْ َي frequently used words in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), namely qabla/ (before, ago). To this end, a corpus of 4,102,134 tokens was compiled/ َه ْز ََ that]) and] from two prominent Arabic news websites: CNN and BBC as a purposive sample. The investigation of this study adopted the linguistic analysis as a main research method to characterize these two adverbial nouns, using WordSmith Tools as a main instrument for data analysis, based on Sinclair's model (1999) for data sampling, and Hunston‟s classification (2002, p. 46) for data categorization. Three linguistic qualities were addressed in the present analysis: semantic values and cohesive functions, syntactic features, and idiomatic usages. ba‟da/, and classified them into three/ رَ ؼْ َي The study identified a set of 459 occurrences for categories according to its meanings: after, after that, and idiomatic expressions. The study qabla/, and classified them also into three/ َه ْز ََ also identified a set of 374 instances for categories according to its meanings: before, ago, and idiomatic expressions. The study indicated that the target words play a crucial role in the organization and interpretation of the Arabic online news. The findings can create a basis for future research where a linguistic analysis of the adverbial nouns in Arabic could be carried out in order to increase knowledge of AFL learners about the adverbial use. Findings could also be used for further pedagogical purposes. رَ ؼْ َي ,KEYWORDS: Arabic adverbial nouns, adverbial nouns of time, adverbial nouns of place ,qabla/, before, corpus-based studies, corpus-based analysis/ َه ْز ََ ,ba‟da/, after/ linguistic analysis, Arabic online news. I TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Rationale of the Study and Statement of the Problem ................................................................ 1 1.2 Adverbs – Concept and Term ..................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Adverbial Nouns – Importance in Cohesion and Conjunction ................................................... 6 1.4 Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 8 1.5 Organization of the Thesis .......................................................................................................... 9 1.6 Important Definitions ............................................................................................................... 10 1.7 Operational Definitions ............................................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER TWO 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 12 2.1 Adverbial Noun – Definition, Functions and Structure ............................................................ 12 2.2 Adverbial Nouns – Types and Meanings ................................................................................. 14 qabla/ .......................................................................................................... 17/ َه ْز ََ ba‟da/ and/ رَ ؼْ َي 2.3 2.4 Summary of Chapter Two ........................................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER THREE 3. METHODOLOGY AND DATA .................................................................................... 22 3.1 Method of Research .................................................................................................................. 22 3.2 Data Collection ......................................................................................................................... 22 3.3 Instruments of the Study ........................................................................................................... 23 3.4 Procedures using WordSmith Tools ......................................................................................... 25 3.5 Data Sampling .......................................................................................................................... 27 3.6 Data Analysis............................................................................................................................ 28 3.7 Summary of Chapter Three ...................................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER FOUR 4. ANALYSIS AND DICUSSION ..................................................................................... 30 ba‟da/ .................................................................................................................................. 30/ رَ ؼْ َي 4.1 4.1.1 Findings and Discussion of Research Question 1 and 2 .................................................. 30 ba‟da/ [After] ............................................................................................................. 31/ رَ ؼْ َي 4.1.1.1 II ba‟da/ [Transitional] .................................................................................................. 51/ رَ ؼْ َي 4.1.1.2 4.1.2 Findings and Discussion of Research Question 3 ........................................................... 56 qabla/ .................................................................................................................................. 64/ َه ْز ََ 4.2 4.2.1 Findings and Discussion of Research Question 1 and 2 .................................................. 64 qabla/ [Before]........................................................................................................... 65/ َه ْز ََ 4.2.1.1 qabla/ [Ago] .............................................................................................................. 84/ َه ْز ََ 4.2.1.2 4.2.2 Findings and Discussion of Research Question 3 ........................................................... 91 4.3 Summary of Chapter Four ...................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER FIVE 5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 107 5.1 Research Questions Revisited ................................................................................................ 107 5.2 Summary of Findings ............................................................................................................. 107 ba'da/ [After]............................................................................................................ 109/ رَ ؼْ َي 5.2.1 ba'da/ [after that, then, or subsequently] .................................................................. 111/ رَ ؼْ َي 5.2.2 qabla/ [before] ......................................................................................................... 112/ َه ْز ََ 5.2.3 qabla/ [ago] .............................................................................................................. 113/ َه ْز ََ 5.2.4 qabla/ [idiomatic expressions] .......................................................... 115/ َه ْز ََ ba'da/ and/ رَ ؼْ َي 5.2.5 5.3 Limitations of the Study: ........................................................................................................ 116 5.4 Future Studies ........................................................................................................................