Amazigh Representation in the UNL Framework: Resource Implementation

AbstractThis paper discusses the first steps undertaken to create necessary linguistic resources to incorporate Amazigh language within the Universal Networking Language (UNL) framework for machine translation purpose. This universal interlanguage allows to any source text to be translated into different other related languages with UNL by converting the meaning of the source text into semantic graph. This encoding is considered as a pivot interlanguage used in translation systems. Thus in this work, we focus on presenting morphological, syntactical and lexical mapping stages needed for building an “Amazigh dictionary” according to the UNL framework and the “UNL-Amazigh Dictionary” that are both taking part in enconversion and deconversion processes

Parts of Speech Tagging: Rule-Based

Parts of speech (POS) tagging is the process of assigning a word in a text as corresponding to a part of speech based on its definition and its relationship with adjacent and related words in a phrase, sentence, or paragraph. POS tagging falls into two distinctive groups: rule-based and stochastic. In this paper, a rule-based POS tagger is developed for the English language using Lex and Yacc. The tagger utilizes a small set of simple rules along with a small dictionary to generate sequences of tokens

Debating Darija: Language Ideology and the Written Representation of Moroccan Arabic in Morocco.

Morocco has witnessed the emergence of new literacy practices in private and public space. Moroccan Arabic, the colloquial, traditionally “unwritten” variety of Arabic, is now represented in written form in a number of new spaces such as non-formal education, SMS text messaging, street billboard advertisements, the scripts for dubbed foreign TV series, and a weekly news magazine. This dissertation examines these varied contexts and considers issues regarding when, how and by whom Moroccan Arabic literacy practices are performed in each site. In doing so, this dissertation finds useful the analytic of ‘language ideologies,’ beliefs people have about language, in that they serve a mediating role between social structures and forms of talk. I argue that the emergence of Moroccan Arabic literacy practices may create a sense of ideological disjuncture for Moroccans who believe that Moroccan Arabic is solely an oral language that should not be written. Ideologies linking Moroccan Arabic closely to notions of intimacy and hchuma ‘shame,’ figure centrally in how new forms of Moroccan Arabic are received. The success of some written forms of Moroccan Arabic in certain domains opens the question as to a positive revaluing of Moroccan Arabic in these new contexts and a possible shift away from diglossia as an ideology of language. This dissertation productively uses the term ‘fractal recursivity,’ the semiotic process by which an opposition at one level can be either embedded or expanded to another level, to understand how written representations of Moroccan Arabic are understood across these different contexts and linguistic forms according to an oral/written binary. I argue that individuals and institutions actively maintain Moroccan Arabic’s lower position in the linguistic hierarchy through the reproduction of already dominant language ideologies that frame mother tongue languages in Morocco as oral, even when represented in writing. I show that while the use of Moroccan Arabic in literacy practices associated with modernity and innovation may be seen as challenging hegemonic ideologies, recently, public debates about language policy in education reveal that Moroccans place a high value on diglossia and thus a future institutionalization of Moroccan Arabic literacy practices is ambiguous.PHDAnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111375/1/jennylh_1.pd

English in the expanding circle of Morocco: Spread, uses, and functions

Research using Kachru’s (1984) World Englishes theoretical framework and Three Circles model has produced a wealth of knowledge about the spread and functions of English to speech communities around the world. However, there is a recognition that disproportionate attention has been accorded across these spheres. The most compelling argument outlining this gap in the literature was offered by Berns (2005) over a decade ago and was reiterated by Elyas and Mahboob (2020) just recently. Berns (2005: 85) concluded that while the bulk of academic research has focused on the use of English in Inner and Outer Circle contexts, the Expanding Circle remains mostly overlooked. Elyas and Mahboob (2020: 1), who co-edited a special journal issue on the North African and Middle East contexts, underscored that the topic of English in these regions ‘is largely under-studied and undertheorized.’ Following Berns’ remarks, numerous studies have focused on this underrepresented context. Nevertheless, despite their solid contributions, these investigations remain insufficient for constructing a comprehensive understanding of the distinct dynamics of the Expanding Circle. To contribute to the Expanding Circle literature, this exploratory, qualitative, macrosociolinguistic study employs Kachru’s (1984) World Englishes theoretical framework to investigate in greater depth the spread, functional range, and domains of English use in the multilingual country of Morocco. Specifically, this study initially provides an overview of the various languages used in Morocco, then outlines the history of its contact with the English language. It next explores English use in Moroccan media, examining in detail the language’s wide-ranging uses in broadcast, digital, print, and film media. This is followed by an in-depth examination of the linguistic landscape of the metropolitan city of Casablanca, with a focus on shop signs and outdoor advertisements. Whilst the users and uses of the English language are the major focus of analysis, additional attention is given to what such a spread means for the other four historically well-established languages of use within this Expanding Circle context: Arabic, French, Spanish, and the indigenous language Tmazight. A further aim of this study is to contribute new perspectives to the existing literature on the distinct dynamics of the Expanding Circle in general

