The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics [Paperback]

Gives critical expression to Arabic, a language which covers large populations and geographical areas, has a long written tradition, and has been the locus of major intellectual fervor and debate.Arabic is one of the world's largest languages, spoken natively by nearly 300 million people. By strength of numbers alone Arabic is one of our most important languages, studied by scholars across many different academic fields and cultural settings. It is, however, a complex language rooted in its own tradition of scholarship, constituted of varieties each imbued with unique cultural values and characteristic linguistic properties. Understanding its linguistics holistically is therefore a challenge.The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguisticsis a comprehensive, one-volume guide that deals with all major research domains which have been developed within Arabic linguistics. Chapters are written by leading experts in the field, who both present state-of-the-art overviews and develop their own critical perspectives. TheHandbookbegins with Arabic in its Semitic setting and ends with the modern dialects; it ranges across the traditional--the classical Arabic grammatical and lexicographical traditions--to the contemporary--Arabic sociolinguistics, Creole varieties and codeswitching, psycholinguistics, and Arabic as a second language - while situating Arabic within current phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexicological theory. An essential reference work for anyone working within Arabic linguistics, the book brings together different approaches and scholarly traditions, and provides analysis of current trends and directions for future research.1. A house of sound structure, of marvelous form and proportion: An IntroductionJonathan Owens2. PhoneticsMohamed Embarki3. PhonologySam Hellmuth4. MorphologyRobert Ratcliffe5. Arabic Linguistic Tradition I: NaHw and SarfRamzi Baalbaki6. The Syntax of Arabic from a Generative PerspectiveElabbas Benmamoun anl³o