modern media arabic: a study of word frequency - eTheses Repository

494 Pages·2011·11.04 MB·English

MODERN MEDIA ARABIC: A STUDY OF WORD FREQUENCY
IN WORLD AFFAIRS AND SPORTS SECTIONS
IN ARABIC NEWSPAPERS

by

ZAINUR RIJAL ABDUL RAZAK

A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham
for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Theology and Religion
School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion
College of Arts and Law
The University of Birmingham
February 2011
University of Birmingham Research Archive

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ABSTRACT

This study examines language style of Arabic newspapers particularly in the world affairs
and sport sections, using the word frequency analysis. The study is divided into seven
chapters. The first chapter mainly focuses on background and aims of the study, while
review of previous studies is presented in the second chapter. Chapter Three discusses
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the selected newspapers and the chosen sections. Chapter
Four concerns on the methodology applied in the study. Analysis of the language style is
presented in Chapter five and followed by findings which are discussed in Chapter Six.
The final chapter provides summary, conclusion and suggestions for further research.

The study employed a self-constructed method in corpus building. A total of 30 articles
(world affairs and sports) from seven Arabic newspapers were collected from the official
online websites mostly in November 2007. Five of the newspapers are published in Arab
countries and one in both the United Kingdom and Australia. The Wordsmith version 5.0
was used in analyzing the corpus data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were
employed to analyse word frequency list in both categories, while the Likelihood ratio test
was applied in the comparison analysis.

Findings revealed that most high frequency words have close relationship to their
respective categories especially in the use of nouns. Slight differences were identified in
terms of word spelling, loan word, verb transitivity and phrase amongst the newspapers
published in different countries s. It is also proven that there is a tendency in MSA to
practice new features in news writing which is different from the well known Arabic
grammar, i.e, verb and subject agreement in gender. Different newspapers have also
demonstrated their own focus in news reporting, and sports section is found to use more
specific words than world affairs section.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

This research would not have been possible without many individuals whose contributions
and supports have been invaluable during my study at the University of Birmingham. First
and foremost I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor,
Dr. Muhammad Elashiry for his constant guidance and support throughout the years I
gave been working on this thesis. His insightful scholarship and meticulous accuracy were
instrumental in shaping this work into its final form.

My deep appreciation also goes to Dr. Andrew Davies, a member of staff for Department
of Theology and Religion for his kindness and readiness to make my study process
smoothly going. A special thank also to Dr. Mark Cartledge, the School Head of Doctoral
Research, Department of Theology and Religion, the University of Birmingham for his
kindness to help while I was writing this thesis. Many thanks also go to the other member
of staff of the department, especially Beverly Stubb for her help and assistance. I also wish
to thank the Islamic Science University of Malaysia and the Government of Malaysia for
granting me a scholarship and study leave at the University of Birmingham. My sincere
thanks are also due to Mike Scott, the founder of Wordsmith software which applied in this
study for his guidance and instant response to my problems in using his computer
software. The same gratitude and appreciation are also extended to my colleagues and
friends who supported me during this study, especially members of ‘Majlis Ilmu’ at
Birmingham. I must express my special appreciation to Carol Rowe for being willing to act
as proofreader for this thesis.

Words are not enough to describe my indebtedness to my parents Abdul Razak Bin
Abdullah and Azizah Binti Osman who have always impressed upon me the importance of
acquiring knowledge. My deepest gratitude to my wife Noor Asyura Binti Abu Bakar, my
children, Ainul Safiyyah and Aliya Solehah for their endless love and patience. Finally, my
special thanks also go to other members of my family for their prayers and support. Their
sacrifice and encouragement are greatly appreciated and will always be in my memory.

Zainur Rijal Bin Abdul Razak

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ii
Acknowledgement iii
Table of Contents iv
List of Tables xi
List of Graphs xvi
List of Figures xvii
List of Appendices xviii

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Rationale 2
1.3 The Importance of the Study 4
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Scope of the Research 6
1.6 Methodology of the Research 7
1.7 Transliteration Symbols and Abbreviations 7

CHAPTER TWO
PREVIOUS ARABIC WORD
FREEQUENCY STUDIES

2.1 Introduction 12
2.2 Word Frequency Studies in General 14
2.3 Arabic Word Frequency Studies 18
2.4 Word Frequency Studies in Arabic Newspapers 27
iv
2.4.1 Pre-Computer Era 28
2.4.2 Post-Computer Era 32
2.5 Conclusion 36

CHAPTER THREE
MODERN STANDARD ARABIC (MSA)
IN ARABIC MEDIA

3.1 Introduction 38
3.2 Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in Newspaper Publishing 39
3.2.1 Modern Standard Arabic 39
3.2.2 Media Arabic 44
3.2.2.1 Media Arabic and the invention of the Internet 44
3.2.2.2 MSA in written and spoken Media Arabic 47
3.2.3 MSA in Arabic newspapers 48
3.3 Language Aspects in Arabic Newspapers 49
3.3.1 Language style 50
3.3.2 Word usage 52
3.3.2.1 Word selection 53
3.3.2.2 The development of word usage 58
3.3.2.3 The contribution of Arabic newspapers to word revolution 59
3.3.3 Word standardisation between Arabic newspapers
and Language Academies 62
3.3.4 Differences in word usage in Arabic newspapers 65
3.4 Print Newspapers and Online Newspapers 71
3.4.1 Print newspapers 71
3.4.2 Online newspapers 74
3.5 The Background of the Arabic Newspapers Studied 79
3.5.1 Al-Ahram 79
3.5.2 Al-Jazirah 81
3.5.3 Al-Safir 82
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3.5.4 Al-Sabah al-Jadid 83
3.5.5 Al-Khabar 84
3.5.6 Al-Quds al-‘Arabi 85
3.5.7 Al-Furat 86
3.6 Newspaper Selected Sections 87
3.6.1 World affairs 87
3.6.2 Sports 89
3.7 Conclusion 91

