1st Edition

Emirati Arabic A Comprehensive Grammar

    520 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    520 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Emirati Arabic: A Comprehensive Grammar offers readers a reference tool for discovering and studying in detail the specific dialect of Arabic spoken in the United Arab Emirates. It covers all major areas of Emirati Arabic grammar, describing in detail its phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic systems. Each grammatical point is illustrated with numerous examples drawn from native Emirati Arabic speakers and is thoroughly discussed providing both accessible and linguistically informed grammatical description.

    This book is a useful reference for students of Gulf Arabic and/or Modern Standard Arabic or other Arabic dialects with an interest in the dialect spoken in the UAE, researchers interested in Arabic language and linguistics as well as graduate students and scholars interested in Arabic studies.

    Table of Contents

     

    Acknowledgments

    List of Tables

    List of Figures

    List of Abbreviations

     

    1 Introduction

    1.1 Emirati Arabic

    1.2 Triglossia in the UAE

    1.3. The Descriptive Approach to Emirati Arabic

    1.4 Transcription

    1.5. Glossing

    1.6. Abbreviations

    Further Reading

    2 Sounds of Emirati Arabic

    2.1 Consonants

    2.2 Vowels

    Further Reading

    3 Phonological Processes

    3.1 Feature-Level Processes

    3.2 Segment-Level Processes

    3.3 Suprasegmental Processes and Phonotactics

    Further Reading

    4 Morphology and Word Formation

    4.1 Non-Linear Morphological Processes

    4.2 Affixation

    4.3 Reduplication

    4.4 Compounding

    4.5 Loanwords

    4.6 Acronyms, Abbreviations and Blending

    4.7 Back Formation

    4.8 Conversion

    Further Reading

    5 Syntactic Categories and Parts of Speech

    5.1 Nouns

    5.2 Verbs

    5.3. Adjectives

    5.4 Adverbs and Adverbial Expressions

    5.5 Prepositions

    5.6. Quantification: Numerals and Quantifiers

    5.7 Complementizers

    5.8 Pronouns

    Further Reading

    6 The Noun Phrase

    6.1 Definiteness

    6.2 Possession

    6.3 Appositives

    6.4 Nominal modifiers

    6.5 Agreement in the Noun Phrase

    6.6 Demonstratives

    6.7 Word Order in the Noun Phrase

    Further Reading

    7 The Verb Phrase

    7.1 The Copular Structure

    7.2 State Verbs

    7.3 Experiencer Verbs

    7.4 Unergative Verbs

    7.5 Unaccusative Verbs

    7.6 Ditransitive Verbs

    7.7 Existential and Possessive Predicates

    7.8 Raising Predicates

    7.9 Control Verbs

    7.10 Reflexive Verbs

    7.11 Complex Predicates

    7.12 Causative Verbs

    7.13 Passive Verbs

    7.14 Complement-taking Verbs

    Further Reading

    8 Aspect

    8.1 The Perfective Aspect

    8.2 The Imperfective Aspect

    8.3 Participles

    8.4 Lexical Aspect

    8.5 Grammatical Aspect

    Further Reading

    9 Mood and Modality

    9.1 Deontic Modality

    9.2 Epistemic Modality

    9.3 Dynamic Modality

    9.4 Modal Adverbs

    9.5 Verbs Expressing Modality

    9.6 Evidential Modality

    9.7 Imperatives

    9.8 Counterfactuals

    9.9 Hortatives

    9.10 Optatives

    Further Reading

    10 Negation

    10.1 Verbal Negation

    10.2 Non-Verbal Predicate Negation

    10.3 The Negative Particle لا laa ‘no’

    10.4 The Negative Prefix -لا laa- ‘not’ and -غير ɣeer- ‘non-’

    10.5 Negative Imperatives

    10.6 Negative Coordination

    10.7 Negation in Ellipsis

    10.8 Negative Polarity Items

    10.9 Negative Concord

    Further reading

    11 Word Order

    11.1 Subject-Verb (SV) and Verb-Subject (VS)

    11.2 Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)

    11.3 Double Object Constructions

    11.4 Word Order Permutation

    Further reading

    12 Relative Clauses

    12.1 Restrictive Relative Clauses

    12.2 Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses

    12.3 Free Relative Clauses

    12.4 Noun Complement Clauses

    Further Reading

    13 Questions

    13.1 Yes-No Questions

    13.2 Wh-Questions

    13.3 Echo Questions

    13.4 Embedded Questions

    13.5 Rhetorical Questions

    13.6 Exclamatives

    Further Reading

    14 Subordination

    14.1 Temporal Clauses

    14.2 Reason Clauses

    14.3 Purpose Clauses

    14.4 Conditional Clauses

    14.5 Concessive Clauses

    14.6 Other Subordinators

    14.7 Parentheticals

    Further Reading

    15 Coordination

    15.1 Conjunction و w-/wa ‘and’

    15.2 Agreement in Coordination

    15.3 Fixed Expressions Formed by و w-/wa

    15.4 Pragmatic Uses of و w-/wa

    15.5 Informal Use of و w-/wa

    15.6 بس bas ‘but’

    15.7 Disjunction ولا wela ‘or’

    15.8 أو ʔaw ‘or’

    15.9 ف fa- ‘and then/so’

    15.10 Contrastive Coordinator أما ʔamma ‘as for’

    15.11 Comparative Coordinator عن ʕan ‘than’

    15.12 Negative Coordinator مب mub ‘not’

    15.13 Correlatives in Coordination

    15.14 Paratactic Coordination

    Further Reading

    16 Ellipsis

    16.1 Gapping

    16.2 Stripping

    16.3 NP Ellipsis

    16.4 VP Ellipsis

    16.5 PP Ellipsis

    16.6 Clausal Ellipsis

    16.7 Comparative Deletion

    16.8 Sluicing

    Further Reading

    17 Interjections

    17.1 Primary Interjections

    17.2 Borrowed Interjections

    17.3 Secondary Interjections

    Further Reading

    18 Speech Conventions

    18.1 Politeness

    18.2 Terms of Address

    18.3 General Honorific Terms

    18.4 Trendy Language

    Further Reading

    Glossary of Terms

    References

    Index

    Biography

    Tommi Tsz-Cheung Leung is Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University. His research specializes in syntax, phonology, typology, and psycholinguistics.

    Dimitrios Ntelitheos is Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University. His research interests include the investigation of morphological and syntactic structures from a theoretical perspective, as well as their cross-linguistic realization and their development in child language.

    Meera Al Kaabi is Assistant Professor and Chair in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University and a visiting academic at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research interests include neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, language disorders, morphology, and Semitic languages.