Chapter 1

THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS

CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS AND CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

Contrastive linguistics is a branch of contrastive analysis, which includes
error analysis as well. It is mainly concerned with the differences (and
sometimes the similarities) between two languages or more in terms of
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics in addition to any
other linguistic nuances. The question that needs to be posed, however, is
whether contrastive linguistics is essential.
According to Selinker (1981), English is the language that is contrasted in
most cases, with the aim of improving language teaching. This claim has
previously been considered subject to doubt by several scholars such as Corder
(1967), Alatis (1968) and James (1968). They call for the ‘revitalization’ of
contrastive linguistics within an empirical framework. Viewed with respect to
time, ‘revitalization’ was cast in the mold of generative grammar. Thus,
teachers are expected to use generative grammar to provide insights into the
nature of language and its structure. In a sense, contrastive linguistics is not
about what should be taught, but what it is that they are actually teaching.
Selinker (1981) considers the task of contrastive linguistics as centered
around two methods. The first is based on choosing aspects of language and
searching for essential notions in them. However, the problem with this
approach is that many linguistic notions are yet to be verified. This leads to the
second method, regarding relevant data on certain theoretical issues and
discussing them in a contrastive framework. This trend has the advantage of
enriching contrastive studies with theoretical notions that can be validated
according to tangible findings.
4 Amr M. El-Zawawy The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis 5

As for contrastive analysis (henceforth CA), some scholars take it to be a notion of a hierarchy of difficulty as proposed by Stockwell et al. (1965). This
field that lacks a solid basis. Abbas (1995) sees CA as suffering from a basic hierarchy assumes three types of transfer: positive, negative and zero. When
weakness, i.e., its overwhelming emphasis on one type of error, especially the structures of two languages are similar, positive transfer will occur; when
“interference.” In particular cases, CA fails to justify an error. Klein (1986) they are different, negative transfer will occur; and when they are unrelated,
provides a good example of Turkish, Spanish and Italian students learning zero transfer obtains. Wardhaugh (1970, 124), however, states that the
German. Following the grammatical structure of their native language, Turkish hypothesis can be classified into two versions: strong and weak. The strong
students often place the verb into the final position. On the other hand, Spanish version predicted that the majority of L2 errors were due to negative transfer.
and Italian learners do the same, although verbs are not in final positions in The weak version, on the other hand, merely explained errors after they were
their own languages. It is clear that interference of a learner’s L1 is not the made.
only factor here. As a reaction to this type of criticism, Error Analysis
(henceforth EA) was often suggested as an alternative but lies outside the
scope of the present book. EVALUATING THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS
Pros
THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS
The contrastive analysis hypothesis is grounded on the idea that it offers
Klein (1986) distinguishes between two hypotheses for second language predictions about errors. The procedures of finding points of contrast and
acquisition: the identity hypothesis and the contrastive hypothesis. The identity predicting sources of difficulty accord well with the real teaching situation.
hypothesis centers around the assumption that the acquisition of one language For example, Arab learners tend to substitute /b/ for /p/ due to the absence of
has little or no bearing on the acquisition of another. The contrastive /p/ in standard Arabic. /f/ and /v/ pose difficulties along similar lines. Besides
hypothesis, on the other hand, is based on the idea that the structure of the first linguistic internalization, learners need to be aware of the sources of difficulty
language influences the acquisition of the second language. This hypothesis is and their reasons.
particularly related to the theory and practice of contrastive analysis; hence the
contrastive analysis hypothesis.
Cons

THE PROCEDURES OF THE CONTRASTIVE The contrastive analysis hypothesis invited several areas of criticisms. It is
ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS intrinsically built upon Structuralism, which lost gloss with the advent of
Innateness. Thus, the assumption of mentalism did not find a palpable position
To carry out a contrastive analysis, Whitman (1970) proposes four steps: in the contrastive analysis hypothesis, which blatantly ignored it. Moreover,
Hughes (1980) argues that the contrastive analysis hypothesis failed due to a
1. Writing formal descriptions of any two languages under investigation. number of considerations it lacked, namely the learner, what has to be learned
2. Determining points of contrast. and the way of learning. Clearly, the first factor is germane to Innateness,
3. Contrasting the points selected. where the LAD plays a major role. The second factor is related to the content
4. Predicting sources of difficulty through contrast. presented to the learner. The contrastive analysis hypothesis focused on the
description of any two languages, but current linguistic investigation may lack
The ‘points’ spoken of may be referred to as ‘forms,’ i.e., linguistic units sufficient and complete data for an adequate study of language. The way the
of any size. The procedures mentioned can be further explained through the data are presented is also not taken into consideration and this is clear in the
mechanical procedures adopted by the contrastive analysis hypothesis.
6 Amr M. El-Zawawy

Wardhaugh (1970) points out that the contrastive analysis hypothesis was
also criticized on the grounds that it could not take into account relative
difficulty among L2 segments that shared the property of being different from
the L1. In their 1970 study, Oller and Ziahosseiny (184) proposed a moderate
version of the contrastive analysis hypothesis to explain the hierarchy of
difficulty. They conducted a study which was based on English spelling errors
on the UCLA placement test. Spelling errors of foreign students whose native Chapter 2
language employed a Roman alphabet were compared with spelling errors of
foreign students whose native language had little or no relation to such an
alphabet.
Other strictures that can be aimed at the contrastive analysis hypothesis
include the following (based on Byung-gon 1992):
ENGLISH AND ARABIC PHONOLOGY
1. The interference from L1 is not the only cause of the error: ignorance INTRODUCTION
may be the real reason.
2. The contrastive analysis hypothesis assumes that interference operates This chapter outlines the phonological systems of both English and
from L1 to L2, while there are cases where the opposite might be true, Arabic. It offers an introduction to the two systems with their basic sounds,
e.g., Arab native speakers failing to pronounce a satisfactory ‫ ﺽ‬/d/ in and provides point-by-point differences between the two systems in terms of
Arabic. consonants, vowels (including diphthongs), and stress patterns.
3. Some errors predicated by the contrastive analysis hypothesis never
occur.
CONSONANTS
Consonants are traditionally defined as the speech sounds where there is a
CONCLUSION certain obstruction of the air stream coming from the lungs. This obstruction
may be complete or partial. Complete obstruction is exemplified by what
It can be concluded that the contrastive analysis hypothesis used to be a happens in the case of plosives, where the air is obstructed at the lips (e.g., /p/,
viable tool for comparing and contrasting a pair of languages or more. Yet it /b/) then suddenly released. Partial obstruction is exemplified by friction, since
remains arguable whether it can be amended in order to accommodate the the air stream is released only after some friction happens at the lips or farther
advances made in linguistic inquiry. The Chomskyan tradition has been back in the oral cavity. This process is universal: all languages possess
challenged over the past three decades more than once with several penetrating consonants. English and Arabic are no exception. However, it is important to
criticisms that at times left the theory untenable. It is also clear that the method review English and Arabic consonants before contrasting the two languages.
of setting the phonological systems, the syntactic structure and the semantics
of one language next to those of another language is still in use in many
classes of linguistics and translation. However, the idea of error analysis has English Consonants
proved that it is not always interference that causes the errors committed by
second language and/or foreign language learners while speaking and writing. English consonants are typically described according to manner of
Perhaps a new contrastive analysis hypothesis needs to be formulated. articulation, place of production and voicing. It is of note that the name of the
manner of articulation refers to the place of articulation: if a consonant is
nasal, then this may indicate that the obstruction of the air is somewhat
8 Amr M. El-Zawawy

managed at the nasal cavity. Yet my table which I propose hereunder is

essential to provide another table where the manner and place of articulation
are accurately indicated:

