CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Linguists generally describe language as a rule-governed system which the members of a given

group habitually use in their daily interactions. Language is thus described as being socially

relevant. It is equally a conventional and arbitrary system of human communication as it is only

appropriately used by a group of individuals who share a common socio-cultural experience

which could be identified through their common code in their varied communicative tasks. The

codes that individuals share are in the form of elements of a system. Being spoken by different

people in different context, Labov (1972), Halliday (1985), Meyerhoff (2006) and Wardhaugh

(2014), affirm that language has varied manifestations and its speakers themselves vary in their

social characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, culture and the likes. This social dimension

suggests that language is defined by the people who speak it. Language should not just be seen as

a tool for communicating, but also one for establishing social relationships between human

1
beings. It is through the social essence of language that different people use language in different

ways to achieve socialisation.

The word, being the most essentially building block of every human language for

communication, requires a learner to possess a versatile knowledge of how such a language is

effectively used lexically and contextually. In other words, how it is correctly used in both

spoken and written forms. The effectiveness of language use involves a good mastery of its

sounds system (phonology), word formation (morphology), word arrangement (syntax), word

meaning (semantics) and in most cases, context (pragmatics). Linguistically, learning a particular

language necessitates a language learner to be fully conversant with all pieces of information

attached to a particular word, ranging from its phonological, Morphological, syntactical and

semantic processes.

Morphologically, the linguistics universality and contrast of two languages can either exist

within a number of lexical or grammatical categories that both have. English and Arabic for

instance, have lexical and grammatical terms like number and gender systems. English tends to

have only two kinds of number systems marked for noun which are singular and plural as in boy

(singular) and boys (plural), whereas Arabic has three forms of number system namely: singular

2
which is technically termed as "‫( "مفرد‬mufrad), dual termed as "‫( "مثنا‬muthanna) and plural

termed as "‫( "حمع‬jami). By way of illustration, the singular Arabic equivalent of the word boy is

"‫( "ولد‬waladun) meaning one boy, for dual form is "‫( "ولدان‬waladaa'ni) meaning two boys and for

plural form is "‫( "اوالد‬Awladuun) meaning many boys.

Syntactically, subject in the English language by convention is always positioned at the

beginning of a sentence (kernal sentence) such as Aliyu is reading; Aliyu therefore appears as the

subject of the sentence. While in Arabic on the other hand, the subject is conventionally

positioned after the verb in the sentence. For example, "‫( "يقرأ على كتب‬Yaq ra'u Aliyu kitaba).

With this interesting linguistic realization, the research aims at employing a contrastive analysis

between English and Hausa gender and number systems in order to demonstrate how each of

them works in both languages.

1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ENGLISH AND ARABIC LANGUAGE

English and Arabic are genetically different languages. To support this claim, Kaye (125-140)

and Mukattash (11-126) affirm that both the two languages are from different etymological

backgrounds. English is part of the West Germanic language group which belongs to an early

3
grouping of Indo-European languages. The Germanic languages today are to be found

throughout Scandinavia (North Germanic) and in central Europe in the area of Germany, Austria

and Switzerland. On the other hand, Arabic is a Semitic language which does not have any

genetic or real relation with English. Ryding (1) and Versteegh (177) assert that Arabic is a

member of Semitic language, a group of languages which emerged from the Afro-Asiatic family

of languages. Also, Abu-Absi (1986) says Afro-Asiatic family of languages consist of over three

hundred languages. These include: Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Ugaritic, Acadian, Phoenician,

Tigre, Tigina, Amharic and Geez. The Semitic group is the most Easterly based group and

geographically covers the Levant, the Fertile Crescent and the Arabian Peninsula.

Arabic is the youngest of the Semitic group of languages. But marvelously, Arabic outlives them

all. For instance, the Ugaritic and Acadian languages have died long ago while Aramaic, which

was, for centuries, the lingua franca of the Western Asia survives in its pristine form only.

Similarly, Syriac does thrive in its primitive form as at present. The Semitic languages of

Ethiopia were equally confined to their areas of origin and they could not spread beyond their

environment. Versteegh mentions that within the members of Semitic language, Arabic and

Hebrew have always been the most-studied languages (15-31). The CIA report for 2008 states

4
that among the Semitic languages, Arabic has been the most widely spoken with a number of

over 330 million native speakers besides being the sacred language of more than a billion

Muslims around the world; out of the 330 million native speakers of Arabic, many millions are

Christians and few are Jews. However, the great majority of Arabic speakers are Muslims.

Arabic, just like English, has a profound position in the global arena today. Arabic has occupied

an international position at the present time. It has gained a wide currency as an international

language of commerce, diplomacy, politics and so on. Its universal recognition manifested in the

United Nations Organization (UNO), the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO). In 1974, Arabic was confirmed as the sixth United Nation’s official

language alongside Chinese, Russian, English, French and Spanish. While commenting on the

significance of Arabic as a universal language, Professor Girgis says: "In terms of the number of

speakers and extent of its influence, Arabic is by far the most important Semitic language today

and must be regarded as one of the important world languages."

The expansion of Islamic Empire, said Versteegh (31), which marked the turning point of

Arabic as the international language of civilization, culture, scientific writing, research,

5
diplomacy and administration (from 7th -12th centuries) was after the death of Prophet

Muhammad. Farghaly (2010) adds that Arabic language evolved from an obscure and non-

prestigious language to a major world language after the Islamic conquests, the period after

Prophet Mohammed's death. In the middle ages, Arabic was the leading language in the world

and had been used as a language of wider communication. A huge number of scientific works,

which have been regarded as references for many scientific fields in Europe, were written in

Arabic.

Many Muslim scholars of non-Arab origins such as Al-Bairouni (1048), the philosopher and

physician Ibn Sina (1037), the historian Al-Tabari (923) and many others produced many works

written in Arabic. Therefore, many scholars, Arabs, non-Arabs and even Christians, contributed

to the development of intellectual life especially under the Abbasid rule (750-1258 A.D) when

Arabic literature and different fields of sciences reached its golden age. Hourani (2002) states

that Arabic was not only the language of religion but also a literary and scientific language in the

Arab World. Even in the 16th century, Dutch physician; Laurentus Friseurs argued that the study

of Arabic is indispensable for those wishing to make a career out of medicine. Generally

speaking, it could be asserted that the holy status of the Quran which was revealed in Arabic,

6
alongside the prestigious literary position of the Arab poetry helped in giving Arabic this high

status and paved the road to the process of Arabic standardization.

In spite of the main etymological differences, certain remote and recent historical events have

brought English and Arabic together. Attesting to this fact, Edward (2001) reveals that English

and Arabic made their most significant, although, hostile, contact in central Europe around 179

AD. Jansen (1980) states that the spread of both languages was on account of trade, religion and

cultural imperialism. However, in recent decades, Lettinck (1994), states that their relationship

likely to be re-defined by political and commercial interests. This resulted in a mutual interest

between the two region's most prominent languages: English and Arabic.

According to Kryss (2010), the English lexicon has been enriched by borrowings from 146

languages worldwide. Arabic is one of the ten major languages which English borrows words

from. Words like admiral, algebra, giraffe, cheque, cotton and mirror were borrowed by English

from Arabic. However, Kay (1986) affirms that Arabic too has borrowed some words from

English. Most of such words belong to modern technology or politics. A few among such are

demokradiyyah (democracy); jografiyyah (geography); Federaliyyah (federal); talavijiyon

(television); radiyo (radio); intarnet (internet), etc.

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Moreover, English and Arabic share some notable similarities at several linguistic levels,

phonological, syntactic and morphological. Although the differences that exist between Arabic

and English at morphological level are more notable than the similarities. What is common in

them at these levels are the morphological processes. Both the languages use almost the same

morphological processes of affixation, internal change, compounding etc. Various affixes like

prefixes, infixes and suffixes are added to the root. According to Haywood and Nahmad (30)

English and Arabic share some similar characteristics in their derivational system.

Unlike English, Arabic is written from the right to the left. Orthographically, Arabic alphabet

comprises twenty eight letters; consonants and vowels. Likewise, Arabic does not have upper or

lower cases letters. The shape of these letters usually varies in accordance with their position in

the word; whether they are an initial, medial, or final position. Arabic has twenty seven

consonants, as the letter /‫و‬/ is considered a semivowel, three short vowels /a,i,u/ and three long

vowels/ā,ī,ū/.

Ferguson acknowledges that Arabic is a diglossic language whereby different varieties are used

in different social situations (325-340). The most common varieties are Classical Arabic, the

language of the Holy Quran and the legacy of the Arab traditional poetry, Modern Standard

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Arabic, the constitutionally official language of all Arab countries besides being used in the

media, education and formal speeches, and the Colloquial Arabic which is used in Arab’s day to

day communication. Each one of the stated varieties has its sociolinguistic role to play in the

Arab societies. Linguistically, both Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic are much more

similar than Colloquial Arabic which involves various varieties that vary from one another and

from region to region in different linguistic aspects. The relevance of Arabic is not peculiar to

the religious aspect alone. In West Africa sub-region, Arabic language contributed immensely to

the understanding of the early history and civilization because it was the language first used for

keeping the records of West Africa.

1.2 THE PLACE OF ARABIC LANGUAGE IN NIGERIA

The teaching of Arabic Language in Nigeria began with the introduction of Islam in Kanem

Bornu as early as 11th century. Islam came to Hausaland in the 14th century and later to

Yorubaland in the 17th century. Islam entered Yorubaland through Muslim traders from the

North who also doubled as preachers. Wherever they introduced Islam, they also settled there to

organize Qur’anic schools where pupils were taught the reading of the Qur’ān through rote-

learning system. Thus, elements of Arabic language were also taught to the pupils.

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Arabic language in Nigeria has become an integral part of the society long before the arrival of

the British colonial masters. The language had been in use for some time in the country, mostly

as the language of commerce before the 18th century. Arabic is more prominently used among

the people in Northern Nigeria; a case in point being the dialect of the Shuwa Arabs of Bornu

State which derives from Arabic. In the Southwest, especially in Yorubaland, some words of

Arabic origin such as alaafia (health), wakati (time), saa (period), aleebu (defect), seria (justice),

ribaa (usury), keferi (unbeliever), amin (amen), alubarika (blessing), and so on, have blended

with Yoruba expressions to the extent that hardly can anyone find substitutes for them.

Huehnergard and Robin (2011) classified Arabic language under the Semitic family of the Afro-

Asiatic language phylum. Afro-Asiatic is a group of genetically related languages found in

northern part of Africa, Arabic peninsula and some islands and adjacent areas in west Asia. The

Semitic is among the largest language family of the Afro-Asiatic. Arabic, a central Semitic, is in

turn the most spoken language with 330 billion native speakers.

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 2011

Figure 1. Language Family of Arabic

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Most Arabic learners of English may often assume that the two languages of study have common

gender and number patterns and that there are no dissimilarities between them. By and large, this

assumption creates a certain kind of confusion which makes learning, and interpretation of

Arabic to English more difficult. Paucity of relavant pedagogical and comparative teaching and

learning materials on both languages unarguably does create the biggest part of the problem. The

phenomenon of morphological system especially gender and number across languages are

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mostly more complex or intriguing than they are first assumed. Therefore, this research intends

to identify those obstacles faced by Arabic learners of English in the areas of gender and number.

