Computational Analyses of Arabic Morphology

This paper demonstrates how a (multi-tape) two-level formalism can be used to write two-level grammars for Arabic non-linear morphology using a high level, but computationally tractable, notation. Three illustrative grammars are provided based on CV-, moraic- and affixational analyses. These are complemented by a proposal for handling the hitherto computationally untreated problem of the broken plural. It will be shown that the best grammars for describing Arabic non-linear morphology are moraic in the case of templatic stems, and affixational in the case of a-templatic stems. The paper will demonstrate how the broken plural can be derived under two-level theory via the `implicit' derivation of the singular.Comment: to appear in Narayanan A., Ditters E. (eds). The Linguistic Computation of Arabic. uuencoded, compressed .ps file, 27 page

The Templatic Syllable Patterns of Reduplication and Stem-affixing Inflections in the Classical Arabic Based on Prosodic Morphology Theory

A morpheme, is a set of feature matrices dominated by a single node. Reduplication or gemination is one of the productive morphological processes which have been studied inclusively in different languages and in the frame of different linguistic theories like Generative Grammar, Optimality Theory and Minimalist Program. McCarthy's prosodic theory is justified by an analysis of the formal properties of the system of verbal processes like reduplication are the primary or sole morphological operations. This theory of nonconcatenative morphology recognizing the root as a discontinuous constituent. Under the prosodic model, a morphological category which characteristically reduplicates simply stipulates an output template composed of vowel and consonant. Consonantal roots and vocalic melodies in Arabic, although they contain bundles of the same distinctive features, can nevertheless be represented on separate autosegmental tiers. This ensures that the association conventions for melodies can operate independently on these two tiers. Association of autosegments from different tiers to the same segments will be subject to the natural restriction that no segment receives multiple associations for the same nontonal feature

Assimilation in Jerash Fallaahi Dialect: A Non –Linear Analysis

The study aims to investigate the phonological assimilation processes which are manifested in Jerash Fallaahi Dialect (JFD), a rural Jordanian dialect spoken in the north of Jordan by 120,000 people. The study uses non-linear approaches, namely, the autosegemental and the feature geometry approaches to analyze the phonological assimilation processes because of their adequacy in representing these processes in a clear way. The data are collected by recording spontaneous conversations of twenty subjects of Jerash Fallaahi people who are native speakers of this dialect. The analysis shows that JFD displays four types of assimilation: First, emphasis assimilation in which the infix dental stop /-t-/ is realized as a dental emphatic [-T-] when it is preceded by an emphatic segment. Second, voice assimilation which occurs between the coda and the onset when they are coronal obstruents, velars, or pharyngeals of two adjacent words. Third, nasal homorganic assimilation in which the nasal /n/ adapts the place of articulation of the following consonant. Finally, total assimilation which produces identical segments exhibits between the definite article and the coronal consonants, in the detransitivizing prefix /t-/ with measure V and measure VI verbs, and when the consonant /h/ of the nominal/ genitive third person dependent pronoun is deleted when it is suffixed to a voiceless obstruent-final word

The Derivation of Triconsonantal Weak Verbal Nouns in Modern Standard Arabic: A Nonlinear Phonological Analysis

The present study analyzes the phonological processes that verbal nouns VNs undergo in the course of their derivation from triconsonantal weak verbal stems in Modern Standard Arabic MSA The VNs that are targeted in the study comprise all the instances of VNs which are listed under triconsonantal weak verbs in the corpus-based dictionary mu c d am allu ah al c arabijjah almu c a sirah Dictionary of Modern Arabic Language The 1222 targeted VNs are arranged into tables in accordance with their 35 morphological patterns and the X-slot and the feature geometry models of nonlinear phonology are utilized for analyzing their derivation from their verbal stems One of the main findings of the study is that forming VNs from triconsonantal weak verbs follow a regular derivational pattern which involves applying the ablaut and metathesis rules to their verbal stems and the addition of specific affixes to them This finding enables refuting the general hypothesis that deriving VNs from triconsonantal weak verbs is irregular in the sense that various morphological patterns and no specific rules are employed for their derivatio