The semantic scope of negation in English and Arabic : a comparative study
Other Title(s)
نطاق النفي في اللغة العربية و الإنجليزية
Dissertant
Thesis advisor
Comitee Members
al-Jarrah, Muhammad Ali
al-Abd al-Haqq, Fawwaz Muhammad
al-Najadat, Jumah Said
University
Mutah University
Faculty
Faculty of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
University Country
Jordan
Degree
Master
Degree Date
2011
English Abstract
This is a contrastive study of the semantic scope of negation in English and Arabic.
It investigates how similar or how different the meanings of the negative ambiguous sentences are in English and Arabic in their syntactic and semantic behavior.
Since modals have unexpected behavior under negation, this study is concerned with the scope of modal negation.
The researcher studies the negation of other syntactic aspects such as quantifiers, adverbials, subordinate clauses, prepositional phrases and others with reference to intonation to show how important it is to reduce ambiguity in certain negated sentences dealing with it as a grammatical phenomenon not as a phonological one.
In order to fulfill this objective, this study is undertaken with the general aim of what is called inductive approach.
The researcher adopted the contrastive analysis in order to explore the points of similarities and the points of differences between the two selected contrasted categories (the scope of English and Arabic negation). The findings show that there are considerable number of similarities and differences of the scope of negation in English and Arabic.
More importantly, the results show that the scope of modal auxiliaries negation differs in both languages in that in Arabic it is obvious and is easy to perceive straightway rather than in English.
It is marked, in Arabic, by the position of the negative particle which negates whatever follows it while in English there is no formal way to define whether it is the main verb or the modal auxiliary that is negated.
The results also show that intonation plays a role in determining the scope of negation in English and Arabic sentences.
Main Subjects
Languages & Comparative Literature
Topics
No. of Pages
56
Table of Contents
Table of contents.
Abstract.
Chapter one : Theoretical background.
Chapter two : Review of the literature.
Chapter three : Design and methodology.
Chapter four : Findings, discussions and recommendations.
References.
American Psychological Association (APA)
al-Maayitah, Isra Jumah. (2011). The semantic scope of negation in English and Arabic : a comparative study. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Mutah University, Jordan
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-303802
Modern Language Association (MLA)
al-Maayitah, Isra Jumah. The semantic scope of negation in English and Arabic : a comparative study. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Mutah University. (2011).
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-303802
American Medical Association (AMA)
al-Maayitah, Isra Jumah. (2011). The semantic scope of negation in English and Arabic : a comparative study. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Mutah University, Jordan
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-303802
Language
English
Data Type
Arab Theses
Record ID
BIM-303802