1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The main aim of this research is to investigate the comparative nature of English and Arabic

gender and number systems as essential aspects of linguistic analysis. The research is also

interested to achieve the following objectives:

I. To identify the similarities and differences of number and gender systems of English and

Arabic.

II. To find out the various types of genders and numbers of either of the languages.

III. To establish whether the differences are capable of causing difficulty in the learning

process of either of the languages.

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1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Studying the number and gender systems of two language is very important as it helps a

language learner with a bilingual prowess required for effective communication in a bilingual

situation. As such, this research intends to answer the following questions:

I. Are there similarities and differences of number and gender system between English and

Arabic?

II. How many types of number and gender does either of the two languages possess?

III. Are their differences capable of causing difficulty in the learning process of any of the

languages?

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

When it comes to effective communication, language learners are required to have a good

knowledge and powerful mastery of language use - how to appropriately use different genders

and numbers - in the right place and context. Effective use of genders and numbers in spoken or

written makes communicative tasks of the interlocutors meaningful, accessible and

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comprehensible. However, misusing or mistaking a particular gender for another gender or

number for another number often creates miscomprehension and misinterpretation, especially

with regards to translation of Arabic into English. Therefore, to carry out a contrastive analysis

of number and gender systems between English and Arabic is crucially vital as both aspects are

stock-in-trade of our daily communication. Such can add to the body of existing knowledge. The

findings would be used for further morphological analysis of the Arabic. This will not only

prosper a solution to language learning and teaching but also facilitate effective communication

among the speakers; it will as well help in developing curriculum for schools, bring the attention

of authorities as well as providing good materials for schools and other upcoming researchers.

1.7 SCOPE/DELIMITATION

The scope of the research deals with morphological area but limits itself to only two grammatical

aspects (number and gender systems) of English and Arabic; their differences and similarities,

including their various types, and to equally investigate whether such differences can bring

difficulty in learning process or not.

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 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Introduction

This chapter entails review of related literature on morphology, word formation processes, with a

particular emphasis on Inflectional aspects of morphology (number and gender systems)

alongside other related studies conducted on English and Arabic morphology so as to establish a

relationship between the literature and current linguistic research. However, the chapter talks

about the theoretical framework selected for the research.

2.1 Definition of Morphology

For quite a number of years, linguists have shown a profound interest in the areas related to

morphological studies. As such, different scholars have defined morphology at different levels of

linguistic studies. Prominent among these are grammar, phonology and semantics. Their research

interest continue to lead to various descriptive and theoretical investigations on the morphology

of languages worldwide.

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Historically, morphology has its origin in the nineteenth-century. The study of morphology was

due to the interest in classifying language families across the world. This has led to other study

of how languages were differently structured both in broader and narrower ways, from the

general laws of structure to the study of significant elements such as prefixes and inflections.

This was later built upon to include the study of internal structure of words in the twentieth

century.

Etymologically, Abochol opines that the derivation of the word morphology was from Greek

word "morphe" which means "form" or "shape" and "logy", means "the study of". This suggests

that morphology refers to the study of word shapes or forms. Initially, the word was only used in

the biological context which means the study of forms and structures of organisms. Eventually in

the 19th century, it was used for the first time as a technical term in language studies (33). The

term however, according Arnoff and Fudeman (1) was credited to Johann Wofqang von Goethe,

a German poet, playwright, novelist and philosopher (1749- 1832).

Additionally, Mathews (1998), reveals that morphology is equivalent to German word

‘formenlehre’ which means the study of forms. Free Encyclopedia (2008), states that

‘morphology’ was coined by August Schleicher in 1859. It was Bandolin de Courtenay who later

16
introduced the term into linguistic field of study in 1895; the history of morphological analysis is

traceable to the ancient Indian linguist, Palini, who formulated the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit

morphology in the text ‘Alladhyayi’, by using Constituency Grammar.

Linguistically, morphology according to Aronoff and Fudeman simply “refers to the mental

system involved in word formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their

internal structure, and how they are formed" (1). Crystal (225) views that morphology “is the

branch of grammar which studies the structure of words, primarily through the use of morpheme

constructs”. Abochol (33) posits that "morphology studies the smallest grammatical units of

language and their formation into words, including Inflection, derivation and composition".

Abochol (33) also cited Bloomfield's definition of morphology (1933), that "it is the study of the

constructions in which bound forms appear among the continents. He also cited Dorfman's view

that morphology is "the study of the ways and methods of grouping sounds into sound complexes

or words of definite, distinct, conventional meaning".

In the same vein, Fromkin and Rodman (69) are of the view that “the study of the internal

structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed is called morphology”. For Tomori,

morphology is also defined as “the study of the structure of word, meaning – the study of the

17
rules governing the formation of linguistic words in a language” (21). But according to Yule (66)

morphology is used as a term to describe the investigation which analyzes all basic morphemes.

However, Haspelmath (1) defines morphology as the study of systematic co-variation in the form

and meaning of words that correlate systematically with semantic changes. For example, the

words cups, fans, days, caps, share both phonological segment (the final /s/) and also a semantic

component (plural). This refers to the multiplicity of entities from the same class where (the final

\s\) is lacking (cup, fan, day, and cap) then referent is made consistently to only entity.

Considering the illustration given above, it may be said that if a set of words manifest identical

partial resemblances in form and meaning, then morphological structure exist. More so, such

could be considered a fairly accidental where there are only two forms with partial form-meaning

resemblance.

Haspelmath (2002), adds that “morphology is the study of combination of morphemes to yield

words”. This simply means a morphological analysis deals with the identification of parts

(constituents) of words. Example, the word “Barber's” comprises two morphemes ‘barber, and ‘-

s’ which is a possessive marker. In his view, Spencer (1991) states that morphology is the branch

of linguistics that has a key interest in the knowledge of word building. Morphology is also

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viewed as the division of linguistics which concerns itself with the forms of words in different

structures or a sub-discipline of linguistics. According to Akamajian, et al. (11) and Mathews (3)

morphology is mainly concerned with the study of words and processes of word formation. On

this aspect, Matthews (1974) generally discusses processes of word formation applied to several

languages of the world, giving instances in languages such as Latin, Turkish, Arabic and many

more. Additionally, Hockett (1954) believes that linguistic items are related to one another by

reference to the morphological processes. The word ‘man’ for instance, is related to ‘men’ by a

process of vowel change. Hocket, in his comparison of item and process (IP) and item and

arrangement (IA) illustrates the contrast in the two approaches to linguistic forms. For (IP),

forms are either single or derived. A single form is a root, a derived form is an underlying form

to which a process has been applied. A form, on the other hand is either simple or composite in

(IA). A simple form is a morpheme and a composite form that consists of two or more immediate

constituents standing in a construction.

Bauer (34) gives a summary of the main areas and approaches covered under the study of

morphology in the chart below:

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Figure 2. Morphological Chart

The above chart demonstrates that morphology deals with morphemes through inflection and the

word-formation processes of derivation and composition (compounding). According to

Atkinson's view:

Morphology received an appraisal in the 1970s to reevaluate the long held perception that

morphology is just the study of the structure of words. This is because words operate both

on a syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship within and outside the conceptual words

(19).

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Morphology provides another perspective to the study of the word by considering the word as a

lexeme’. Lexemes are dictionary words, which would be further generated to provide other

forms of words in substitution on relationship. In other words, a lexeme is an element with

lexical meaning. For example, the word ‘write’, includes ‘reads’, 'wrote' , 'writing' and 'written'.

Morphology also explains the changes made by word classes in morphological alteration,

thereby bringing new words. This field, referred to as the “morpho-syntactic relation’, handles

the extent to which affixes could show a change in a word to which they are introduced. For

example, the addition of ‘ly’ to the lexical item ‘beautiful’ to form another word ‘beautifully'

changes the word class from adjective to adverb.

2.2 The Morpheme

Morphemes occupy a prominent place in the study of morphology. Morphologists study words

and their internal structure as well as their formations through the identification of morphemes.

The term "morpheme", according to Fromkin and Rodman (68) is derived from the Greek word

“morphe” which means “form”. For Crystal (223), morphemes refer to “minimal distinctive

units of grammar and the central concern of morphology”. However, Abochol opines that

morpheme is the smallest meaningful grammatical structure which cannot stand further

21
breakdown. For instance, if break the word " under" into {un-}, {d}, and {-er}, all these

components will become meaningless. Thus, 'under' is one morpheme, and it loses its meaning

after further breakdown.

Downing and Locke (13) view morpheme as an abstract category, with either lexical or

grammatical meaning. Morpheme can be a smallest significant unit of language (any part of a

word) that cannot be broken down further into lesser meaningful parts, including the whole word

itself. Tomori (32) also supports the view that morpheme is a minimal linguistic element that

carries grammatical and semantic meaning which cannot be further divided or broken into

smaller grammatical element. However, Nida (1968) defines morpheme as the smallest

grammatical unit of a language which can constitute a word or part of a word. There are two

types of morphemes in the morphological description which involve FREE and BOUND

morphemes.

Free Morphemes

The free morphemes deal with groups of word classes which involve nouns, adjectives, verbs,

and adverbs and carry ‘content’ of the message conveyed. These free morphemes are referred to

22
as lexical morphemes. A morpheme is regarded as a content morpheme when it has a relatively

more specific meaning than a function morpheme; a morpheme that names a concept or idea in

our record of experience of the world. According to Yule (1996) new lexical morphemes can be

added in the language rather easily; so they are treated as an open class of words. They are called

open class because they allow attachment of other bound morphemes within them. The second

groups of free morphemes are called functional or grammatical morphemes. This is because they

cover functional words such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and pronouns. A function

morpheme is that morpheme that has a relatively less specific meaning than a content morpheme.

It is a morpheme whose primary meaning or function is to indicate relationships between other

morphemes. These groups of free morphemes are also called "close class" because they do not

allow attachment of other bound morphemes within them.

Bound Morphemes

Bound morphemes are classified according their positions and functions. The positional

morphemes are: prefixes, suffixes, infixes and circumfixes. While prefixes, suffixes and

circumfixes do exist in the English language. Infixes are non-existent in English but exist in

other languages like Hausa and Arabic. Examples of infixation as "‫( "قلمان‬qalamaani) which is an

23
Arabic word that means two pens. The Arabic word "qalam" means one pen while "qalamaani"

which has two or rather double "a" indicates duality in the Arabic language. Also, in the Hausa

language, the word "gurgu" meaning cripple has its plural as "guraagu" by inserting d\ouble "a"

in between "r" and ""g" indicating infixation and that changes the meaning from "cripple to

cripples. Prefixes are morphemes attached at the beginning of words (roots). For instance, bound

morphemes such as -in, -un, -dis, -im, -re etc., as in the words: 'insignificant', 'unimpressed',

'disunity', 'impossible' and 'review' are all prefixes attached at the beginning of words. However,

suffixes are also bound morphemes put at words' endings such as -less, -ness, ful, ly, ity, ize etc.,

as realized in words 'careless' , 'nearness' , 'hopeful, 'comfortably' 'ability and 'socialize'.

