Relativisation across varieties: A corpus analysis of Arabic texts

Abstract

Relative clauses are among the main structures that are used frequently in written texts and everyday conversations. Different studies have been conducted to investigate how relative clauses are used and distributed in corpora. Some studies support the claim that accessibility to relativisation, represented by the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (NPAH) which is proposed by KEENAN and COMRIE (1977), predict the distribution of relative clauses in corpora. Other studies found out that discourse functions of relative clauses have an important role in distributing relative clauses in corpora (FOX, 1987). However, little focus has been given to the role of the variety in which relative clauses are written in the distribution of relative clauses in written texts. This study investigates relativisation in Arabic written texts in three varieties: Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic and Iraqi Arabic. A statistical analysis of the results shows that relativisation patterns differ significantly across varieties of the Arabic language and cannot be predicted by one accessibility hierarchy.