Table 2-1. English consonants with voicing,

manner and place of articulation

Bilabial Labio- Interdental Apico- Lamino- Velar Glottal

dental alveolar palatal
Stops Voiceless p t k
Voiced b d g
Fricatives Voiceless f θ s ∫ h
Voiced v ð z ʒ Table 2-2. Arabic consonants, with manner, place and voicing
Affricates Voiceless t∫
Voiced d Bilabial Labio- Inter- Dental Lamino- Uvular Velar Glottal
Nasals m ŋ dental dental palatal
Laterals l Stops Voiceless (dark) t, q k
Semi-vowles w r j t,
(or off-glides) t
Voiced b d g

Apart from the sounds which do not occur in Arabic, the table also Fricatives Voiceless f θ, s, ∫ x h
includes voicing, i.e., whether the sound initiates vibration of the vocal cords (dark) (dark)s
θ
or not. Thus, /b/ is voiced, since it causes vibration of the vocal folds, while /p/ Voiced ð, z ʒ ġ ‘
is voiceless, since it does not. (dark)
ð
Affricates Voiceless ’
Voiced dʒ
Syllabic Consonants Nasals m
Laterals l,
This is an area where a word of caution is in demand. Syllabic consonants (dark)I
Semi-vowles w j
are a special case in English, where consonants act as vowels thus forming (or off-glides)
syllables. The consonants in English that are allowed to form syllables are /n/,
/m/, and /l/. They are always preceded by vowels, which are then dropped,
leaving the consonant to act as a consonant-cum-vowel inside the syllable.
Examples of syllabic consonants include: ‘bitten’ [ˈbɪtnˌ], ‘rhythm’ [ˈrɪðmˌ]
and ‘police’ [pˈlˌiːs], where these words have two syllables intact.

Arabic Consonants
The same identification of manner, place and voicing can be fairly applied
to Arabic consonants. The following table summarizes the consonants of
Arabic:
10 Amr M. El-Zawawy English and Arabic Phonology 11

It is noteworthy that the ‘dark’ sounds exist in Arabic but are lacking in English has twelve vowels, and they are all produced without any
English, much in the same way as the table above has English sounds that do obstruction of the air stream. Vowels are typically described according to their
not exist in Arabic. But before embarking on the contrastive study of the place of articulation inside the oral cavity in addition to the movement of the
consonants of both languages, a number of points, advanced by Watson tongue to close or open the mouth. The lips are usually relaxed and play no
(2002), should be taken into consideration. These points pertain to the significant role in the production process.
differences that can be observed according to the intra-Arabic phonological The features ‘close,’ ‘close-mid’ and the like are the result of the
system, where certain consonants, though institutionalized, are somewhat movement of the tongue up and down in the oral cavity. Thus, the vowel /i/ is
variable: produced front in the mouth with the tongue very close to the upper teeth.
The most troublesome of all the English vowels is the schwa /ə/, having no
1. /q/ voiceless uvular stop. Restricted to religious and Standard Arabic systematic spelling, and being able to replace any of the eleven remaining
lexemes, e.g., il-qur’an ‘the Qur’an,’ il-alqahira ‘Cairo’; vowels in rapid, casual speech.
2. /r/ pharyngealized dental–alveolar tap (emphatic counterpart of /r/). English has eight diphthongs: /ei/, /ai/, /au/, /ɔɪ/, /əʊ/, /ʊə/, /ɪə/, /eə/. They
Found predominantlyin European loans and in native words with guttural can be said to have endings that help classify them. Thus, three diphthongs end
vowels, e.g., baraʃutt. in /i/, two in /u/, and three in /ə/.
3. /b/ pharyngealized bilabial stop (emphatic counterpart of /b/). A clear
example is: baba ‘pope.’
4. /m/ pharyngealized bilabial nasal stop (emphatic counterpart of /m/). An Arabic Vowels
example is: mayyiti ‘my water.’
5. /l/ pharyngealized lateral (emphatic counterpart of /l/). It is similar to In much the same way, the term ‘vowels’ will be applied to both vowels
dark /l/ in English, but it follows the rule of velarizing the word ‘Allah’ and diphthongs. Watson (2002) notes that Standard Arabic had three short
without a preceding preposition. vowel phonemes: two close vowels, palatal *I and labio-velar *u, and one
6. /p/ voiceless bilabial stop. Found in a few loan words among educated open vowel.
speakers, e.g., Paris ‘Paris.’ As for short vowels, she sees the opposition between /i/ and /u/ as existing
7. /ʒ/ voiced palate-alveolar fricative. Found in a few loan words, e.g., in all dialects in the long vowels. All modern dialects of Arabic have at least
three long vowels, /ã/, /ï/, and /ü/. / ï / and / ü/ have an articulation which is
ʒakitta ‘jacket,’ biʒama ‘pair of pajamas.’ closer than that of their short counterparts, and / ã/ has a front articulation.
8. /v/ voiced labio-dental fricative. Found in a few loan words among The dialects also have diphthongs derived historically from diphthongs.
educated speakers, e.g., villa ‘villa.’ However, most aging Arabs find it very The diphthongs are *ay and *aw, which coalesced historically in dialects such
difficult to produce a satisfactory /v/, and usually replace it with /f/. as Cairene, Central Sudanese (Hamid 1984, 27–8), and those spoken in much
of the Levant, to be realized as /ē/ and /ō/.

VOWELS
STRESS PLACEMENT
English Vowels
English Stress
The term ‘vowels’ will be applied to both vowels and diphthongs for two
reasons. First, diphthongs are traditionally viewed as composed of two vowels. English stress is centered on the idea of light and heavy syllables. Light
Second, Arabic has very few or no diphthongs according to some accounts, syllables possess short vowels or the schwa, while heavy syllables typically
and this will make the contrast between the two languages easier.
12 Amr M. El-Zawawy English and Arabic Phonology 13