However, circumfixes are morphemes that are attached to a root or stem both initially and finally.

According to Fromkin and Rodman (73), these are sometimes called discontinuous morphemes.

English has circumfixes like in the words 'uncomfortably' (-un and -ly), 'impartiality' (-im and -

ity), 'renewal' (-re and -al) and 'empowerment' (-em and -ment) etc. The bound morphemes in

broader sense are called "affixes". On the contrary, functional morphemes according to Yule

(1996) can be classified into two types - the derivational morphemes - and the inflectional

morphemes.

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Derivation

Derivation refers to the creation of new lexemes from a root or from more basic lexemes. In

other words, derivational morphemes are used to form new words of different grammatical

category from the stem (root). Beard (55) states that ‘Derivation refers to any process that results

in creation of a new word.’ For examples, the words 'verbalize', is a deadjectival, derived from

adjective 'verbal'; 'renew' is a denominal, derived from noun 'new', and the word 'realization' is

deverbal because it is derived from the verb 'realize'.

Inflection

Inflection refers to word-formation that neither changes the category of the word nor creates new

lexemes; rather it serves to provide the correct grammatical form of a lexeme within a particular

context. Inflectional morphemes are not used to create new words, but rather to indicate aspect of

grammatical function of word such as tense, number, gender, comparatives of adjectives and

adverbs, and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs. For instance, the words 'write' and 'writing'

both indicate tense. While 'write' indicates simple present tense, 'writing' indicate progressive

tense. Meanwhile, books, nurses and countries all indicate plurality of nouns. Words like 'actor'

25
and 'actress' indicate gender; 'actor' indicates male gender (masculine) while 'actress' signifies

female gender (feminine). But words like bigger and biggest, faster and fastest Indicate

comparative and superlative forms of both adjective and adverb.

Derivational Versus Inflectional

While derivational morphemes change the word classes of root forms, inflectional affixes do not,

but change their shapes (root forms). This is because inflectional morphemes are the outer layers

and as such, nothing is added after they have been added at the free morphemes' endings.

According to Aronoff (126), where inflection is ‘the morphological realization of syntax, while

derivation is the morphological realization of lexeme formation’. He further adds that where

inflection is ‘the morphological realization of syntax, derivation is the morphological realization

of lexeme formation’. Thus, derivation has lexicosemantic properties, while inflection has

morphosyntactic properties with agreement and government phrase-level properties and relations.

Derivational morphology also tends to exhibit more exceptions than inflectional morphology.

Inflectional morphology is also characterized by being typically more productive than

derivational morphology and having fewer exceptions.

26
Yule (62) provides a chart that categorizes the different types of morphemes under morphology

Yule (62)

Figure 2.1 Structure of English Morphemes

Figure 2.1 above shows morphology is directly concerned with the morphemes through

inflection, derivation and composition (compounding).

According to Omotunde (8), all morphemes have meaning, but not all morphemes can stand

independently as words. A morpheme that can stand as a word is a free morpheme, while any

that cannot is a bound morpheme. He further provides a chart of morphemes in English that

looks more elaborate than Yule’s, Thus: Omotunde (8).

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 Figure 2.2 English Morphemes

The free and bound morphemes can further be sub-grouped into lexical and grammatical

morphemes. Grammatical morphemes express grammatical information. Lexical morphemes, on

the other hand, have constituted meaning beyond whatever grammatical information they carry.

This is to say that their function is more than giving grammatical information. Lexical

morphemes are categorized into “base” and “affixes”, as in ‘unacceptable’, ‘un –’serves as a

prefix, ‘accept’ as a base, and ‘ – able’ as a suffix. A morpheme, according to Omotunde (10), is

said to be a “base” morpheme if another morpheme can be structurally attached to it. The

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morpheme “lead” is that of the word “leader”. A base can have attachments before, inside and

after it as realized in –prefix, infix and suffix, respectively.

Root and Stem/Base

The root is usually a free morpheme around which words can be built through the addition of

affixes. The root usually has a more specific meaning than the affixes that are attached to it. Root

is both the core and heart of the word. The root ‘kind’, for example, can have suffixes added to it

to form words, such as ‘kindly’, ‘kindness’, ‘kinder’ or‘ kindest’. The root is the item left when a

complex word is stripped of all other morphemes. If the word ‘demoralizing’, for example, is

stripped of all the affixes---- ‘ing’, ‘ize’, and ‘de’, ‘moral’ is what is left. It cannot be divided

further into meaningful parts because it is the root of the word. An affix, on the other hand, is a

bound morpheme attached to a base (root or stem). Prefixes are attached to the front of a base;

suffixes to the end of a base, infixes are inserted inside a base. An example of a prefix is the ‘re’

as in ‘renew’; while that of a suffix is ‘-al’ as in 'political’.

The base, also called a stem, is an element (free or bound, a root morpheme or complex word) to

which additional morphemes are added. A base can consist of a single root morpheme as in the

29
case of the word ‘serious’ in 'seriousness'. However, a base can also be a word that itself

contains more than one morpheme. For example, the word ‘business’ can be used as a base to

form the word ‘businesses’. To form the word ‘businesses’, the plural morpheme, spelt ‘es’ in

this case, is added to the base ‘business’.

2.3 Word Formation Process

Word formation, according to Mathews (1991), deals with the process in which languages tend

to involve themselves in forming new words. Marchand (1969) explains word formation as a

process in the description of language. However, linguists have shown interest in classifying

different types of word formation. Adams (1973), Mathews (1974), Marchand (1969) and Nida

(1946) say that there are two areas of word formation:i. Formation revolving around full

linguistic signs, which include: compounding, affixation, derivation by using the zero allomorph.

ii. Formation not revolving linguistic signs which include: blending, clipping, coinage,

borrowing, acronyms etc.Matthews (116) provides a broader classification of morphological

processes into affixation, reduplication and modification. Affixation is classified into prefixation,

suffixation, and infixation. Modification is classified into vowel change, directionality of

30
processes, suppletion, discontinuous morphs, suprafixes, subphonetic affixes, and subtraction.

Likewise, reduplication is classified into total and partial reduplication. However, it is clear that

Matthew’s subsequent division of morphological processes is more rich and different from

Merchand’s (1969) and Adams et al (1973).

Compounding

This simply refers to the process in which new words are created from free existing morphemes.

Adam (30) defines compounding as "the combination of two free forms or words that have an

otherwise independent existence". Quirk et al (1972) see compounding as a unit consisting of

one or more bases. Such compound word can be nouns. Example, book+shop ---- bookshops,

adjective example tax-free ----taxfree or a verb, e.g. spring+clean, spring clean. The process puts

together two or more bases to form a new word.

Affixation

According to Agezi (40) affixation is a collective term for the types of formatives that can be

used only when added to another morpheme (the root or stem). The root is that part of the word

left when all affixes are removed. For example: “faith” in “faithful”. The stem, on the other hand,

31
is the minimal unit on which affixes apply. It may consist solely of a single root morpheme, e.g.

‘faith’ or of two root morphemes, e.g. “blackbird”. Rubba (2004) simply defines affixation as

“adding a derivational affix to a word”. The free encyclopedia (2008) maintains that affixation is

“the process of forming words by adding affixes to morphemes”

Zero- Derivation

Zero-derivation in another term is called conversion. In English, there are certain base

morphemes which can be used in different contexts of word classes without adding bound

morphemes to them; they are differentiated in terms of their phonological contexts. Ayodabo and

Butari (74) state that zero-derivation "is a derivational process whereby an item changes its

word-class without the addition of an affix". In English for instance, most of those zero

morphemes fall under mono-syllabic and bisyllablic words such as fast, date, present, absent,

respect, complete, complete, import, export etc.

Blending

This process deals with bringing together, two or more lexemes to form a new word. Blending is

a common process of word formation in English. Blends are formed by combining parts of more

32
than one word to arrive at a new word. According to Fromkin and Rodman (89) “two words may

be combined to produce blends.” Blends are similar to compounds but parts of the words

combined are deleted and so they are less than compounds. Examples of words formed through

the blending process in English include: Brunch: from breakfast and lunch, Motel: from motor

and hotel, Chunnel: from channel and tunnel, Spork : from spoon and fork, Urinalysis: from

urine and analysis, etc.

Clipping

According to Bauer (1983) Clipping denotes the process whereby a lexeme (simple or complex)

is reduced, while still holding the similar meaning and still being a member of the same class. It

does not look to be expected how many syllables will be retained in the clipped form. Bauer

further states three main methods in which a lexeme is shortened to a clip. The most common

one is for the beginning of the base to be retained example - advert (from advertisement), exam

(from examination), gym (from gymnasium). The next category is when the clip preserves the

final part of the lexeme, as in phone (from telephone) and roach (from cockroach). The least

category is when the lexeme drops both its beginning and end, but holds the middle, as in fridge

(from refrigerator).

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Coinage

Coinage has been considered as one of important processes of inventing new words in English.

According to Yule (64), “Coinage is one of the least common processes of word-formation in

English, that is, the invention of totally new terms” . According to the free encyclopedia (2008),

“coinage is the invention of totally new terms”. Examples: Kleenex, aspirin, nylon, xeros etc.

Borrowing

Borrowing simply refers to a linguistic phenomenon that appears universal in all living

languages. This means that all living languages borrow words from other languages. As a result

this, borrowing increases the vocabularies of languages. Some words that English borrowed

include: Imam (Arabic), boss (Dutch), tycoon (Japanese), yoghurt (Turkish), zebra (Bantu),

literature (Latin), semantics (French) etc.

Acronyms

Acronyms is a process of word-formation whereby a particular word is created from the initial

letters of different words, (Abochol, 64). Acronyms are formed in such a way they can be

pronounced. Acronyms are pronounceable words unlike the abbreviated words . Example,

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KASU, for Kaduna State University, NAAS, for National Association of Arts Students, EDSU,

for English and Drama Students' Union and NASELS, for National Association of Students of

English and Literary Studies etc.

2.4 Gender System in English

Gender means 'kind' or 'class'. It is a grammatical category based on forms of nouns, pronouns,

and/or adjectives. In English, there are basically four categories of gender which include:

masculine, feminine, neuter and common. According to Quirk and Greenbaum:

English language makes few gender distinctions between feminine and masculine. The

connection between the biological category 'sex' and the grammatical category 'gender' is

very close. For natural sex distinctions determine English gender distinctions. Gender

also makes distinctions between animate and inanimate nouns. Moreover, there are

common gender and collective gender (89).

In English, the gender of nouns as a grammatical device is defined solely in terms of pronouns

substitutes -"he", "she", or "it", which may be used in its place. Gender has little role of

grammatical significance. However, Lyon and John (283-84) state that:

35
 Gender plays a relatively minor part in the grammar of English by comparison with its

role in many other languages. There is no gender concord, and the reference of pronouns

"he, she, and it" is very largely determined by what sometimes referred to as "natural"

gender, for English, this depends upon the classification of persons and objects as male,

female or inanimate.

