Grammaticalization of discourse markers: views from Jordanian Arabic

Abstract

The inclusion of discourse markers (DMs), which are commonly depicted as syntactically non-integrated elements, within the domain of grammaticalization has been a controversial topic in the last two decades. The emergence of DMs for some researchers are cases of grammaticalization, whereas they are viewed by some other researchers as elements that escape from the grammatical domain to the pragmatic and communicative domain. This paper argues with the grammaticalization of DMs. It provides evidence to this view from Jordanian Arabic. The cases under investigation in this paper are the DMs ma , hu and mahu . This paper offers synchronic evidence supporting their grammaticalization. This evidence is based on two main conclusions: (1) these DMs share common grammatical items most of the grammaticalization sub-processes that lead to their emergence, and (2) they are not dis-integrated elements from the sentence grammar. They rather belong to the peripheral domain of grammar.

What Is the Way Allah's Word Manifests Itself in Yemeni Arabic?

“…In addition, the /l/ sound has been changed; in the Arabic word, it is a light /l/, the One that is commonly used in Arabic daily life, whereas the final /l/ sound will be a dark /l/, similar to the English One but with some extra pressure and length since it is a geminate sound. According to (Jaradat, 2014) (Al-Batal, et al, 2006 the only dark /l/ in Arabic occurs in the word Allah.…”

“…The underlying meaning of the blend refers to the Islamic belief that there is only one God, a fact that eliminates the possibility that Allah has any associates or companions. According to Muslim belief, the term Allah is the proper name of God; it cannot be applied to any human or object, nor can it be pluralized (Jaradat, 2014) (Al-Ashqar, 2007. Nonetheless, it can be combined with the word *abd "slave" to form Abdullah, "the slave of Allah," a widespread name.…”

“…Several Islamic scholars maintain that the prevalent use of Allah's expressions in Arabic is how Muslims attribute Allah's influence to every aspect of life. (Clift & Helani, 2016) note in their study about inshallah, or "God willing", that "the use of religious expressions has long been noted, irrespective of the religious affiliation of the speaker, in ordinary Arabic conversation" (Jaradat, 2014;Mehawesh & Jaradat, 2015). (Jaradat, 2014) asserts that inshallah is not the only religious term that has entered the everyday vocabulary of routine.…”

“…(Clift & Helani, 2016) note in their study about inshallah, or "God willing", that "the use of religious expressions has long been noted, irrespective of the religious affiliation of the speaker, in ordinary Arabic conversation" (Jaradat, 2014;Mehawesh & Jaradat, 2015). (Jaradat, 2014) asserts that inshallah is not the only religious term that has entered the everyday vocabulary of routine. Morrow mentioned: "The Arabic language is saturated with a wide variety of expressions invoking Allah explicitly or implicitly, and….…”

“…As a result, an Arabic speaker could scarcely conceive of a conversation where the name of God would not appear. " (2006, p.45) Another classic work by (Clift & Helani, 2016;Jaradat, 2014) contains an index of expressions in which the word Allah appears both explicitly and implicitly, as well as the context and use of each expression, believing that these terms are influenced both by learning and training both in social situations and when using them in written and spoken forms. (Morrow & Castleton, 2007) studies the meanings of similar expressions in various communication forms.…”