Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation

The Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is practiced in all Arab countries especially in official communication; written and spoken to unite Arab countries in certain aspects. However, a standardization of the Arabic language, particularly in the word usage is needed between Arabic countries. Seven Arabic...

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Main Author: Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit UKM 2014
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/1/4585-16449-1-PB.pdf
id ukm-7193
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-71932016-12-14T06:43:21Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/ Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak, The Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is practiced in all Arab countries especially in official communication; written and spoken to unite Arab countries in certain aspects. However, a standardization of the Arabic language, particularly in the word usage is needed between Arabic countries. Seven Arabic newspapers from different countries which contain a corpus of around 87,000 words from World Affairs section are used to highlight the differences of word usage. This research is based on a theory (Kilgarriff, 2001) which states that the analysis of the consistency of word usage in corpora or sub-corpora can reveal the lexical choices. This study focuses on the discussion of several types of variations of nouns and verbs usage. The software Wordsmith 5.0 was utilized to analyze the corpus by extracting all words into frequency list and concordance. The results show that the Arabic newspapers had a great contribution in creating word usage variations, specifically in terms of spelling, loan word acceptance, verbs transitivity to particle, phrase combinations and plural formations. In some cases, the influence of foreign language such as English plays an important role in creating variation of Arabic language usage. The results of this study is hoped to increase the awareness of newspaper readers around the world regarding the significant variations in Arabic language usage and its transformations over the years. Penerbit UKM 2014-06 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/1/4585-16449-1-PB.pdf Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak, (2014) Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 14 (2). pp. 29-43. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/index
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description The Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is practiced in all Arab countries especially in official communication; written and spoken to unite Arab countries in certain aspects. However, a standardization of the Arabic language, particularly in the word usage is needed between Arabic countries. Seven Arabic newspapers from different countries which contain a corpus of around 87,000 words from World Affairs section are used to highlight the differences of word usage. This research is based on a theory (Kilgarriff, 2001) which states that the analysis of the consistency of word usage in corpora or sub-corpora can reveal the lexical choices. This study focuses on the discussion of several types of variations of nouns and verbs usage. The software Wordsmith 5.0 was utilized to analyze the corpus by extracting all words into frequency list and concordance. The results show that the Arabic newspapers had a great contribution in creating word usage variations, specifically in terms of spelling, loan word acceptance, verbs transitivity to particle, phrase combinations and plural formations. In some cases, the influence of foreign language such as English plays an important role in creating variation of Arabic language usage. The results of this study is hoped to increase the awareness of newspaper readers around the world regarding the significant variations in Arabic language usage and its transformations over the years.
format Article
author Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak,
spellingShingle Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak,
Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
author_facet Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak,
author_sort Zainur Rijal Abdul Razak,
title Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
title_short Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
title_full Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
title_fullStr Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
title_full_unstemmed Word usage variations in Arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
title_sort word usage variations in arabic newspapers: a corpus investigation
publisher Penerbit UKM
publishDate 2014
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7193/1/4585-16449-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:49:02Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:49:02Z
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