A phonological description of Modern Standard Arabic

Abstract

The present work is concerned with some aspects of the phonology of Modern Standard Arabic. The thesis is divided into two parts: Part I, dealing with the theoretical background, consists of three chapters, and each chapter sub-branches into a number of smaller units. Chapter I is concerned with the Axiomatic Functionalism principle of maintaining a strict distinction between the linguistic theory, linguistic descriptions, and the speech-phenomena; it also deals with the 'hypothetico-deductive method' which sets out to explain the philosophical principles underlying the 'Axiomatic Functionalist' approach. This chapter is divided into three sections, the first deals with the 'structure of the theory', the second concerns 'linguistic description and the speech-phenomena', followed by the 'criterion for evaluating the linguistic description and theory'. Chapter II treats the classification of semiotic systems in Axiomatic Functionalism as well as explaining the definition of 'Language' as "a semiotic system with a double articulation" (Mulder 1968, 'b'). Though this is a type of definition found in most functionalist approaches (Martinet 1962 1nd 1964), in Axiomatic Functionalism it has a unique interpretation. Chapter III, which deals with a brief explanation of the phonological system as a whole, comprises two sections, the first of which discusses 'phonematics and phonotactics', and the second introduces some of the main theoretical notions of the phonological theory, such as the notions "phoneme", "distinctive feature", "archi-phoneme", "position", "distributional unit", "archi-position", which is relevant for the phonological description of Modern Standard Arabic. This introduction to the phonological sub-component of the theory is important because description cannot take place without the knowledge of a theory, since a description is "the application of a particular linguistic theory to a selected field of linguistic-phenomena" (Mulder 1980, b). Part II, dealing with the phonological description, consists of five chapters (Chaps. IV-VIII). Chapter IV treats the distributional unit(s) and archi-position of Modern Standard Arabic. Chapter V deals with the consonantal phonemes, their identities and distinctive functions, as well as their realisations. Chapter VI explains the types of neutralisation and the consonantal archi-phonemes. Chapter VII deals with the vowel and semi-vowel phonemes, their identities and distinctive function as well as their realisations. Chapter VIII deals with the neutralisation and vocalic archi-phonemes.