© 2010 Abdulkafi Albirini
THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF CODESWITCHING BETWEEN STANDARD ARABIC AND DIALECTAL ARABIC
BY
ABDULKAFI ALBIRINI
DISSERTATION
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010
Urbana, Illinois
Doctoral Committee: Professor Elabbas Benmamoun, Chair Professor Rakesh Bhatt Professor Silvina Montrul Assistant Professor Marina Terkourafi
ABSTRACT
Codeswitching (CS) between Standard Arabic (SA) and Dialectal Arabic (DA) is a characteristic feature of Arabic bidialectal speech in a number of contexts. This dissertation focuses on two aspects related to this phenomenon, namely, its syntactic structure and its social functions in Arabic-speaking communities. The purpose of this study was three-fold: first, to examine the applicability of some of the major syntactic constraints on bilingual CS to bidialectal CS between SA and DA; second, to identify the potential syntactic principles that govern CS between the two varieties; and, third, to investigate the sociolinguistic functions of CS in the Arabic sociolinguistic context.
Three sets of naturally-produced data were examined, representing the domains of religious lectures/ discussions, political debates/interviews, and soccer play-by-play commentaries. The naturalistic data came from 35 audio- and video-recordings for educated speakers of Arabic. This data was supplemented by two hundred and thirty-five sentences experimentally created to test certain hypotheses about the structure of CS between the two varieties.
The analysis of the syntactic patterns of CS between SA and DA shows that none of the major syntactic constraints on bilingual CS applies in the case of CS between SA and DA. This is explained by the fact that, whereas CS constraints arise as a result of certain parametric incompatibilities between typologically distinct languages, CS between SA and DA eludes these constraints because of the structural similarity of the two varieties. This also supports the view that the constraints on CS vary from one language pair to another.
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The findings suggest that CS between SA and DA is structurally regulated by the
Sentential Functional Head Constraint, which prevents CS in a single CP between a lexical verb and its functional head(s) and between the functional heads themselves. This constraint operates only at the level of functional heads in the A-domain, that is, on the path from V to C (i.e. C, I, and Neg). Moreover, the data points to the unequal roles and statuses of SA and DA in mixed discourse. Based on the current data, DA seems to shape the structure of most mixed sentences and therefore it serves as the host language, as opposed to the guest language role which SA assumes.
Sociolinguistically, the findings suggest that, unlike its bilingual counterpart, CS between
SA and DA is primarily not governed by the immediate context, speech event, speaker or interlocutor, but rather by the link between status and functions of the code itself. CS here serves as a regularization mechanism through which sociolinguistic functions of varying levels of prestige, importance, complexity, and seriousness are encoded and indexed through the use of two codes—a High code dedicated for important, serious, and complex issues, and a Low code designated for less important, less serious, and simple issues.
CS also serves as a marker of the speaker’s attitude toward certain details in the discourse, often indexing his/her positive attitudes toward SA-related functions and negative attitudes to DA-related ones. Lastly, speakers often shift to SA to invoke their pan-Arab or
Muslim affiliation. This suggests that SA use here is meant to index their Muslim and Arab identities.
Overall, the study points to a paradoxical polarity in the structural and social roles that
SA and DA assume in the context of Arabic bidialectal CS. Although DA is the structurally predominant language, it assumes the functions of the Low code. On the other hand, SA assumes
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CS.
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To Him Who has been with me all the time
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise is to God for his bountiful blessings, grace, favor, support, and help.
I was very fortunate to have worked with a number of caring people whose support has made it possible for me to complete this work. I would like to express my profound gratitude for all of those who have helped me throughout my years as a graduate student at UIUC. My deepest thanks are for my advisor Dr. Benmamoun for his outstanding direction, guidance, and communication. His insights, knowledge and input were a great inspiration. I greatly appreciate everything he has done for me. His encouragement and help will never be forgotten.
I am forever grateful for Dr. Bhatt, from whom I learned a lot and through whom I came to love sociolinguistics. He was a big help and a great professor and person. He has always been supportive, respectful, encouraging, and inspiring. I am also deeply thankful to Dr. Montrul for her help, encouragement, and support. I am very thankful for her willingness to answer questions, to give advice, and to exemplify excellence through her outstanding scholarship. I would also like to offer my sincere appreciation for Dr. Terkourafi for her very helpful feedback and dedication. She is a model young scholar for me because of her hard work, care, and sincerity.
My deep appreciation goes to my family for their thoughts and prayers: my mother for her endless love and devotion; my brothers for their encouragement and support; my sisters for their sincere wishes and care; and the spirit of my father for his inspiration. I would like to thank my great wife for all her patience, care, support, and encouragement throughout my graduate work.
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I would like to express my indebtedness for the participants who gave me their time to complete the Acceptability Judgment Task. I owe Tim and Abdelaadim my gratitude for their willingness to look at the manuscript and correct many spelling mistakes. Last but not least, I would like to offer my sincere appreciation for all friends and professors who offered their suggestions, advice, and support. I wish you all the best in your lives.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM ………………………………………………………...... ix
ABBREVIATIONS …………………………………………………………………...….... xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………...... 1
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………... 16
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY …………………………………………... 67
CHAPTER 4: MAIN FINDINGS ………………………………………………………..... 79
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION …………………………………………………………….... 140
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………... 172
NOTES ……………………………………………...…………………………………….... 186
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………... 188
APPENDIX A: LIST OF RECORDINGS …………………………………………………. 208
APPENDIX B: ACCEPTABILITY JUDGMENT TASK………………………………….. 210
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………... 220
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TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM
CONSONANTS