Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 21:1 (2011) ► pp.41–67

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF

Text vs. Comment

Some examples of the rhetorical value of the Diglossic code-switching in Arabic – a Gumperzian approac

Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 March 2011
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21.1.03ham
This article deals with the question of the diglossic code-switching in the Arabic spoken language and especially in learned discourses. I aim to explain the rhetorical inherent value in the diglossic code-switching in the Arabic spoken language and I will attempt to show through a series of examples drawn from an Aljazeera episode, how the juxtaposition of standard Arabic and colloquial Arabic can be a vehicle for messages that bear rhetorical / metaphorical values.
References (54)
Alfonzetti, Giovanna (1992) Il discorso bilingue: Italiano e dialetto a Catania. Milan: Francoangeli.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1998) The conversational dimension in code-switching between Italian and dialect in Sicily. In Auer (ed.) (1998), pp. 180-211.
Appel, René and Pieter Muysken (1987) Language contact and bilingualism. London: Edward Arnold.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Auer, Peter (1998) Code-switching in Conversation: Language, interaction and identity. London/New York: Routledge.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Badawī, al-Sa‘īd Muḥammad (1973) Mustawayāt al-‘arabiyya al-mu‘āṣira fī Miṣr. Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Badawī, al-Sa‘īd Muḥammad and Martin Hinds (1991) A dictionary of Egyptian Arabic: Arabic-English. Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beeston, A.F.L (1983a) The role of parallelism in Arabic prose. In Beeston et al. (ed.) (1983b), pp. 180-185.
(1983b) Arabic literature to the end of the Umayyad Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berruto, Gaetano (2007) Fondamenti di sociolinguistica. Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blau, Joshua (1981) The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blanc, Haim (1960) Stylistic variations in spoken Arabic: A sample of interdialectal educated conversation. In Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs III1: 81-156.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blom, Jan-Petter and John Gumperz (1972) Social meaning in linguistic structure: code-switching in Norway. In Gumperz and Hymes (eds.) (1972), pp. 407-434.  BoP
Boussofara-Omar, Naima (2006a) Neither third language nor middle varieties but Arabic diglossic switching. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 451: 55-80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006b) Diglossia. In Versteegh (ed.) (2006), pp. 629-637.
Brown, Gillian and George Yule (1983) Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eid, Mushira (1982) The non-randomness of diglossic variation in Arabic. Glossa 16.1: 54-84.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eid, Mushira and Clive Holes (eds.) (1993) Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics V. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elgibali, Alaa (ed.) (1996) Understanding Arabic: Essays in contemporary Arabic linguistics in honor of El-Said Badawi. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
El-Hassan, Shahir (1977) Educated spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant: A critical review of diglossia and related concepts. Archivuum linguisticum8.2: 112-132.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. (1959) Diglossia. Word 151: 325-340.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, John (1982) Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, John and Dell Hymes (eds.) (1972) Directions in Sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H. (1972) Studies of the routine grounds of everyday activities. In Sundow (ed.) (1972), pp. 1-30.
Ghobrial, John-Paul A. (2004) Mere Kalam Fadi?: Language and meaning in modern Egyptian history. M. Phil thesis in modern Middle Eastern studies. Oxford: St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford Trinity.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hary, Benjamin (1989) Middle Arabic: Proposals for new terminology. al-‘Arabiyya 221: 19-36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1996) The importance of the language continuum in Arabic multiglossia. In Elgibali (ed.) (1996), p. 70.
Holes, Clive (1993) The uses of variation: a study of the political speeches of Gamal Abd al-Nasir. In Eid and Holes (eds.) (1993) pp. 13-45.
(1995) Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions and Varieties. London/N.Y : Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibrahim, Amr Helmy (1978) Fonction des niveaux de langue dans la communication sociale en Egypt. Peuples méditerranéens, October-December 1978.51 : 3-34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibrahim, Zeinab and Sanaa Makhlouf (eds.) (2008) Language and Linguistics in an age of globalisation. Cairo: AUC press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Khalil, Esam (2000) Grounding in English and Arabic news discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koch, B. (1983) Presentation as proof: the language of Arabic rhetoric. Anthropological linguistics 25. 1 : 47-60.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larcher, Pierre (2001) Moyen arabe et arabe moyen. Arabica 48.4: 578-609. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lentin, Jérome (2008) Middle Arabic. In Versteegh (ed.) (2008), pp. 215-224
Mazraani, Nathalie (2008) Political discourse and language. In Versteegh (ed.) (2008), pp. 663-671.
Meiseles, Gustav (1980) Educated spoken Arabic and Arabic language continuum. Archivum linguisticum 11. 2: 118-148.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mejdell, Gunvor (2006a) Mixed styles in spoken Arabic in Egypt: somewhere between Order and Chaos. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006b) Code-switching. In Versteegh (ed.) (2006), pp. 414-421.
(2008a) Is modern fuṣḥā a ‘standard’ language? In Ibrahim and Makhlouf (ed.), pp. 41-52.
(2008b) Middle Arabic across time and medium/mode – some reflexions and suggestions. In Actes du Premier Colloque International de l’AIMA (Association Internationale du Moyen-Arabe) , pp. 355-372.
Mitchell, Terence Frederick (1986) What is educated spoken Arabic? International Journal of the Sociology of Language 611: 7-32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol (1993) Duelling languages: grammatical structure in codeswitching. Oxford: Clarendon.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Owens, Jonathan (2001) Arabic sociolinguistics. Arabica 48.4: 419-469. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkinson, Dilworth (1991) Searching for modern fuṣḥa: Real-life formal Arabic. al-‘Arabiyya 241: 31-64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1993) Knowing standard Arabic: Testing Egyptians' MSA abilities. In Eid and Holes (eds.) (1993), pp. 47-73.
(1994) Speaking Fuṣḥā in Cairo: The Role of the Ending Vowels. In Suleiman (1994), pp. 179-212.
Rosenbaum, Gabriel M. (2000) Fuṣhammiyya: Alterning style in Egyptian prose. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 381: 68-87.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sankoff, David (1998) The production of code-mixed discourse. In Proceedings of the XVII international conference on computational linguistics in Montreal . vol. 11. Association for Computational linguistics, Morristow (United States), pp. 8-21.
Silverstein, Michael (1985) Language and the culture of gender: at the intersection of structure, usage, and ideology. In Elizabeth Mertz and Richard H. Parmentier (eds.), Semiotic mediation. Orlando. Academic Press, pp. 219-239. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suleiman, Yasir (ed.) (1994) Arabic sociolinguistics: Issues & perspectives. Richmond: Curzon Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sudnow, David (1972) Studies in Social Interaction, New York: Free Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Versteegh, Kees (ed.) (2006) Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics. Volume I1. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.) (2008) Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics. Volume III1. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1958) Philosophical investigations. New York: Macmillian.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue