Search results for: Arabic verb

Authors: M. Sayyour, M. Abdulkareem, O. Osman, S. Salmeh

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Emphatic sounds in Arabic are /tˤ/, /sˤ/, /dˤ/, and /ðˤ/. They involve a secondary articulation in the pharynx area as opposed to their counterparts: /t/,/s/,/d/and /ð/. Although they are present in most Arabic dialects, some dialects have lost this class as a historical development, such as Maltese Arabic. It has been found that there is a difference in the pronunciation of these emphatic sounds between the two genders, arguing that males tend to produce more evident emphasis than females. This study builds on these studies by trying to investigate whether listeners perceive fully emphatic sounds as more masculine and less emphatic sounds as more feminine. Furthermore, the study aims to find out which is more important in this perception process: the emphatic consonant itself or the vowel following it. To test this, natural and manipulated tokens of two male and two female speakers were used. The natural tokens include words that have emphatic consonant and emphatic vowel and tokens that have plain consonant and plain vowel. The manipulated tokens include words that have emphatic consonant but central vowel and plain consonant followed by the same central vowel. These manipulated tokens allow us to see whether the consonant will still affect the perception even if the vowel is controlled. Another group of words that contained no emphatic sounds was used as a control group. The total number of tokens (natural, manipulated, and control) are 160 tokens. After that, 60 university students (30 males and 30 females) listened to these tokens and responded by choosing a specific character that they think is likely to produce each token. The characters’ descriptions are carefully written with two degrees of femininity and two degrees of masculinity. The preliminary results for the femininity level showed that the highest degree of femininity was for tokens that contain a plain consonant and a plain vowel. The lowest level of femininity was given for tokens that have fully emphatic consonant and vowel. For the manipulated tokens that contained plain consonant and central vowel, the femininity degree was high which indicates that the consonant is more important than the vowel, while for the manipulated tokens that contain emphatic consonant and a central vowel, the femininity level was higher than that for the tokens that have emphatic consonant and emphatic vowel, which indicates that the vowel is more important for the perception of emphatic consonants. These results are interpreted in light of feminist linguistic theories, linguistic expectations, performed gender and linguistic change theories.

Keywords: Emphatic sounds, gender studies, perception, sociophonetics

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Authors: Mahmoud M. AbuAlSamen, Tamam El-Elimat

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Amid the economic crisis in Jordan, the Jordanian government has opted for a knowledge economy where education is promoted as a mean for economic development. University education usually comes at the expense of study-related stress that may adversely impact the health of students. Since stress is a latent variable that is difficult to measure, a valid tool should be used in doing so. The effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is a model used as a measurement tool for occupational stress. The model was built on the notion of reciprocity, which relates ‘effort’ to ‘reward’ through the mediating ‘over-commitment’. Reciprocity assumes equilibrium between both effort and reward, where ‘high’ effort is adequately compensated with ‘high’ reward. When this equilibrium is violated (i.e., high effort with low reward), this may elicit negative emotions and stress, which have been correlated to adverse health conditions. The theory of ERI was established in many different parts of the world, and associations with chronic diseases and the health of workers were explored at length. While much of the effort-reward imbalance was investigated in work conditions, there has been a growing interest in understanding the validity of the ERI model when applied to other social settings such as schools and universities. The ERI questionnaire was developed in Arabic recently to measure ERI among high school teachers. However, little information is available on the validity of the ERI questionnaire in university students. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 833 students in Jordan to measure the validity and reliability of the ERI questionnaire in Arabic among university students. Reliability, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha of the effort, reward, and overcommitment scales, was 0.73, 0.76, and 0.69, respectively, suggesting satisfactory reliability. The factorial structure was explored using principal axis factoring. The results fitted a five-solution model where both the effort and overcommitment were uni-dimensional while the reward scale was three-dimensional with its factors, namely being ‘support’, ‘esteem’, and ‘security’. The solution explained 56% of the variance in the data. The established ERI theory was replicated with excellent validity in this study. The effort-reward ratio in university students was 1.19, which suggests a slight degree of failed reciprocity. The study also investigated the association of effort, reward, overcommitment, and ERI with participants’ demographic factors and self-reported health. ERI was found to be significantly associated with absenteeism (p < 0.0001), past history of failed courses (p=0.03), and poor academic performance (p < 0.001). Moreover, ERI was found to be associated with poor self-reported health among university students (p=0.01). In conclusion, the Arabic ERI questionnaire is reliable and valid for use in measuring effort-reward imbalance in university students in Jordan. The results of this research are important in informing higher education policy in Jordan.

Keywords: effort-reward imbalance, factor analysis, validity, self-reported health

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Authors: Messaouda Annab

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The rapid development of technology has led to an important context in which different languages and structures are used in the same conversations. This paper investigates the practice of language borrowing within social media platform, namely, Facebook among Algerian Vernacular Arabic (AVA) students. In other words, this study will explore how Algerian students have incorporated lexical English borrowing in their online conversations. This paper will examine the relationships between language, culture and identity among a multilingual group. The main objective is to determine the cultural and linguistic functions that borrowing fulfills in social media and to explain the possible factors underlying English borrowing. The nature of the study entails the use of an online research method that includes ten online Facebook conversations in the form of private messages collected from Bachelor and Masters Algerian students recruited from the English department at the University of Oum El-Bouaghi. The analysis of data revealed that social media platform provided the users with opportunities to shift from one language to another. This practice was noticed in students’ online conversations. English borrowing was the most relevant language performance in accordance with Arabic which is the mother tongue of the chosen sample. The analysis has assumed that participants are skilled in more than one language.

Keywords: borrowing, language performance, linguistic background, social media

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Nassr Almaflehi, Ayman Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari

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Background: Assessment of language-related functional activities (ALFA) is of vital importance in assessing aphasics’ performance of both sexes. However, the validity and reliability of this language therapeutic test has never been validated in the Arabic medical literature. Purpose: The aim of this study was to validate the test by assessing the language-related functional activities of 100 gender aphasics based in a medical faculty. Design: ALFA Pre-and-posttest was administered twice in three weeks to test the language-related functional activities of 100 gender aphasics. Settings: Al Khars hospital in Al Ahsa’a, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Participants: Sixteen to eight-year-old participants (N = 100 men and women) were enrolled in this experiment. Again, the purpose was to assess their language-related functional activities using ALFA. Procedures: The first step was to translate the English version of ALFA test into the mother tongue of the patients (Arabic). Secondly, the translated text is reviewed and edited by three specialists of Arabic language. Having the test standardized, the third step was to assess language-related functional activities of the participants in natural environment. Assessment took place in three weeks. In the first week, a pre-test was administered to the participants at hand and after two weeks, a post-test was administered to identify whether or not significant differences between the two tests (pre-and-posttest) could be observed. Interventions: Outcomes of the results obtained from the analyses were broadly discussed. Linguistic and statistical comparisons were held to illustrate the findings of this study. Main outcomes and Results: The analysis of the obtained results indicated that the performance of the aphasic participants in the post-test did not differ from that of the pre-test (, respectively). Conclusions & Implications: ALFA was proved to be a valid and reliable test. Moreover, outlined results pointed out the importance of assessing not only gender aphasics’ language, but also their language-related functional activities. Further research is needed to explore how gender aphasics’ verbal and non-verbal performances interact.