CHAPTER FOUR
METHODOLOGY

4.1 Introduction 93
4.2 Corpus Analysis 92
4.2.1 Corpus linguistics 95
4.2.2 Arabic corpus 97
4.2.3 Modern corpus linguistics and statistics 99
4.2.4 Word frequency analysis 101
4.2.5 The Internet as corpus source 102
4.3 External Structure 104
4.3.1 Definition of the size of the corpus 104
4.3.2 Contents of the corpus 106
4.3.3 Definition of the place of investigation 107
4.3.4 Composition of the corpus 110
4.3.5 Corpus organisation 112
4.3.6 Scene of the corpus 113
4.4 Internal Structure 114
4.4.1 Types of corpora 114
4.4.2 Data resource problems 116
4.4.2.1 Verification of HTML text 116
4.4.2.2 PDF text editing 117
4.4.3 Identification of words 118
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4.4.3.1 Word inclusion 119
4.4.3.2 Word exclusion 123
4.5 Operationalisation of the Corpus 124
4.5.1 Encoding 124
4.5.2 Software 128
4.5.2.1 Software for words analysis 129
4.5.2.2 Wordsmith software 130
4.5.3 Data Analysis 132
4.5.3.1 Word frequency 132
4.5.3.2 Comparison between sub-corpora 136
4.6 Lexicography 141
4.6.1 Dictionary compilation from corpus-based study 142
4.6.2 Listing method for lexicography 143
4.7 Conclusion 146

CHAPTER FIVE
THE ANALYSIS

5.1 Introduction 147
5.2 Word Frequency Analysis in World Affairs 148
5.2.1 General description of the list 148
5.2.2 High frequency words 150
5.2.3 Word frequency in nouns 153
5.2.3.1 Word frequency by number 153
5.2.3.2 Word frequency by gender 158
5.2.3.3 Word frequency of proper nouns 161
5.2.3.4 Word frequency of phrases 162
5.2.3.5 Word frequency in other noun categories 164
5.2.4 Word frequency in verbs 167
5.2.4.1 Word frequency by tense 167
5.2.4.2 Word frequency by gender of subject 170
5.2.4.3 Word frequency in terms of semantics 173
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5.2.4.4 Word frequency by transitivity 179
5.2.5 Word frequency by newspaper 181
5.2.5.1 Word frequency in the high frequency list 181
5.2.5.2 Word frequency by phrase 183
5.2.5.3 Word frequency by transitivity 183
5.2.5.4 Word frequency by loan word 186
5.3 Word Frequency Analysis in Sports 190
5.3.1 General description of the list 190
5.3.2 High frequency words 192
5.3.3 Word frequency in nouns 194
5.3.3.1 Word frequency by number 194
5.3.3.2 Word frequency by gender 199
5.3.3.3 Word frequency of proper nouns 201
5.3.3.4 Word frequency of phrases 203
5.3.3.5 Word frequency in other noun categories 206
5.3.4 Word frequency in verbs ` 209
5.3.4.1 Word frequency by tense 209
5.3.4.2 Word frequency by gender of subject 212
5.3.4.3 Word frequency in terms of semantics 215
5.3.4.4 Word frequency by transitivity 221
5.3.5 Word frequency by newspaper 223
5.3.5.1 Word frequency in the high frequency list 223
5.3.5.2 Word frequency by phrase 224
5.3.5.3 Word frequency by transitivity 226
5.3.5.4 Word frequency by loan word 229
5.4 Comparison Analysis 235
5.4.1 General comparison between world affairs and sports 235
5.4.1.1 Word frequency of nouns 236
5.4.1.2 Word frequency of verbs 245
5.4.1.3 Word frequency of loan words 257
5.4.2 Comparison between two wordlists in Wordsmith 258
5.4.2.1 Comparison between world affairs and sports 259
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5.4.2.2 Comparison between newspapers 261
5.4.2.3 Comparison between newspapers published in
Arab and non-Arab countries 272
5.5 Conclusion 275

CHAPTER SIX
DISCUSSION OF THE ANALYSIS

6.1 Introduction 277
6.2 General Discussion of both Section Lists 277
6.2.1 Word in the high frequency list 278
6.2.2 Noun in terms of number 279
6.2.3 Noun in terms of gender 284
6.2.4 Noun in terms of proper nouns 286
6.2.5 Noun in terms of phrases 288
6.2.6 Noun in terms collective nouns 298
6.2.7 Noun in terms of comparatives 300
6.2.8 The use of noun metaphorically 302
6.2.9 The use of verb in terms of tense 305
6.2.10 Discussion of auxiliary and non-auxiliary verbs 308
6.2.11 Discussion of verb in terms of gender of subject 309
6.2.12 Discussion of verb in terms of semantics 312
6.2.13 Discussion of verb in terms of transitivity 325
6.2.14 Discussion of word by newspaper 335
6.2.15 Discussion of comparison analysis 350
6.3 Conclusion 359

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