Hagar Lotfy

Abstract

All living languages come across linguistic changes with time. It is important to mention that various linguistic phenomena that living languages encounter include sound change, phonological change, syntactic change, lexical change or semantic change. From 2011 to 2015, Egypt passed through a critical political situation; a result, media and press introduce new lexical items and revive lexical terminology from the past. During the Arab Spring media websites tried to offer the most accurate lexical terminologies that express people’s impatience for dignity, socio-political reforms, and human rights (Michel, 2013). This study aims to primarily investigate the impact of the political situation on the media lexical production, and the word formation strategies that has been frequently used to coin lexical items. Thus, this paper tries to answer the following research questions: 1. to what extent does political change influence the process of lexical creation. What are the common strategies used in lexical creation in modern written Arabic. The data is extracted by scanning opinion columns in al-Ahram and Al-Shorouq newspapers from 2009 to 2015. Preliminary results demonstrate that socio-political variables influence the lexical production in which the language used incorporates the social and political feelings. Moreover, from data analysis, the study gives an updated definition of compounding, as a word formation process, and highlights the grammatical structures and the linguistic functions of compounding in MSA which vary from that produced by Arabic Academies. The Results also illustrate that the most common strategies adopted to create lexical items are compounding, as most used strategy, followed by derivation. The paper ends with pedagogical implications for strategies of teaching vocabulary in classroom.

Department

Applied Linguistics Department

Degree Name

MA in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

Graduation Date

2-1-2017

Submission Date

January 2020

First Advisor

Taha, Zeinb

Committee Member 1

Abdou, Ashraf

Committee Member 2

Abu El Seoud, Dalal

Extent

70 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy. The author has granted the American University in Cairo or its agents a non-exclusive license to archive this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study, and to make it accessible, in whole or in part, in all forms of media, now or hereafter known.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Not necessary for this item

Comments

Intially, I pay my obeisance to GOD, the almighty to has granted me good health, courage, inspiration, and the light I would like to thank many people who have contributed to the final result in writing this thesis in many different ways. I must first express my very profound gratitude to my parents and to my sisters Mariam and Salma for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you. I would like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Zeinb Taha for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. My sincere thanks also go to my readers Dr. Ahraf Abdou and Dr. Dalal Abolesoud. I am gratefully indebted for their very valuable comments on this thesis. They consistently allowed this paper to be my own work. I am grateful, particularly, to Dr. Atta Jibril for enlightening me the first glance of research. Sincerely express my gratitude from the core of my heart to Mohamed Said for his valuable suggestions that have been very helpful for this study and his support and encouragement all through hard times. I owe my most sincere gratitude to Sahar Ramadhan, Sarah Al-goukh and Jibril Abu baker for their indispensable help in this study. I would also like to acknowledge my friends Mohammed Hassan, Hasnaa Essam and Amera Eid.

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