Keywords: ALFA, language test, Arab aphasics, validity, reliability, psychoneurolinguistics.

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Authors: Raja Al-Ghamdi

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This paper aims to systematically assess the translation of key cultural texts. The paper, therefore, proposes a modification of the discourse analysis model for translation quality assessment introduced by the linguist Juliane House (1977, 1997, 2015). The data for analysis has been chosen from a religious text that has never been investigated before. It is an overt translation of the biography of Prophet Mohammad. The book is written originally in Arabic and translated into English. A soft copy of the translation, entitled The Sealed Nectar, is posted on numerous websites including the Internet Archive library which offers a free access to everyone. The text abounds with linguistic and cultural phenomena relevant to Islamic and Arab lingua-cultural context which make its translation a challenge, as well as its assessment. Interesting findings show that (1) culturemes are rich points and both the translator’s subjectivity and intervention are apparent in mediating them, (2) given the nature of historical narration, the source text reflects the author’s positive shading, whereas the target text reflects the translator’s axiological orientation as neutrally shaded, and, (3) linguistic gaps, metaphorical expressions and intertextuality are major stimuli to compensation strategies.

Keywords: Arabic-English discourse analysis, key cultural texts, overt translation, quality assessment

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Authors: Lexi Li, Vanessa H. K. Pang

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This study aims to demonstrate how native and learner corpora can be used to enhance modal verb treatment in EFL textbooks in mainland China. It contributes to a corpus-informed and learner-centered design of grammar presentation in EFL textbooks that enhances the authenticity and appropriateness of textbook language for target learners. The linguistic focus is will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must. The native corpus is the spoken component of BNC2014 (hereafter BNCS2014). The spoken part is chosen because pedagogical purpose of the textbooks is communication-oriented. Using the standard query option of CQPweb, 5% of each of the nine modals was sampled from BNCS2014. The learner corpus is the POS-tagged Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners (TECCL). All the essays under the 'secondary school' section were selected. A series of five secondary coursebooks comprise the textbook corpus. All the data in both the learner and the textbook corpora are retrieved through the concordance functions of WordSmith Tools (version, 5.0). Data analysis was divided into two parts. The first part compared the patterns of modal verbs in the textbook corpus and BNC2014 with respect to distributional features, semantic functions, and co-occurring constructions to examine whether the textbooks reflect the authentic use of English. Secondly, the learner corpus was analyzed in terms of the use (distributional features, semantic functions, and co-occurring constructions) and the misuse (syntactic errors, e.g., she can sings*.) of the nine modal verbs to uncover potential difficulties that confront learners. The analysis of distribution indicates several discrepancies between the textbook corpus and BNCS2014. The first four most frequent modal verbs in BNCS2014 are can, would, will, could, while can, will, should, could are the top four in the textbooks. Most strikingly, there is an unusually high proportion of can (41.1%) in the textbooks. The results on different meanings shows that will, would and must are the most problematic. For example, for will, the textbooks contain 20% more occurrences of 'volition' and 20% less of 'prediction' than those in BNCS2014. Regarding co-occurring structures, the textbooks over-represented the structure 'modal +do' across the nine modal verbs. Another major finding is that the structure of 'modal +have done' that frequently co-occur with could, would, should, and must is underused in textbooks. Besides, these four modal verbs are the most difficult for learners, as the error analysis shows. This study demonstrates how the synergy of native and learner corpora can be harnessed to improve EFL textbook presentation of modal verbs in a way that textbooks can provide not only authentic language used in natural discourse but also appropriate design tailed for the needs of target learners.

Keywords: English as Foreign Language, EFL textbooks, learner corpus, modal verbs, native corpus

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Authors: Nawel Ouennoughi, Kamel Daoud

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During recent years, new pharmaceutical dosage forms were developed in the research laboratories and which consists of encapsulating one or more active molecules in a polymeric envelope. Several techniques of encapsulation allow obtaining the microparticles or the nanoparticles containing one or several polymers. In the industry, microencapsulation is implemented to fill the following objectives: to ensure protection, the compatibility and the stabilization of an active matter in a formulation, to carry out an adapted working, to improve the presentation of a product, to mask a taste or an odor, to modify and control the profile of release of an active matter to obtain, for example, prolonged or started effect. To this end, we focus ourselves on the encapsulation of the antidiabetic. It is an oral hypoglycemic agent belonging to the second generation of sulfonylurea’s commonly employed in the treatment of type II non-insulin-dependent diabetes in order to improve profile them dissolution. Our choice was made on the technique of encapsulation by complex coacervation with two types of polymers (gelatin and the gum Arabic) which is a physicochemical process. Several parameters were studied at the time of the formulation of the microparticles and the nanoparticles: temperature, pH, ratio of polymers etc. The microparticles and the nanoparticles obtained were characterized by microscopy, laser granulometry, FTIR and UV-visible spectrophotometry. The profile of dissolution obtained for the microparticles showed an improvement of the kinetics of dissolution compared to that obtained for the active ingredient.

Keywords: coacervation, gum Arabic, microencapsulation, gelatin

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Authors: Nahed Almutairi

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The subtitling process for period dramas implies a set of linguistic challenges. Audio-visual (AV) texts in this genre weave a rich tapestry of verbal irony blended with humor. The famous TV series Downtown Abbey contains such irony as one of the British aristocracy's linguistic markers. This study aims to examine subtitling strategies utilized in rendering such verbal irony. To counteract the negative postulated by Berman with the positive shifts, a qualitative analysis is conducted to examine the impact of the presence and absence of negative deforming tendencies in the Arabic subtitles of the first season of the British drama. This research is significant because it contributes to the discipline of translation studies, specifically the realm of AV translation. It seeks to provide a set of guidelines for optimal subtitling strategies that maintain the stylistic peculiarities of a social class that don’t exist in the target culture while also considering the practical aspects of translating subtitles. The findings indicate that negative shifts in the use of ironic expressions distort not only the stylistic elements of British aristocracy's utterances but also result in a loss of the intended meaning. This implies that what Berman’s model identifies as negative is also perceived as negative linguistic shifts in the Arabic subtitles of the British aristocracy’s verbal irony.

