Abstract
This study aims to examine the use of English loanwords inflected with Arabic morphemes by young people in Amman, Jordan. It adopts a quantitative corpus-based approach supported by qualitative data. We collected data from young Facebook male and female users who come from families with different socio-economic status, and we conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 students at the University of Jordan to get more insight into the attitudes of young individuals in Jordan who use these English loanwords, and to account for the reasons that drive these individuals to use them. Data analysis shows that the participants’ gender and socioeconomic status are major factors that affect the use of these loanwords. Data analysis also reveals that these English loanwords could be used as a form of slang by a certain group of young individuals in Amman to claim a specific social identity and an in-group membership that distinguishes them from another group of young individuals who do not use these words. We argued that a number of symbolic values could be attached to the use of English loanwords inflected with Arabic morphemes by that group and analysed the reasons behind such linguistic behaviour.
References
Al Btoush, Mohammad Abedltif. 2014. English loanwords in colloquial Jordanian Arabic. International Journal of Linguistics 6(2). 109–119.10.5296/ijl.v6i2.5086Search in Google Scholar
Almhairat, Abdullah Salih. 2015. Code-switching from the Jordanian Bedouin Dialect to the Jordanian Urban Dialect, in Amman: A sociolinguistic study. Amman: Middle East University dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Al-Saidat, Emad. 2011. English loanwords in Jordanian Arabic: Gender and number assignment. Language Forum 37(1). 59–72.Search in Google Scholar
Altakhaineh, Abdel Rahman Mitib. 2014. The interaction between inflection and derivation in English and MSA. Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Altakhaineh, Abdel Rahman Mitib & Hanan Rahrouh. 2015. The use of euphemistic expressions by Arab EFL learners: Evidence from Al Ain University of science and technology. International Journal of English Linguistics 5(1). 14–21.10.5539/ijel.v5n1p14Search in Google Scholar
Bernard, H. Russell. 2011. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches, 5th edn. New York: Rowman Altamira.Search in Google Scholar
Creswell, John W. 2008. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, 4th edn. London: Sage Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Crystal, David. 2003. English as a global language. New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486999Search in Google Scholar
De Figueiredo, Eduardo H. Diniz. 2010. To borrow or not to borrow: The use of English loanwords as slang on websites in Brazilian Portuguese. English Today 26(4). 5–12.10.1017/S0266078410000301Search in Google Scholar
Denscombe, Martyn. 2010. The good research guide: For small-scale social research projects. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Eble, Connie. 1996. Slang and Sociability: In-group language among college students. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.Search in Google Scholar
Friedrich, Patricia. 2002. English in advertising and brand naming: Sociolinguistic considerations and the case of Brazil. English Today 18(3). 21–28.10.1017/S0266078402003048Search in Google Scholar
Furiassi, Cristiano. 2011. False Italianisms in English dictionaries and corpora. In Amei Koll-Stobbe & Sebastian Knospe (eds.), Language contact around the globe, 42–72. Oxford: Peter Lang.Search in Google Scholar
Hamdan, Jihad & Wafa Abu Hatab. 2009. English in the Jordanian context. World Englishes 28(3). 394–405.10.1111/j.1467-971X.2009.01599.xSearch in Google Scholar
Havlik, Martin & James Wilson. 2017. Sociolinguistic variation in loanword pronunciation in Czech. Slavonic & East European Review 95(2). 181–220.10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.95.2.0181Search in Google Scholar
Kaye, Aalan S. 2007. Arabic morphology. In Alan Kaye (ed.), Morphologies of Asia and Africa: Volume 1, 211–248. Indiana: Eisenbrauns.10.5325/j.ctv1bxh537.16Search in Google Scholar
Lai, Mee-ling. 2001. Hong Kong students’ attitudes towards Cantonese, Putonghua and English after the change of sovereignty. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22(2). 112–133.10.1080/01434630108666428Search in Google Scholar
MacGregor, Laura. 2003. The language of shop signs in Tokyo. English Today 19(1). 18–23.10.1017/S0266078403001020Search in Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. 1981. A prosodic theory of nonconcatenative morphology. Linguistic Inquiry 12(3). 373–418.Search in Google Scholar
Partridge, Eric. 2015. Slang: To-day and yesterday. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315692111Search in Google Scholar
Patton, Michael Quinn. 2015. Qualitative research and evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. London: Sage Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Phillipson, Robert. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Rakhieh, Belal A. 2009. The phonology of Ma’ani Arabic: Stratal or parallel OT. Essex: University of Essex, UK dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Scott, Mike. 2012. WordSmith Tools Version 6. Stroud: Lexical Analysis Software.Search in Google Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. 1998. Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Takashi, Kyoko. 1990. A sociolinguistic analysis of English borrowings in Japanese advertising texts. World Englishes 9(3). 327–341.10.1111/j.1467-971X.1990.tb00270.xSearch in Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1986. Dialects in contact. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Watson, Janet. 2002. The phonology and morphology of Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Zenner, Eline, Dirk Speelman & Dirk Geeraerts. 2015. A sociolinguistic analysis of borrowing in weak contact situations: English loanwords and phrases in expressive utterances in a Dutch reality TV show. International Journal of Bilingualism 19(3). 333–346.10.1177/1367006914521699Search in Google Scholar
Zibin, Aseel. 2016a. On the production of metaphors and metonymies by Jordanian EFL learners: Acquisition and implications. Topics in Linguistics 17(2). 41–58.10.1515/topling-2016-0012Search in Google Scholar
Zibin, Aseel. 2016b. The comprehension of metaphorical expressions by Jordanian EFL learners. Sage Open 6(2). 1–15.10.1177/2158244016643144Search in Google Scholar
Zibin, Aseel. 2018. The effect of the Arab Spring on the use of metaphor and metonymy in Jordanian economic discourse: A cognitive approach. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 16(1). 254–298.10.1075/rcl.00010.zibSearch in Google Scholar
Zibin, Aseel & Abdel Rahman Mitib S. Altakhaineh. 2018. An analysis of Arabic metaphorical and/or metonymical compounds: A cognitive linguistic approach. Metaphor and the Social World 8(1). 100–133.10.1075/msw.16023.zibSearch in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston