Parsing Arabic using treebank-based LFG resources

In this paper we present initial results on parsing Arabic using treebank-based parsers and automatic LFG f-structure annotation methodologies. The Arabic Annotation Algorithm (A3) (Tounsi et al., 2009) exploits the rich functional annotations in the Penn Arabic Treebank (ATB) (Bies and Maamouri, 2003; Maamouri and Bies, 2004) to assign LFG f-structure equations to trees. For parsing, we modify Bikel’s (2004) parser to learn ATB functional tags and merge phrasal categories with functional tags in the training data. Functional tags in parser output trees are then "unmasked" and available to A3 to assign f-structure equations. We evaluate the resulting f-structures against the DCU250 Arabic gold standard dependency bank (Al-Raheb et al., 2006). Currently we achieve a dependency f-score of 77%

The Arabic Language

The chapter looks at the historical background of the language of Arabic and its place within the religious traditio

Analytical phonetic study of three areas of Al-Farahidiy's legacy

It is the purpose of the present thesis to present an analytical phonetic study of three areas of alFarahidiy1s linguistic legacy in a general phonetic perspective in such a way as to preserve a proper balance between the analytical and historical sides of our subject, Phonetics. Only three areas have been decided upon due to the fact that a comprehensive, analytical study of al Farahidiy's linguistic legacy would be a lifetime-work. The thesis is presented in four major sections: an introduction and an analytical phonetic study of three areas. The introduction deals in general terms with alFarahidiy1s biography and his contributions to fields pertinent to Phonetics, though they are not primarily phonetic. The three areas deal respectively with his approach to verse structure, the time-substratum underlying his system, and his restoration of the principles which lie hid underneath what I have called (since no other term exists) the phoniconic symbols1 of the East Mediterranean scripts. Each analytical section includes either a theoretical, phonetic discuss¬ ion against which alFarahidiy's contribution is projected in terms of its relation to the general phonetic spectrum, or an empirical evidence in support of a hypothesis discovered in the construction of his prosodic system. Towards this end, the first area, following a more or less Stetsonian line, includes a theoretical view of the articulatory actualization of the respir¬ atory potential1 and rhythmicality in Arabic; the second section is focused on the empirical authentication of the time-units which underlie his prosodic system, whilst the third section starts with an analytico-phonetic approach to the East Mediterranean scripts. The thesis is concluded with a general bibliography of works that have been cited or consulted, with a special section allocated to works by or about alFarahidiy. The author is convinced that the soundest basis for an understanding of certain phonological phenomena (particularly, the superimposed stretches, quantity and rhythm) of a living language with a long history behind it, would be an illumination of the path of development it has pursued. Such a path, in normal conditions, is provided by phoneticians or writers on phonetics. It is also the conviction of the author that for an enlightened attitude towards the history of phonetics, especially in olden times when phonetics was a practice not a discipline, an analytical, phonetic approach to the pertinent writing system constitutes a proper springboard. For this reason, equal attention has been paid to the development of the 'pure' iconic and phoniconic writing systems in Mesopotamia and the East Mediterranean in the prelude to alFarahidiy's restoration of certain scriptological, phoniconic principles which lie in the background of the Ugaritic script in his prosodization of the Arabic script

Architecture of information structure: implications from the t-model on the realisation aspects of topic and focus using examples from modern standard Arabic, English and Turkish languages

The placement of information structure seems to be controversial when approached with reference to T-model architecture of grammar and have debatable theoretical determinations. These include but not limited to: 1) the grammar of the information structure is not considered as an autonomous component; 2) how linguistically the information structure units (in various languages) could bring problems when coding units in the grammatical components; 3) the various aspects of contrastive focus and presentational focus, and how they are realised in (Standard) Arabic, English and Turkish yet (French); and 4) scrambling (free word order) and information structure relationship with illustrations from these mentioned language

The Impact of Ideology on Lexical Borrowing in Arabic: A Synergy of Corpus Linguistics and CDA

Lexical borrowing is a natural outcome of language contact and one source of neologisms. The traditional view of lexical borrowing explains it as motivated mainly by lexical need or prestige where loans in the recipient language have more or less similar if not identical meanings with the borrowing language. Linguistic adaptation has been often seen grammatically based where grammarians or linguists assume the major task of nativizing foreign terms. This is typical in many studies on linguistic borrowing in Arabic while a secondary attention is given to semantic, sociolinguistic, and educational perspectives. The present study approached lexical borrowing as more language users’ task emphasizing their role in meaning construction. Three English loanwords in Arabic (agenda, liberal, lobby) were studied in naturally occurring language to see if their meanings and co-occurrence patterns correspond to their equivalents in English and, thus, agree with the notion of lexical need to linguistic borrowing. Some of the meanings of the loans fall under the domain of sociopolitics which is a fertile site believed to show ideological impact. Using two analytical frameworks of Sinclair (2005, 1998) and Van Dijk (2014, 2016b, 2016a), the three loanwords were investigated from corpus linguistics and CDA angles. The findings revealed different co-occurrence patterns in Arabic characterized by negative associations than in English. Negative associations were motivated by (religious, political, linguistic) ideological stances often implied in the connotations and attitudinal meanings of real language use. Ideological influence was also reproduced in Arabic dictionaries where some loanwords or their meanings are vi absent or excluded though used in formal settings. The connection between dictionary making and learning as influenced by dominant ideology was also explored