FIRST COLLOQUIUM OF ARAB LINGUISTICS
Linguistics Department
Roma Tre University
March 2007 THE WORD IN ARABIC: NATURE, TYPES, FORMS
The 1st Colloquium of Arab Linguistics conference aims to establish an
exchange forum for scholars of contemporary Arabic Linguistics, focused
on the definition of the word and its theoretical implications. The
conference will be held at the Linguistics Department of the Roma Tre
University during the 1st week of March, 2007.
The theoretical status of words has been a central theme in
contemporary linguistics. The discussion has, however, only marginally
concerned Arabic linguistics, since most contributions in this area
either have followed classical Arabic grammatical tradition (where the
morphological and the graphological definitions of the word
substantially coincide) or have rather uncritically accepted patterns
and models from Western linguistics.
Contributions should discuss questions such as the following:
* What is the word in Arabic from a phonological, morphological, and/or
syntactical point of view?
* What are the word classes in Arabic?
* How has the concept of word developed in the history of Arabic
linguistic
thinking?
* What is the relationship between words and morphemes? Is it necessary,
or
useful, to distinguish an intermediate layer between morphemes and
syntactic structures?
* Where is the boundary between words and phrases? Can
constructions – and, in particular, collocations (e.g. lexicalized
construct states) – be
analyzed in terms of words?
* Which morphological processes (e.g. broken plural formation) are best
described at the level of words?
* Which phenomena (morphological reanalysis, changing of lexical
categories)
appear in the passage of lexemes from Arabic to other languages, or
the other
way round, as a product of linguistic contact?
Contributions should illustrate the variety of approaches and
analytical models within contemporary Arabic linguistics, without any
limitation as to specific theoretical traditions.
Those wishing to participate are requested to communicate their
interest, together with a provisional title for their communication,
before October 30, 2006 to the e-mail address lancioni@uniroma3.it.
Notification of acceptance will be sent by November 15, 2006.
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prof. Giuliano Lancioni
Università di Roma Tre
Dipartimento di Linguistica
Professore Associato di Lingua e Letteratura Araba