The effect of some non-linguistic factors on the development of technical Arabic lexicon

Abstract EN

Lexical change is a linguistic fact caused by both internal and external factors.

Internal change can mean the adaptation of both the meanings and forms of existing words and phrases through such factors as assimilation, elision, and reduction.

External change includes the borrowing of words, which may be occasional and minimal, or frequent and massive, as with the flow foreign terms into Arabic.

In the study of new items of technical lexicon in Arabic, the effect of other languages such as English, French and Spanish in modern technical Arabic lexicon has not been deficiently studied yet.

As a result, this paper is devoted for investigating this realm.

Although the linguistic characteristics of any newly adopted term are very important, there are other factors to be considered in the procees of dissiminating the new suggested vocabulary.

Among these are four factors mentioned in this paper.

Obviously it is rather impossible to cover all the details of this huge subject in the span of this paper ; yet, the light has been shed on the most important factors usually neglected by people working in this field.

These factors are : a.

the preexistence of the foreign terms in general use, and the slow operation of the LPAs, b.

the LPAs lack of authority and resources, and poor distribution of the suggested Arabic terminology.

c.

the coexistence of internationalisms vs.

native coinages, and d.

the effect of some conextual difficulties These factors must be carefully reconsidered, and then remedies should be pinpointed.

Later on, long-term plans must be put by the authorities, governmental and scientific institutions, and scholars interested in the topic to have a unified perspective concerning this problem ; otherwise, the linguistic diversity among different Arab countries, and even within every country, will enormously expand.