Keywords: Downton Abbey, deforming tendencies, berman, subtitling shifts, verbal irony

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Authors: Heba Aboul-Enein

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The blessed Mecca (Makkah) has been attacked as a city without a pre-Islamic history. Many claims have been posited denying the historicity of this holy city, and mythicizing Arabic historical records. Hence, the current paper attempted to shed light on this controversial history of Makkah. To achieve the intended objective, the study recoursed to archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence, to prove that the holy city existed since the dawn of human history. The data under study include the results of recent excavations; archaeological surveys in Saudi Arabia, academic works of archaeologists, newspaper reports of the latest archaeological discoveries, and the findings of Saudi explorers. In addition, the study examined ancient and contemporary references; western accounts of Makkah, the bible, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Arabic references, in an effort to reconcile these texts with the archeological findings. The paper also reviewed the latest results of aerial archeology of the region. The study proved based on archaeological finds, and contrary to fallacious claims, that Makkah is an ancient city that existed and was inhabited by humans in varied historical eras.

Keywords: aerial archaeology, archaeological finds in the Makkan region, archaeological surveys, Western, Jewish and Islamic accounts of Makkah

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Authors: Wujian Han

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In the process of human interaction and communication, speech act verbs are considered to be the most active component and the main means for information transmission, and are also taken as an indication of the structure of linguistic behavior. The theoretical value and practical significance of such everyday built-in metalanguage have long been recognized. This paper, which is part of a bigger study, is aimed to provide useful insights for a more precise and systematic application to speech act verbs translation between English and Chinese, especially with regard to the degree to which generic integrity is maintained in the practice of translation of legal documents. In this study, the corpus, i.e. Chinese legal texts and their English translations, English legal texts, ordinary Chinese texts, and ordinary English texts, serve as a testing ground for examining contrastively the usage of English and Chinese directive speech act verbs in legal genre. The scope of this paper is relatively wide and essentially covers all directive speech act verbs which are used in ordinary English and Chinese, such as order, command, request, prohibit, threat, advice, warn and permit. The researcher, by combining the corpus methodology with a contrastive perspective, explored a range of characteristics of English and Chinese directive speech act verbs including their semantic, syntactic and pragmatic features, and then contrasted them in a structured way. It has been found that there are similarities between English and Chinese directive speech act verbs in legal genre, such as similar semantic components between English speech act verbs and their translation equivalents in Chinese, formal and accurate usage of English and Chinese directive speech act verbs in legal contexts. But notable differences have been identified in areas of difference between their usage in the original Chinese and English legal texts such as valency patterns and frequency of occurrences. For example, the subjects of some directive speech act verbs are very frequently omitted in Chinese legal texts, but this is not the case in English legal texts. One of the practicable methods to achieve adequacy and conciseness in speech act verb translation from Chinese into English in legal genre is to repeat the subjects or the message with discrepancy, and vice versa. In addition, translation effects such as overuse and underuse of certain directive speech act verbs are also found in the translated English texts compared to the original English texts. Legal texts constitute a particularly valuable material for speech act verb study. Building up such a contrastive picture of the Chinese and English speech act verbs in legal language would yield results of value and interest to legal translators and students of language for legal purposes and have practical application to legal translation between English and Chinese.

Keywords: contrastive analysis, corpus-based, directive speech act verbs, legal texts, translation between English and Chinese

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Authors: Saleem Abu Jaber, Khaled Igbaria

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For readers, space/place is one of the most significant references to reveal deep significances and indications in modern Arabic poetic texts. Generally, when poets evoke places and/or spaces, they do not mean to refer readers to detailed geographic or physical spaces, but to the symbolic significances and dimensions that those spaces have and through which poets encourage spacial awareness in their readers. Recently, as a result, there has been a great deal of interest in research addressing spacial poetic texts and dimensions in modern Arabic poetry in general and in Palestinian poetry in particular. Samih al-Qasim is one of the most recent prominent Palestinian revolutionary poets. Al-Qasim has published six series of poems that are well known in the Arab world. Although several researchers have studied al-Qasim's poetry, to our knowledge, yet no one has studied the aspect of spacial poetic text in his poetry. Therefore, this paper seeks to fill a gap in the scholarship that has not been addressed up to now. This article aims, not only to demonstrate the presence of spacial poetic text and dimensions throughout al-Qasim's poetry, but also to investigate the purpose for which the poet uses spacial poetic text. Our theory is that the poet, consciously and significantly, uses spacial poetic texts to magnify the Palestinian identity of the Palestinian readers.  Methodologically, we applied a descriptive analytic method, referencing al-Qasim's poetry, addressing spacial poetic texts practically but not theoretically or statistically.

Keywords: spatial poetic text, Samih al-Qasim, space and identity, Palestinian poetry

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Authors: Benoît Leclercq, Ilse Depraetere

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The goal of this presentation is to shed new light on the semantics and pragmatics of be able to. It presents the results of a corpus analysis based on data from the BNC (British National Corpus), and discusses these results in light of a specific stance on the semantics-pragmatics interface taking into account recent developments. Be able to is often discussed in relation to can and could, all of which can be used to express ability. Such an onomasiological approach often results in the identification of usage constraints for each expression. In the case of be able to, it is the formal properties of the modal expression (unlike can and could, be able to has non-finite forms) that are in the foreground, and the modal expression is described as the verb that conveys future ability. Be able to is also argued to expressed actualised ability in the past (I was able/could to open the door). This presentation aims to provide a more accurate pragmatic-semantic profile of be able to, based on extensive data analysis and one that is embedded in a very explicit view on the semantics-pragmatics interface. A random sample of 3000 examples (1000 for each modal verb) extracted from the BNC was analysed to account for the following issues. First, the challenge is to identify the exact semantic range of be able to. The results show that, contrary to general assumption, be able to does not only express ability but it shares most of the root meanings usually associated with the possibility modals can and could. The data reveal that what is called opportunity is, in fact, the most frequent meaning of be able to. Second, attention will be given to the notion of actualisation. It is commonly argued that be able to is the preferred form when the residue actualises: (1) The only reason he was able to do that was because of the restriction (BNC, spoken) (2) It is only through my imaginative shuffling of the aces that we are able to stay ahead of the pack. (BNC, written) Although this notion has been studied in detail within formal semantic approaches, empirical data is crucially lacking and it is unclear whether actualisation constitutes a conventional (and distinguishing) property of be able to. The empirical analysis provides solid evidence that actualisation is indeed a conventional feature of the modal. Furthermore, the dataset reveals that be able to expresses actualised 'opportunities' and not actualised 'abilities'. In the final part of this paper, attention will be given to the theoretical implications of the empirical findings, and in particular to the following paradox: how can the same expression encode both modal meaning (non-factual) and actualisation (factual)? It will be argued that this largely depends on one's conception of the semantics-pragmatics interface, and that this need not be an issue when actualisation (unlike modality) is analysed as a generalised conversational implicature and thus is considered part of the conventional pragmatic layer of be able to.

Keywords: Actualisation, Modality, Pragmatics, Semantics

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Authors: Suwaree Yordchim, Toby J. Gibbs

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The linguistic competence of Thai university students majoring in Business English was examined in the context of knowledge of English language inflection, and also various linguistic elements. Errors analysis was applied to the results of the testing. Levels of errors in inflection, tense and linguistic elements were shown to be significantly high for all noun, verb and adjective inflections. Findings suggest that students do not gain linguistic competence in their use of English language inflection, because of interlanguage interference. Implications for curriculum reform and treatment of errors in the classroom are discussed.

Keywords: interlanguage, error analysis, inflection, second language acquisition, Thai students

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Authors: R. A. S. Zacarias

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Interlingual is one of the most complex, and engaging one among the several perspectives in lexicography. This is because it involves contacts and contrasts between two or more languages. Considering the fact that translation equivalence goes beyond a mere fixed relation of correspondence, understanding the differences and similarities between linguistic categories by pairs of languages is the basis for effective translations. One of the theoretical approaches that have proved useful in finding improved solutions for enhance translation equivalents for bilingual dictionaries is contrastive linguistics. This paper presents an applied qualitative research based on exploratory and descriptive approaches. This is achieved through an error analysis of students’ errors as well as by a contrastive analysis of Portuguese and English verb systems.

Keywords: bilingual lexicography, contrastive linguistics, translation equivalent, Portuguese-English

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Authors: Amanda Aliende da Matta

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This communication presents an aspect of phenomenon selection in an applied hermeneutic phenomenology study on care and vulnerability: the need to consider it as a situated universal. For that, we will first present the study and its methodology. Secondly, we will expose the need to understand phenomena as situation-defined, incorporating feminist thought. In an informatics class for 14 year olds, we explained the exercise: students have to make a 5 slide presentation about a topic of their choice. A does it on streetwear, B on Cristiano Ronaldo, C on Marvel, but J did it on Down Syndrome. Introducing it to the class, J explains the physical and cognitive differences caused by trisomy; when asked to explain it further, he says: "they are angels, teacher," and shows us a poster on his cellphone that says: if you laugh at a different child he will laugh with you because his innocence outweighs your ignorance. The anecdote shows, better than any theoretical explanation, something that some vulnerable people have; something beautiful and special but difficult to define. Let's call this something caring. The research has the main objective of accounting for the experience of caregiving in vulnerability, and it will be carried out with Applied Hermeneutic Phenomenology (AHP). The method's objective is to investigate the lived human experience in its pre-reflexive dimension to know its meaning structures. Contrary to other research methods, AHP does not produce theory about a specific context but seeks the meaning of the lived experience, in its characteristic of human experience. However, it is necessary that we understand care as defined in a concrete situation. We cannot start the research with an a priori definitive concept of care, or we would fall into the mistake of closing ourselves to only what we already know, as explained by Levinas. We incorporate, then, the notion of situated universals. Loyal to phenomenology, the definition of the phenomenon should start with an investigation of the word's etymology: the word cura, in its etymological root, means care. And care comes from the Latin word cogitātus/cōgĭto, which means "to pursue something in mind" and "to consider thoroughly." The verb cōgĭto, meanwhile, is composed of co- (altogether) and agitare (to deal with or think committedly about something, to concern oneself with) / ăgĭto (to set in motion, to move). Care, therefore, has in its origin a meditation on something, a concern about something, a verb that has a sense of action and movement. To care is to act out of concern for something/someone. This etymology, though, is not the final definition of the phenomenon, but only its skeleton. It needs to be embodied in the concrete situation to become a possible lived experience. And that means that the lived experience descriptions (LEDs) should be selected by taking into consideration how and if care was engendered in that concrete experience. Defining the phenomenon has to take into consideration situated knowledge.

Keywords: applied hermeneutic phenomenology, care ethics, hermeneutics, phenomenology, situated universalism

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Authors: Lina Fayed Amin

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The research studied, in the beginning, the related urban concepts such as the urban, development, urban development. As it also deals with the upgrading, urban upgrading, community participation and the role of local administration in development and upgrading projects. Then it studies some regional upgrading & urban development projects in Egypt followed by international projects, and the analysis the strategies followed in dealing with these projects. Afterwards, we state the regional aspects of both Damietta governorate & city, dealing with its potentials & development constraints. Followed by studying the upgrading and urban development projects strategies in reflection to the city’s crucial problems, and the constraints that faced the upgrading & development project. Then, it studied the implementation of the project’s strategies & it provided the financial resources needed for the development project in Damietta city. Followed by the studying of the urban and human development projects in the upgrading of Damietta city, as well as analyzing the different projects &analyzing the results of these projects on the aspects of the city’s needs. Then the research analysis in comparison the upgrading and urban development project in Damietta and the regional upgrading and development projects in Egypt. As well as the comparison between the upgrading and urban development project and the international projects in some Arabic and foreign countries in relation to the goals, problems, obstacles, the community participation, the finance resources and the results. Finally, it reviews the results and recommendations that were reached as a result of studying the similar urban upgrading projects in Egypt and in some Arabic and foreign countries. Followed by the analytical analysis of the upgrading and urban development in Egypt

Keywords: Damietta city, urban development, upgrading mechanisms, urban upgrading

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Authors: Reda A. H. Mahmoud

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This paper investigates the pragmatic meaning of prosodic focus through four accentuation moods of blaming utterances in Egyptian Arabic. Prosodic focus results in various pragmatic meanings when the speaker utters the same blaming expression in different emotional moods: the angry, the mocking, the frustrated, and the informative moods. The main objective of this study is to interpret the meanings of these four accentuation moods in relation to their illocutionary forces and pre-locutionary effects, the integrated features of prosodic focus (e.g., tone movement distributions, pitch accents, lengthening of vowels, deaccentuation of certain syllables/words, and tempo), and the consonance between the former prosodic features and certain lexico-grammatical components to communicate the intentions of the speaker. The data on blaming utterances has been collected via elicitation and pre-recorded material, and the selection of blaming utterances is based on the criteria of lexical and prosodic regularity to be processed and verified by three computer programs, Praat, Speech Analyzer, and Spectrogram Freeware. A dual pragmatic approach is established to interpret expressive blaming utterance and their lexico-grammatical distributions into intonational focus structure units. The pragmatic component of this approach explains the variable psychological attitudes through the expressions of blaming and their effects whereas the analysis of prosodic focus structure is used to describe the intonational contours of blaming utterances and other prosodic features. The study concludes that every accentuation mood has its different prosodic configuration which influences the listener’s interpretation of the pragmatic meanings of blaming utterances.