Therefore, a noun that denotes male persons is said to be masculine 'boy", "man'; a noun

denoting female persons is said to be feminine "girl", "woman"; and a noun denoting thing that is

neither male nor female is said to be 'neuter gender' chair, school'. Another type of gender may

be added, that is common gender (or dual gender), kid, student, lecturer, friend, servant, worker,

writer, doctor, president, etc.

Grammatical Gender: Sleds (213) says the grammatical gender of an English noun is basically

determined by the use of personal pronoun that replaces it (he for masculine, she for feminine

and it for neuter). Thus, nouns that are substituted with he or she, 'who' and 'that' are used as

their relatives; that is for nouns that replace animate gender, but 'that' and 'which' are usual for an

inanimate.

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Animate Gender: Palmer states that animate gender involves all the nouns belong to human

beings and animals (87). Animate personal gender comprises masculine and feminine nouns.

Masculine noun for animate single gender is substituted with ‘he’ and ‘who’; feminine noun is

substituted with ‘she’ and ‘who’ (Aziz, 120). Quirk and Greenbaum (90-91) divide personal

gender into two types: “morphologically unmarked (1) gender” such as brother: sister, gentleman:

lady, king: queen, and “morphologically marked gender” such as,duck: duchess, hero: heroine.

As for animate (non-personal) gender, it is related to animals, Quirk and Greenbaum call it

gender of higher animals such as, cock: hen, lion: lioness, gander: goose, stallion: mare (92)

Animate Dual Gender: Quirk and Greenbaum (91) say that this class of gender has a number of

nouns, cook, criminal, person, professor, librarian, doctor, student ….etc. For clarity, it is

necessary to use a “gender marker” as man student, girl friend or “gender marker” as a male

nurse, a female engineer. Jespersen (192) calls the gender marker 'an adjective', so he sees that an

adjective must be added to lexical items, e.g. a male reader, a female cousin, a female sparrow.

Animate Common Gender: Quirk and Greenbaum define the common gender nouns as

intermediate nouns that occur between personal and non-personal feature (91). Aziz nouns may

be substituted with either 'he' or 'she' when treated as personal, or with 'it', when they are treated

37
non-personal (120). For example, if the mother refers to her baby, she will use he or she

according to the sex, but anyone who does not concern emotionally with the baby will refer to

the baby by it ( 92).

Inanimate Gender: Quirk and Greenbaum (93) say inanimate nouns or lower animals both are

related to the class of inanimate gender; for example, both snake and box have ‘which’ and ‘it’ as

pronouns. However, some nouns with gender markers, e.g. she-goat, he –goat. Aziz (121) calls

this kind of gender as lower animals. He defines it as those nouns which are replaced by ‘it’ and

‘which’ and are treated as inanimate things, e.g. snake, fly ant etc.

Collective and Other Nouns Related to Gender

Collective nouns, in view of Quirk and Greenbaum, are different from other nouns in taking, as

pronoun substitutes, either singular (it) or plural (they) without changing number in the noun e.g.

army- it/they (92). Thus, Aziz adds that they can be considered personal or non-personal (120).

2.5 Gender System in Arabic

According to al-Jerjani (48) gender is known in Arabic as al-jins (‫ )الجنس‬which means "kind" or

"sort". Arabic Gender 'al-Jins' is of two kinds namely: masculine which is called in Arabic as

38
'muzakkar' (‫ )مذكر‬and feminine called 'mu'annas (‫)مؤنث‬. Al-Yaziji (52) opines that the two kinds

are either: the real gender called 'al-jins haqiiqii' (‫ )الجنس الحقيقي‬or the tropical gender (unreal

gender) called 'al-jins al-mujaazii (‫ )الجنس المجازي‬in Arabic.

However, Wright classifies nouns according to their gender into three classes: masculine,

feminine, and those that are both masculine and feminine (23). In Arabic, masculine gender is

considered the unmarked form, and feminine gender is the marked one. For instance, the Arabic

word "‫( "طلب‬tâlibun) which means a male student is the unmarked form of "‫( "طلبة‬tâlibatun)

which is the marked form and means female student.

What distinguishes masculine nouns or adjectives from feminine ones are: taa'u al-ta'aneeth al-

marbuudâh and alif taa'u al-ta'aneeth al-maqasurah and mamduudah. The Arabic consonant /‫ت‬/

(taa'un) is of two types namely: taa'un marbuudâh /‫ة‬/ which means a rounded consonant and

taa'un maftuhah /‫ت‬/( taa'un) which means an open consonant in Arabic. This Arabic consonant is

equivalent to the consonant /t/ in English. For examples, madarasatuun (‫)مدرسة‬, darrajatuun

(‫ )دراجة‬and sayyaaratuun (‫ )سيارة‬fall under the category of the rounded Arabic consonant "taa'un"

/‫ة‬/ and virtually donate singular forms of Arabic gender. While Arabic words like darraajaat

39
(‫ (دراجات‬and sayyaaraat (‫ )سيارات‬both fall under the category of the Arabic open consonant /‫ت‬/

(taa'un) and denote plural forms which are also few in the Arabic language.

On the other hand, alif taa'un al-ta'aneeth al-maqasurah simply means the short elongated vowel

sound that appears in fewer Arabic words like "Laylaa" (‫)ليلى‬, "hublaa" (‫)حبلى‬, "kubraah" (‫)كبرى‬

etc. Similarly, alif taa'u al-ta'aneeth mamduudah is an Arabic vowel sound which means "the

elongated alif " (vowel). The elongated alif is found in the Arabic words like "sahraa'u" (‫)صحراء‬,

"lumayyaa'u" (‫ )لمياء‬and "faudaa'u" (‫ )فوداء‬etc.

The distinction also applies to "masdar" (‫ )مصدر‬which means "root" or otherwise "al-ismul

Jaamid" (‫ )اإلسم الجامد‬which means "a static noun". In other words, it is a category of Arabic noun

which is masculine or feminine form. It is devoid of any additional letters and also called "al-

ismul mujarrad" (‫)اإلسم المجرد‬, meaning a pure noun. The examples of such nouns include:

"zaidun" (‫)زيد‬, "jundun" (‫)جند‬, "Sulaimaan" (‫)سليمان‬, "Laaguus" (‫ )الغوس‬etc.

Derived nouns called "Mushattaqun" (‫ )مشتق‬or otherwise "maziidu fiihi" (‫ )مزيد فيه‬in Arabic,

usually have the capability to be masculine sometimes and feminine other times; they toggle

depending on the grammatical requirements. For instance, the derived noun qhaadi (‫ )قاض‬is

40
masculine but it has a feminine form "qhaadiya" (‫ )قاضية‬as well. According to Shafi "each noun

in Arabic is either masculine or feminine as there is no neuter gender" (13). Gender is a

grammatical category in Arabic. Generally, the feminine gender is formed from the masculine

(participle or noun indicating profession) by adding the suffix /-atu/, e.g., /da:libun/ 'male

student', /da:libatun/ 'female student', /ibnun/ 'son', /ibnatun/ 'a daughter', etc. Karin and C.

Ryding state that:

Arabic exhibits two genders: masculine and feminine. For the most part, gender is overtly

marked, but there are words whose gender is covert and shows up only in agreement

sequences. The gender category into which a noun falls is semantically arbitrary, except

where nouns refer to human beings or other living creatures. Gender is marked on

adjectives, pronouns, and verbs, as well, but not inherent, as it is in nouns (53).

Animate Gender: Palmer (87) opines that animate gender in Arabic includes all the words for

persons and animals. This universal sentence of Palmer can be applied to Arabic. Hassan says

the Arabic masculine nouns: 'Haatim' (‫' )حاتم‬Qays' (‫ ) قيس‬are called muzkkar haqiqi (‫ )مذكر حقيقي‬a

real masculine', and feminine nouns: 'wilaadah' (‫' )والدة‬Usfuurah' (‫ )عصفورة‬are called mu'annas

haqiiqii )‫ (مؤنث حقيقي‬real feminine’ (588).

41
In Arabic, real masculine "Muzkhar haqiiqii" refers to an Arabic word which neither contains a

rounded consonant sound /‫ة‬/ (taa'un) nor an elongated vowel sound /‫ا‬/ (alif) as its final

inflectional morpheme such as in the words "qalamuun" (‫ )قلم‬meaning a pen, "daftaruun" (‫)دفتر‬

meaning a notebook, and "waraquun" (‫ )ورق‬meaning a sheet of paper etc. However, real

feminine "Mu'annath Haqiiqii" refers to any Arabic word that contains the rounded consonant

"taa'un" (‫ ة‬-) as its final inflectional morpheme like in the words "dajjaajatun" (‫ )دجاجة‬which

means "a hen" and "gurfatuun" (‫ )غرفة‬which means a room.

Animate Dual Gender: Arabic like English, has certain words that do not discriminate sex

between masculine and feminine nouns. These are considered dual gender. Hasan mentions four

examples sabuur )‫ (صبور‬mantiq )‫ (منطق‬and magshiim ) ‫ (مغشم‬as dual gender describing both

male and female as in rajlun sabuur, means a man is patient and Imra'atun Sabuur, means a

woman is patient (591-93).

Animate Common Gender: In Arabic however, words that do not show gender distinction

between masculine and feminine are regarded too as common gender. as-Safi (134) lists three

columns of gender in which he considers the first one as common gender in Arabic and English:

42
 Common Gloss Masculine Gloss Feminine Gloss
"‫"العام المشترك‬ "‫"مذكر‬ "‫"مؤنث‬
Tiflun ‫طفل‬ Child Waladun ‫ولد‬ Boy Bintun ‫بنت‬ Girl

Ahda Walidain ‫احد والدين‬ Single Waalidun ‫والد‬ Father Waalidatun ‫والدة‬ Mother
Parent
Tuyuur ‫طيور‬ Fowl Diikun ‫ديك‬ Cock Dajaajatun ‫دجاجة‬ Hen
Ganamun ‫غنم‬ Sheep Kabashun ‫كبش‬ Ram Shaatun ‫شاة‬ Ewe
Figure 2.0 English and Arabic Gender System

Inanimate Gender: Inanimate gender in Arabic are also classified into masculine and feminine.

Ibin Yaysh (91) cited in Fayadh (1999:70) that Arabic inanimate gender are of two types:

'tropical masculine' i.e. badr ()‫ بدر‬moon, lail (‫ )ليل‬night, babun (‫ )باب‬door...etc.; and 'unreal

feminine' i.e. gurfatun (‫ )غرفة‬room, sahrah (‫ )صحراء‬dessert, zikhra (‫ )ذكرى‬remembrance. Even

though they are inanimate, they are classified as male and female. Example, "‫( "ليل‬lail) meaning

night which is male while "‫( "باب‬babuun) meaning a door is female.

