Blend formation tendencies, from English to Arabic : a comparative study

PhD ThesisBlending in English is a widely recognized means for forming new lexemes by joining two or more existing words in a way where at least one of them is shortened (Algeo 1991: 10). Familiar examples are brunch from breakfast and lunch, slanguage from slang and language, and chortle from chuckle and snort (Algeo 1977: 49). Linguistic studies of English blends – which are numerous – have focused in particular on the three following features of blends: the cut-off point in the source words, the proportional contributions from the source words to the blend, and the stress pattern of the blend. The main aim of the present research is to examine Arabic blends in the light of the blend formation tendencies that have been identified with respect to these features in English. Blends in Classical Arabic are generally formed by joining the first two root consonants of each source word and imposing the prosodic pattern CaCCaC on them. Typical examples of Classical Arabic blends are /ʕabdar(ij)/ 'someone from the family of Abdul Dār' < /ʕabd/ 'slave' and /da:r/ 'house', /ʕabqas(ij)/ 'someone from the family of Abdul Qays' < /ʕabd/ 'slave' and /qajs/ 'a male name', and /ʕabʃam(ij)/ 'someone from the family of Abdi Shams' < /ʕabd/ 'slave' and /ʃams/ 'sun'– all names for Arab tribes in the 6th Century AD. However, such Classical blends are few in number. The more numerous blends that have been formed in Arabic in recent times do not appear to follow this root-and-pattern template. Examples are /fawsʕawt(ij)/ 'supersonic' < /fawq/ 'above' and /sʕawt(ij)/ 'sound', and /qabħarb/ 'pre-war' < /qabl/ 'before' and /ħarb/ 'war'. Since no linguistic study has investigated in depth the structure of modern Arabic blends, the main aim of this thesis is to uncover the regularities that are found in these modern formations and in that way contribute to understanding the structure of Arabic words in general and blends in particular. The main research question in this study is: To what extent do the blend formation tendencies identified in English apply to blend formation in Arabic? The data for Arabic come from published resources as well as a survey and an experiment, both designed to collect some novel blends by asking native speakers of Arabic to form blends from a list of word pairs. These data were examined in light of the main features and tendencies related to blend-formation in English. The overall result of the investigation is that there is a high degree of resemblance between modern Arabic blends and English blends. This is the case for both the established Modern Arabic blends and the novel invented blends. In this respect, they differ notably from the established blends of Classical Arabic. The main tendencies for forming Arabic blends that have been identified in this study are: (1) There is a general tendency for the cut-off points in source words to occur at syllabic joints with the greatest preference for them to occur between syllabic constituents. (2) There is a general tendency for the greater proportional contribution to come from the shorter source word, and for source words of equal phonemic lengths to contribute equal proportions to the blend. (3) There is a general tendency for the stress pattern of the blend to be identical to that of the source word that has identical syllabic size as that of the blend.the Directorate of Scholarships and Cultural Relations of the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Researc

Interlanguage phonology : acquisition of timing control and perceptual categorization of durational contrast in Japanese

The timing organization of phonological durational contrast is known to be one of the most challenging areas in the acquisition of Japanese phonology (Sugito 1989; Muraki and Nakaoka 1990; Han 1992; Toda 1994). This study examines the acquisition of timing control and perceptual categorization of the durational contrast in Japanese, and aims to contribute to second language acquisition theory from the viewpoint of interlanguage phonology. Acoustic techniques were used to investigate the mechanisms of learners' speech perception and production. In order to capture the acquisition processes and the developmental factors in the formation of interlanguage phonology, both crosssectional and longitudinal experiments are conducted with different groups of learners at various proficiency levels, and the results were compared with those of native . speakers. The processes such as first language transfer, overexaggeration and phonetic approximation are observed in the learners' speech production. The acoustic observation revealed what has been claimed as genetically innate Universal Grammar (Chomsky and Halle 1968) pertaining to voice onset time, which is clearly observed in Japanese native speakers speech, is not operative in beginning learners' speech production. On the other hand, it is operative in advanced learners' speech which shares similarities with that of native speakers. The experimental results reported in this dissertation reveal crucial theoretical insufficiency concerning the "universal principle". This supposedly universal theory concerning voice onset time, should not be restricted to a specific language, runs into difficulties in explaining the reasons why this property does not show up with learners' speech production during the initial stages, but does show up later at more advanced stages (i.e. it is developmental, but not universal)

Morphemization of truncated lexical bases in present-day English:lexicological and lexicographic aspects

Ova disertacija se bavi procesom  morfemizacije krnjih osnova koje su nastale od leksičkihslivenica. Rekurzivinim slivanjem s različitim inicijalnim elementima, ove osnove se konsoliduju u svom skraćenom obliku ili oblicima, što za rezultat ima separaciju novih tvorbenih jedinica. Najbitniji ciljevi istraživanja su sledeći: da se utvrdi teorijski i terminološki status ovih elementa i odrede kriterijumi za njihovo članstvo u ovoj kategoriji; da se na osnovu tih kriterijuma napravi popis morfemizovanih elemenata uz razvoj metodologije potrebne za njihovu ekscerpciju; da se sačini spisak leksema u kojima se javljaju; da se ustanove formalne varijacije i njihova relativna učestalost kao i tipovi i oblici inicijalnih elementa sa kojima se kombinuju, što bi za rezultat imalo formulisanje prototipskog tvorbenog modela; da istraži značenje ovih elemenata, eventualni razvoj novih semema i smisaonih odnosa; da dâ pregled njihove zastupljenosti u postojećim rečnicima; da predloži model njihove leksikografske obrada i da se na osnovu tog predloga sačini rečnik kako morfemizovanih krnjih osnova, tako i reči u kojima se javljaju.This dissertation investigates the process of AB morphemization of truncated bases which have originated from lexical blends. Through their recurrent blending with various initial elements, they become consolidated in their truncated form or forms, resulting in the secretion of new word-formational units. The most important goals of the research are the following: to determine the theoretical and terminological status of these elements and establish the criteria for category membership; to compile a list of morphemized elements based on these criteria by developing the methodology for their extraction; to compile a list of lexemes containing these newly morphemized elements; to determine formal variations and their relative frequency as well as the types and forms of initial elements with which they combine, resulting in theformulation of the prototypical word-formation pattern; to investigate the meaning of these elements and the development of new senses and sense relations; to give an overview of their representation in existing dictionaries; to propose a model for their lexicographic treatment and to apply that model in the compilation of a specialized dictionary of morphemized truncated bases and words in which they appear

Rhythmic structure of word blends in English

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