Sociolinguistic Studies: Insights from Arabic

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue on Arabic Sociolinguistic Studies. Our goal is to publish state-of-the-art original studies that provide invaluable insights into the connectedness between language as a social entity and speakers of this language. Different groups relate to language and its features on the basis of various factors including culture, identity, and politics, among other social values (Coupland 2007, Sebba 2007). The study of language as a social phenomenon has been the focus of many linguistic studies (Labov 1972), ranging from the relationship of the socialization process of language users within the cultural norms of particular societies (Ochs 2003) to the role of language as a discursive means of constructing and shaping life experiences in the social world (Georgakopoulou 2011). As such, language is treated as a social and interactive field, lodged within larger contexts (Goodwin 2000, Soulaimani and Chakrani 2023).

This Special Issue welcomes studies that contribute to the understanding of the language situation in Arabic-speaking societies, within frameworks that include but are not limited to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, linguistic anthropology, language attitudes, language policy, and language contact. The studies may include qualitative or quantitative research. We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Selected manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

References:

Coupland, N. (2007). Style: Language variation and identity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 2011. “Narrative.” In Discursive pragmatics, ed. Jan Zienkowski, Jan- Ola Östman, and Jef Verschueren, 190–207. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(10), 1489-1522.

Labov, W. (1972). The transformation of experience in narrative syntax. In: W. Labov (Ed.), Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular (pp. 354–396). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Sebba, M. (2007). Spelling and society: The culture and politics of orthography around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Soulaimani, D. and Chakrani, B. (2023). Deconstructing verbal and nonverbal accommodation in Arabiccross-dialectal communication. International Journal of Bilingualism. (forthcoming)

Dr. Dris Soulaimani
Dr. Brahim Chakrani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Arabic sociolinguistics
• language ideologies and language attitudes
• discourse analysis and conversational analysis
• diglossia and multilingualism
• standard language and dialects