The Semantic Shift of Some Arabic Lexemes in Egypt after January 25 Revolution

Abstract

<p>This study attempts to defend the claim that politics is a linguistically constituted activity, and to show that the terms that inform political beliefs and behavior have historically mutable meanings that have undergone changes related to real political events. Namely, these terms correspond to the experiences which package the semantic material into them .i.e. verbal and situational context yield the shift in meaning. This issue is, however, much more complex and it requires a truly integrating approach, where morphological and semantic criteria are all relevant, as well as psycholinguistic considerations (holistic storage and processing), and sociolinguistic and pragmatic factors.</p><p>To support the claim above, this study aims to explore the semantic change of some Arabic words after January 25 Revolution in Egypt. It is an attempt to trace evidences of semantic shift in words used during and after the January 25 Revolution through the Egyptian newspapers and social sites. It is concerned with terms used by the pro and anti-revolution activists to name themselves and their opponents. Through this study, the researcher expects that the findings may be useful to enrich the knowledge about the semantic change in Egyptian Arabic in general and to give a better understanding of the meaning shifts and changes that occurred to some lexemes as a result of January 25 Revolution in particular. Moreover, the result of this study is hoped to be used as reference and comparison to other studies in order to make better analysis for further research in semantic change (broadening, Narrowing, Amelioration, Pejoration, Weakening, and Semantic Shift). The study, then, is limited to the purpose of analyzing the semantic changes. The analysis of the collected data represents the semantic change in some Arabic words after January 25 Revolution.</p>