Keywords: pragmatics, pragmatic interpretation, prosody, prosodic focus

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Adham Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Ayman Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Introduction: Like many dialects, the Arabic dialect of Yemen (ADY) exhibited utterance phonemic distinction- vowel deletion, lengthening, and insertion- that were investigated using speakers from different dialectal backgrounds, with particular focus on the difference typically developing and achieving speakers and those suffering linguistic problems make. Phonological variations were found to be inevitable, suggesting further investigation of consonants to see to what extent they are prone to such phonemic changes. This study investigates the patterns of consonant substitution in ADY by examining if there is a clear-cut line between normal and pathological consonants to decide which of these consonants is substituted more. Methods: A total of hundred and twenty nine Yemeni male participants (age= 6-13) were enrolled in this study. Participants were preassigned into two groups (Articulation disorders (AD) group= 42 and typically developing and achieving group (TD) = 70), each of which consists of five sub-groups in decided sociolinguistic classification. In a 45 minute-session, 180 pictures of commonly used verbs (4 pics/m.) were presented to participants who were asked to impulsively describe these verbs before their production was psychoneurolinguistically and statistically analyzed. Results: There was a pattern of consonant substitution in some dialects that participants from both groups have in common: Voiceless consonants (/t/, /ṣ/,/s/, /ḥ, /k/, /ʃ/, /f//, and /k/) in northern and eastern dialects; voiced consonants (/q/, /gh/, /Ʒ/, /g/,/ḍ/, /b/, and /d/) in southern, eastern, western and central dialects; and voiceless and voiced consonants(/t/, /f/, /Ø/, /ṣ/, /s/, /q/, /gh/, /Ʒ/, /g/,/ḍ/, and /b/) in southern dialect. Voiceless consonants (/t/, /ṣ/,/s/, /ḥ, /k/, /ʃ/, /f//, /Ø/and /k/) found to be substituted more by ADY speakers of both AD and TD groups followed by voiced consonants (/q/, /gh/, /Ʒ/, /g/,/ḍ/,/d/ /b/, and /ð/), nasals (/m/, /n/), mute (/h/), semi-vowels (/w/ and /j/) and laterals (/l/ and /r/). Unexpectedly, a short vowel (/æ/) and two long vowels (/u: and /a:/) were found to substitute consonants in ADY both by AD and TD participants. Conclusions: AD and TD participants of ADY substitute consonants in their dialectal speech. Consonant substitution processes cover not only consonants but extend to include monophthongs. The finding that speakers of ADY substitute consonants in multisyllabic words is probably due to the fact that the sociolinguistic factor plays a pivotal role in the problematic substitution of consonants in ADY speakers. Larger longitudinal studies are necessary to further investigate the effect of sociolinguistic background on phonological variations, notably sound change in the speech of Yemeni TD speakers compared to those with linguistic impairments.

Keywords: consonant substitution, Arabic dialect of Yemen, phonetics, phonology, syllables, articulation disorders

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Authors: Emilija Tribocka

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This contribution presents parts of an ongoing study of a diachronic relationship between two weak verb classes in Norwegian, the a-class (cf. the paradigm of ‘throw’: kasta – kastar – kasta – kasta) and the e-class (cf. the paradigm of ‘buy’: kjøpa – kjøper – kjøpte – kjøpt). The study investigates inflection class shifts between the two classes with Old Norse, the ancestor of Modern Norwegian, as a starting point. Examination of inflection in 38 verbs in four chosen dialect areas (106 places of attestations) demonstrates that the shifts from the a-class to the e-class are widespread to varying degrees in three out of four investigated areas and are more common than the shifts in the opposite direction. The diachronic productivity of the e-class is unexpected for several reasons. There is general agreement that type frequency is an important factor influencing productivity. The a-class (53% of all weak verbs) was more type frequent in Old Norse than the e-class (42% of all weak verbs). Thus, given the type frequency, the expansion of the e-class is unexpected. Furthermore, in the ‘core’ areas of expanded e-class inflection, the shifts disregard phonological principles creating forms with uncomfortable consonant clusters, e.g., fiskte instead of fiska, the preterit of fiska ‘fish’. Later on, these forms may be contracted, i.e., fiskte > fiste. In this contribution, two factors influencing the shifts are presented: phonological form and token frequency. Verbs with the stem ending in a consonant cluster, particularly when the cluster ends in -t, hardly ever shift to the e-class. As a matter of fact, verbs with this structure belonging to the e-class in Old Norse shift to the a-class in Modern Norwegian, e.g., ON e-class verb skipta ‘change’ shifts to the a-class. This shift occurs as a result of the lack of morpho-phonological transparency between the stem and the preterit suffix of the e-class, -te. As there is a phonological fusion between the stem ending in -t and the suffix beginning in -t, the transparent a-class inflection is chosen. Token frequency plays an important role in the shifts, too, in some dialects. In one of the investigated areas, the most token frequent verbs of the ON e-class remain in the e-class (e.g., høyra ‘hear’, leva ‘live’, kjøpa ‘buy’), while less frequent verbs may shift to the a-class. Furthermore, the results indicate that the shift from the a-class to the e-class occurs in some of the most token frequent verbs of the ON a-class in this area, e.g., lika ‘like’, lova ‘promise’, svara ‘answer’. The latter is unexpected as frequent items tend to remain stable. This study presents a case of unexpected productivity, demonstrating that minor patterns can grow and outdo major patterns. Thus, type frequency is not the only factor that determines productivity. The study addresses the role of phonological form and token frequency in the spread of inflection patterns.