Collective and other noun related Gender in Arabic

According to Wright, collective nouns are those nouns denoting masculine and feminine and

basically animals and plants. For examples, hammaam (‫ )حمام‬pigeons, baqar (‫ )بقر‬cattle, Jiraad

(‫ )جراد‬locusts or grass hoppers, shajar (‫ )شجر‬trees, and sahaab (‫ )سحاب‬clouds (160). He adds

43
other nouns that are denoting “a rational being”, e.g. qaum (‫ )قوم‬one’s people or tribe, rahtin

(‫ )رهط‬or nafrun (‫ )نفر‬a small number of men, tujjar (‫ )تجر‬a company of merchants (181), but he

mentions two exceptions that are originally masculine: naasun (‫ )ناس‬men and ahal (‫ )أهل‬one’s

family.

Thatcher states that many words which are singular in form have a collective meaning, .e.g.

hajar (‫ )حجر‬rock, zaitun (‫ )زيتون‬olives( 27). He adds that to indicate a single object the feminine

end (‫ة‬-) is appended to such words e.g. hajratu (‫ )حجرة‬a piece of rock or stone, zaytunatu )‫(زيتونة‬

a single olive. Wright says that there are adjectives, which are attributable to females only,

haamil (‫ )حامل‬pregnant, âqir (‫ )عاقر‬barren, murdaqatun )‫ (مرضعة‬suckling, murdaq (‫)مرضعم‬,

madful (‫ )مطفل‬having a child with her( 187). Hasan mentions the same adjectives and says they

are perculiar to females, and they are one of their characteristics. He adds that such adjectives

may take taa'u al-ta'aneeth (‫)تاءالتانيث‬, meaning the "taa" that indicates female sex (marker of

female gender) but to drop it would be better( 593).

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2.6 Number System in English

Number is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and determiners to show singular,

dual, or plural forms. According to Quirk et Al (1973), English has two forms of number:

singular and plural. Singular denotes only one and plural denotes two or more. Nouns, pronouns,

verbs, the indefinite article and demonstratives are marked for number Adjectives and the

definite article are not marked for number. English subjects (head nouns, and pronouns) and

verbs show number agreement. Singular subjects (head nouns or pronouns) take singular verbs

and plural subjects take plural verbs. English demonstratives and the indefinite article also show

number agreement with the noun they modify.

In English, the class NOUN is associated with an inflectional category NUMBER. The plural

suffix /-s/ may be added to the base form which is singular to convert it to plural. This plural

suffix has a large number of allomorphs. The plural suffixes of nouns in English basically

includes suffix -s which is added to the singular nouns like cars, pens, books etc. and suffix -es

added to singular nouns ending in /s, z, sh, ch, j/ e.g. buses, bridges, Churches etc. Other zero

suffixes like police, cattle, clergy, people etc. Some English singular nouns ending with -f are

made plural by changing the suffix -f to -v and adding -es to indicate their plural forms such wife

45
- wives, knife -knives, calf -calves etc. However, in English, verbs are not fully inflected for

number. Only the present third person singular is marked for number. The present third person

singular is the form used with singular nouns, with he, she, it and words for which these

pronouns will substitute and with word groups. Examples, He goes, She writes, It eats, The boy

runs, One thinks. The present third person singular morpheme /-s/ has the same allomorph in the

same distribution as the plural and possessive forms of the noun: /-s/, /-z/ and /-iz/ as in stops,

plays, drives, pushes, changes. Moreover, the English pronoun system makes distinctions for

number. Number distinctions occur with the first person (I, we); and third person (he, she, it,

they). The second person pronoun (you) is unmarked for number. English also makes number

distinctions in definitive pronouns, e.g.: one, ones; other, others. English determiners like articles

and demonstratives in some forms show number agreement with the noun they modify. The

indefinite article occurs only before singular nouns (a book, an orange). However English

demonstratives have singular-plural forms:

Singular Plural

This book These books

46
That boy Those boys etc.

2.7 Number System in Arabic

In Arabic, Karin C. Ryding, Arabic nouns are marked for three different kinds of number:

singular, dual, and plural. Because Arabic has a special morphological category for the dual,

plural in Arabic refers to three or more. The singular is considered the base form of the noun, and

the dual and plural are extensions of that form in various ways. Karin C. Ryding attests that:

Arabic has three numbers categories: singular, dual, and plural. Whereas singular and

plural are familiar to most western learners, the dual is less familiar. The dual in Arabic is

used whenever the category of 'two' applies, whether it be in nouns, adjectives, pronouns

or verbs( 53-54).

A peculiar feature of the Arabic language is that its nouns, verbs and adjectives have three

numbers: singular "‫( "المفرد‬al-mufrad) dual "‫( "المثنى‬al-musanna) and plural "‫( "الجمع‬al-jum'u). The

singular words are unmarked.

47
The Arabic Dual

The dual is formed by adding the suffix /-a:ni/ in the nominative, /- ayni/ in the accusative and

genitive to the singular of the noun ( feminine and masculine) after the removal of the case

ending. For example, /malikun/ 'a king', /malika:ni/ 'two kings' in the nominative case,

/malikayni/ 'two kings' in the accusative and genitive cases.

Furthermore, if the singular ends in /a:/, the /a:/ becomes /w/ in the dual, e.g., /asa:/ 'a stick'

becomes /asaani/ 'two sticks'. If the feminine singular ends in /u/, the hamza /‫ء‬/ becomes /w/ in

the dual, e.g, /sahra:u/ 'desert' becomes /sahrawaini/ 'two deserts'. Beeston says besides the

singular and the plural which imply more than two entities, Arabic also uses dual when the

reference is to two individual entities of category (109).

The Arabic Plural

According to Cowan, there are two kinds of plural in Arabic. Arabic has the 'sound plural' (Jam'

saalim ‫ )الجميع السالم‬confined at least in the masculine) to participle and the nouns indicating the

profession or habitual actions. It also has the so called 'broken plural' (Jam' al- taksiir ‫)الجميع التكثر‬

48
which is made according to a pattern by changing the vowel within or outside the framework of

the radical consonant (18).

The sound plural is of two kinds: sound masculine plural (Jam' mudhakkar saalim ‫)جمع مذكر السام‬

and the sound feminine plural (jam' mu'annath saalim ‫)جميع المؤنث السالم‬. The sound masculine of

nouns and adjectives is formed by adding the suffix /-u:na/ for the nominative, e.g.,

/mudarisu:na/ 'male teachers', /mualimu:na/ 'teachers' , /najjaru:na/ 'carpenters', and /-i:na/ for the

other cases after the case ending of the nominative singular has been dropped, e.g., /najari:na/

'carpenters', /mualimi:na/ 'teachers'.

The sound feminine plural is formed by changing the suffix /-atun/, of the singular into/-a:tun/

for the nominative, e.g., /mudarrisa:tun/ 'female teachers', /muslima:tun/ 'muslim women' and /-

a:tin/ for the other cases, e.g., /mudarrisa:tin/ 'female teachers', /muslima:tin/ 'muslim women'.

Some feminine nouns take a masculine sound plural, e.g., /sanatun/ 'a year', /sinu:na/ 'years' and

some masculine nouns take a feminine sound plural e.g., /hayawa:nun/ 'an animal',

/hayawana:tun/ 'animals', /naba:tun/ 'plant', /nabata:tun/ 'plants'.

49
The Arabic Broken Plural (jam' al-taksiir )

The broken plural in Arabic is an interesting morphological aspect. Ryding states that the broken

or internal plural is highly characteristic of Arabic nouns and adjectives. It entails a shift of

vowel patterns within the word stem itself, as in English “man/men,” “foot/feet” or “mouse/mice.”

It may also include the affixation of an extra consonant, usually 'hamza' or 'waaw' (144).

The relationship between singular nouns and their broken plural forms relates to syllable and

stress patterns, so that there is often a characteristic rhythm to the singular/plural doublet when

said aloud.

Ryding provides the measuring tools of the most frequent and common patterns of Arabic broken

plural are:

I. /af'a:lun/ as in /aqla:mun/ plural of / qalamun/ 'a pen'.

II. /fu'u:lun/ as in /mulu:kun/ plural of /malikun/ 'a king'.

III. /fi'a:lun/ as in /rija:lun/ plural of /rajulun/ 'a man'.

IV. /fu'ilun/ as in /kutibun/ plural of /kita:bun/ 'a book'.

50
 V. /af'ulun/ as in /ayunun/ plural of /aynun/ 'an eye'.

VI. /fu'ala:'u/ as in /aqriba:'u/ plural of /qari:bun/ 'a relative'.

VII /fu’ala:’u/ as in /sufara:’u/ plural of /safi:run/ ‘an ambassador’.

VIII /fu’la:nun/ as in /bulda:nun/ plural of /baladun/ ‘a country’.

IX /fa’a:lilu/ as in /kawakibu/ plural of /kawkabun/ ‘a star’.

X /mafa:’i:lu/ as in /qana:di:lu/ plural of /qind:lun/ ‘a lamp’.

XI / fa'a;'ilu/ as in /rasa:'lu/ plural of /risa:latun/ 'a letter' (145-155).

In addition to the above mentioned patterns, irregular plurals are also found in Arabic. For

example, /'maha:tun/ plural of /'ummun/ 'a mother', /miya:hun/ plural of /ma:'un/ 'water',

/sufunun/ plural of /safi:natun/ 'ship' etc.

2.8 Empirical Review

51
A variety of comparative studies have been done on English and Arabic. Some of those are on

the linguistics of the languages, ranging from phonology, morphology, syntax to semantics.

Although the focus was not specifically on gender and number system, Umar (2013) has done a

broad linguistics comparison of English and Arabic verbal group. His scope only consists of

tense, aspect, voice and finiteness. Moreover, Ahmed and Nura (214) have done a morphological

study of gender and number in English and Arabic verbal groups. This current research is

focusing on gender and number system in English and Arabic in order to add more to the

existing academic records of the two languages and to explore some detailed information and

knowledge about the morphological differences and similarities between them.

Shehu (2012) conducts his contrastive analysis on English and Arabic present tense system with

teaching and learning implications. He was able to explain in details some of the possible

differences and similarities of tenses in English and Arabic by highlighting the different nature

and constructions as well as types tenses in both languages. Abu-Ruqaueq (2000) also compares

the two languages on the syntactic level. He focuses on the operations of temporal adverbials on

the word, phrase and clause levels. On those syntactic levels, English and Arabic both exhibit

equal adverbial functions, with some slight structural differences.

52
A more extensive and variable comparative grammatical scope on the two languages yet comes

from Thatcher (1993), who attempts to represent Arabic and English grammars on nouns and

verbs, as parts of speech. However, some of her English representations of Arabic grammatical

terminologies are too generalized or Anglo-centric. For instance, she translates the Arabic term

al-mudhaariu as "present participle". The example she gives on this is: Jalasa annaasu

Yashrabuuna alkhamra and translating this Arabic sentence by its syntactic order will be written

incorrectly like this " Sat the men they are drinking the wine". The correct English version of it is

"the men sat drinking wine). Thus, because she considers al-mudhaari'u as 'present participle',

she automatically translates 'yashrabuuna' as 'drinking', whereas the English 'drinking' is a non-

finite form (present participle); while the Arabic 'yashrabuuna' as a finite form (al-mudhaari'u),

as be seen from the word-for-word gloss given to it above. Arabic, being a highly morpho-

syntactic language, can form a whole clause within a word (as shown in 'yashrabuuna').

