Ethics and Semantic Change in Saudi Colloquial Speech

Fahd Shehail Alalwi,Sayed Ismail

doi:10.5539/ijel.v9n5p47

Fahd Shehail Alalwi, Sayed Ismail

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n5p47

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Abstract

The paper aims to provide insights onto the relationship between ethics and semantic change and how ethics could change the semantic values through tracing the historical development in meaning of selected lexical items in Saudi colloquial speech. The study starts from the hypothesis that there is a reciprocal connection between ethics and semantic change. It seeks to examine whether the common ethical values could result into changing the peripheral meaning of lexical items. In order to obtain more accurate and precise results about the effect of the ethics on the semantic shift in Saudi Arabic, the study applies a qualitative methodology through which it conducts an interview with more than thirty Saudi male and female belonging to different ages and different cultural backgrounds in order to get their feedback and response about their understanding of a set of chosen lexical items. The study has reached the finding that the common ethical values dominating a society can reshape the meaning of the lexical items into the minds of speakers.

Highlights

1.1 The Research ProblemThe paper addresses the issue of semantic change in Saudi colloquial speech, as it traces the semantic development in moral words and expressions
It seems to be that semantic change of moral words in Saudi vernacular speech is largely affected by prevalent modes of culture, morality, ideology and societal values
The causes of semantic change can be represented in morality, attitude, societal values, and psychological nature of people themselves

Summary

Introduction

The paper addresses the issue of semantic change in Saudi colloquial speech, as it traces the semantic development in moral words and expressions. The study is meant to trace the meaning development of a set of lexical items in colloquial speech, as it tries to learn about how Fusha can be used in the everyday speech through highlighting the relationship between language and ethics. The semantic change is closely related to polysemy where multiple senses are developed systematically from the original meaning of words and the newly developed meanings may be conceptually related to the original meaning, in what is known as family resemblance category The current study focuses on the semantic change that creates new meanings, which are totally different from the original lexical items, as they often manifest opposite concepts

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