Keywords: inflection class, productivity, token frequency, phonological form

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Authors: Musbah Abdussayed

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The washback effect refers to the influence of assessment on teaching and learning, and this washback effect can either be positive or negative. This study implemented, sequentially, self-assessment (SA) and peer assessment (PA) and examined the washback effect of self and peer assessment (SPA) activities on the writing growth during the revision phase in the writing process. Twenty advanced Arabic as a second language learners from a private school in the USA participated in the study. The participants composed and then revised a short Arabic story as a part of a midterm grade. Qualitative data was collected, analyzed, and synthesized from ten interviews with the learners and from the twenty learners’ post-reflective journals. The findings indicate positive washback effects on the learners’ writing growth. The PA activity enhanced descriptions and meaning, promoted creativity, and improved textual coherence, whereas the SA activity led to detecting editing issues. Furthermore, both SPA activities had washback effects in common, including helping the learners meet the writing genre conventions and developing metacognitive awareness. However, the findings also demonstrate negative washback effects on the learners’ attitudes during the revision phase in the writing process, including bias toward self-evaluation during the SA activity and reluctance to rate peers’ writing performance during the PA activity. The findings suggest that self-and peer assessment activities are essential teaching and learning tools that can be utilized sequentially to help learners tackle multiple writing areas during the revision phase in the writing process.

Keywords: self assessment, peer assessment, washback effect, second language writing, writing process

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Authors: Popoola Sulaimon Akorede, Muinat A. Agbabiaka-Mustapha

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The Quranic / piazza school where the rudiments of Islam are being imparted from the teaching of Arabic/ Quranic alphabets which later metamorphosized to higher fundamental principles of Islam is the major determinant of the existence of Islam in any part of south western Nigeria. In other words, one can successfully say that where there is a few or non-existence of such schools in that part of the country, the practice of the religion of Islam would be either very low or not existing at all. However, it has been discovered in the modern worlds that several challenges are militating against the development of these schools and among these challenges are poor admission policy, inadequate facilities such as learning environment and instructional materials, curriculum inadequacy and the management and the administration of the schools which failed to change in order to meet the modern contemporary Educational challenges. The focus of this paper therefore is to improve the conditions of these basic Islamic schools through the introduction of quality assurance and integrating accreditation Exercise to improve their status in order to enhance economic empowerment and to further their educational career in the future so that they will be able to compete favourably among the graduates of conventional universities. The scope of this study is limited to only seven (7) states of yorubaland and with only three (3) proprietors/ schools from each state which are Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and parts of Kwara State. The study revealed that quality assurance as well as accreditation exercise are lacking in all the local Arabic/Quranic schools. Suggestions are proffered towards correcting the anomalies in these schools so that they can meet the modern Educational standard.

Keywords: accreditation, quality assurance, Quranic schools, South-western Nigeria

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Authors: Vijaya

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This paper reports the results of a study that measures the level of receptive vocabularies using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) in an ESL context. PPVT is a popular standardized test used to measure the vocabulary level of L1 learners. In this study, PPVT was administered to fourteen 9 to 11 year old Indian ESL learners from the fifth standard from a school in Hyderabad. Their performance is compared with the age appropriate performance of L1 learners. Their performance on noun versus verb items is also compared. The results are discussed concerning the learning goals set by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) position paper on Teaching of English in India.

Keywords: national council for educational research and training, India, PPVT, second language acquistion, vocabulary acquisition

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Authors: Mounia El Jaouhari, Mira Goral, Samir Diouny

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Introduction: Previous research has indicated that language impairments are recognized as a feature of many neurodegenerative disorders, including non-language-led dementia subtypes such as Alzheimer´s disease (AD). In this preliminary study, the focal aim is to quantify the semantic content of naming and connected speech samples of Moroccan patients diagnosed with AD using two tasks taken from the culturally adapted and validated Moroccan version of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. Methods: Five individuals with AD and five neurologically healthy individuals matched for age, gender, and education will participate in the study. Participants with AD will be diagnosed on the basis of the Moroccan version of the Diagnostic and Statistial Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-4) screening test, the Moroccan version of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) test scores, and neuroimaging analyses. The participants will engage in two tasks taken from the MDAE-SF: 1) Picture description and 2) Naming. Expected findings: Consistent with previous studies conducted on English speaking AD patients, we expect to find significant word production and retrieval impairments in AD patients in all measures. Moreover, we expect to find category fluency impairments that further endorse semantic breakdown accounts. In sum, not only will the findings of the current study shed more light on the locus of word retrieval impairments noted in AD, but also reflect the nature of Arabic morphology. In addition, the error patterns are expected to be similar to those found in previous AD studies in other languages.

Keywords: alzheimer's disease, anomia, connected speech, semantic impairments, moroccan arabic

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Authors: Ganga Brahma

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Boro employs verbs hooked up with morphemes which lead verbs to adjust with their arguments and hence, affecting the whole of sentence structures. This paper is based on few such syntactic parameters which are usually considered as argument decreasing parameters in linguistic works. Passivizing of few transitive clauses which are usually construed from the verbs occurring with certain morphemes and representation in middle constructions are few of such strategies which lead to conceptualizing of decreasing of syntactic arguments from a sentence. This paper focuses on the mentioned linguistic strategies and attempts to describe the linguistic processes as for how these parameters work in languages especially by concentrating on a particular Tibeto-Burman language i.e. Boro. Boro is a Tibeto-Burman language widely spoken in parts of the north-eastern regions of India. It has an agglutinative nature in forming words as well as clauses. There is a morpheme ‘za’ which means ‘to happen, become’ in Boro whose appearances with verb roots denotes an idea of the subject being passivized. Passivization, usually has notions that it is a reversed representation of its active sentence forms in the terms of argument placements. (However, it is not accountably true as passives and actives have some distinct features of their own and independent of one and the other.) This particular work will concentrate on the semantics of passivization at the same time along with its syntactic reality. The verb khɑo meaning ‘to steal’ offers a sense of passivization with the appearance of the morpheme zɑ which means ‘to happen, become’ (e.g Zunu-ɑ lama-ɑo phɯisɑ khɑo-zɑ-bɑi; Junu-NOM road-LOC money steal-PASS-PRES: Junu got her money stolen on the road). The focus, here, is more on the argument placed at the subject position (i.e. Zunu) and the event taken place. The semantics of such construction asks for the agent because without an agent the event could not have taken place. However, the syntactic elements fill the slots of relegated or temporarily deleted agent which, infact, is the actual subject cum agent in its active representation. Due to the event marker ‘zɑ’ in this presentation it affords to reduce one participant from such a situation which in actual is made up of three participants. Hence, the structure of di-transitive construction here reduces to mono-transitive structure. Unlike passivization, middle construction does not allow relegation of the agents. It permanently deletes agents. However, it also focuses on the fore-grounded subject and highlighting on the changed states on the subjects which happens to be the underlying objects of their respective transitive structures (with agents). This work intends to describe how these two parameters which are different at their semantic realization can meet together at a syntactic level in order to create a linguistic parameter that decreases participants from their actual structures which are with more than one participant.

