Hassan Es-saiydy & Mohammed Moubtassime
Introduction

Zahra Zaid
La distinction entre le syntagme prédicatif et le syntagme qualificatif en arabe marocain

Rachid El Ouardi
Exceptional Agreement Relation in Standard Arabic Indefinites Adjectival/Participle Phrases

Ahmed Ech-Charfi
The Semantics of Standard Arabic Indefinites

Abdel-Hakeem Kasem
The Effect of Focus on Form in the Written Work of Adult Arabic Learners

Adil Al-Kufaishi
The Rhetorical Patterns of Arabic and English Expository Texts

Mohammadi Laghzaoui
Language Attitudes Toward Arabic in Islamic Elementary Schools in the Netherlands

Reddad Rguig
Conceptions of Literacy in Morocco from the 1960's to the 1990's

Haseeb Shehadeh
On the revival of Modern Hebrew and Modern Arabic

Shareef A. Al-Kareem Al-Najjar
Point of View in Causal Adjectives and (Al-Kohl) Issue

Abstract

    This volume of the international journal Languages and Linguistics contains a collection of articles on various axes of descriptive, theoretical and applied linguistics, aiming at analysing pertinent linguistic and pedagogical aspects of Arabic in comparison with similar phenomena in languages, which are genetically different, namely French and English.
    The overall aim of this volume is to contribute to the enrichment of the scientific debate on Arabic linguistics in the domains of morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well as in language acquisition and the learning strategies of Arabic as a second language.
 

     The issue addressed in this article is related to agreement theory in standard Arabic. In this language, adjectives and passive participles may have a simultaneous agreement relation with two different arguments; this is termed ‘Exceptional Agreement Relation’ (EAR) where two agreement processes are involved, each with its own properties: rightside agreement where the participle or adjective agrees with the argument on its right, and leftside agreement where the participle or adjective agrees with the argument on its left.  

    The main concern of this paper is to study an aspect of indefinite NP interpretation which is governed by the rules of syntax. As well known, it is assumed within the Government-Binding Theory that there is an intermediary level analysis (viz. Logical Form) between syntactic structures and semantic representations where sentences are assigned their logical forms. We will draw on data from Standard Arabic (SA) to argue that logical representations may be derived from the syntactic structures of sentences. In particular, we will try to attain the following objectives:
                  - argue that the interpretation of SA indefinites is determined (in part) by their syntactic position in the sentence
                  - support the view (advanced by Fassi Fehri (1993)) that SA has an SV as well as a VS word order, and
                  - provide an analysis of the so-called "nominal sentences" which is parallel to the analysis of verbal sentences.
 

    The paper aims at: a) specifying the rhetorical patterns that develop English expository texts, b- analysing the thematic content of two Arabic expository texts and c- identifying the signalling devices that display inter-sentential and intra-sentential relationships and furnish textual cohesion. The two Arabic texts are analyzed in terms of their macro structure organization- propositional content development- and micro structures- the internal information organization. The research findings have displayed that: a- Arabic expository texts are developed by the specified rhetorical patterns- the patterns of Elaboration/ Reformulation, Cause/ Effect, Contradiction/ Concession, Chronology and Enumeration, b- Arabic thematic progression is realized via the conceptual paragraph- a semantic unit which consists of a core-generalization supported by its sub-cores and c- Arabic information packaging is managed and distributed via the principles of end-focus and end-weight, the emphatic principle and adverbial fronting. The specified rhetorical patterns develop both Arabic and English expository texts since they reflect the human cognitive processes of reasoning, deduction, induction- the mental operations and activities- and the shared perceptions of spatial and temporal relationships.

     This study is an attempt to investigate and understand the attitudes of Moroccan pupils towards Arabic in Islamic primary schools in the Netherlands. To do this, two groups of pupils of two primary schools (one Islamic and one public) have been studied. The purpose of this survey is to study some relevant variables that may give an explanation of how children in Islamic primary schools think of Arabic. This article provides an introductory overview of language attitudes. In addition, attention is given to the various factors, which may influence the linguistic behaviour and attitudes of the pupils under consideration. To do this, some key determinants are examined such as social-economic status, language and ethnicity, language proficiency, language choice, language dominance, language preference, attitudes towards language users, language and social acceptance, and finally language and religion. This study ends with a number of conclusions and recommendations for futures studies in the field of language attitudes towards Arabic.

    The purpose of this article is to offer insights into people's understandings of the concept of alphabetic literacy in Morocco. The goal is to explore the meanings people have associated with the concept of literacy and how these meanings vary in accordance with gender and place of residence since Independence through the 1990’s on the basis of the analysis of the results of questionnaires and interviews. The study shows that the concept of literacy has increasingly become complex and its meanings have become diverse. The spread of literacy to larger segments of the Moroccan population has had a strong impact on people’s attitudes towards literacy and their perceptions of it. It is eventually shown that the concept of literacy is highly contingent on the temporal and spatial contexts in which it is defined and suggests that policy-makers ought to take into account the changing meanings of literacy so that the education system and the literacy campaigns in Morocco could accomplish their mission of providing people with the relevant and necessary skills they need in order to be functional and integrate into the job market.

Abstract

     Haseeb Shehadeh deals with the revival of Modern Hebrew and Modern Standard Arabic. He outlines the steps through which both languages have been revitalized and modernized. While Modern Hebrew stems from Classical Hebrew, which has been a dead language for seventeen centuries, Modern Standard Arabic is a blend of spoken and classical Arabic, which is widely used in education and media. However, it is only in Syria that Modern Arabic is used as a language of instruction for the sciences.

Abstract

     Shareef Abdel-Kareem Al-Najjar’s article in Arabic indicates the function of meaning in grammatical research. He argues that "declination is the branch of meaning" which can cause contradiction in meaning. Focusing on the study of causal adjectives and Al-Kohl phenomenon, the author criticizes traditional grammarians’ treatment of this sentence structure, arguing that this sentence type must be analysed as a sentence adjective.

يَقومُ الباحثُ في هذه الدراسةِ بتوجيـه مسـائـل البـابِ تَوجيـهاً يَعْـتَمِدُ على المَعـنى وتفسيـرِ التَراكيبِ تفسـيـراً وَصْفيّـاً، ويَرفـضُ منْ خلالِ تَحليلِـه للأنْـماطِ التّركيبيّـة للنعتِ السّبَبي تَفسيـرَ النّحاةِ، ويَضَـعُ تَفسـيـراً آخَـرَ تظـهـرُ فيه عـلاقـاتٌ جديـدةٌ مختلـفةٌ عمّا يـراه النّـحاةُ  في بِنـيَـةِ الجُمـلَـةِ في هـذا البابِ، ويرى أَنّ هـذا البابَ يـجـبُ أنْ يكونَ ضـمنَ بابِ النّـعت الحـقيقي (نعت الجملة)، فلا يوجـدُ ميـزَةٌ تَـفـصلُه عنـه .