have long vowels, diphthongs and/or more than one consonant at the end. This Mu’darris ‘teacher’
very broad observation has exceptions that endanger its applicability across a Yikal’limhum ‘he speaks to them’
wide range of cases. For example, the word ‘borrow’ has a diphthong in the
second syllable, but stress is not placed on it. Sometimes the word includes (c) Otherwise stress the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable,
two short vowels, and the choice becomes much harder, e.g., ‘engine.’ whichever is separated by an even number of syllables from the closest
Moreover, certain morphemes greatly affect stress placement, and even preceding heavy syllable (A), or—if there is no such syllable—from the
carry exceptions within. For example, ‘-graphy’ and ‘-tion’ are said to change beginning of the word (B):
stress placement in ‘photography’ and ‘relaxation,’ since ‘photo’ alone carries
stress on the first syllable, while ‘photography’ has stress placed on the second
syllable. Yet a word such as ‘exception’ has stress placed on the second
syllable, and ‘except’ also has stress placed on the second syllable, thus ii. Penultimate stress
nullifying the influence of the morpheme ‘-tion.’
Stress in English is a major source of difficulty even for native speakers, (a) mudar’risa ‘teacher f.’
who sometimes assign the same word two acceptable stress patterns, e.g., Madr’asa ‘school’
‘controversy.’ (b) ‘fihim ‘he understood’
Kata’bitu ‘she wrote it m.’
dara’bitu ‘she hit him’
Arabic stress ii. Antepenultimate stress
(a) in’kasarit ‘it f. was broken’
The Defense Language Institute Manual (1974) provides general rules for Yix’talifu ‘they differ’
stress in Arabic as follows: (b) ‘darasit ‘she learned’
‘kataba ‘scribes’
1. The last syllable in an Arabic word is never stressed.
2. Heavy syllables usually receive stress, and light syllables never do.
3. Any suffixes typically change stress patterns. CONTRASTING ENGLISH AND ARABIC CONSONANTS
However, Watson (2002) provides a much more elaborate picture. She The following points of difference have been identified:
particularly focuses on Cairene Arabic stress. She arrives at the following
rules:  /p/ does not occur in Arabic as a phoneme but as an allophone in some
loanwords.
(a) Stress a final superheavy or CVV syllable:  /t/ and /d/ are dental in Arabic but alveolar in English.
Kã’tabt ‘I wrote’  /v/ also does not occur in Arabic, and is usually mispronounced as /f/.
Fala’hïn ‘peasants’  There are some consonants that do not occur in standard Arabic, i.e.,
Ki’tãb ‘book’
/ʒ/, /t∫/ and /ŋ/. Standard Arabic and some other dialects use /dʒ/
instead of /ʒ/ and some other dialects (e.g., Egyptian) use /g/. Also / ŋ/
(b) Otherwise stress a penultimate heavy (CVC or CVV) syllable:
does not occur in Arabic as a phoneme, but it occurs as an allophone
‘bētak ‘your m.s. house’
of /n/ before stop consonants such as /sin/ sin and /siŋ/ sing; /sinə/
‘bintik ‘your daughter’
sinner and /siŋə/ singer; /ran/ ran and /raŋ/ rang.
Dar’rasni ‘he taught me’
14 Amr M. El-Zawawy

 /n/ is nasal and alveolar in English but dental in Arabic.

 Arabic /r/ is a tongue tip trill, whereas English /r/ is a flap.
 Arabic hamza does not exist in English as a phoneme, but as an
allophone in certain dialects.
 Arabic / ġ / does not exist in English at all.
 Arabic /d/ does not exist in English as a separate phoneme, but as an
allophone in such words as ‘dust’ and doll.’ Chapter 3
 Arabic /q/ does not exist in English and has no allophonic counterpart.
 Syllabic consonants do not exist in Arabic.

CONTRASTING ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOWELS WORD-FORMATION IN ENGLISH AND

The following points of difference have been identified:
ARABIC: DERIVATION AND COMPOUNDING
 English has twelve vowels while Arabic has five vowels.
 English has eight diphthongs while Arabic has four diphthongs.
INTRODUCTION
English and Arabic possess two different morphological systems. English
morphology can best be described as linear and affixing, while Arabic
CONTRASTING ENGLISH AND ARABIC STRESS PATTERNS morphology is often described as nonconcatenative. In this latter type of
morphology, the stem of a content word has three discontinuous morphemes
English and Arabic possess similar stress rules in that they assign stress to (i.e., al-jazr ‫(ﺍﻝﺝﺫﺭ‬: the consonantal root, which is the fundamental lexical unit
syllables that have long vowels or diphthongs. However, Arabic never stresses of the language; the templatic pattern into which the consonantal root is
final syllables in a word. Arabic also has specific stress rules that allow for inserted imposing an additional meaning to that of the root; and the vowels
very few or no exceptions at all. These rules are based on the alternation of which mark variations in, for example, the voice (active or passive) in verbs,
consonants and vowels. agentive relations in nouns derived from verbs, and singular–plural relations in
nouns.
In English, in contrast, nouns, for example, can be formed by a linear
CONCLUSION process of affixation as the following illustrates:

This brief discussion of the phonology of English and Arabic is just an -ery machinery
introduction. Some thorny issues of rhythm and intonation have been avoided, -dom freedom
since they require separate volumes. Arab learners should pay special attention -hood brotherhood
to the differences pointed out in this discussion, since their foreign accent is -ism humanism
usually a result of not being able to observe how certain consonants are -ship friendship
different across the two languages. This may cause them to carry over their -age mileage
native-language pronunciation habits into English.
16 Amr M. El-Zawawy Word-Formation in English and Arabic 17

These two systematically different morphological behaviors shall not be ENGLISH COMPOUNDING
discussed in full in this short chapter, which is limited to the derivational and
compounding processes in both English and Arabic. As Bauer (in Aarts and MacMahon, 2006, 489) contends, ‘there is no
known lexical restriction of the words which can be compounded.’ However,
it is sometimes claimed that nominalizations do not compound easily with
ENGLISH DERIVATION each other. Moreover, it is fair to say that compounds in English have the
structure lexemic-base (ibid). The general rule with English compounds is that
English derivation is governed by the insertion of affixes, which can be the modifying (left-hand) element occurs in the stem form (i.e., without being
prefixes or suffixes. There are no infixes at all in English. Prefixes can be inflected for number or gender). However, some words which otherwise look
added to almost all word classes except some adverbs. Thus, ‘pre+determine’ like compounds have the modifying element marked as plural. The term teeth
is an example of a prefix plus a verb. Similarly, ‘pre+mature’ is made up of a ridge, for example, is a standard part of linguistic terminology, and teeth as a
prefix preceding an adjective. There is also ‘pre+fix’ which is made up of a plural form is irregular, as is the case with teeth, and is thus presumably
prefix plus a noun. English also tends to use suffixes in a productive manner to independently listed in the lexicon. Yet there seem to be some definite sets of
generate a huge corpus of nouns and other word classes. Blevins (in Aarts and regularities for compounds in English as follows (after Frank 1972):
MacMahon, 2006) discusses the following types of English suffixes:
-Noun + Noun: post office, spaceship, high school, woman teacher, he-
(i) Class-preserving suffixes: -hood, manhood; -al; economical;-hood, goat, dining-room, parking lot, student teacher, paper basket, self-expression,
childhood; -ship, friendship; -ics, linguistics; -ess, tigress; -ette, kitchenette. sunshine, bedroom, department store, physics book.