Keywords: argument-decrease, middle-construction, passivization, transitivity-intransitivity

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Authors: Saeid Jafari, Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh, Randy W. Worobo, Kitipong Assatarakul

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In this study, the extraction of cocoa shell powder (CSP) was optimized, and the optimized extracts were spray-dried for encapsulation purposes. Temperature (45-65 ◦C), extraction time (30–60 min), and ethanol concentration (60–100%) were the extraction parameters. The response surface methodology analysis revealed that the model was significant (p ≤ 0.05) in interactions between all variables (total phenolic compound, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity as measured by 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP assays), with a lack of fit test for the model being insignificant (p > 0.05). Temperature (55 ◦C), time (45 min), and ethanol concentration (60%) were found to be the optimal extraction conditions. For spray-drying encapsulation, some quality metrics (e.g., water solubility, water activity) were insignificant (p > 0.05). The microcapsules were found to be spherical in shape using a scanning electron microscope. Thermogravimetric and differential thermogravimetric measurements of the microcapsules revealed nearly identical results. The gum arabic + maltodextrin microcapsule (GMM) showed potential antibacterial (zone of inhibition: 11.50 mm; lower minimum inhibitory concentration: 1.50 mg/mL) and antioxidant (DPPH: 1063 mM trolox/100g dry wt.) activities (p ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, the microcapsules in this study, particularly GMM, are promising antioxidant and antibacterial agents to be fortified as functional food ingredients for the production of nutraceutical foods with health-promoting properties.

Keywords: functional foods, coco shell powder, antioxidant activity, encapsulation, extraction

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Authors: Karin Eines, Riki Tesler

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Introduction: The Mamanet Cachibol League (MCL) is a community-based model developed in Israel to promote physical activity (PA) and amateur team sports among women. team sports are not just groups in the context of specific sport activity but also incorporated into a person’s sense of self and become influencing factor on sport-related behavior among the players. While in the non-Arabic sector, sport venues are available for the local authority population, the Arabic sector authorities face limited access sport facilities, with 168 sport venues and authorities with no venues at all. Within the Arab community, women participation in sports has traditionally been limited and, even more so for participation in team sports. Aims: The purpose of the study was to explore attributes of women MCL activity via: (1) assess differences between participants in the MCL and non-participants among Arab women regarding well-being level; (2) to examine among MCL participants the relationship between health maintenance characteristics and the likelihood of participating in the MCL; and (3) Use qualitative approach to shed light over the question why Arabic women participate in MCL and continue their engagement in PA. Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed-method design was employed to gain a deeper understanding of the advantages and motivations among women participating in community-based team sports. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Israeli Arab women aged 25–59. Demographic characteristics, well-being (SRH and psychosomatic symptoms), eating habits, and social support were analyzed using two-way analyses of covariance and multiple regression models with a sequential entry of the variables. Quantitative results were further explored in qualitative in-depth interviews among 30 of the MCL participants, which shed light on additional reasons for participation in PA. Results: MCL participants reported better self-reported health (p < 0.001) and lower rates of psychosomatic symptoms (p < 0.001) compared to non-participants. Participation in MCL was also related to higher levels of well-being and healthy eating habits. Women who participated also experienced a profound sense of belonging, leading to enhanced social interactions and positivity in their personal and professional lives. They were dedicated to the group and felt empowered by the reciprocal commitment. The group promoted equality, making the women feel valued and respected, resulting in community admiration. Their involvement positively impacted their families, justifying their time commitment.

Keywords: wellbeing, obesity, community based sports, healthy eating habits, arab women

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Authors: Antonio De Lisa

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The aim of this contribution is to describe a Sufi ceremony personally observed and recorded in Istanbul. It is part of research on the semiotics of religion that has been going on for some time. Over the centuries, Sufism has produced remarkable literature, elaborated mainly in the context of Arabic literature and Persian literature, but has also found expression in many other languages (Turkish, Indian, Malayo-Indonesian, etc.). Among the genres cultivated are: devotional books (prayers, meditation, spiritual exercises, etc.); the hagiographic texts, containing the biographies and sentences of the best-known Sufis; the texts that illustrate the abodes or stations of the spiritual path; finally, the theoretical treatises on various topics, often of an apologetic nature. Another typical expression of Sufism is in the literature in verse, which includes first-rate poets of both Arabic (Ibn al-Farid, Ibn 'Arabi) and Persian (Farid al-Din al-Attar, Rumi, Hafez, Gohar Shahi) expression. To observe an authentic Sufi ceremony, we contacted the Silivrikapı Mevlana Cultural Center in Istanbul. The ceremony we will talk about is a characteristic of the brotherhood called Mevleviyye (Mawlawiyya), so called from Mawlānā ('our lord', in Turkish: Mevlānā) Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (13th century) better known as the brotherhood of the Whirling Dervishes, founded in Konya. The characteristic of the order is to pray about one's love for Allah with music and dance in a ritual that has the name of Semà. The dance is a swirling movement in a group, representing a mystical journey of the spiritual ascent of man through the mind and love for the 'perfect'. Turning towards the truth, the follower of the group ascends towards love, passing beyond the World and Nothingness. After asceticism, he returns to the common world to communicate his own experience.

Keywords: semiotics of religion, sufi, rumi, islamic philosophy

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Authors: Ahmed Hassan Sabra

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Context: The research explores the impact of ideology on the aesthetic reading of literary texts. It aims to investigate how ideology affects the way in which readers interpret and appreciate literature. The study focuses on a selection of Arabic novels that have been subject to significant controversy among critics, with some praising their aesthetic value and others denouncing it. By analyzing this controversy, the research seeks to demonstrate the extent to which ideology influences aesthetic judgments in literary readings. Research Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the influence of ideology on the aesthetic reading of literary texts. It seeks to understand how the ideological perspective of readers shapes their interpretation and evaluation of literature. Methodology: The research adopts an aesthetic approach as the primary methodology for investigating the relationship between literary reading and ideological reception. By employing this approach, the study aims to uncover the intricate connections between aesthetics and ideology in the process of interpreting and appreciating literature. Findings: The research reveals that ideology cannot be separated from the aesthetic experience of reading literary texts. It argues that the ideological perspective of the reader significantly impacts their aesthetic judgments and interpretations. The differing viewpoints among critics regarding the aesthetic value of the selected Arabic novels highlight the influence of ideology on readers' assessments of artistic merit. Theoretical Importance: The study contributes to the understanding of the complex interplay between aesthetics and ideology in the realm of literary interpretation. It reinforces the notion that aesthetic judgments are not solely based on the intrinsic qualities of the text but are also shaped by the ideological framework of the reader. Data Collection: The research collects data by examining critical responses to a number of Arabic novels that have generated controversy. These responses include both positive and negative evaluations of the novels' aesthetic value. The research also considers the ideological positions and perspectives of the critics. Analysis Procedures: The collected data is analyzed using an aesthetic lens, taking into account the ideological viewpoints expressed in the critical responses. The analysis explores how these ideological perspectives influence the aesthetic judgments made by the critics. Questions Addressed: The research addresses the question of how ideology impacts the aesthetic reading of literary texts. It investigates the extent to which ideology shapes readers' interpretations and evaluations of literature, particularly in the case of controversial novels. Conclusion: The study concludes that ideology plays a significant role in the aesthetic reading of literary texts. It demonstrates that readers' ideological perspectives influence their interpretation and evaluation of a text's aesthetic value. The research highlights the interconnectedness of aesthetics and ideology in the process of literary reception, emphasizing the importance of considering the ideological framework of readers when analyzing the aesthetic qualities of literature.