Awake (1988) and Ali (2003) both have conducted some semantic comparative studies on

English and Arabic dwelling on meaning and transfer (or translation) from either language to the

other. They distingnished between denotative and connotative meanings of words. For instance,

the Arabic word shaa'ir, English may proffer the lexical variants of singer, poet, hard and

53
minstrel. Atari (1994) suggests that a competent translator should select the most suitable Arabic

lexical correspondents in translating Arabic into English or vice versa. Umar (2023), however,

observes that greater than the challenges of denotative and connotative meanings to the translator

is the idiomatic one. According to him, idioms are so formulaic to their respective languages that

any shift of one from its source language to another will result in some loss of the original

idiomatic force. He cites the example of the English idiom 'bed of roses', posing the Arabic

literal alternative sareerulwuruud, and a metaphorical version hayaatunhanee'ah. The Arabic

metaphorical version comes closer to the English idiom but still loses the original words and

their socio-cultural force.

2.9 Theoretical Framework

This research employs contrastive analysis being one of the language problem-solving tools used

in identifying the areas of diverging and converging between two or more languages. Fisiak

defines CA as a linguistic discipline that is concerned with comparing two or more systems of

languages to determine similarities and differences between them (1). The interest of CA is in the

Interlingual errors made by students usually stem from mother tongue interference. CA helps

54
teachers predict these errors and present some remedial solutions to these problems before they

occur. McArthur posits that:

Contrastive analysis is a branch of linguistics that describes similarities and differences

among two or more languages, at such levels as phonology, grammar, and semantics,

especially in order to improve language teaching and translation (216).

The history of Contrastive Linguistic Analysis was central to linguistic studies, notably in the

19th century and early 20th century. Contrastive analysis is a branch of historical linguistic

studies. It deals with the comparison of the characteristics of different languages or different

states of a language through history. It starts with the discovery of the similarities and differences

as well between languages or within the same language.

However, some linguists and pioneers in the field of language pedagogy were well aware of the

pull of the mother tongue in learning a target language. It was Charles (1945) who firmly

established contrastive linguistic analysis as an inter component of the methodology of target

language teaching (Sridhar, 209). For Catford (157), “modern CA" starts with Lado (2). So,

Lado's work has become a classic field manual for practical contrastive studies. Lado believes

55
that CA is a means of identifying the areas of difficulty for language learners that could be

managed with suitable exercise (2). Banathy opines that CA is a process by which two languages

are compared in order to identify similarities and differences between their linguistic systems

(3).The background for CA, as applied to language teaching, is the assumption that the native

language plays a role in learning a second language. Mother tongue influence is sometimes very

obvious. Influence from the mother tongue is not just negative, however; learning a related

language is much easier than learning one that is very different. So, Arabic speakers learning the

English language may have tense learning problems because the two languages differ from each

other in their tense system. Lado believes that the student who comes in contact with a new

language may find those elements that are similar to his native language simpler for him and

those elements that are different will be difficult (2). These sorts of observations have probably

always been made in language learning and in the contact between native and foreign speaker.

The main purpose of contrastive analysis is to give a detailed description of the differences

between the languages compared as well as to contribute to the task of foreign language teaching.

It provides teaching materials and information that could help in the organization of the teaching

syllabus. When people have written textbooks for learners of foreign languages, there has

56
regularly been an element of comparison between the native language and the foreign language

to be learned.

CA is also directed specifically to those areas of language where errors are most frequent and it

is likely to provide information on why the errors occur which at the same time suggest ways of

organizing teaching materials which can anticipate and overcome the problems. Catford (159-

173) believes that the data supplied by CA can be of value to the teacher, and the textbook writer.

CA is still relevant in assisting language teachers with their teaching methods and techniques

(Bahram and Somayyeh, 612).

Previous studies conducted by Fisiak (1) clarify that CA is concerned with solving the problems

that language learners have in learning English as Foreign Language. As Lado makes clear: "the

teacher who has made a comparison of the foreign language will know better what the real

problems are and can provide for teaching them. So the origins of CA were pedagogic" (2).

Some of the researchers discussed grammatical errors made by Arabic learners of English as a

second language using CA include: Emam, 1972; Meziani, (1973), El-hibir, (1976) Mukattash,

(1978), Al-Buainain, (1988), Kharma and Hajjaj, (1989), El- hibir & Altaha,(1992) Ghrib, (2001)

and Mahmoud, (2002).

57
Looking at how these researchers and scholars use CA and arrived at valid conclusion, it can be

said that CA helps to solve the problems likely to be encountered by the Arabic speaker learning

English and vice-versa in the area of gender and number system.

58
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

This chapter explains the procedures, strategies as well as the method utilized for data collection

and analysis in the research. These include the type of data used and the sources from which they

were obtained as a means to ensure the credibility of the research findings and conclusion, since

either of them depends heavily on the methodologies adopted in the research.

3.1 Research Procedure

3.1.1 Types of Data

The variety of Arabic selected for this research is the standard form referred as Lugátul Al-

Arabiya al-fus-ha (‫)اللغة العربية الفصحة‬. It is the form taught in schools and used in both national

and international media. Likewise, Standard English is the variety chosen for the comparative

study since it is the one also used in schools as well as the other mediums of instructions. The

data employed in this study are mostly text – oriented. Both written sources and informants were

mostly used as reference materials. With regard to items of Arabic data, some are texts oriented,

59
while others were collected by listening to the speeches and utterances of some good speakers of

Arabic through unstructured interview.

3.1.2 Sources of Data Collection

The study utilizes two major sources of data collection for the purpose of this research: primary

and secondary.

3.1.2.1 The Primary Sources of Data

The primary sources of data for this research entails oral interview with the language experts

from both English and Arabic in Kaduna State University. With regards to Arabic, students and

lecturers from Arabic Department of the University were interviewed to obtain primary data for

the comparative study of this research.

3.1.2.2 The Secondary Sources of Data

The secondary sources of data have complemented the primary sources. The secondary sources

comprise written literature, textbooks, journals, unpublished thesis and pamphlets. Some of the

materials consulted were historical documentations.

3.2 Data Collection Techniques

The researcher employs critical observation as one of the techniques for generating data for the

research. Furthermore, the researcher uses an unstructured interview to elicit relevant data from

60
informants. The researcher has initiated discussion with the informants in an informal and

relaxed atmosphere. This method of data collection has helped the researcher to obtain

significant, reliable and valid data. This has become possible by following the pattern, structures

of processes of Arabic gender and number

systems, especially as they occur in real life situations.

3.2.1 Unstructured Interview

The researcher used an unstructured interview as one of the techniques for eliciting relevant

linguistic data from informants. Discussions were employed and questions were presented to the

informants in an informal and relaxed atmosphere where certain significant, reliable and valid

information and fact about the Arabic language and its structures (data) could be elicited and

gathered; which could, however, be difficult in formal situation. Face–to–face interviews and

questions had no predetermined alternative responses from the informants. However, the

responses were further validated and complemented by non-participant observation technique.

3.2.2 Non – Participant Observation

Non-participant observation is one of the most widely and commonly utilized descriptive

linguistic methods in the gathering and collection of data in the field of linguistic research. The

researcher has made use of this technique because it is expedient in acquiring first-hand

61
information, that is, the natural source for primary data under investigation. This instrumental

approach has provided the researcher with the opportunity to practically observe how gender and

number in the Arabic language are being formed.

3.2.3 Method of Data Analysis

The data collected for the study have been presented and analyzed in a tabular format starting

with the English language as the yardstick for the research and then the Arabic language. The

analysis of the data begins with gender system in English followed by that of Arabic. Likewise,

goes the analysis of number system in English and vice versa.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS

4.0 Introduction

This chapter portrays the presentation and analysis of the data gathered for the case study. The

researcher has made a significant attempt - in comparing the processes as well as types of gender

and number system - in English and Arabic. The attempt is aimed at revealing the similarities

and dissimilarities of both languages. In this chapter, the analysis of the data collected for the

research are based on these linguistic processes: masculine and feminine, common, neuter gender

systems; singular, plural and dual number systems.

4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis

4.1.1 Gender System

Both English and Hausa possess gender system. Gender system plays a profound role in both

languages. In both English and Arabic, gender denotes names of all nouns including people,

animals, places, things and abstract ideas.

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4.1.2 Gender System In English

In English, there are basically four kinds of gender systems namely: masculine, feminine,

common and neuter.

4.1.2.1 English Masculine and Feminine Gender

Masculine gender, in the English language, refers to a name restrictively for male sex, either

human being or animal. On the other hand, feminine gender implies a name attributed to female

sex, whether human being or animal. Examples:

Masculine and Feminine genders Related to Nouns

These are forms of masculine and feminine genders in English found in nouns. E.g

Table 1 Gender Distinction in Persons

Masculine (Human) Feminine (Human)

Husband Wife
Nephew Niece
Man Woman
Father Mother
Uncle Aunt

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The table above illustrates that English genders related to people can be in accordance to natural

opposite connection - between male and female sexs - based on lexical sense relation.

Table 2 Gender Distinction in Animals

Masculine (Animal) Feminine (Animal)

Drone Bee
Ram Ewe
Billy Nanny
Dog Bitch
Boar Sow
The above table exhibits its examples much like the preceded table. It depicts the masculinity

and the femininity of the stated animals on the basis of their lexical sense relation (opposite

meaning).

Table 3 Gender Distinction in Lexical Forms (Morphology)

Masculine Feminine
Fiance Fiancee
Starward Starwardess
Launderer Laundress
Testator Testatrix
Prosecutor Proscutrix

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The above table also shows the gender distinction in English between male and female, made

through derivational process, by adding a suffix like "-e", or "-es" and changing the suffix of the

unmarked masculine gender "-or" entirely with another "-trix".

Masculine and Feminine Genders Related to Pronouns

These are another forms of masculine and feminine genders manifested in the English pronouns.

E.g.

Table 4 Third Person Singular Gender Distinction

Gender Nominative Case Accusative Case Genitive Case

Male He Him /Himself His
Female She Her/Herself Her/Hers
The above table highlights gender distinction in English between male and female from a

grammatical context through pronouns.

Table 5 Gender Distinction in Low Animals

Male Female
He-goat She-goat
Male-frog Female-frog
Hen-peasant Cock-peasant

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The table above indicates English gender distinction among low animals by the use of gender

markers: he and she, male and female and hen and cock. Although considered inanimates in

English with no gender distinction, the low animals are made animates, when attached with

gender makers, to indicate masculinity or femininity between them as shown in the table.