(ii) Class-changing suffixes: Of particular interest is the view presented by Ibrahim (2010) who prefers
a. verb-forming derivational suffixes: -fy, beautify; -ate, fabricate; -en, to treat such a type of compounds semantically as being of the following sub-
harden, strengthen; -ize, industrialize. types:
b. noun-forming derivational suffixes: -er, teacher, NewYorker, teenager;
-ant, informant; -ee, trainee; -ation, coordination, organization; -ment,  Endocentric N + N = armchair
employment; -al,refusal; -ing, reading.  Appositional N + N = maidservant
 Copulative N + N = Alsace-Lorraine
c. adjective-forming derivational suffixes: -al, logical; -ical,economical;-
ial, partial, -ful, beautiful; -able,comprehensible; -ish, yellowish, Irish,  Possessive noun + noun: lady’s maid, traveler’s checks, a citizen’s
chidish; -ible,edible; -ed, curved; -ive, possessive; -ative, comparative; - bank.
itive, additive; -ic,synthetic; -an, European; -ern, western;-ous, joyous; -y,  Verb + Noun: jump rope, pickpocket, flashlight.
gloomy.  Noun + Verb: handshake, lifeguard.
 Gerund + noun: living room, swimming pool.
d. adverb-forming derivational suffixes: -ly, quickly;-ward(s), backwards;
 Noun + gerund: fortune telling, housekeeping, ice skating.
-wise, moneywise, *crabwise1.
 Adjective + Noun: gold coin, well-wisher, off-white, high school,
smallpox, blackbird, common sense, blue print.
 Particle + Noun: off-year, by-product, overdose.
 Verb + prep/Adverb: breakdown, grown-up.
1
 Noun + pp: brother-in-law, commander-in-chief.
This asterisk indicates that ‘crabwise’ can function as both an adjective and an adverb.
18 Amr M. El-Zawawy Word-Formation in English and Arabic 19

Compounding in English is also viewed within the context of what They (feminine) Katabna (third person plural, feminine)
is termed ‘neo-classical compounds.‘ Examples include genocide and Both of them wrote Katabaa (third person dual, masculine and feminine)
psychology, which were created in modern times using elements from the
classical languages Latin and Greek. Such compounds are treated by many Such non-concatenative morphological behavior is greatly productive.
accounts (cf. Hall 1964 and Al-Jarf 2000) as made up of two parts. But as Thus, the consonant root can be viewed as a nucleus or core around which are
Bauer (2006) sees, there are a number of questions about neo-classical fit a wide array of potential meanings, depending on which pattern is operating
compounds in English. It is not altogether clear that they should be treated into the root.
alongside compounds rather than as a separate type of word-formation. The
first part in many of them cannot stand alone. Moreover, do words such as
psycholinguistics count as neo-classical compounds or as derivatives? ARABIC COMPOUNDING
Compounding in Arabic is not as productive as derivation. Most
DERIVATION IN ARABIC: THE ROOT-PATTERN SYSTEM compounds in Arabic are either established or made after a particular foreign
pattern via translation. The basic types of compounds in Arabic are as follows
As has been stated above, Arabic morphology is non-concatenative: it (cf. Ibrahim, 2010):
consists of a root between its letters (usually consonants) are inserted a number
of certain vowels. This is called the root-and-pattern morphology and is  -Genitive compounds, e.g., ‫ﺃﺏﻭ ﻡﻭﺱﻯ‬abū mousā
usually exemplified by the following:  -Predicative compounds, e.g., ‫ﻑﺕﺡ هللا‬fatḥ Allah
 -Synthetic compounds, e.g., ‫ ﺡﺽﺭﻡﻭﺕ‬ḥaḍramūt
he wrote katab-a (v.) ‫ﻙﺕﺏ‬
he corresponded kaatab-a (v.) ‫ﻙﺍﺕﺏ‬ There are, however, other types which will be discussed below.
it was written kutib-a (v.) ‫ﻙﺕﺏ‬
book kitaab (n.) ‫ﻙﺕﺍﺏ‬
books kutub (n.) ‫ﻙﺕﺏ‬ Compounding into One Word (Naht, i.e., Compounding by
writer; (adj.) writing kaatib (n.) ‫ﻙﺍﺕﺏ‬ Coinage)
writers kuttaab (n.) ‫ﻙﺕﺍﺏ‬
write! (2 m.s.) uktub! (v.) ‫ﺍﻙﺕﺏ‬ Although compounding is not common in traditional Arabic morphology,
office maktab (n.) ‫ﻡﻙﺕﺏ‬ it is used in MSA for recently coined items and for loan-translations,
library maktaba (n.) ‫ﻡﻙﺕﺏ ﺓ‬ especially technical terms. Ryding (2005) provides the following examples:
writing kitaaba (n.) ‫ﻙﺕﺍﺏ ﺓ‬
 ra’smaal ‘capital’ formed from conjoining the words ra’s ‘head’ and
Verbs in the above examples can have inflectional suffixes. Thus for katab maal ‘money.’
alone, there are the following variations:  alaamarkaziyya ‘decentralization,’ from the words laa ‘no’ and
markaziyya ‘centralization.’
I wrote Katabtu (first person singular)
 faw-Sawty ‘supersonic,’ abbreviating the word for ‘above, super’ fawq
He wrote Kataba (second person singular, masculine)
to faw-, joining it with the noun Sawt ‘sound,’ and suffixing the
She wrote Katabat (second person singular, feminine)
adjectival /-iyy/ ending.
They (masculine) wrote Katabu (third person plural, masculine)
20 Amr M. El-Zawawy

Compounding into Two Words (Tarkiib, i.e., Two-Word

Compounds)

This usually results in noun phrases, such as ‘adam wujuud ‘non-

existence’ or kiis hawaa’’airbag,’ or a combined participle-noun phrase such
as muta’iaddid-u l-’aṭraaf, ‘multilateral.’2 With the massive rapidity in
technical translation into Arabic, these kinds of lexical compounds have Chapter 4
become more prevalent over the past two or three decades.

Numerical Compounds LOANWORDS IN ENGLISH AND ARABIC

In numerals eleven and twelve, the numeral names are compounds, the
first part referring to the first digit and the second part always some form of
the word ‘ten’ (ašr or ašra), e.g., aḥad ašar, thalath ašar, arba’ašar, etc.
INTRODUCTION
Loanwords are usually treated alongside borrowing. Both are integral
processes of lexical extension. Borrowing, as a process, is conducive to
COMPARING THE TWO LANGUAGES loanwords that are easily spotted by native speakers, unless the donor language
is etymologically related to the recipient language, i.e., the two languages are
English and Arabic are not on a par with the derivation of different of the same linguistic family. Thus, European languages which share a
word classes. English derivation is linearly managed, since it proceeds common ancestor, such as English and Swedish, share some words that are
through the addition of affixes on the periphery of the word. No infixes are borrowed across the two, but are hardly recognizable as loanwords, since
used for derivative purposes. Arabic, in contrast, applies the root-and-pattern normalizations have worked their way through them. Similarly, Arabic,
morphology in order to produce a large number of derivatives, invoking Hebrew and Aramaic share many words that are cross-borrowed and difficult
prefixes, suffixes, infixes and even transfixes. The derivatives are, moreover, to pinpoint if presented on a test list.
inflected for number, gender and case. The comparison is more difficult if the two languages are of different
In compounding, English outwits Arabic. English compounds are based families, in this case English and Arabic. The present chapter will seek to
on somehow rigid rules that can be observed and abstracted. Arabic discover the regularities that govern loanwords in both languages. English
compounds, like English neo-classical compounds, are institutionalized, and words in Arabic and Arabic words in English will be examined.
new ones are usually composed on analogy with foreign ones, i.e., via literal
translation with minor changes.

