Graduation Semester and Year

2003

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Linguistics

Department

Linguistics

First Advisor

Unknown

Abstract

This thesis investigates some of the syntactic differences between two forms of Arabic, the standard and the local vernacular of Petra. This vernacular has not been looked at from a syntactic perspective. The attempt here is to bring attention to some of the features characterizing this vernacular by comparing it with Standard Arabic. It attempts also to find reasons for having two forms of the language in one society as well as people's reaction towards that. It also compares and contrasts the grammatical features each form has and tests them against X-bar theory to see the syntactic difference from a theoretical prospective. The findings show that this society has diglossic characteristics in that they speak in one form and use the second to write. X-bar theory shows that the two forms are very different from each other.

Keywords

Language, Literature and linguistics

Disciplines

Linguistics | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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