Arabic Idioms: A Corpus Based Study

192 Pages·2011·3.92 MB·English

by  Ashraf Abdou

Arabic Idioms
A corpus-based study
Ashraf Abdou
Routledge Arabic Linguistic Series
Arabic Idioms
Idioms represent a fascinating linguistic phenomenon that has captured the
attention of many linguists for decades. The ubiquity of these expressions in
language use, the wide range of functions they perform in discourse, the problems
they often cause in domains such as foreign language learning and translation,
and their typical divergence from the normal rules of grammar and semantic
compositionality are among the main reasons for this scholarly interest.
This book is a corpus-based study of idioms in Modern Standard Arabic.
Examining Arabic idioms with regard to their semantic, discursive, lexical, and
grammatical properties, the author sheds light on their intricate nature, establishes
the major patterns of their linguistic behavior, and provides explanations for these
patterns.
Adopting a descriptive framework and systemically accounting for major
linguistic phenomena, this analysis will be accessible to linguists, translators,
lexicographers, translation software developers, and language teachers.
Ashraf Abdou is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign
Language at the American University in Cairo and Lecturer of Linguistics at
Cairo University . His research focuses on Arabic phraseology, Arabic corpus
linguistics, spoken discourse analysis, Arabic lexicography, and English–Arabic
contrastive phraseology.
Routledge Arabic Linguistics Series

General Editor : Clive Holes (University of Oxford)
Editors:
El-Sa’id Badawi (American University in Cairo)
Adrian Gully (University of Melbourne)
Yasir Suleiman (University of Cambridge)
Keith Walters (University of Texas)
James Dickins (University of Leeds)
Jonathan Owens (Bayreuth University)
The R outledge Arabic Linguistics Series publishes high quality, academically
rigorous research on Arabic linguistics to two main readerships: non-Arabist
general linguists with an interest in Arabic, and students and researchers already
in the fi eld of Arabic language and linguistics. Both synchronic and diachronic
studies of Arabic are welcome which aid our understanding of the historical
evolution and the present state of Arabic, whether dialectal or standard. Works
written from a sociolinguistic (e.g. language variation), socio-historical (e.g. lan-
guage history), sociological (e.g. language planning), or psycholinguistic (e.g.
language acquisition) perspective are welcome, as are studies of Arabic stylistics,
pragmatics, and discourse analysis. Descriptive dialectological works also fall
within the scope of the Series, as do works which focus on the evolution of mediae-
val Arabic linguistic thought. Proposals or scripts for the Series will be welcomed
by the General Editor.
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BY CURZON
1. Medieval Islamic Pragmatics
MSunni legal theorists’ model of textual communication
Mohamed Mohamed Yunis Ali
2. Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic
Jeffrey Heath
3. Language Contact and Language Confl ict in Arabic
Variations on a sociolinguistic theme
Edited by Aleya Rouchdy
PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE
4. Structure and Function of the Arabic Verb
Maher Bahloul
5. Arabic in the City
Issues in dialect contact and language variation
Edited by Catherine Miller with Enam Al-Wer, Dominique Caubet and Janet
Watson
6. Information Structure in Spoken Arabic
Edited by Jonathan Owens and Alaa Elgibali
7. Islamist Rhetoric
Language and culture in contemporary Egypt
Jacob Høigilt
8. Arabic Idioms
A corpus-based study
Ashraf Abdou

Arabic Idioms
A corpus-based study
Ashraf Abdou
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
710 Third Ave, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Ashraf Abdou
The right of Ashraf Abdou to be identifi ed as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Abdou, Ashraf.
Arabic idioms: a corpus based study / Ashraf Abdou.
p. cm.—(Routledge Arabic linguistics series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Arabic language—Idioms. 2. Arabic language—Spoken
Arabic. 3. Arabic language—Discourse analysis. I. Title.
PJ6167.A23 2011
492.7′5—dc22 2011003469
ISBN: 978–0–415–60340–9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–0–203–80878–8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
To my family, for their love and continuous support
To Sara, with great hopes for the future

Contents
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
List of abbreviations xiv
List of tables xvi
Transliteration scheme xvii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Signifi cance of the study 1
1.2 Research questions 2
1.3 Modern Standard Arabic 3
1.4 Sources of idioms in MSA 3
1.5 Arabic idioms and other types of multiword units 4
1.6 Using corpora in idiom studies: advantages and limitations 7
1.7 Model of analysis 9
1.8 Structure of the book 11
1.9 Conventions used in this book 11
2 Methodology and data 13
2.1 Collecting Arabic idioms 13
2.2 Classifying Arabic idioms 16
2.3 Selecting the sample 17
2.4 Corpus data: sources, collection procedures, and preparation 18
2.5 The language of Arabic newspapers 24
2.6 Data examples and their frequency 26
3 The semantic structure of Arabic idioms 37
3.1 Motivation 37
3.2 Patterns of semantic extension in idioms 39
3.3 Arabic idioms and isomorphism 55
3.4 Discussion 61