On the communicative role of word order in written modern standard Arabic : a contribution to functional linguistics
The majority of the available studies which have been done on word order in Arabic are derived from improvised and restricted data taken from the classical variety of Arabic. ALL these studies are generatively-oriented, and consequently their main concern was to find out which word order is the basic one and which orders derive from it. In brief, all these studies are basically structural and have very little, if anything, to do with the situations in which the language was used or with the factors that motivated it's use. We think that such treatments are inadequate, because: (1) the modern standard variety has been totally neglected, and (2) the basic functions of Language as a tool of human communication is not accounted for by these studies. To make up for these inadequacies we are going to approach the issue of word order from a functional vantage point which seeks to relate the structure and it's function. Secondly, we will choose 'Modern Standard Arabic' to be our field of inquiry. Thirdly, all the examples which we are going to discuss will be taken from concrete linguistic situations. We intend to test the following hypotheses: 1. The traditional dichotomy of word order in marked/unmarked terms at
Osman, Mirghani El-Sayed
P Philology. Linguistics ; PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania ; Memory, Text and Place
On the communicative role of word order in written modern standard Arabic : a contribution to functional linguistics. The majority of the available studies which have been done on word order in Arabic are derived from improvised and restricted data taken from the classical variety of Arabic. ALL these studies are generatively-oriented, and consequently their main concern was to find out which word order is the basic one and which orders derive from it. In brief, all these studies are basically structural and have very little, if anything, to do with the situations in which the language was used or with the factors that motivated it's use. We think that such treatments are inadequate, because: (1) the modern standard variety has been totally neglected, and (2) the basic functions of Language as a tool of human communication is not accounted for by these studies. To make up for these inadequacies we are going to approach the issue of word order from a functional vantage point which seeks to relate the structure and it's function. Secondly, we will choose 'Modern Standard Arabic' to be our field of inquiry. Thirdly, all the examples which we are going to discuss will be taken from concrete linguistic situations. We intend to test the following hypotheses: 1. The traditional dichotomy of word order in marked/unmarked terms at
communicative role word_order write modern_standard_arabic functional_linguistics majority available study word_order arabic derive restrict data_take classical variety arabic study oriented consequently main_concern word_order basic order derive brief study basically structural little anything situation language_use factor motivate use think treatment inadequate modern_standard variety totally neglect basic function_language tool human_communication account study make inadequacy issue word_order functional vantage_point seek relate structure function secondly choose modern_standard_arabic field inquiry thirdly examples discuss take concrete linguistic_situation intend test follow hypothesis traditional dichotomy word_order marked unmarked term