Distribution of Nominal Word-Patterns and Roots in Palestinian Arabic: A Developmental Perspective in Early Childhood.

Yasmin Shalhoub-Awwad,Maram Khamis-Jubran

doi:10.1017/s0305000920000574

Abstract

This study investigated the acquisition of word-patterns and roots in the nominal system of the spoken language of Palestinian Arabic (PA) and its distance from Standard Arabic (StA). It described, analyzed, and quantified the nominal system (roots and word-patterns) as reflected in the language corpus of Palestinian-Arab kindergarteners 3 to 6 years old. The results showed that non-linear derived nouns (deverbal nouns) are the most frequently used category (49.5%). Primitive nouns comprise 43.1% of the nouns, whereas linear derived nouns barely exist before children start school (0.3%). Additionally, the results showed that half of the nouns were built from common word-patterns and roots between PA and StA, whereas 30% of the nouns were constructed from different word-patterns with common roots. Although PA and StA have much in common morphologically, there exists a significant degree of divergence.

Highlights

The basic vocabulary acquired by preschool-age children is primarily derived from spoken language
Since our research focused on nouns, we will expand our description of the nominal system
This study investigated the developmental trajectory of the morphological structures of Arabic nouns as reflected in the language corpus of native Arabic-speaking 3- to 6-year-old children in the regional dialect known as Palestinian Arabic in the north of Israel

Summary

Introduction

The basic vocabulary acquired by preschool-age children is primarily derived from spoken language This core lexicon develops during the school years to become the mental lexicon of literate adults (Ravid, 2004). Morphology is considered one of the major organizing devices of the mental lexicon of many languages, which relates structural and semantic constituents within words (Marslen-Wilson, 2007).

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Results

Conclusion