Mohd Nour Al-Salem

University of Jordan | UJ · Department of Linguistics

This research article provides evidence from Jordanian Arabic (JA) that negation is syntactically bound to the projection of a phasal head, wherein NegP is structurally licensed to project exclusively within phase-bound configurations. Therefore, NegP can project separately in CP and v*P, offering support to the multi-locus view (Alqassas 2012. The...

This paper argues that the relationship between the singular and plural forms of a noun in Arabic is not merely grammatical. It specifically shows that the relationship does not only entail that a plural noun refers to more than two persons or things and that each form may hold a certain semantic significance, depending on the context. In order to...

This paper provides an autosegmental analysis of phonological alternations in Kabardian, an Abhkaz-Adyghean language. It illustrates how several phonological re-write rules, postulated in Colarusso’s (1992) phonological analysis of Kabardian which, in some cases, lacks adequate explanation, may be uniformly reinterpreted as instances of mapping bet...

As a new tool in the field of educational technology, H5P appears to have the potential to teach a second language (L2). This study aims to highlight the potential direction of upcoming teaching methods, sparking informed choices in educational approaches and guidelines, by evaluating both the concrete and abstract results of incorporating H5P. To...

The cognate accusative (CA) in Arabic grammar is a unique structure that has no direct equivalent in English. This paper analyses the various strategies and procedures that the translator used to translate CA instances and assesses the success of these strategies. The significance of the study lies in its attempt to explore the complexities inheren...

Objectives: This study aims at evaluating the accuracy and acceptability of Reverso, a translation tool particularly used by Arabic-speaking university students who major in English, when translating religious texts from Arabic into English. Methods: To achieve the objectives of the study, the translations of the antonyms in Surat al-Raʕd (Thunder)...

This study seeks to explore the major errors that frequently emerge when novice translators translate technical texts, namely legal documents released by the Department of Lands and Survey in Jordan. The goal behind this investigation is to improve legal translation training, develop students’ drafts based on the types of their mistakes, and delive...

This paper explores the use of three words used for a female spouse in the Holy Quran: wife, woman and companion. Specifically, it seeks to find if there is a semantic difference between these three terms and the characteristics that determine their classification. The data were collected from all the Quranic verses in which these terms appear. The...

The current study aims at assessing the translation of metaphors in three English translations of the Holy Quran, namely, Al-Hilali & Khan (2000), Y. Ali (2004), and Abdel Haleem (2005). In particular, it investigates the translation strategies adopted by the three translators to render ten Quranic metaphorical expressions into English based on New...

This study investigates the efficacy of the type of instruction (i.e., perception-based vs. production-based) on second language (L2) pronunciation acquisition in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. To achieve this objective, 60 tertiary-level Jordanian learners of English were recruited and put into two groups (30 learners in each grou...

The current study aims at assessing the translation of metaphors in three English translations of the Holy Quran, namely, Al-Hilali & Khan (2000), Y. Ali (2004), and Abdel Haleem (2005). In particular, it investigates the translation strategies adopted by the three translators to render ten Quranic metaphorical expressions into English based on New...

This study aims to explore the difficulties involved in translating similar plural nouns in the Holy Quran from Arabic into English. It specifically investigates 21 plural nouns derived from seven singular nouns in the Holy Quran and discusses their exegetic contexts and translation into English. To achieve this aim, the study tracks singular nouns...

This study argues that idiomatic expressions are essentially used as pragmatic messages which are heavily laden with implicatures and/or contextual effects. This implies that idiomatic expressions are not pure propositional elements that necessarily have (non-compositional) semantic content, whereas any pragmatic messages are affiliated with contex...

Stance is a feature of academic writing that refers to how writers interact and engage with their readers by means of linguistic devices. This study focuses on the grammatical devices—and semantic distinctions thereof—that are employed by academic writers of English to express stance in research article abstracts in the areas of applied linguistics...

Although translation is a means of intercultural communication, it represents a challenge when it comes to rendering the intended meaning of some propositions, particularly because every language has its distinctive features and structures that may not be accurately rendered into the target language. This challenge is reinforced when translation oc...

Research in the area of intercultural rhetoric has mainly focused on academic writing in English and other languages. However, the writing of research article abstracts in English and Arabic has yet received scarce attention. To this end, this study shows how academic writers interact with their readers in both English and Arabic, or how writers ex...

Congratulating others is an essential aspect of human social interaction and a speech act that is realised differently in languages. This study aims to investigate the pragmalinguistic realisations of the speech act of congratulating in Kabyle and Jordanian Arabic (JA) by comparing the strategies that Kabyle-speaking and JA-speaking students employ...

This paper accounts for the complementary distribution found in Jordanian Arabic between the post-verbal negative enclitic-š and elements from two categories: (i) expressions used, prima facie, in oaths such as wħyaatabooy 'by my father' and (ii) Negative Sensitive Items (NSIs), particularly when they occur in a preverbal position. The study shows...

This paper analyzes the use of bird names in describing people in Arabic and English. Specifically, the study aims to find the frequency of using such terms in the two languages and the extent to which the gender of the addressee affects their use. The participants are 24 native speakers of American and British English and 24 native speakers of Jor...

This research paper investigates the discourse functions of the wh-word ʃuː ‘what’ in Jordanian Arabic (JA). Based on the analysis of a naturally occurring corpus, it was found that ʃuː has developed a discourse function alongside its lexical uses as an interrogative operator, an exclamative particle, and a relativizer. Upon analyzing all tokens of...

This study examines the use of English attention-getting devices (words, catchphrases, and slogans) in Jordanian print advertising. Specifically, the study explores the functional and structural dimensions of such devices. To achieve this goal, a random sample comprising twelve issues of three local newspapers is selected. The issues are chosen to...

This paper examines the difficulties involved in translating culture-bound compliments from spoken Jordanian Arabic into English in different cultural interactions. The study specifically looks into a number of compliments in Arabic and discusses their translation into English. To achieve this goal, a test was designed by the researchers to examine...