Newcastle University School of English Literature, Language And
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Newcastle University School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Compounding in Modern Standard Arabic, Jordanian Arabic and English Abdel Rahman Mitib Salim Altakhaineh June 2016 i Abstract This study aims to identify types of compounds in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Jordanian Arabic (JA) by applying the cross-linguistic criteria for compoundhood discussed in the relevant literature, with a special focus on English. These criteria -- orthographic, phonological, syntactic and semantic in nature -- have been proposed to make a distinction between compounds and phrases. The analysis reveals that the most reliable cross-linguistic criteria to distinguish between phrases and compounds in MSA, JA and English are adjacency and referentiality. With regard to the former criterion, no intervening elements can be inserted between the head and the non-head of compounds, whilst such insertion is allowed in phrases. With regard to the latter criterion, the non-head of a phrase is always referential, whereas the non-head of a compound is normally non-referential. Other criteria have been found to be partially applicable, e.g. compositionality, possibilities for modification and coordination, and free pluralisation of the non-head. In this study, I also suggest two reliable criteria that are exclusive to Arabic, or potentially Semitic languages in general. The first criterion is the appearance/absence of the possessive marker li-/la ‘for/of’ when the first element is definite. The second criterion deals with the appearance/absence of the possessive marker li-/la ‘for/of’ when the first element is preceded by a cardinal number. In applying the various criteria, several properties of compounding in MSA and JA are examined in detail, such as stress assignment, the behaviour of serial verbs and V + V compounds, headedness, and types of compounds based on Scalise and Bisetto’s (2009) classification. With respect to stress assignment, analysis shows that the default position of stress in both N + N compounds and phrases is on the first element. Concerning serial verbs and V + V compounds, the analysis shows that, although the distinction between them is not always clear-cut, V + V compounds are different from serial verbs with respect to the adjacency criterion. With regard to headedness, my study confirms that compounding in Arabic is predominantly left-headed. Regarding types of compounds, the Arabic data shows the usefulness of Scalise and Bisetto’s (2009) classification, which originally was proposed on the basis of data from 23 languages, excluding Arabic. Finally, the study proposes a definition for compounds that may be applicable cross-linguistically and concludes with recommendations for further research. ii Declaration and statement of copyright Declaration No part of the material within this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree at Newcastle University or any other university. Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation should be published from it without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. iii Dedication To my mother, whom I love dearly, for everything And to Maggie Tallerman and William van der Wurff for encouraging, motivating and supporting me iv Acknowledgments I would first like to thank my supervisors, Prof Maggie Tallerman and Dr William van der Wurff, for their patience, helpful advice, and being a source of inspiration. Thank you for all your enthusiasm and help in making what initially seemed terrifying into something that I enjoyed writing and found interesting. Without you, this piece of work would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Dr SJ Hannahs, Prof Anders Holmberg, Dr Richard Waltereit and Dr Ghada Khattab for sharing their expertise with me. Their comments and suggestions helped to improve this thesis. My special thanks go to my fellow colleagues here at Newcastle, Aseel Zibin, Marwan Jarrah, Bashayer Alotaibi, Maha Jasim, Murdhy Alshamari and Samer Hanafiyeh, for being such wonderful and supportive friends. Your discussions helped me broaden my perspective and clarify things. And finally, I would like to thank all my family, friends and students in Jordan, the UK and the UAE, who have provided endless emotional support during my time here. I extend my undying gratitude to you all, thank you. v List of abbreviations and symbols (*X) token not correct with material in brackets *(X) token not correct without material in brackets 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person ACT active ADJ adjective ADV adverb AP active participle ART article BP broken plural DAT dative DEF definite DET determiner F feminine FUT future GEN genitive IMP imperative IND indicative INDF indefinite INF infinitive IPA International Phonetic Alphabet vi JA Jordanian Arabic LE linking element M masculine MSA Modern Standard Arabic N noun NMLZ nominalizer/nominalization PASS passive PL plural POSS possessive PRS present PROR progressive PRT particle PST past PTCP participle SG singular SGC Synthetic Genitive Construction SP sound plural V verb * ungrammatical sentence ˈ preceding a stressed syllable ? marked sentence/phrase vii Transcriptions and other conventions Most of the symbols are drawn from the IPA but I use a few non-IPA symbols that are conventional in transcriptions of Arabic. For each symbol, the table specifies the exact phonetic value. Arabic consonant/vowel Symbol Description ʔ voiceless glottal stop ء b voiced bilabial stop ب t voiceless dento-alveolar stop ت θ voiceless inter-dental fricative ث dʒ voiced post-alveolar affricate ج ħ voiceless pharyngeal fricative ح x voiceless uvular fricative خ d voiced dento-alveolar stop د ð voiced inter-dental fricative ذ r voiced alveo-palatal trill ر z voiced alveolar fricative ز s voiceless alveolar fricative س ʃ voiceless alveo-palatal fricative ش sˤ voiceless alveolar emphatic fricative ص dˤ voiced alveolar emphatic stop ض tˤ voiceless dento-alveolar emphatic stop ط ðˤ voiced alveolar emphatic fricative ظ viii ʕ voiced pharyngeal fricative ع ɣ voiced uvular fricative غ f voiceless labio-dental fricative ف q voiceless uvular stop ق k voiceless velar stop ك l voiced alveolar lateral ل m voiced bilabial nasal م n voiced alveolar nasal ن h voiceless glottal fricative ه w voiced labio-velar glide و y voiced palatal glide ي a low short central unrounded / َ/ u high short back rounded / ُ/ i high short front unrounded / ِ/ aa low long central unrounded آ uu high long back rounded وو ii high long front unrounded يي oo mid long back rounded و aw low short front unrounded + labio-velar glide او ay low short front unrounded + palatal glide اي ee mid long front unrounded يي ix Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Declaration and statement of copyright ................................................................................... iii Dedication ................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................... v List of abbreviations and symbols ............................................................................................ vi Transcriptions and other conventions .................................................................................... viii Chapter One: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background to the study .................................................................................................. 1 1.2.1 What is a compound? .................................................................................................... 1 1.2.2 Compounds and phrases ........................................................................................... 2 1.2.3 Types of compounds ................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Why compounding? ......................................................................................................... 5 1.4 The significance of the study ........................................................................................... 6 1.5 MSA and JA: some background ...................................................................................... 8 1.6 Research questions and objectives ................................................................................. 10 1.7 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 10 1.8 The structure of the thesis .............................................................................................. 11 Chapter Two: Criteria for identifying compounding cross-linguistically ................................ 12 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 The main distinguishing criteria between compounds and phrases ............................... 12 2.2.1 Orthography ...........................................................................................................