Chapter published in:
Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa: Current practices and future directions
Edited by Atta Gebril
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 15] 2017
► pp. 290–304

Corpora and the study of Arabic vocabulary

| Department of Linguistics, Cairo University
Corpora have made many significant contributions to our understanding of how language works and how it is used in the society. In particular, they have become an indispensable tool in almost any systematic investigation of the lexicon. This chapter gives an overview of some key aspects of Arabic lexis that can be examined straightforwardly with corpora. Among the topics addressed are word frequency, clusters, synonymy, polysemy, and semantic prosody. Sample corpus analyses are provided to show how corpora can help uncover major patterns in the linguistic behavior of Arabic lexical items. Finally, the chapter discusses some implications for teaching Arabic as a foreign language.
Keywords: Arabic corpora, Arabic vocabulary, clusters, synonymy, and semantic prosody
Published online: 18 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.15.13abd
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