Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and symbols used in this book
- 1 Arabic linguistics: overview and history
- 2 Arabic phonology
- 3 Arabic phonotactics and morphophonology
- 4 Arabic syllable structure and stress
- 5 Introduction to Arabic morphology
- 6 Derivational morphology: the root/pattern system
- 7 Non-root/pattern morphology and the Arabic lexicon
- 8 Arabic inflectional morphology
- 9 Syntactic analysis and Arabic
- 10 Arabic syntax I: phrase structure
- 11 Arabic syntax II: clause structure
- Appendix A Fields of linguistics and Arabic
- Appendix B Arabic transcription/transliteration/romanization
- Appendix C Arabic nominal declensions
- Glossary of technical linguistic terms
- References
- Index
- References
1 - Arabic linguistics: overview and history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and symbols used in this book
- 1 Arabic linguistics: overview and history
- 2 Arabic phonology
- 3 Arabic phonotactics and morphophonology
- 4 Arabic syllable structure and stress
- 5 Introduction to Arabic morphology
- 6 Derivational morphology: the root/pattern system
- 7 Non-root/pattern morphology and the Arabic lexicon
- 8 Arabic inflectional morphology
- 9 Syntactic analysis and Arabic
- 10 Arabic syntax I: phrase structure
- 11 Arabic syntax II: clause structure
- Appendix A Fields of linguistics and Arabic
- Appendix B Arabic transcription/transliteration/romanization
- Appendix C Arabic nominal declensions
- Glossary of technical linguistic terms
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
In approaching the study of human language in general, if the aim is to categorize, classify, and identify how languages work, then these functions must be based on clearly documented empirical observations. This kind of activity separates linguistics from anecdotal, philosophical, impressionistic, or speculative observations about language that may come from anyone anywhere. Linguistics can be defined as follows.
Linguistics is “the study of language as a system of human communication” (Richards and Schmidt 2010: 343).
Linguistics is “a natural science, on a par with geology, biology, physics, and chemistry.” And “the task of linguistics is to explain the nature of human language, through active involvement in the description of language – each viewed as an integrated system – together with explanation of why each language is the way it is, allied to the further scientific pursuits of prediction and evaluation” (Dixon 2010a: 1).
“For the beginning linguist, saying that linguistics is a science can be interpreted as implying careful observation of the relevant real-world phenomena, classification of those phenomena, and the search for useful patterns in the phenomena observed and classified. For the more advanced linguist, saying that linguistics is a science is a matter of seeking explanations for the phenomena of language and building theories which will help explain why observed phenomena occur while phenomena which are not observed should not occur” (Bauer 2007: 17).
“Linguists believe that their field is a science because they share the goals of scientific inquiry, which is objective (or more properly intersubjectively accessible) understanding” (Aronoff and Rees-Miller 2001: xiv).
“The task of linguistics is to explain the nature of human language, through active involvement in the description of languages – each viewed as an integrated system – together with an explanation of why each language is the way it is, allied to the further scientific pursuits of prediction and evaluation” (Dixon 2010a: 1).
Information
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- ArabicA Linguistic Introduction, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
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(1857–1913) is considered the founder of modern structural linguistics, mainly by virtue of his Course in General Linguistics, given at the University of Geneva (1907–1911)
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