1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Linguistic Variation
  4. Online First Articles
  5. Online First Article
image of On the grammaticalization of raːħ
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This research aims to examine the grammaticalization process of the lexical verb ‘went’ in the Urban Jordanian dialect, and explore semantic differences and sociolinguistic factors (gender and age) that influence the use of variants. We used a forced-choice task to identify the dominant variants across demographics and then examined their semantic association with certainty and possibility. An acceptability judgment task was also employed, focusing on the influence of markers of certainty and probability on Urban Jordanians’ choices. It is shown that - (the shortest variant of ) is dominant in certainty contexts, whereas (the second shortest variant) is prevalent in probability contexts. Additionally, men and older speakers tend to favor the less reduced forms, particularly and , while appears relatively more often among younger speakers. In contrast, women and younger speakers show a stronger preference for , the most grammaticalized variant, suggesting that women and younger speakers may be leading the ongoing language change. Overall, the variation is systematic, reflecting both semantic differentiation and socially conditioned change.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lv.25030.alk
2026-05-18
2026-06-12

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/lv.25030.alk
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abdel-Hafiz, A.
    2005 ‘The development of future markers in Arabic and the Nile Nubian languages’. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies: –. https://shorturl.at/d8WY6
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Alhailawani, M., & Al-Raba’a, B. I. M.
    2024 Flavors of progression in urban Jordanian Arabic. WORD, (), –. 10.1080/00437956.2023.2299069
     https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2023.2299069 [Google Scholar]
  3. Alshboul, S., Al-Shaboul, Y., & Asassfeh, S. M.
    2009 Grammaticalization of the future markers in Jordanian Arabic. Language. Text. Society, (), –. https://shorturl.at/foERb
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Alshboul, S., Al Shaboul, Y., & Asassfeh, S. M.
    2010 Grammaticalization patterns: Evidence from future markers in Jordanian Arabic. Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, (), –. 10.1179/000127910804775487
     https://doi.org/10.1179/000127910804775487 [Google Scholar]
  5. Al-Sharkawi, M.
    2016 History and development of the Arabic language. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315743271
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743271 [Google Scholar]
  6. Al-Saidat, E., & Al-Momani, I.
    2010 Future markers in Modern Standard Arabic and Jordanian Arabic: a contrastive study. European journal of social sciences, (), –. https://shorturl.at/bcgW7
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Altakhaineh, A. R. M.
    2018 The semantic change of positive vs. negative adjectives in Modern English. Lingua Posnaniensis, (), –. 10.2478/linpo‑2018‑00010
     https://doi.org/10.2478/linpo-2018-00010 [Google Scholar]
  8. Al Zahrani, M. A.
    2021 Grammaticalization Cases Through the Four Linguistic shifts. Jurnal Arbitrer, (), –. 10.25077/ar.8.1.1‑13.2021
     https://doi.org/10.25077/ar.8.1.1-13.2021 [Google Scholar]
  9. Ambu Saidi, S. A. S.
    2020 A sociolinguistic study of dialect contact and change in Omani Arabic (Doctoral dissertation, Newcastle University). hdl.handle.net/10443/5395
  10. Aoun, J., E. Benmamoun and L. Choueiri
    2010 The Syntax of Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://dokumen.pub/the-syntax-of-arabic.html
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Barbieri, F.
    2008 Patterns of age-based linguistic variation in American English. Journal of sociolinguistics, (), –. 10.1111/j.1467‑9841.2008.00353.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00353.x [Google Scholar]
  12. Boussofara-Omar, N.
    2003 ‘Revisiting Arabic diglossic switching in light of the MLF model and its sub-models: the 4-M model and the abstract level model’. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition (): –. 10.1017/S1366728903001032
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728903001032 [Google Scholar]
  13. Brustad, K.
    2000 The syntax of spoken Arabic: A comparative study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti dialects. Georgetown University Press. 10.1075/sl.27.3.15she
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.27.3.15she [Google Scholar]
  14. Claudi, U., and B. Heine
    1986 On the metaphorical base of grammar. Studies in Language(), –. 10.1075/sl.10.2.03cla
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.10.2.03cla [Google Scholar]
  15. Deng, D.
    2023 The grammaticalization of the discourse marker genre in Swiss French. Languages, (), . 10.3390/languages8010028
     https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010028 [Google Scholar]
  16. Eifan, E.
    2017 Grammaticalization in Urban Hijazi Arabic (Master’s thesis). University of Manchester. https://www.kratylos.org/~raphael/arabicProject/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Eifan-2017.pdf
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Esseesy, M.
