Compounding in modern standard Arabic, Jordanian Arabic and English

283 Pages·2016·4.43 MB·English

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
ء ʔ voiceless glottal stop
ب b voiced bilabial stop
ت t voiceless dento-alveolar stop
ث θ voiceless inter-dental fricative
ج dʒ voiced post-alveolar affricate
ح ħ voiceless pharyngeal fricative
خ x voiceless uvular fricative
د d voiced dento-alveolar stop
ذ ð voiced inter-dental fricative
ر r voiced alveo-palatal trill
ز z voiced alveolar fricative
س s voiceless alveolar fricative
ش ʃ voiceless alveo-palatal fricative
ص sˤ voiceless alveolar emphatic fricative
ض dˤ voiced alveolar emphatic stop
ط tˤ voiceless dento-alveolar emphatic stop
ظ ðˤ voiced alveolar emphatic fricative
viii
ع ʕ voiced pharyngeal fricative
غ ɣ voiced uvular fricative
ف f voiceless labio-dental fricative
ق q voiceless uvular stop
ك k voiceless velar stop
ل l voiced alveolar lateral
م m voiced bilabial nasal
ن n voiced alveolar nasal
ه h voiceless glottal fricative
و w voiced labio-velar glide
ي y voiced palatal glide
/َ / a low short central unrounded
/ُ / u high short back rounded
/ِ / i high short front unrounded
آ aa low long central unrounded
وو uu high long back rounded
يي ii high long front unrounded
و oo mid long back rounded
وا aw low short front unrounded + labio-velar glide
يا ay low short front unrounded + palatal glide
يي ee mid long front unrounded

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 ............................................................................................................ 12
2.2.2 Stress ....................................................................................................................... 13
2.2.3 Modification ............................................................................................................ 16
2.2.4 Compositionality ..................................................................................................... 19
2.2.5 Displacement ........................................................................................................... 21
x