LOANWORDS IN THE LINGUISTIC LITERATURE

There are several views on the ways in which loanwords are received and
normalized in the recipient language. Bynon (1977, 226) maintains that the
2Note that in such cases, the dual or plural is usually made by adding the dual suffix to or phonological structure of a great number of loanwords may be either on good
pluralizing the head noun, the first noun in the phrase:
terms with that of the borrowing language or close to it. However, some
two bedrooms ġurfat-aa nawm-in ‫ﻑﺕﺍ ﻥﻭﻡ‬ ‫ﻍﺭ‬
three bedrooms ġuraf aanwam ‫ﻍﺭﻑﺍﻝﻥﻭﻡ‬
remain unassimilated. According to Bynon (ibid, 227), the speed and degree of
22 Amr M. El-Zawawy Loanwords in English and Arabic 23

adaptation solely depends on sociolinguistic and structural factors. Strictly phonological and morphological systems of EA (Egyptian Arabic). Most
speaking, transmitting loanwords through ‘the intermediary of a local spoken loanwords (e.g., /munâwrâ/ from “manoeuvre,” /warsa/ from “workshop,” and
variety of the donor language’ yields to the act of substitution at the levels of /musiiqâ/ from “musica” or “musique”) often undergo such integration so that
phonology and/or morphology. eventually their foreignness is unfelt and monolinguals use them frequently
Mustafawi (2002) presents three different views with respect to without the urge to find an indigenous alternative to them (even if one is
loanwords. The first is adapted from Eliasson (1995) and Myers-Scotton available).
(1992; 1993), who do not distinguish between borrowing and code switching
and attribute them to the same mechanism. The second view is also presented
by Eliasson (1994) who considers any single word from a donor language that ARABIC LOANWORDS IN ENGLISH
is not an established loanword in the recipient language to be a code switched
word. The three authors claim that for a lexical item to be considered a As Gajzlerová (2009) maintains, it is estimated that 80 per cent of the
borrowing it must fill a lexical gap in the recipient language. The third view is words in the lexicon of English are borrowed. Fromkin and Rodman (1993 in
held by Poplack (1993) who says that borrowing and code switching are Gajzlerová, ibid) also confirm that of the 20,000 words in common use, about
different mechanisms. That is, in code switching, the integrity of the grammar three-fifths are borrowed. A considerable number have been borrowed from
of both the donor and the recipient languages is respected, while in borrowing, Arabic as will be shown below.
only the integrity of the grammar of the recipient language needs to be The inclusion of substantial numbers of Arabic words in English has been
respected. Moreover, borrowings do not necessarily ‘fulfill lexical needs’ in viewed with dubiousness. There are instances of words such as ‘fekir,’ ‘cat’
the recipient language. Accordingly, loanwords are best characterized as and ‘Trafalgar,’ which are recurrent in many books on the subject. A simple
borrowings, even when their distribution across the community is currently search through the Internet would yield dozens of words that are said to be
limited. borrowed from English into Arabic. Consider the following sample (adapted
Daher (n.d.) examines the extent and effects of lexical borrowing between from Wikipedia):
American English and Syrian Arabic, focusing on (1) changes to the
phonology and morphology of the borrowed words and (2) changes to the admiral
phonological structure of the borrowing language. Loanwords with an
unfamiliar sound structure are the most likely to go through an adaptive ‫ﻝﺏﺡﺍﺭ‬‫ ﺃﻡﻱﺭ ﺍ‬amīr al-biḥār, “commander of the seas,” a title in use in Arabic
process, so that they will better accord with the phonological structure of the Sicily and continued by the Normans in Sicily in a Latinized form, and
recipient language. Because of their contrasting phonological systems, Arabic adopted successively by Genoese and French.
is more likely to adopt English words outright -- preserving the original sounds albatross
-- while English is more likely to adapt certain Arabic sounds by replacing ‫ ﺍﻝﻍﻁّﺍﺱ‬al-ghaṭṭās, literally “the diver,” presumably a cormorant or another
them with similar English sounds. There is no indication that Arabic of the pelican birds, which are diving water birds.
loanwords have had any effect on the phonological system of English. English alchemy, chemistry
appears, however, to be partly responsible for at least an increase in the use of ‫ﺍﻝﻙﻱﻡﻱﺍء‬al-kīmiyā, alchemy.
the sounds /g/, /v/ and /p/ in Syrian Arabic. caliber, calipers
Hafez (1996) synchronically studies loanwords in Egyptian Arabic, i.e., ‫ﻕﺍﻝﺏ‬qālib, mold.
examining the integration of loanwords at present without studying their camphor
etymology. Thus the study does not investigate such diminished loans as ‫ﻙﺍﻑﻭﺭ‬kāfūr, camphor.
/tijatru/, /’esbetalja/, /talletwââr/, and /’agzagi/, which were later replaced by candy
the indigenous /mâsrâh/, /mostašfa/, /râsiif/ and /sajdâli/, respectively. Instead, ‫ﻕﻥﺩﻱ‬qandi, sugared. Arabic is from Persian qand = “cane [sugar],” and
the paper studies the various degrees of integrating loanwords into the possibly from Sanskritic before that, since cane sugar developed in India.
24 Amr M. El-Zawawy Loanwords in English and Arabic 25

carat (mass), carat (gold purity) music ‫( موسيقى‬moosiika) camera ‫كاميرا‬

‫ﻕﻱﺭﺍﻁ‬qīrāt, a very small unit of weight defined by reference to a small seed comedy ‫ كوميديا‬doctor ‫دكتور‬
or grain. The medieval Arabic word had an ancient Greek root keration, petroleum ‫ بترول‬ton ‫طن‬
literally “carob seed,” also denoting a small unit of weight. computer ‫ كومبيوتر‬film ‫فيلم‬
caraway (seed) television )‫( تليفزيون (تلفاز‬tilīfizyūn) bank ‫بنك‬
‫ ﻙﺭﻭﻱﺍ‬karawiyā, caraway seed. It was spelled “caraway” in English in the telephone ‫تليفون‬
1390s in a cookery book.
carob (seed) Certain common everyday terms, such as ‘telephone,’ ‘camera,’ and
‫ ﺥﺭّﻭﺏ‬kharrūb, the edible bean of the carob tree. ‘doctor’ also have Arabic-based equivalents (loan translations) (e.g., ‫)هاتف‬,
elixir most of which have been coined by consensus of authorities on the Arabic
‫ اإلكسﻱﺭ‬al-’iksīr, alchemical philosopher’s stone. The Arabs took the word language in the Arabic language academies in Cairo, Baghdad, and Damascus.
from the Greek xērion (then prepended Arabic al- = the), which had entered These academies are scholarly research institutes whose primary goal is to
Arabic with the meaning of a healing powder for wounds. maintain the accuracy, richness, and liveliness of the Arabic language through
defining standards, prescribing correct usage, and setting procedures for the
ghoul coining of new terms.
‫ ﻍﻭﻝ‬ġūl, ghoul. Its first appearance in English was in a popular novel, Acronyms, however, are used as they are, although they are normalized to
Vathek, an Arabian Tale by William Beckford, in 1786. appear as one words rather than acronyms. The Arabic newspaper style in
giraffe particular also borrows acronyms for international bodies and uses them as
‫ ﺯﺭﺍﻑﺓ‬zarāfa, giraffe. Entered Italian and French in the late 13th century. individual words, spelled in Arabic:
guitar
‫ ﻕﻱﺕﺍﺭﺓ‬qītāra, a kind of guitar. “The name reached English several times, UNESCO ‫اليونسكو‬
including 14th century giterne from Old French. The modern word is directly OPEC ‫األوبك‬
from Spanish guitarra, from Arabic qitar.” UNICEF ‫اليونيسيف‬