Semiotic and Discursive Displays of Tamazight Identity on Facebook: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Revitalization Efforts in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia

This dissertation examines the online discourses and semiotic resources employed by the Tunisian Amazigh community in their language and identity revitalization efforts on Facebook in wake of the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. Drawing on insights from discourse-centered online ethnography (Androutsopoulos, 2008), the frameworks of language iconization, fractal recursivity, and erasure (Irvine and Gal, 2000), and the tactics of intersubjectvity proposed by Bucholtz and Hall (2004), I argue that Tunisian Imazighen (sing. Amazigh) use Facebook to challenge hegemonic language ideologies that erase Tamazight. I propose the notion of counter-erasure as an ideological process used by Amazigh activists to contest Arabo-Islamic ideology, pan-Arabism, and Arabicization policies that pushed Tunisian Tamazight to a status of endangerment. Counter-erasure is also a means to reproduce an oppositional-ideological language discourse that corresponds to the hegemonic discourses of linguistic and cultural exclusiveness. The analysis is based on longitudinal observations of the Facebook accounts of nine Tunisian Amazigh activists collected between 2016 and 2018, and is supplemented by 23 interviews and an online quantitative language survey among Tunisians. The analysis shows how discourse, multimodality, performativity, multilingualism, and multi-orthography are used semiotically to construct Amazigh identity and to assert the legitimacy and vitality of Tamazight. By examining these semiotic practices, this dissertation demonstrates how computer-mediated discourse (CMD) on Facebook provides a space for language ideologies to be disputed, reproduced and reversed - even in the face of very low rates of language proficiency and the endangered status of the language. The dissertation adds to an existing body of research on the sociolinguistics of digital communication with emphasis on the impact of Facebook interactions on language revitalization (Paricio-Martín & Martínez-Cortés, 2010), language activism (Feliciano-Santos 2011, Davis 2013), identity construction (Georgalou 2015), bi/multilingualism (Androutsopoulos 2008, 2013; Cutler & Røyneland 2018), and minority languages (Jones & Uribe-Jongbloed, 2013). Facebook is shown to be a key factor in the emergence of an indigenous Amazigh discourse in the years since the 2010-2011 Tunisian Revolution. In the process of identity negotiation, Facebook offers huge semiotic potential for triggering ideological shifts in how language and identity are conceived by Tunisians. The dissertation concludes that computer mediated discourse on Facebook can be a catalyst for linguistic and social change in the case of Tunisian Tamazight and beyond

The European Language Resources and Technologies Forum: Shaping the Future of the Multilingual Digital Europe

Proceedings of the 1st FLaReNet Forum on the European Language Resources and Technologies, held in Vienna, at the Austrian Academy of Science, on 12-13 February 2009

Language shift or maintenance in Tamazight: A sociolinguistic study of Chaouia in Batna, Algeria.

This work is a sociolinguistic study of Chaouias in Batna, the second largest Berber group in Algeria. It examines language choice and use in three understudied communities in the plains of Aurès. It takes a multidisciplinary approach built on sociolinguistic and sociological theories to examine the role of history, language attitudes, language policies, capital, and social networks in directing the process of language shift from Chaouia, a variety of Tamazight, to Algerian Arabic. Quantitative and ethnographic methods were employed to collect data. I used 304 questionnaires and 49 interviews, along with a social network survey and participant observation, to explore the dynamics of language use and discuss the mechanisms underlying the changing practices and attitudes of Chaouias at home, school and among friendship networks. The study concludes that the community is undergoing a shift in progress. Statistical analysis indicates that age, gender and region are significant in the decline of Chaouia and increased use of Algerian Arabic. Gender, however, seems to have a more salient impact in the inter- and intra-generational transmission of the language at home. Similarly, the social attributes of the speakers provide more explanation to language shift than their relations and the density of their networks. The qualitative analysis, on the other hand, reveals the declining symbolic capital of Chaouia, with the rapid increase of Algerian Arabic as an index of mobility, nationalism, religious and ethnic identity through state schools. Despite some positive attitudes towards Chaouia and multilingualism in general, the majority of respondents are not in favour of transmitting the language or teaching it at school. The findings, moreover, demonstrate that language practices at home, school, or among friendship circles feed into each other and legitimate the policies of each domain

