The present paper aims at framing the concept of JIHAD in the light of Barsalou’s (1992b) Frame Theory. Originally a religious concept; JIHAD has been recently used in a multitude of contexts by a variety of, mostly conflicting, parties.... more
The present paper aims at framing the concept of JIHAD in the light of Barsalou’s (1992b) Frame Theory. Originally a religious concept; JIHAD has been recently used in a multitude of contexts by a variety of, mostly conflicting, parties. The researcher analyses the corpora under investigation to create contrastive semantic frames of the concept of JIHAD as represented in the Holy Qur’anas a reference corpusand enTenTen13, as a parallel corpus. As Barsalou points out, “a frame provides the fundamental representation of knowledge in human recognition” (1992, p.21). These frames are to highlight the basic cooccurring attributes and values of the concept of JIHAD. The enTenTen13-based frame is further studied in the light of critical discourse analysis (CDA), and more precisely in the light of Van Dijk’s (2006) model of triangulated manipulation. Cognitively, Dijk sees “manipulation as mind control [which] involves the interference with processes of understanding, the formation of biase...
This paper examines how Egyptian folktales, as represented in the sampled data, construct ideologies of femininity and masculinity. 1 It looks into gender representation from a critical stylistic perspective in El Ashmawy’s (2012) Hekayat... more
This paper examines how Egyptian folktales, as represented in the sampled data, construct ideologies of femininity and masculinity. 1 It looks into gender representation from a critical stylistic perspective in El Ashmawy’s (2012) Hekayat shaʕbia men Masˁr [Folktales from Egypt]. Drawing on Jeffries’s (2010) critical stylistic model, the present study utilizes two major tools of textual-conceptual function, namely: (i) naming and describing, and (ii) representation of actions, events, and states. It sets off with a content-focused, thematic analysis of El Ashmawy’s seven folktales. Then the author analyzes the data using the selected textual-conceptual toolkit. The paper primarily explores linguistic encoding of value systems and beliefs, latent in the texts, to unveil the ideologies encoded via linguistic resources. The conceptual-textual function of “naming” and “describing” as well as representation of actions, events, and states linguistically reflect culturally rooted ideologie...
The use of the computer-aided translation (CAT) tools has been skyrocketingover the last two decades in the translation industry. Therefore, it has becomenecessary to measure user satisfaction based on two dimensions: text genre andyears... more
The use of the computer-aided translation (CAT) tools has been skyrocketingover the last two decades in the translation industry. Therefore, it has becomenecessary to measure user satisfaction based on two dimensions: text genre andyears of experience using such tools. The study aims at investigating veterantranslators’ perceptions about their best practices to get the best out of CATtools, some solutions to mitigate some issues and suggestions to optimize thefunctionality of this software. Furthermore, the study aims at highlighting themost frequent advantages and disadvantages and displaying translators’perception of the most highly-ranked linguistic issue in each text genre. It alsoanalyzes translators’ perceptions of the most influential factor that determinesthe effectiveness of CAT tools. This study is significant because it is based onhands-on experience and gives translators a broad overview on the feasibility ofthis software and brings attention to the functionality needed ...
The Arabic language has always been among the richest languages regarding the number of varieties it has. Each country in the Arab world has its own language and its own varieties. One city can sometimes have more than one dialect spoken... more
The Arabic language has always been among the richest languages regarding the number of varieties it has. Each country in the Arab world has its own language and its own varieties. One city can sometimes have more than one dialect spoken by its residents. In Arabic, one can find Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, Hijazi Arabic, Cairene Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, and many other dialects. Accordingly, Arab people tend to switch between these dialects pursuant to their origins, their ethnicities, their regions and so forth. The alternation between two or more languages or language varieties is usually referred to as code-switching. The present study depicts the code-switching phenomenon between Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, Levantine Arabic, and English in the Egyptian TV show Assoura Al-kamila (The Big Picture) that is presented by the Syrian interviewer Lilian Dawood.
The interrelation between language and society has always been a subject of study and research. Particularly, when this interrelation results in crucial social issues. Such issues can be related to ideologies, power, authority,... more
The interrelation between language and society has always been a subject of study and research. Particularly, when this interrelation results in crucial social issues. Such issues can be related to ideologies, power, authority, discrimination, and sometime it pertains to freedom of speech. People usually misinterpret what freedom of speech is; accordingly, many problems arise. One of these problems was the Charlie Hebdo Shooting or as the French call it L’attentat contre Charlie Hebdo and the resulting slogan Je suis Charlie. Mehdi Hassan, the political director of the Huffington Post UK, responds to the post-shooting propaganda in his article, "As a Muslim, I'm Fed Up With the Hypocrisy of the Free Speech Fundamentalists", which is the data of analysis for the study at hand. This study is a critical discourse analysis of the data under investigation. The main objectives of the study is to figure out the ideology of Hassan as well as the different thoughts he shares through his article and how he employs the different processes of the experiential metafunction which is ushered to support his agenda.
