The Distibution of Arabic Verbal Patterns in Text Production: Between Varieties and Modalities

Abstract

AbstractArabic is a typical case of diglossia, in which different varieties of the same language are used within the same speech community for different communicative functions, and often in different contexts: Spoken Arabic for everyday speech and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for formal speech and for conventional reading/writing. While Spoken Arabic is typically used only in the spoken modality, MSA may be used in both modalities: speaking and writing. The verbal system of both Spoken Arabic and MSA consists of roots and patterns, which differ mainly in transitivity and semantic class, e.g. causative, incohative. This study examines the distribution of verbal patterns in (spoken) Palestinian Arabic (PA) and in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), in the spoken modality (MSA-S) and in the written modality (MSA-W), as they are actually used in narrative text production. Verbs were coded accordng to roots, patterns, transitivity and semantic class.The results reveal that the distribution of verbal patterns and their semantic functions may be clearly differentiated according to variety (PA vs. MSA) and according to modality (spoken PA/MSA vs. written MSA), as some patterns are more typical of one variety/modality than others. In addition, the results demonstrate the special status of spoken MSA as an intermediary variety sharing some features with spoken PA and others with written MSA.KeywordsArabicDiglossiaModalityNarrative textsVarietyVerbVerbal patternForm-function relations