Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:46:37.611Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - Arabic Morphology

Inflectional and Derivational

from Part III - Theoretical and Descriptive Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2021

By
Janet C. E. Watson
Edited by
Karin Ryding  and
David Wilmsen
Karin Ryding
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
David Wilmsen
Affiliation:
American University of Beirut
Get access

Summary

This chapter takes us on a survey of morphological categories, both derivational and inflectional, focusing not only on MSA but even more particularly on Yemeni, Saudi, and Egyptian dialects in contrastive analysis. Starting with the basics of Arabic derivation, Watson notes the key templatic nature of Arabic word formation and reviews concepts such as verb valency and different types of noun categories. In her discussion of Arabic inflectional categories, Watson covers number, gender, person, aspect, tense, mood, voice, degree, and definiteness.

Keywords

derivationmorphologyinflectioninflectional categoriesvalencyroottemplate
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics , pp. 405 - 424
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aronoff, M. (1994). Morphology by Itself: Stems and Inflectional Classes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Asiri, Y. M. (2007). Relative clauses in Rijāl Almaʕ dialect (south-west Saudi Arabia). Paper presented at the Seminar for Arabian Studies, July (2007).Google Scholar
Asiri, Y. M. (2009). Aspects of the Phonology and Morphology of Rijāl Almaʕ Dialect (South-West Saudi Arabia). PhD thesis, University of Salford, UK.Google Scholar
Bauer, L. (2003). Introducing Linguistic Morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beard, R. (2001). Derivation. In Spencer, A. and Zwicky, A. M., eds., The Handbook of Morphology. Oxford: Wiley, 44–65.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, P. (1985). Die nordjemenitischen Dialekte. Teil I. Atlas. Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichart.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, P. (1987). Die Dialekte der Gegend von Saʕdah (Nord-Jemen). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, P. (undated). The niktib-niktibu Issue Revisited. www.academia.edu/35056026/The_niktib-niktibu_Issue_Revisited; last accessed 20 December 2020.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E. (1999). Arabic morphology: The central role of the imperfective. Lingua, 108, 175–201.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E. (2003). The role of the imperfective template in Arabic morphology. In Shimron, J., ed., Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages of Semitic, Root-Based, Morphology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 99–114.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E. (2016). Verbal and nominal plurals and the syntaxmorphology interface. In Davis, S. and Soltan, U., eds., Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXVII. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 59–74.Google Scholar
Corbett, G. (1991). Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, S. (2016). The Arabic comparative and the nature of templatic mapping in Arabic. In Körtvélyessy, L., Štekauer, P., and Valera, S., eds., Word-Formation across Languages. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 73–90.Google Scholar
Davis, S. (2017). Some issues for an analysis of the templatic comparative in Arabic with a focus on the Egyptian dialect. In Ouali, H., ed., Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXIX. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 129–50.Google Scholar
Davis, S. and Zawaydeh, B. A. (1999a). A descriptive analysis of hypocoristics in Colloquial Arabic. Language and Linguistics 3, 83–98.Google Scholar
Davis, S. and Zawaydeh, B. A. (1999b). Hypocoristic formation in Ammani-Jordanian Arabic. In Benmamoun, E., ed., Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XII. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 113–39.Google Scholar
Eades, D. (2009). Retention of the passive verb in a Bedouin dialect of northern Oman. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik, 51, 5–21.Google Scholar
El-Hassan, S. (2008). Mood (Arabic dialects). In Versteegh, K., Eid, M, Elgibali, A., Woidich, M., and Zaborski, A., eds., Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, 262–9.Google Scholar
Elsadek, S. (2016). Verbal Complementation in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic: an LFG Account. PhD thesis, University of Essex, UK.Google Scholar
Hallman, P. (undated). Syntactic Asymmetries Between the Comparative and Superlative in Arabic. Ms, University of Vienna. http://peterhallman.com/asymmetries.pdf; last accessed 8 December 2020.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, M. and Sims, A. D. (2010). Understanding Morphology. London: Hodder.Google Scholar
Heselwood, B. and Watson, J. C. E. (2015). The Arabic definite article: A synchronic and historical perspective. In Edzard, L., ed., Arabic and Semitic Linguistics Contextualized: A Festschrift for Jan Retsö. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 157–76.Google Scholar
Holes, C. (1998). Retention and loss of the passive in the Arabic dialects of Oman and Northern Arabia. Journal of Semitic Studies, 43, 347–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holes, C. (2008). Omani Arabic. In Versteegh, K., Eid, M, Elgibali, A., Woidich, M., and Zaborski, A., eds., Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, 478–91.Google Scholar
Idrissi, A., Prunet, J.-F., and Béland, R. (2008). On the mental representation of Arabic roots. Linguistic Inquiry, 39, 221–59.Google Scholar
Ingham, B. (2008). Najdi Arabic. In Versteegh, K., Eid, M, Elgibali, A., Woidich, M., and Zaborski, A., eds., Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, 326–34.Google Scholar
Kherbache, F. (2013). Gender of unmarked nouns in Beni Hemmou. International Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2, 11–16.Google Scholar
Lieber, R. (2010). Introducing Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. (1981). A prosodic theory of non-concatenative morphology. Linguistic Inquiry, 12, 373–48.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. and Prince, A. (1990). Foot and word in prosodic morphology: The Arabic broken plural. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 8, 209–82.Google Scholar
McOmber, M. (1995). Morpheme edges and Arabic infixation. In Eid, M., ed., Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics X. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 173–89.Google Scholar
Naïm, S. (2009). L’arabe yéménite de Sanaa. Leuven-Paris: Peeters.Google Scholar
Plag, I. (2003). Word Formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Procházka, S. (2004). Unmarked feminine nouns in modern Arabic dialects. In Haak, M., de Jong, R., and Versteegh, K., eds., Approaches to Arabic Dialects. A Collection of Articles Presented To Manfred Woidich on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday. Leiden: Brill, 237–62.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. (1997). Prosodic morphemes in a word-based morphological analysis of Arabic. In Eid, M. and Ratcliffe, R., eds., Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics X. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 147–72.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. (1998). The ‘Broken’ Plural Problem in Arabic and Comparative Semitic: Allomorphy and Analogy in Non-Concatenative Morphology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. (2013). Morphology. In Owens, J., ed., The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 71–91.Google Scholar
Retsö, J. (1983). The Finite Passive Voice in Modern Arabic Dialects. Gothenburg: Universitatis Gothoburgensis.Google Scholar
Rossi, E. (1939). L’arabo parlato a San’â’. Rome: Istituto Per L’Oriente.Google Scholar
Ryding, K. (2005). A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ryding, K. (2014). Arabic: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, A. (1991). Morphological Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stump, G. T. (2001). Inflection. In Spencer, A. and Zwicky, A., eds., The Handbook of Morphology. Oxford: Blackwell, 13–43.Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, C. (2008). De l’expression de la cause et de la causalité dans l’arabe de Mauritanie. In Procházka, S. and Ritt-Benmimoun, V., eds., Between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans: Studies on Contemporary Arabic Dialects. Proceedings of the 7th AIDA Conference, held in Vienna from 5–9 September (2006). Vienna: LIT Verlag, 423–36.Google Scholar
Ussishkin, A. (1999). The inadequacy of the consonantal root: Modern Hebrew denominal verbs and output-to-output correspondence. Phonology, 16, 401–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vicente, A. (2009). Relative pronoun (Arabic dialects). In Versteegh, K., Eid, M, Elgibali, A., Woidich, M., and Zaborski, A., eds., Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. IV. Leiden: Brill, 70–2.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E. (1993). A Syntax of San’ani Arabic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E. (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E. (2006). The morphology of Arabic: Diminutive verbs and diminutive nouns in San’ani Arabic. Morphology, 16, 189–204.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E. (2007). Ein Märchen im arabischen Dialekt von Ibb. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik, 47, 1–31.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E. (2009). San’ani Arabic. In Versteegh, K., Eid, M, Elgibali, A., Woidich, M., and Zaborski, A., eds., Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. IV. Leiden: Brill, 106–15.Google Scholar
Watson, J. C. E. (2011). Arabic dialects (general article). In Weniger, S., Khan, G., Streck, M. P., and Watson, J. C. E., eds., The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 851–95.Google Scholar
Wehr, H. (1976). A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, edited by Cowan, J. M.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Woidich, M. (2006). Das Kairenisch-Arabische: Eine Grammatik. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Zaborski, A. (1999). Remarks on derived verbs in Hamitosemitic. In Edzard, L. and Nekroumi, M., eds., Tradition and Innovation: Norm and Derivation in Arabic and Semitic Linguistics. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 44–51.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×