Arabic in the Fray

Language Ideology and Cultural Politics

Inbunden, Engelska, 2013

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The pre-modern period saw a background of inter-ethnic strife among Arabs and non-Arabs, mainly Persians. Starting from the symbolic and cognitive roles of language, Yasir Suleiman shows how discussions about the inimitability and (un)translatability of the Qur’an in this period were, at some deep level, concerned with issues of ethnic election. In this respect, theology and ethnicity emerge as partners in theorising language. Staying within the symbolic role of language, Suleiman goes on to investigate the role of paratexts and literary production in disseminating language ideologies and in cultural contestation. He shows how language symbolism is relevant to ideological debates about hybrid and cross-national literary production in the Arab milieu. In fact, language ideology appears to be everywhere, and a whole chapter is devoted to discussions of the cognitive role of language in linking thought to reality.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2013-07-22
Mått156 x 234 x 24 mm
Vikt634 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor320
FörlagEdinburgh University Press
ISBN9780748637409

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Professor Yasir Suleiman is the first holder of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa'id Chair of Modern Arabic Studies and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. His many published works include A War of Words: Language and Conflict in the Middle East (2004), The Arabic Language and National Identity: A Study in Ideology (2003), The Arabic Grammatical Tradition: A Study in Tal'liil(1999), Literature and Nation in the Middle East (edited with Ibrahim Muhawi, 2006), Language and Society in the Middle East and North Africa (editor, 1999), Arabic Grammar and Linguistics (editor, 1998), Language and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa (editor, 1996) and Arabic Sociolinguistics: Issues and Perspectives (editor, 1994).

Yasir Suleiman is keenly aware of the dangers of applying linguistic or, worse, cognitive analysis to ethnic and religious cultures. He handles them like an expert sapper, patiently separating out the explosive elements and detaching the fuses. With this fourth volume of his planned pentalogy on language and society across the Arabophone world, Suleiman’s observant ear and eye, penetrating analytic mind, and lucid and elegant voice provide rich insight into the ideologies surrounding Arabic and the many tongues with which it shares a heteroglossic reality. Arabic in the Fray is indispensable for students of the languages and cultures of western Asia and northern Africa. But more than that: it will help linguistics rid itself of any delusion that cognitive or cultural "frames" can be read off texts without bringing deep historical and anthropological knowledge to bear.