Keywords: novel, aesthetic, ideology, reading

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Authors: Raja Lahiani

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'Locksley Hall' is a poem that Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) published in 1842. It is believed to be his first attempt to face as a poet some of the most painful of his experiences, as it is a study of his rising out of sickness into health, conquering his selfish sorrow by faith and hope. So far, in Victorian scholarship as in modern criticism, 'Locksley Hall' has been studied and approached as a canonical Victorian English poem. The aim of this project is to prove that some strategies of translation were used in this poem in such a way as to guarantee its assimilation into the English canon and hence efface to a large extent its Arabic roots. In its relationship with its source text, 'Locksley Hall' is at the same time mimetic and imitative. As part of the terminology used in translation studies, ‘imitation’ means almost the exact opposite of what it means in ordinary English. By adopting an imitative procedure, a translator would do something totally different from the original author, wandering far and freely from the words and sense of the original text. An imitation is thus aimed at an audience which wants the work of the particular translator rather than the work of the original poet. Hallam Tennyson, the poet’s biographer, asserts that 'Locksley Hall' is a simple invention of place, incidents, and people, though he notes that he remembers the poet claiming that Sir William Jones’ prose translation of the Mu‘allaqat (pre-Islamic poems) gave him the idea of the poem. A comparative work would prove that 'Locksley Hall' mirrors a great deal of Tennyson’s biography and hence is not a simple invention of details as asserted by his biographer. It would be challenging to prove that 'Locksley Hall' shares so many details with the Mu‘allaqat, as declared by Tennyson himself, that it needs to be studied as an imitation of the Mu‘allaqat of Imru’ al-Qays and ‘Antara in addition to its being a poem in its own right. Thus, the main aim of this work is to unveil the imitative and mimetic strategies used by Tennyson in his composition of 'Locksley Hall.' It is equally important that this project researches the acculturating assimilative tools used by the poet to root his poem in its Victorian English literary, cultural and spatiotemporal settings. This work adopts a comparative methodology. Comparison is done at different levels. The poem will be contextualized in its Victorian English literary framework. Alien details related to structure, socio-spatial setting, imagery and sound effects shall be compared to Arabic poems from the Mu‘allaqat collection. This would determine whether the poem is a translation, an adaption, an imitation or a genuine work. The ultimate objective of the project is to unveil in this canonical poem a new dimension that has for long been either marginalized or ignored. By proving that 'Locksley Hall' is an imitation of classical Arabic poetry, the project aspires to consolidate its literary value and open up new gates of accessing it.

Keywords: comparative literature, imitation, Locksley Hall, Lord Alfred Tennyson, translation, Victorian poetry

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Authors: Cinzia Russi, Chiyo Nishida

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Using data from online corpora (Spanish CREA, Italian CORIS), this paper examines the relatively understudied use of Spanish se and Italian si exemplified in (1) and (2), respectively. (1) El rojo es … el que se come a los demás. ‘The red (bottle) is the one that outshines/*eats the rest.’(2) … ebbe anche la saggezza di mangiarsi tutto il suo patrimonio. ‘… he even had the wisdom to squander/*eat all his estate.’ In these sentences, se/si accompanies the consumption verb comer/mangiare ‘to eat’, without which the sentences would not be interpreted appropriately. This se/si cannot readily be attributed to any of the multiple functions so far identified in the literature: reflexive, ergative, middle/passive, inherent, benefactive, and complete consumptive. In particular, this paper argues against the feasibility of a recent construction-based analysis of sentences like (1) and (2), which situates se/si within a prototype-based network of meanings all deriving from the central meaning of 'COMPLETE CONSUMPTION' (e.g., Alice se comió toda la torta/Alicesi è mangiata tutta la torta ‘John ate the whole cake’). Clearly, the empirical adequacy of such an account is undermined by the fact that the events depicted in the se/si-sentences at issue do not always entail complete consumption because they may lack an INCREMENTAL THEME, the distinguishing property of complete consumption. Alternatively, it is proposed that the sentences under analysis represent instances of verbal METAPHORICAL EXTENSION: se/si represents an explicit marker of this cognitive process, which has independently developed from the complete consumptive se/si, and the meaning extension is captured by the general tenets of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Two conceptual domains, Source (DS) and target (DT), are related by similarity, assigning an appropriate metaphorical interpretation to DT. The domains paired here are comer/mangiare (DS) and comerse/mangiarsi (DT). The eating event (DS) involves (a) the physical process of xEATER grinding yFOOD-STUFF into pieces and swallowing it; and (b) the aspect of xEATER savoring yFOOD-STUFF and being nurtured by it. In the physical act of eating, xEATER has dominance and exercises his force over yFOOD-STUFF. This general sense of dominance and force is mapped onto DT and is manifested in the ways exemplified in (1) and (2), and many others. According to CMT, two other properties are observed in each pair of DS & DT. First, DS tends to be more physical and concrete and DT more abstract, and systematic mappings are established between constituent elements in DS and those in DT: xEATER corresponds to the element that destroys and yFOOD-STUFF to the element that is destroyed in DT, as exemplified in (1) and (2). Though the metaphorical extension marker se/si appears by far most frequently with comer/mangiare in the corpora, similar systematic mappings are observed in several other verb pairs, for example, jugar/giocare ‘to play (games)’ and jugarse/giocarsi ‘to jeopardize/risk (life, reputation, etc.)’, perder/perdere ‘to lose (an object)’ and perderse/perdersi ‘to miss out on (an event)’, etc. Thus, this study provides evidence that languages may indeed formally mark metaphor using means available to them.

Keywords: complete consumption value, conceptual metaphor, Italian si/Spanish se, metaphorical extension.

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