Arab Women in Translation : the Dynamics of Representation and the Construction of Alterity

Cette recherche examine la traduction et la réception en France, en Grande Bretagne et aux États-Unis de la littérature contemporaine d’expression arabe écrite par des femmes, afin de répondre à deux questions principales: comment les écrivaines provenant de pays arabes perdent-elles leur agentivité dans les processus de traduction et de réception? Et comment la traduction et la réception de leurs textes contribuent-elles à la construction d’une altérité arabe? Pour y répondre, l’auteure examine trois romans présentant des traits thématiques et formels très différents, à savoir Fawḍā al-Ḥawāss (1997) par Ahlem Mosteghanemi, Innahā Lundun Yā ‘Azīzī (2001) par Hanan al-Shaykh et Banāt al-Riyāḍ (2005) par Rajaa Alsanea. L’analyse, basée sur le modèle à trois dimensions de Norman Fairclough, vise à découvrir comment les écrivaines expriment leur agentivité à travers l’écriture, et quelles images elles projettent d’elles-mêmes et plus généralement des femmes dans leurs sociétés respectives. L’auteure se penche ensuite sur les traductions anglaise et française de chaque roman. Elle examine les déplacements qui s’opèrent principalement sur le plan de la texture et le plan pragma-sémiotique, et interroge en quoi ces déplacements ébranlent l’autorité des écrivaines. Enfin, une étude de la réception de ces traductions en France, en Grande Bretagne et aux États-Unis vient enrichir l’analyse textuelle. À cette étape, les critiques éditoriales et universitaires ainsi que les choix éditoriaux relatifs au paratexte sont scrutés de façon à mettre en lumière les processus décisionnels, les discours et les tropes sous-tendant la mise en marché et la consommation de ces traductions. L’analyse des originaux révèle tout d’abord qu’à travers leurs textes, les auteures sont des agentes actives de changement social. Elles s’insurgent, chacune à sa manière, contre les discours hégémoniques tant locaux qu’occidentaux, et (ré-)imaginent leurs sociétés et leurs nations. Ce faisant, elles se créent leur propre espace discursif dans la sphère publique. Toutefois, la thèse montre que dans la plupart des traductions, les discours dissidents sont neutralisés, l’agentivité et la subjectivité des écrivaines minées au profit d’un discours dominant orientaliste. Ce même discours semble sous-tendre la réception des romans en traduction. Dans ce discours réifiant, l’expression de la différence culturelle est inextricablement imbriquée dans l’expression de la différence sexuelle: la « femme arabe » est la victime d’une religion islamique et d’une culture arabe essentiellement misogynes et arriérées. L’étude suggère, cependant, que ce sont moins les interventions des traductrices que les décisions des éditeurs, le travail de médiation opéré par les critiques, et l’intérêt (ou le désintérêt) des universitaires qui influencent le plus la manière dont ces romans sont mis en marché et reçus dans les nouveaux contextes. L’auteure conclut par rappeler l’importance d’une éthique de la traduction qui transcende toute approche binaire et se fonde sur une lecture éthique des textes qui fait ressortir le lien entre la poétique et la politique. Enfin, elle propose une lecture basée sur la reconnaissance du caractère situé du texte traduit comme du sujet lisant/traduisant.The present research explores the translation and reception in France, the UK and the US of contemporary Arabic literature by women authors, with a view to answering two main questions that have gone largely unexplored within translation studies: how do women authors from Arab countries lose their agency and subjectivity in the process of translation? And how do the translation of their dissident writings contribute to the construction of an Arab alterity? To answer these questions, the research analyzes three Arabic novels authored by women, and chosen for their very different thematic and formal characteristics, namely Ahlem Mosteghanemi’s Fawḍā al-Ḥawāss (1997), Hanan al-Shaykh’s Innahā Lundun Yā ‘Azīzī (2001), and Rajaa Alsanea’s Banāt al-Riyāḍ (2005). Using Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, the analysis aims to explore the way these authors express their agency through their texts, as well as the images they depict of themselves and of women, in general, in their respective societies/communities. The English and French translations of each novel are then compared to the original with a view to identifying patterns of textural and pragma-semiotic shifts in the translations, and gaining insight into how these shifts undermine the author’s voice and agency. Finally, the analysis moves to the various practices involved in the reception of these translations in the US, the UK and France. Publishers’ decisions, editorial reviews and academic discourse are investigated with a view to identifying patterns in publishers’ decision-making and shedding light on the discourses and tropes undergirding the reception and consumption of these translations in their target contexts. Analysis of the originals reveals that the authors act as agents of change through their texts. They contest, each in her own way, both local and Western dominant discourses, and (re)imagine their societies and nations in the process. In so doing, they carve out their own discursive spaces in the public sphere and open breaches for social change. However, the research shows that in several of the translations, the authors’ agency is undermined and their dissident discourses are backgrounded while an orientalist discourse is foregrounded. This same reifying discourse appears to underpin the reception of the novels in translation, as well. It is a reifying discourse wherein the representation of cultural difference seems to be inextricably imbricated in the representation of sexual difference: the “Arab woman” is (re)written as voiceless and powerless because of an Islamic religion and an Arab culture that are essentially misogynistic and backward. Nevertheless, analysis reveals that publishers’ decisions, reviewers mediation and scholarly interest (or disinterest) impinge upon the way these novels are received and consumed more significantly than do translators through their interventions. Finally, the research underscores the importance of an ethical translation that transcends binary approaches and highlights the link between the aesthetic and the political. It also proposes an ethics of reading based on awareness of the situatedness of both the translated text and the reading/translating subject

Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0. Diaspora, Gender and Youth Cultural Intersections

Increasingly, young people live online, with the vast majority of their social and cultural interactions conducted through means other than face-to-face conversation. How does this transition impact the ways in which young migrants understand, negotiate, and perform identity? That's the question taken up by Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0, a ground-breaking analysis of the ways that youth culture online interacts with issues of diaspora, gender, and belonging. Drawing on surveys, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, Koen Leurs builds an interdisciplinary portrait of online youth culture and the spaces it opens up for migrant youth to negotiate power relations and to promote intercultural understanding

The impact of social factors on the use of Arabic-French code-switching in speech and IM in Morocco

textThe use of French in code-switching (CS) with Moroccan Colloquial Arabic (MCA) has been explored qualitatively in a number of studies, but quantitative methods have rarely been applied to CS in this language pair. Research on CS patterns as a function of extra-linguistic factors has similarly received little attention, despite the implication in many studies that these factors are significant in the use of CS. This dissertation seeks to address these gaps in the literature by quantitatively examining the use of Arabic-French CS by young adult speakers of MCA in spoken and written information communication. This study examines three extra-linguistic factors in speech and Instant Messaging (IM): Sex, French Proficiency, and Language Attitude. The analysis reveals that male speakers are significantly more French in written IM. Positive attitude toward French and MCA-French CS has a highly significant impact on the rate of French employed in spoken conversation. Meaningful results are also found for the French constituents employed in CS with regard to each of the extra-linguistic factors. Notable differences are found between sexes in the types of French constituents used in both communication modes, as well as for speakers of different French proficiency levels. The categorization of French-origin nouns as instances of CS or borrowing is also explored by considering multiple aspects of use of these lexical items. A number of French-origin nouns, absent from dictionaries of MCA, are proposed to now be borrowed into the dialect. The analysis also reveals a number of French-origin words that are used by a number of speakers, but remain instances of CS. The results of this investigation highlight the importance of quantification in studies of CS and provide data for comparison with other corpora from this and other language pairs. The differences identified in CS by communication mode indicate that there is a need for a model of written CS that accounts for the unique characteristics of this mode. Finally, little work has been published on the relationship between extra-linguistic factors and structural patterns in CS, but the current results suggest that the impact of social factors should not be ignored when considering structural aspects of CS.French and Italia