The original list extends for five or six pages, and the etymologies given Extensive borrowings have been from English. English loanwords in
are usually diachronically rooted in the long history of the Arabs’ contact with Arabic are easily spotted either due to their foreign phonology or their
the Greeks. The adaptations were mostly phonological and the loanwords have morphologically adapted forms. Baker (1987) prefers to consider loanwords in
been morphologically normalized according to Arabic rules of grammar. Arabic part of the Arabization process.
Below is a discussion of these phonological and morphological
adaptations or alternations.
ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN ARABIC
As Ryding (2005) contends, Arabic has incorporated words from Phonological Changes
European languages, such as Latin and Greek. In recent times, much of the
borrowing has been from English and French. Most of these borrowed nouns Phonological changes in English loanwords can be boiled down to the
are considered solid-stem words, not analyzable into root and pattern. following:
Consider the following:
26 Amr M. El-Zawawy Loanwords in English and Arabic 27

a. Voicing and Devoicing d. Insertion of Initial Glottal Stop

Devoiced phonemes are common in the process of assimilation of lexical Since the phonological system of the Arabic language does not permit the
borrowings to the phonological system of the host language. In Arabic, in occurrence of the consonant cluster /sk/ in initial position, Standard Arabic
some examples, the English voiced labio-dental fricative /v/ was converted might resort to inserting the vowel /i/ at the beginning of the word just after
into its voiceless counterpart, namely /f/. This was apparent in the following the pause. This is exemplified by scanner [?skanar] and scooter [?sku:tar].
loanwords: service [sarfi:s], cover [kafar]. However, in other loanwords, /v/ Other examples include accessories [?iksiswa:ra:t], album [?albu:m] and
was retained as in receiver [risi:var] and ‘kaviar’ [kaviar] (see Alomoush and automatic [?u:tuma:ti:k].
Alfaqara, 2010). In voicing, there is substitution of the Arabic voiceless
bilabial stop [p] with its English voiced counterpart [b], e.g., ‫[ جروبات‬gru:ba:t] e. Insertion of /-a/ Sound in Final Position
and floppy [ flobi:]. What is more, it was noted that /s/ was voiced as /z/, as in In words which are difficult to render in acceptable Arabic, /a/ is added to
the case of ‘gas’ [ga:z]. the borrowed word. Examples include ‫كوميديا‬, ‫ بيولوجيا‬and ‫تراجيديا‬, for ‘comedy,’
‘biology’ and ‘tragedy,’ respectively.
b. Vowel Lengthening
It was noticeable that sometimes short vowels like /u, o, i/ were f. Segment Substitution
lengthened. Moreover, the vowel /o/ is replaced by /a/. This was true of the Some consonants and vowels do not fit the phonological criteria
following English loanwords: motor [ma:to:r] and microphone [makrafo:n] of the Arabic language. Therefore, they were often substituted with the
and others. Additionally, in some examples, short vowels in one syllable corresponding segments. Examples include cover [kafar] and joker [ʒo:kar].
loanwords were lengthened; for instance, /a/ was lengthened into the long The substitutions are usually done by means of the phonologically adjacent
central vowel /a: / as in gas [ga:z]. sound either in voicing or in place of articulation.

c. Stress Shifting
Hafez (1996) remarks that loanwords follow the same stress patterns of
Morphological Changes
Arabic wherever their source language stress is placed on the last syllable in
bi-syllabic words following the pattern (CV(C)-’CVVC) when the last syllable According to Hafez (1996) and Alomoush and Alfaqara (2010),
is long. Examples include /dok-’toor/ for “doctor,” /bâs-’boor/ for “passeport,” morphological adaptations can be accounted for in the light of the following
/?al-’boom/ for “album,” /gor-’nâân/ for “journal,” /mo-’toor/ for “moteur,” criteria: transmorphemization and inflection. Transmorphemization will be
/râ-’dââr/ for “radar,” and /do-’lââr/ for “dollar.” Stress falls on the first discussed below.
penultimate syllable if the penultimate vowel is long and the last one short
(Hassaan 1979, 173) as in /’baa-ku/ for “packet,” /ka-’taa-wet/ for “cutout,”
a. Transmorphemization
/bal-’loo-na/ for “balloon,” /fâ-’tuu-râ/ for “fattura” i.e., “bill,” and /?o-ma-’tii-
Zero transmorphemization: when English loanwords remain as they occur
ki/ or /?o-to-ma-’tii-ki/ for “automatic.” Stress would also fall on the
in English. In this sense, Arabic suffixes are not added to them. For example,
penultimate syllable if both penultimate and final vowels are of medium
link remains as it occurs in English. The same thing applies to keyboard,
length. This applies to bisyllabic words as in /’ban-ju/ for “agno” /ka’-set/ for
though some use louhit almafateeh instead.
“cassette,” /’sam-bu/ for “shampoo,” /’rad-ju/ (or “radio,” /’war-sa/ for
Compromise transmorphemization: When English loanwords retain the
“workshop”; tri-syllabic words as in /ko-’ber-ta/ for “couverture,” /ga-’ket-ta/
English suffix of the source word. For instance, in Arabic, the word scanner
for “jacket,” /me-’dal-ja/ or /ma-’del-ja/ for “medallion,” and /nâ-’bât-si/ for
retains the suffix -er. This is true of downloading, which keeps the English
“is nobeti”; and quadri-syllabic words as in /bât-tâ-’rej-ja/ for “battery” or
suffix –ing.
“batteria.”
28 Amr M. El-Zawawy Loanwords in English and Arabic 29

Complete transmorphemization: It refers to the criterion that the original c. Derivation

suffix of English loanwords is completely replaced by a corresponding native Some loanwords may generate two sets of verbs, one transitive, the other
suffix. There are English loanwords to which the Arabic plural suffix [a:t] may intransitive. For example, the word “nervous,” from which the root “nrfz” is
be added. Here are two: [sidiha:t] CDs and [kasita:t] cassettes. abstracted, thus generating not only the transitive /narfez/, /jenarfez/,
/menarfez/, and /narfaza/ but also the intransitive /?etnarfez/, /jetnarfez/,
b. Inflection /metnarfez/ and /narfaza/. The same is also true of many computer terms, such
Number as /ysayev/ from the English ‘save (as)’ and /yashayet/ from the English ‘chat.’
Arabic makes a distinction between singular, dual and plural. In Arabic,
adding inflected forms to masculine nouns is apparent by the addition of the
suffix [e:n], whereas feminine nouns are marked for dual by adding the suffix CONCLUSION
[te:n]. This was apparent in many English loanwords as in the case of the
English loanword email: two emails [?i: mayle:n], two satellite receivers [risi: It is clear from this brief discussion that there is a vast difference
vare:n], and two female doctors [dokto:rte:n]. between the way English and Arabic treat loanwords. The processes by
which English accommodates loanwords are not explicitly discussed in the
Plural literature: dictionaries of etymology just list the origin of the word and its
Countable nouns, whether masculine or feminine, were regularly line of adaptation. A glimpse at the above list of Arabic words brought
pluralized by adding the inflectional suffix [a:t], as in [mubaila:t] “mobiles.” into English gives a hint that there is no sufficient evidence as to the
The broken plural pattern is also applied as in the following examples:3 formation process. In contrast, Arabic boasts a large number of borrowed
[filim] sing., pl. [?afla:m] “films” (consonantal root: f-l-m ) (vocalic words, and their process of adaptation is strictly governed by phonological and
patterns: i-i: and a-a: respectively ) captain [kabtin] sing., pl. [kaba:tin]. morphological alternations. Even words not borrowed from English either
(consonantal root: k-b-t-n) (vocalic patterns: a-i and a-a:-i, respectively) undergo the same alternations or are left unchanged, i.e., asmaa’ jamidah
“filter” [filtar] sing., pl. [fala:tir]. (consonantal root: f-l-t-r (vocalic patterns: i-a (solid-stem names).
and a-a:-i, respectively).

Gender
The Arabic inflectional suffix “ah” [ah] was added to mark the femininity
on Arabic singular nouns. Accordingly, a set of borrowed words were
feminized by adding the above suffix. For example, the word “doctor” may be
feminized to be realized as [dokto:rah]. The same thing applies to capsule
which was realized in Arabic as [ kabso:lah]. On the other hand, in Arabic,
masculine nouns do not have inflectional suffixes to mark their gender;
examples of these were: doctor realized as [dakto:r], satellite [satalait], and so
on. Since Arabic has grammatical gender rather than natural gender, inanimate
objects may have either a masculine gender or a feminine gender.

3For the 27 forms of the broken plural in Arabic, see Robert Radcliffe, “Arabic Broken Plurals,”
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics II, Mushira Eid and John McCanhy (eds.), John
Benjamins, Amsterdam, 1990, p. 94-119.
Chapter 5

PASSIVIZATION IN ENGLISH AND ARABIC

INTRODUCTION
The passive structure has traditionally been studied under the heading of
‘voice.’ Hartmann and Stork (1976) describe it as a verb form or a particular
syntactic structure which indicates a certain relationship between the subject
and object in a sentence. Although straightforward, this description is
troublesome if viewed within the framework of contrastive analysis.
Passivization in English and Arabic is usually considered a rich area for
contrastive analysis. The differences between the passive voice in English and
in Arabic stem from the fact that passivization in English is straightforward:
the rule is applied by a series of transformations that can be generalized over a
wide range of cases. Except for a seemingly limited number of verbs in
English, almost all transitive verbs can be passivized. At the same time, the
passive structure in English has a number of discourse functions that
determine its uses and appropriateness. But this is not the case in Arabic.
Passivization in Arabic is rather complex, and such complexity stems from the
fact that there are several measurements (i.e., awzan) that need to be taken into
account. Moreover, the variations in the use of the passive voice across
different discourse functions make the task even more difficult: there are cases
when two passive markers are appropriate and the justifications are not usually
easy to pin down.
In this short chapter, passivization shall be compared in English and
Arabic in order to discover the differences between the two languages in this
particular syntactic aspect. Several examples will be given from both
languages to illustrate focal points.
32 Amr M. El-Zawawy Passivization in English and Arabic 33

PASSIVIZATION IN ENGLISH
Lyons (1968) prefers to discuss the passive voice in English in the light of
the following conditions:

1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the

corresponding passive sentence.
2. The verb is active in form in the most basic version and passive in
form in the less basic version.
3. The subject of the passive sentence is not necessarily expressed
overtly, and if so, a particular adjunct or preposition usually fronts it. Figure 5-2. A conventional tree diagram for a passive structure.

These conditions are not new, for Chomsky (1965) formalized them in a To mention or not to mention the subject which is fronted by a preposition
sequence of transformations as follows: (i) the surface structure; (ii) (usually ‘by’) is a matter of discourse focus. The Functionalists (cf. Daneš
generalized Transformations (GTs); and (iii) deep structure. Generalized 1994) provide an interesting investigation of this matter by discussing the
transformations are to relay the surface structure into a deep structure. For differences between theme, transition and rheme. In a sentence like ‘The floor
example, the following sentence is an active one. The usual Chomskyan was brushed by John,’ the theme is the floor, the rheme John and the transition
treatment is through a surface tree-diagram as follows: the passive string ‘was brushed.’ This stands in opposition to the active
The dog ate the bone. structure, where the transition is an active string. New information is usually
expressed by rhemes while given information is often expressed by themes. In
this case, passivization is meant to give focus to what might be considered new
information from the user’s perspective.
Furthermore, Palmer (1996) remarks that there is a difference in meaning
between the activized and passivized structures. For example, in ‘Many men
read few books’ and ‘Few books are read by many men’ and similarly in
‘Many arrows didn’t hit the target’ and ‘The target wasn’t hit by many
arrows,’ it is asserted that there are lots of men who read very little and lots of
arrows that did not hit the bull’s eye, while there are few valuable books and
one target (Palmer 1996, 123).
Yet there are structures in English which are active in form but passive in
meaning. Examples include the following (adapted from Khafaji: 1996):

Figure 5-1. A conventional tree diagram for an active structure.

1. The book sold well.
Through a series of transformations, the following diagram is produced: 2. The shirt dried.
3. The train filled.
4. This matter relates to the old one.
34 Amr M. El-Zawawy Passivization in English and Arabic 35

PASSIVIZATION IN ARABIC certain restrictions on the inclusion of the agent in the passivized structure; this
will be the focus after the discussion of the passive participle.
Traditional accounts on the passive voice in Arabic focus on the mundane
difference between the following:
THE PASSIVE PARTICIPLE (ISML AL MAF’OUL)
‫ ضرب الولد الكرة‬ḍarba alwald alkurah
As Ryding (2005) contends, the passive participle (ism al-maf ‘oul)
‫ ضُربت الكرة‬ḍurbat alkurah describes the entity that receives the action, or has the action done to it. Arabic
passive participles therefore describe or refer to entities involved in an activity,
The transformation from the active into the passive voice is simply carried process, or state.
out through the omission of the subject and adding a diacritic ḍammah and The passive participle can be derived from any form. Passive participles
matching the gender agreement. Such accounts also focus on the type of the can be formed from triliteral as well as quadriliteral verbs. But as Rydnig
verb as a way of reducing the complications implicit in the passivization (ibid) stipulates, in order to have a passive participle, a verb should be
process in Arabic. They provide lists of Arabic verbs that appear in the passive transitive.
form. A sample list is the following (cf. Al-Jarf 2000, 108) The form of the passive participle describes the result of an action, whether
it functions as a noun or an adjective. It may take a broken plural or the sound
)‫‘ عٌني (بالطفل‬unīya (bilṭifl) feminine plural. It refers to a nonhuman entity and the sound masculine plural
if it refers to human males. Consider the following list of the nominal passive
)‫ جٌن (الرجل‬jun (arrajul) participles:

)‫‘ أٌغمي (عليه‬uġmīya (‘alīh) concept/s ‫مفاهيم‬/‫ مفهوم‬mafhūm/mafāhīm

group/s ‫مجموعات‬/‫ مجموعة‬majmū’ah/majmū’āt
‫ سٌقط في يديه‬suqiṭ fī yadīh plan/s ‫مشاريع‬/‫ مشروع‬mašrū’/mašārī’
manuscript/s ‫مخطوطات‬/‫ مخطوطة‬maḳṭūṭah/maḳṭūṭāt
‫ ٌغشي عليه‬ġušī ‘alīh implication/s ‫مدلوالت‬/‫ مدلول‬madlūl/madlūlāt
topic/s ‫موضوعات‬/‫ موضوع‬mawḍū’/mūḍū’āt
‫‘ أولع بالشئ‬oul’ bilšai’ movables ‫منقوالت‬/‫ منقول‬manqūl/manqūlāt

Other accounts set the problem in a wider context, and include the passive Passive participles can likewise be adjectives: PP adjective:
participle in the discussion of Arabic passivization. The passive participle
(isml al maf’oul) is usually treated through the number of letters in the root. known ‫ معروف‬ma’rūf
Still other traditionalists widen the scope of the passive voice to include the busy ‫ مشغول‬mašġūl
form and type of the verb used. In addition to the transitive and intransitive blessed ‫ مبروك‬mabrūk
verb types, Al-Akkad (n.d.) discusses the malleable verb (i.e., motawai), forbidden ‫ ممنوع‬mamnū’
which can be exemplified by ‫( فٌتح الباب‬futiḥa al-bab) as opposed to ‫انفتح الباب‬
(infataḥa al-bab).
In the following sections, the passive participle is discussed at length as a
component of the passive voice in Arabic. But before this, it should be
mentioned that, just like English, Arabic, to the surprise of many, imposes
36 Amr M. El-Zawawy Passivization in English and Arabic 37

VERB STRUCTURES AND THE PASSIVE VOICE Hollow root (al-ajwaf):

The hollow root (i.e., al ajwaf) is the root that has a vowel in the middle.
The following deployment is based on the discussions provided by ‫بيعت إلى أحد التجار‬
Cantarino (1974) and Rydnig (2005). The explanations and examples are biy’t ‘ilā ‘aḥd attujār
tailored to the scope of the present chapter.
It was sold to a merchant.
Strong/regular root:
Defective root (al-mu’tal):
The regular root refers to the Arabic base form which does not include a It refers to the root that has a vowel in the end.
vowel or a glottal consonant (i.e., hamzah). ‫بٌني المنزل بالطوب‬
bunīya almanzilu bilṭūb
‫ﻥٌﻕﻝ ﺇﻝﻯ ﺍﻝﻡﺱﺕﺵ‬
‫ﻑﻯ ﻭ ٌﻡﻥﻉ ﻡﻥ ﺍﻝﺩﺥﻭﻝ ﺇﻝﻯ ﺍﻝﻡﺩﻱﻥ ﺓ‬ The house was built of bricks.
nuqil ‘ilā almaschfā wa mun’min addaḳūl ‘ilā almadīna
He was transported to the hospital. He was prevented from entering.
the city. RESTRICTIONS ON THE MENTION OF AGENT
ٌ
‫ﻙﺕﺏﺏﺡﺭﻭﻑ ﻉﺭﺏﻱ ﺓ‬
kutiba biḥrūf ‘arbya When a passive verb is used in Arabic, mention of the identity of the agent
It was written in Arabic letters. or doer of the action is usually omitted: it may be unknown or simply
unnecessary. The paradigm is that if the agent is mentioned, the passive
Assimilated root: construction is not normally used; the active verb is then the preferred option.
The assimilated root refers to the vowel that naturally occurs at the However, instruments or other inanimate causative factors (such as the
beginning of the root. weather) may be mentioned by means of prepositional phrases, e.g., ‫فٌتح الباب‬
‫ﻉﻝﻯ ﺍﻝﻕﺍﺉﻡ ﺓ‬
‫ﻭﺽﻉﺕ ﻡﺹﺭ‬ ‫بالمفتاح‬, roughly translated as ‘The door was opened by/with this key.’
wuḍi’at miṣr ‘alā alqā’ima It should be noted that when the subject of the passive verb is mentioned as
Egypt was placed on the list. a separate noun, it is in the nominative case (as in the sentence above, ‘the
door’). The technical Arabic term for the subject of a passive verb is naa’ib al-
Geminate root: fa’afil. This naa’ib is always diacritically inflected as the nominative (see
The geminate root is the one that has a doubled consonant in the middle. Ryding 2005).
‫ﺡٌﺩﺩﺕ ﺍألصوﺍﺕ‬
ḥudidat al’aṣwāt
The votes were determined. Mention of Agent: Min Qibal, Min Janib, ‘Ala Yad

Hamzah root: Although the clause ‘min qiabali’ is usually avoided, it is recurrent in the
This refers to the root which includes the glottal consonant hamzah in the media language where an agent or doer of the action may be mentioned in an
middle. Arabic passive sentence. When this is the case, certain phrases tend to be used,
‫ﺱﺉﻝﺍﻝﻡﺝﺭﻡ‬
ٌ just as English would use the term “by.” These are min qibal, ‘ala yad and min
su’la almujrim janib (Rydnig, 2005):
The criminal was interrogated.
38 Amr M. El-Zawawy Passivization in English and Arabic 39

‫سٌكنت هذه المساجد من قيل المسلمين‬ Example in Arabic:

sukinat haḏhi almasājd min qibal almuslmīn ‫قرأ المسلمون القرآن‬
But these mosques are occupied by Muslims. Active: Qara’a al muslimun al-qur’āna.
Read+past the+Moslem the+Qur-an.
‫قٌتل على يد المتظاهرين‬ ‘The Moslem read the Qur-an.’
qutila ‘alā yad almutaḓāhrīn ‫قٌرأ القرآن‬
He was assassinated by the demonstartors. Passive: Quri’a al qur’anu.
Read+pass the+Qur-an.
‫أٌعلن ذلك الحديث من جانبه‬ ‘The Qur-an was read.’
‘u’lina ḏalka alḥadīṯ min jānbih
This speech was mentioned by him.

CONCLUSIONS AND A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE

TWO LANGUAGES
Arabic passivization describes or refers to entities involved in an activity,
process, or state. Arabic participles are based on a distinction in voice: they are
either active or passive. This contrasts with English, where participles are
based on tense (present or past) and are used as components of compound verb
forms. Arabic participles are not used in the formation of compound verb
tenses. Arabic is richer in passive structures than English, where the passive
voice is used to lay emphasis on the doer. In English, the transformations
involved in passivization are uniform and straightforward, while in Arabic
diacritics play a major role by placing dammah on the verb form and changing
some of its structure. The differences between Arabic and English in this
respect are not simply in structure; there are also differences in the mention of
the doer or agent. While English tolerates the mention of the agent, which is
always fronted by ‘by,’ Arabic prefers to keep the agent unknown, and if it is
mentioned, such phrases as ‘min qibal’ and ‘min janib’ are used. Some
linguists, especially Rangkuti (n.d.), contend that in Arabic the agent is not the
same as that found in English as the agent in Arabic has been combined to the
verb of the sentence.

Example in English:

Active: My father bought a new motorcycle.

Passive: A new motorcycle was bought by (my father).