    2018 Typological features of grammaticalization in Semitic. InGrammaticalization from a typological perspective (Vol., pp. –). https://books.google.jo/books?hl=ar&lr=&id=Us90DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA35. 10.1093/oso/9780198795841.003.0003
     https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198795841.003.0003 [Google Scholar]
  18. Frajzyngier, Z.
    1996 Grammaticalization of the complex sentence: A case study in Chadic, Vol.. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. 10.1075/slcs.32
     https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.32 [Google Scholar]
  19. Heine, B.
    2017 Grammaticalization. The handbook of historical linguistics, –. 10.1002/9781405166201.ch18
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405166201.ch18 [Google Scholar]
  20. Heine, B., and T. Kuteva
    2002 World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511613463
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511613463 [Google Scholar]
  21. Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva
    2007 The genesis of grammar: A reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oso/9780199227761.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199227761.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  22. Holes, C.
    2016 Dialect, culture, and society in Eastern Arabia, Volume 2: Ethnographic texts. Brill. 10.1163/9789004311107_001
     https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004311107_001 [Google Scholar]
  23. Hopper, P. J., & Traugott, E. C.
    2003 Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. https://shorturl.at/7mLJL. 10.1017/CBO9781139165525
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139165525 [Google Scholar]
  24. Husein, A. K., & Al-Shawashreh, E. Y.
    2025 /d-/ as a future marker in the Jordanian Arabic dialect of Irbid. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, (), . 10.35516/hum.v52i3.6264
     https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v52i3.6264 [Google Scholar]
  25. Jarad, N. I.
    2014 The grammaticalization of the motion Verb “Raħ” as a prospective aspect marker in Syrian Arabic. Al-’Arabiyya, , –. www.jstor.org/stable/24635375
     [Google Scholar]
  26. 2017 Grammaticalization in Emirati Arabic. Arabica, (), –. 10.1163/15700585‑12341473
     https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341473 [Google Scholar]
  27. Jaradat, A. A., Al-Omari, M. D. A., Al-Khawaldeh, N. N., & Al Hammouri, R. N.
    2024 The verb ʔadʒa ‘come’ in Jordanian Arabic: Three levels of grammaticalization. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, (), –. 10.1057/s41599‑024‑03901‑w
     https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03901-w [Google Scholar]
  28. Kuteva, T., et al.
    2019 World lexicon of grammaticalization, 2nd ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/S0272263104253062
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263104253062 [Google Scholar]
  29. Leddy-Cecere, T.
    2020 Contact-induced grammaticalization between Arabic dialects. Arabic and contact-induced change, –. https://d-nb.info/1211629988/34#page=611
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Lehmann, C.
    2004 Theory and method in grammaticalization. Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik(). –. 10.1515/zfgl.2004.32.2.152
     https://doi.org/10.1515/zfgl.2004.32.2.152 [Google Scholar]
  31. 2015 Thoughts on grammaticalization (p.). Berlin, Germany Language Science Press. 10.17169/refubium‑22314
     https://doi.org/10.17169/refubium-22314 [Google Scholar]
  32. Luo, Y., Jurafsky, D., & Levin, B.
    2019 From insanely jealous to insanely delicious: Computational models for the semantic bleaching of English intensifiers. InProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Computational Approaches to Historical Language Change (pp. –). 10.18653/v1/W19‑4701
     https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/W19-4701 [Google Scholar]
  33. Matisoff, J.
    1991 Areal and universal dimensions of grammaticalization in lahu. InElizabeth Traugott and Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization, –. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.19.2.19mat
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.19.2.19mat [Google Scholar]
  34. Odilbekovna, M. A., & Muminovich, A. R.
    2025 Advanced perspectives on semantic expansion and contraction: Mechanisms and implications. Sustainability of Education, Socio-Economic Science Theory, (), –. https://interoncof.com/index.php/finland/article/view/10304/9397
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Persson, M.
    2008 The Role of the” B”-prefix in Gulf Arabic Dialects as a Marker of Future, Intent and/or Irrealis. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, , –. https://shorturl.at/N4PVv
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Roberts, I., and A. Roussou
    1999 A formal approach to ‘grammaticalization’. Linguistics(), –. 10.1515/ling.37.6.1011
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.37.6.1011 [Google Scholar]
  37. Shin, N. L.
    2013 Women as leaders of language change: A qualification from the bilingual perspective. InSelected proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. –). Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263087752
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Traugott, E. C.
    1995 The role of the development of discourse markers in a theory of grammaticalization. Paper presented at the12th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL XII), Manchester, UK.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Van Gelderen, E.
    (2004) Grammaticalization as economy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/la.71
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.71 [Google Scholar]
  40. van Gelderen, E.
    2022 Third factors in language variation and change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/S1360674323000114
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674323000114 [Google Scholar]
  41. Wilmsen, D.
    2017 Grammaticalization and degrammaticalization in an Arabic existential particle šay. Folia Orientalia.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Wilmsen, D.
    2017 Grammaticalization and degrammaticalization in an Arabic existential particle šay. Folia Orientalia.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lv.25030.alk
Loading
On the grammaticalization of raːħ
John Benjamins ; https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.25030.alk
/content/journals/10.1075/lv.25030.alk
/content/journals/10.1075/lv.25030.alk
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: linguistic variation ; urban Jordanian Arabic ; grammaticalization of raːħ

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error