The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics

Until about 60 years ago, linguistic research on the Arabic language in the West was restricted to inquiries on Classical Arabic and the Classical tradition, and spoken Arabic dialects, with historical studies embedded within the broader field of Semitic languages. This situation is changing quickly, not only through the continuation of older research traditions, but also with the integration of new research fields and perspectives. With this expansion comes the danger of specialists in Arabic losing an overview of the field, and of leaving non-specialists without basic resources for evaluating domains of research which they may be interested in for comparative purposes. The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics will confront this problem by combining state-of-the-art overviews with essays on issues of perspective, controversy, and point of view. In twenty-four chapters, leading experts from around the world will lay out their own stances on controversial issues. The book not only evaluates ways in which questions and theories established in general linguistics and its sub-fields elucidate Arabic, but also challenges approaches which might result in accommodating Arabic to "non-Arabic" interpretations, and brings out the Arabic specificity of individual problems. The Handbook, in one compact volume, gives critical expression to 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.1. A HOUSE OF SOUND STRUCTURE, OF MARVELOUS FORM AND PROPORTION: AN INTRODUCTION ; JONATHAN OWENS ; 2. PHONETICS ; MOHAMED EMBARKI ; 3. PHONOLOGY ; SAM HELLMUTH ; 4. MORPHOLOGY ; ROBERT RATCLIFFE ; 5. ARABIC LINGUISTIC TRADITION I: NAHW AND SARF ; RAMZI BAALBAKI ; 6. THE SYNTAX OF ARABIC FROM A GENERATIVE PERSPECTIVE ; ELABBAS BENMAMOUN AND LINA CHOUEIRI ; 7. THE PHILOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ARABIC GRAMMAR ; LUTZ EDZARD ; 8. THE ARABIC LINGUISTIC TRADITION II: BEYOND GRAMMAR ; PIERRE LARCHER ; 9. ISSUES IN ARABIC COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS ; EVERHARD DITTERS ; 10. SOCIOLINGUISTICS ; ENAM AL-WER ; 11. ARABIC FOLK LINGUISTICS: BETWEEN MOTHER-TONGUE AND NATIVE LANGUAGE ; YASIR SULEIMAN ; 12. ORALITY, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE ; CLIVE HOLES ; 13. DIALECTS AND DIALECTOLOGY ; PETER BEHNSTEDT AND MANFRED WOIDICH, ; 14. CODESWITCHING AND CODEMIXING INVOLVING ARABIC ; ABDELALI BENTAHILA, EIRLYS DAVIES, AND JONATHAN OWENS ; 15. BORROWING ; MAARTEN KOSSMANN ; 16. PSYCHOLINGUISTICS ; SAMI BOUDELAA ; 17. ARABIC SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ; KARIN RYDING ; 18. THE ARABIC WRITING SYSTEM ; PETER DANIELS ; 19. WHAT IS ARABIC? ; JAN RETSO ; 20. HISTORY ; JONATHAN OWENS ; 21. THE ARABIC LITERARY LANGUAGE: THE NAHDA (AND BEYOND) ; DANIEL NEWMAN ; 22. CREOLES AND PIDGINS ; MAURO TOSCO AND STEFANO MANFREDI ; 23. LEXICOGRAPHY IN THE CLASSICAL ERA ; SOLOMON SARA, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ; 24. MODERN LEXICOGRAPHY ; TIM BUCKWALTER AND DILWORTH PARKINSON