4.1.1.2 Common Gender

Common gender in English denotes a noun or name that makes no distinction between male or

female. It shows that a particular name can be used to refer to human being, either male or

female. English exhibits common gender more largely in nouns than in pronouns. In other words,

common gender in English is manifested more in the lexical class (strictly nouns) and relatively

less in the grammatical class (strictly pronouns) Examples:

Table 1 Common Gender in Lexical Words

Common Masculine Feminine Gender Mark

Friend Friend Friend Boyfriend/Girlfriend
Lecturer Lecturer lecturer Male lecturer/Female Lecturer
Employer Employer Employer Male employer/Female Employer

Doctor Doctor Doctor Male doctor/Female Doctor

Soldier Soldier Soldier Male soldier/Female Soldier

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The table above showcases the equal use of English common gender between male and female

persons. Nonetheless, the table shows English common gender is strictly attributed to male or

female if being used with a peculiar gender maker as highlighted.

Table 2 Common Gender in Pronouns

Person Nom. Case Accus. Gen. Case Usage

Case
1st Person Singular I Me My/Mine Male/Female
1st person Plural We Us Our/Ours Males/Females
2nd Person Plural You You Your/Yours Male(s)/Female(s)

3rd Person Plural They Them Theirs Males/Females

The above table portrays that English common gender in pronouns are rather few. It shows that

common gender only goes with first person, second person and third person personal pronouns.

4.3.1 Neuter Gender

Neuter gender in English, denotes a name for inanimate, an object or genderless thing, which is

neither male nor female. Neuter gender is mostly found in the English language; it is less or

entirely non-existent in other languages and Arabic is no an exception. Examples:

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Table 1 Neuter Gender Related to English concrete and Abstract nouns

Concrete Noun Abstract Noun

Book Science
Camera Poetry

Lamp Love

Radio Happiness

Album Argument

Table 2 Neuter Gender Related to English Pronouns

Nominative Case Accusative Case Possessive Case Reflexive Form

It It Its/Its Itself
They Them Their/Their Themselves

Table 1 and Table 2 both show that neuter gender exists in English. Table 1 demonstrates that

there is no gender distinction with regards to inanimate nouns in English, most especially

concrete and abstract ones. The table also indicates that neuter gender is more found in English

69
nouns than in pronouns. In addition, the two tables show that English gender is more lexically

functional and less grammatical as in the case of pronouns. It is discovered that this category of

gender is entirely non-existent in the Arabic language.

4.4.1 Gender System In Arabic

Gender system, in the Arabic language called "Al-jins" (‫)الجنس‬, is of two kinds - masculine - and

feminine. Arabic masculine gender is subdivided into "Real Masculine", technically referred to

as "Muzakkar Haqiiqii" (‫ )مذكر حقيقي‬and "Real Feminine" as "Mu'annath Haqiiqii" (‫)مؤنث حقيقي‬.

These Arabic masculine and feminine genders also subdivided into "unreal masculine" called

"Muzakkar Mujazee" (‫ )مذكر مجازي‬and "unreal feminine" called in Arabic as "Mu'annas

Mujazee" (‫)مؤنث مجازي‬.

Real Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders

In Arabic, real masculine refers to any naturally known name for male creation either human

being or animal. On the contrary, real feminine in Arabic is any purely female name used for

female sex both human being and animal. In other words, it refers to a name given to a person or

an animal that births or lays eggs. Examples:

70
Table 1 Real Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders in Animate Nouns

Real Masculine "‫"مذكر حقيقي‬ Gloss Real Feminine "‫"مؤنث حقيقي‬ Gloss
(Muzakkar Haqiiqii) (Mu'annath Haqiiqii)
Gulaamun ‫غالم‬ Boy Bintun ‫بنت‬ Girl

Rajulun ‫رجل‬ Man Imraa'atun ‫امراة‬ Woman

Diflun ‫طفل‬ Male infant Diflatun ‫طفلة‬ Female infant

Himaarun ‫حمار‬ Jack nattAun ‫أتان‬ Jenny

Diikun ‫ديكن‬ Cock atattattun ‫دجاجة‬ Hen

The above table indicates that Arabic masculine and feminine genders are unlike in English. It

shows an Arabic feminine gender is formed out of masculine gender when its stem is attached

with a female gender maker called "taa'un murbutah" (‫ ة‬-), meaning the closed "ta". The table

also shows other Arabic feminine genders void of any additional feminine morphemes like

"baitun" (‫ )بيت‬without the closed "ta" (‫ ة‬-) at its end. Such nouns are called solid or hard nouns in

terms of structure in Arabic.

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Unreal Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders

Unreal Arabic masculine gender signifies any assumed male name given to something neither a

human nor an animal. Generally, such a male name given to such a thing is never on the basis of

evident and inherent masculinity, but culturally linguistic belief in Arabic speech community.

Meanwhile, unreal Arabic feminine Gender implies any female name referable to a certain non-

living thing or object. This female name is used for inanimate being as though it is an animate

being. Examples:

Table 2 Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders in Inanimate Nouns

Unreal Masculine "‫"مذكر مجازي‬ Gloss Unreal Feminine "‫"مؤنث مجازي‬ Gloss
(Muzakkar Mujazee) (Mu'annath mujazee)

Qamarun ‫قمر‬ Moon Shajaa'atun ‫شجاعة‬ Bravery

Lailun ‫ليل‬ Night Sahraa ‫صحراء‬ Dessert

Kitaabun. ‫كتاب‬ Book Sahifatun ‫صحيفة‬ Newspaper

ntbatkaA ‫مكتب‬ Desk Mustashfaa ‫مستشفى‬ Hospital

Baitun. ‫بيت‬ House Mahabatun ‫محبة‬ Love

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The table above displays that Arabic makes gender distinction among genderless and inanimate

nouns. This feature is more or less absence in English. It depicts that some female inanimate

nouns in Arabic are by nature without feminine suffix "taa'un murbutah" (‫)ة‬, but with other

feminine suffixes like "alif mumduud" )‫ )اء‬and "maqsurah" (‫)ي‬. Thus, this is based on

convention and arbitrary in the Arabic language.

Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders Related to Adjectives E.g.

Table 3 Arabic Gender Distinction in Adjectives

Masculine Gloss Feminine Gloss

"Muzakkar " (Adjective) "Mu'annath "
( ‫)مذكر‬ ( ‫)مؤنث‬

Jamiilun ‫جميل‬ Pretty male Jamiilatun ‫جميلة‬ Pretty female

Naziifun ‫نظيف‬ Neat male Nazifatun ‫نظيفة‬ Neat female

Mufiidun ‫مفيد‬ Useful male Mufiidatun ‫مفيدة‬ Useful female

Qabiihun ‫قبيح‬ Terrible male Qabiihatun ‫قبيحة‬ Terrible female

Sahiihun ‫صحيح‬ Authentic male Sahiihatun ‫صحيحة‬ Authentic female

73
This table portrays the realization of Arabic gender distinction in relation to adjectives. Arabic,

draws such a gender difference using the same female gender suffix "taa'un murbutah" (-‫)ة‬. In

comparison to English, this unique Arabic adjectival gender feature, is hardly found.

Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders Related to Pronouns E.g.

Table 4 Arabic Gender Distinction in Second Person(s)

Sex Singular Gloss Dual Gloss Plural Gloss

Male Anta ‫أنت‬ You Antumaa ‫أنتما‬ You Antum ‫أنتم‬ You (Mas.)

Female Anti ‫انت‬ You Antumaa ‫أنتما‬ You Antunna ‫أنتن‬ You (Fem.)

Table 5 Third Person Animate Gender

Sex Singular Gloss Dual Gloss Plural Gloss

Male Huwa ‫هو‬ He Humaa ‫هما‬ They Hum ‫هم‬ They (Mas.)

Female Hiya ‫هي‬ She Humaa ‫هما‬ They Hunna ‫هن‬ They (Fem.)

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Both tables above reveal that Arabic, unlike English, has more amazing gender variations

between male(s) and female(s), in second and third person pronouns. In more clear terms, the

tables show gender variations for second pronoun singular(s) (you) between male and female sex.

Same goes with regards to second person plurals (males and females) as well as third person

plurals (males and females). But much like English, Arabic makes no gender distinction for dual

opposite parties except with reference to number as shown in the table.

Table 6 Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders in Relative Pronouns

Sex Singular Gloss Dual Gloss Plural Gloss

Male Allazi ‫الذي‬ Who Allazaani ‫اللذان‬ Who Allazaini ‫الذين‬ Who/that

Allazaini ‫اللذين‬
Female Allati ‫التي‬ Who Allataani ‫اللتان‬ Who Allaati ‫الالتي‬ Who/that

Allataini ‫اللتين‬
The above table exhibits another Arabic gender variation in relative pronouns for singular, dual

and plural persons of both the opposite sexs. It shows dual gender variation for males and

females realizable by suffixation: "-aani" (‫ان‬-) for subjective case or "aini" (‫ ين‬-) for objective

case of dual males and "taani" (‫ان‬-), subjective case and "taini" (‫ ين‬-) objective for dual females.

75
 Again, same goes to the Arabic gender relatives as highlighted by the table. This kind of gender

variation is perculiar to Arabic and entirely absent in the English language.

Table 7 Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders in Demonstratives

Sex Singular Gloss Dual Gloss Plural Gloss

Male Hazaa ‫هذا‬ This Hazaani ‫هذان‬ These Haa'ulaa'i ‫هؤالء‬ These

Hazaini ‫هذين‬

Female Hazihi ‫هذه‬ This Haataani ‫هاتان‬ These Haa'ulaa'i ‫هؤالء‬ These

Haataini ‫هاتين‬

Male Zalika ‫ذلك‬ That Zaaka ‫ذاك‬ Those Ulaa'ika ‫أولئك‬ Those

Zaanika ‫ذانك‬

Female Tilki ‫تلك‬ That Taanika ‫ تانك‬Those Ulaa'ika ‫أولئك‬ Those

The table above demonstrates Arabic gender differences in respect to pointing words for the

opposite sexs. It shows that Arabic has peculiar singular pointing words denoting near and

distant singular nouns for both sexs, and same for dual gender (either sexs). But it shows Arabic

76
 plural demonstratives are used with no discrimination for both near and distant opposites. These

gender distinctions however do not exist in the English language.

Arabic Masculine and Feminine Genders Related to Verbs

Table 8 Second Person Plural Gender

Sex Second Gloss Past Gender Suffix Gloss Progressive Gender Prefix Gloss
Person

Male Antum You Katab-tum You ta-ktub-uu-na You are

‫أنتم‬ ‫كتبتم‬ wrote ‫تكتبون‬ writing

Female Antunna You Katab-tunna You ta-ktub-uu-na You are

‫أنتن‬ ‫كتبتن‬ wrote ‫تكتبون‬ writing

The table above shows unique gender variations in relation to the Arabic verbs for second person

plurals, males and females. Arabic gender difference between the opposite sexs as highlighted in

the table lies in the past and progressive tenses. The table shows that the past verbal suffixes "-

tum" (‫ تم‬-) is used for the plural second persons (males) and "-tunna" (‫ تن‬-) for the counterparts

77
(females). Arabic makes no gender distinction in terms of progressive tense as seen from the

examples. Nevertheless, either of the opposite genders uses the same Arabic progressive verbal

prefix "-ta" (‫ت‬-) and suffixes "-uuna" (‫ون‬-) as highlighted by the table.

Table 9 Third Person Singular Gender

Sex Singular Gloss Past Gender Gloss Progressive Gloss

Suffix Gender Prefix

Male Huwa ‫هو‬ He katab-a ‫كتب‬ He wrote ya-ktub-u ‫يكتب‬ He is writing

Female Hiya ‫هي‬ She katab-at ‫كتبت‬ She wrote ta-ktub-u ‫تكتب‬ She is writing

Table 10 Third Person Dual Gender

Sex Dual Gloss Past Gender Gloss Progressive Gender Gloss

Suffix Prefix

Male Humaa ‫هما‬ They katab-aa ‫كتبا‬ They ya-ktub-aa-ni ‫يكتبان‬ They are
wrote writing

Female Humaa ‫هما‬ They katab-at-aa ‫كتبتا‬ They ta-ktub-aa-ni ‫تكتبان‬ They are
wrote writing

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Table 11 Third Person Plural Gender

Sex Plural Gloss Past Gender Gloss Progressive Gender Gloss

Suffix Prefix

Male Hum ‫هم‬ They katab-uu ‫كتبوا‬ They ya-ktub-uu-na ‫يكتبون‬. They are
wrote writing

Female Hunna ‫هن‬ They katab-na ‫كتبن‬ They ya-ktub-na ‫يكتبن‬ They are
wrote writing

The three tables above showcase the Arabic gender distinctions manifested in both sexs related

to the past and the progressive tenses. In the context of past tense, it shows that the Arabic suffix

"-ta" (‫ت‬-) is attached to third singular male gender "‫( "هو‬he) and so "-ti" (‫ت‬-) to the singular

female sex" ‫( "هي‬she). However, in the progressive tense, gender distinction is made, via the

Arabic gender prefixes: "-ya" (‫ي‬-) for third singular person "‫( "هو‬he) and "-ta" )-‫(ت‬ for the

opposite sex "‫( "هي‬she). In the case of dual third persons for past tense, gender distinction is

made by the suffix "-aa" (‫ا‬-) for dual males and "-taa" (‫تا‬-) for the dual females respectively.

While for their progressive tense (dual third persons), Arabic gender prefixes like "-ya" (‫ي‬-) is

used for the male and "-ta")‫ت‬-( for the opposite sex.

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Also, for their past plural genders as displayed in the table, the Arabic suffix "-uu" (-‫ )وا‬is used

for males and "-na" (‫ن‬-) for females. In their progressive tense however prefix "-ya" is attached

for males and "-ta" (‫ت‬-) for females.

4.2. Arabic Common Gender System

Just like in English, common gender in Arabic, shows no masculine and feminine features in

nouns or persons. Common gender in Arabic manifests in some particular pronouns, verbs,

especially in past and progressive tense. Examples:

Arabic Common Gender in Pronouns and Verbs Examples:

Table 1 First Person Common Gender

Common Gloss Past Gender Gloss Progressive Gloss

Pronoun Suffix Gender Prefix

Ana ‫انا‬ I Katab-tu ‫كتبت‬ I wrote a-ktubu ‫أكتب‬ I am writing

80
Nahanu ‫نحن‬ We Katab-na ‫كتبنا‬ We wrote na-ktubu ‫نكتب‬ We are writing

The table above portrays that the Arabic first person singular pronoun "Ana" (‫ )أنا‬is much like its

English equivalent "I". Likewise, same goes to "Nahunu" (‫ )نحن‬in Arabic with its English

equivalent "we". They are genderless with no gender distinction. As the examples show in the

table, the Arabic past singular and plural gender suffixes "-tu" (-‫ )ت‬and "-na"(-‫ )ن‬are for both

opposite sexs. The same goes to their progressive gender prefixes, "-a" (-‫ )أ‬with the English

equivalent "I" and "-na" (‫نا‬-) with "we".

Table: 2 Second Person Common Gender

Sex Dual Gloss Past Gender Gloss Progressive Gloss

Suffix Gender Prefix

Male Antumaa You katab-tum-aa You ta-ktub-aa-ni You are

‫أنتما‬ ‫كتبتما‬ wrote ‫تكتبان‬ Writing

Female Antumaa You katab-tum-aa You ta-ktub-aa-ni You are

‫أنتما‬ ‫كتبتما‬ wrote ‫تكتبان‬ Writing

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The above table equally shows Arabic common gender used for dual second persons, whether

two males or females. Both use the same suffix of dual past marker "-aa" (-‫ )ا‬as their gender

feature. The same goes in their dual progressive gender prefix "-aani" (-‫)ان‬

4.2 Number System

Generally, number system is a universal phenomenon that exists in all human languages. This

linguistic fact deals with nouns, and all human languages possess nouns. Thus, number system

simply demonstrates singular and plural forms of a particular language. Therefore, as part of

universal languages, both English and Arabic are inclusive with regards to this phenomenon.

4.2.1 Number System In English

English number system is primarily divided into singular and plural numbers. In English,

singular number denotes one thing, one person, an entity or a unit etc. While the plural number

designates anything more than one and they are classified into regular and irregular forms.

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4.2.1.1 English Singular Number

English, like other languages, entails single name of persons, animals, places, things as well as

abstract ideas, examples:

Table 1 Singular Nouns

Person Animal Plant Place Thing/Object Abstract thing

Teacher Cat Orange Country Pen Idea
Lady Lion Mango Town Book Achievement
Man Ram Apple Village Table Reason
Engineer Zebra Tomato School Ruler Experience
Nurse Goat Onion Market Plane Rule

This table illustrates the singular forms of various nouns in English.

4.1.3 English Regular Plural Number

Plural number in English is classified into regular and irregular forms. English singular nouns

which take either a plural "-s" or -"es' as their suffixes to form their plurals are called regular.

Examples:

83
Table 2 English Regular Plural Nouns with Plural "-s"

Singular Form Plural Suffix Plural Form

Tongue -s Tongues
Balloon -s Balloons
Toe -s Toes
Kite -s Kites
Lake -s Lakes

This table shows the conversion of English singular nouns into plural forms by adding plural

suffix "-s" at their endings. However, there are other English compound nouns that take plural "-

s". Example:

Table 4 English plural compound nouns Realized with Plural "s"

Singular Form Plural Suffix Plural Form

Coat-of-arm -s Coats-of-arm
Passer-by -s Passers-by
Lieutenant-general -s Lieutenant-generals
Solicitor-general -s Solicitors-general
Step-father -s Step-fathers

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The above table shows that some English compound nouns have their plural marker "-s" added at

the end of the initial words and others at the second words.

Table 5 English Regular Plural Nouns with "-es" as Plural Suffix

Singular Form Plural Suffix Plural Form

Batch -es Batches
bush -es Bushes
Kiss -es Kisses
Fox -es Foxes
Tomato -es Tomatoes
Buzz -es Buzzes
The table above illustrates that English nouns ending in –sh, -ch, -s, -z, and –x carry "ies" to

form their plural forms.

English Irregular Plural Number

In English, those singular nouns that carry other plural suffixes for the formation of their plural

forms instead of "-s or -es" are called irregular plurals. The irregular plural nouns in English

take plural suffixes such as "-ies", "-ves", "en" and other internal vowel changes at their ends.

Examples:

85
Table 6 Irregular Plural Nouns With "-ies" as Plural Suffix

Singular Form Plural Suffix Plural Form

Penny -ies Pennies
Supply -ies Supplies
Cry -ies Cries
Diary -ies Diaries
Duty -ies Duties
The table above shows how English singular nouns, ending in "-y' being preceded by a

consonant, changing into plural forms, by taking "-ies" in their ends.

Table 7 English Plural Nouns With "-ves" as Plural Suffix

Singular Form Plural Suffix Plural Form

Calf -ves Calves

Half -ves Halves

Wolf -ves Wolves
Loaf -ves Loaves
Shelf -ves Shelves

The table above reveals the conversion of English singular words, into irregular plural forms

with Suffix"-ves", by removing their final letter "-f". Note: there are few exceptions for the

above plural forms in English. E.g.

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Table 8 Exceptions of English Plural Form

Singular Form No Change In Suffix Plural Form

Chief -f Chiefs
Grief -f Griefs
Hoof -f Hoofs
Dwarf -f Dwarfs
Proof -f Proofs
The above table shows the exception of English singular forms with tendency of being irregular,

and yet taking plural "-s".

Table 9 English Irregular Plurals With "-en" as Plural Suffix

Singular Form Plural Suffix Plural Form

Child -en Children
Ox -en Oxen
The above table shows English singulars changed into irregular plurals with "-en".

Table 10 English Plural nouns formed by vowel (s) Change

Singular Form Plural vowel Plural Form

Louse/Mouse -i Lice/Mice
Man/Woman -en Men/women
Foot/tooth/goose -ee Feet/teeth/geese

The table above shows English irregular plural forms with internal vowel change.

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Table 11 English plural forms for Latin and Greek plural suffixes

Singular Form Greek /Latin Plural Endings Plural Form

Erratum -a Errata
Symposium -a Symposia
Stimulus/Radius -i or -ii Stimuli/Radii
Criterion -a Criteria
Oasis -es Oases
The table above shows English irregular plurals with Latin and Greek oringins.

Table 12 Other English nouns used as singular and plural forms. E.g

English Plural Forms With No Singular Forms

Riches Surroundings Eatables
Tidings Premises Annals
Thanks Valuables Measles

Breeches Goods Arms

Alms Stockings Wages
The table above shows English plural nouns having no singular forms at all.

Table 13 Uncommon English Number With Zero-Suffix

Treated as Either Singular or Plural

Singular Plural Singular Plural
Sheep Sheep Swine Swine

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Deer Deer Score Score
Pair Pair Dozen Dozen
Species Species Means Means
Apparatus Apparatus Cannon Cannon
The table above illustrates examples of rare English words with no plural suffix and vowel

change treated as singular and plural. This unchanged plural form is termed as zero-suffix

(Carstairs, 22).

4.2.3 Number System in Arabic

Unlike English number classifications which are divided into singular and plural, Arabic number

is categorized into three forms namely: singular, dual, and plural.

4.2.3.1 Arabic Singular Number (mufrad ‫)مفرد‬

Singular is technically called "mufrad" (‫ )مفرد‬in Arabic. Like in English, it refers to one person or

animal, a thing or an object, a place or an abstract idea. The linguistic function of singular

number in Arabic is much like in English. This is simply because, in the Arabic language,

singular also denotes exactly one thing like does the English language. Examples:

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Table 1 Arabic Singular Number (mufrad ‫)مفرد‬

Singular Nouns
Person Gloss Animal Gloss Plant Gloss
Jazzaarun ‫جزار‬ Butcher Samakun ‫سمك‬ Fish Burtuqaal ‫برتقال‬ Orange
Dabibiibun ‫طبيب‬ Doctor Fa'aratun ‫فأرة‬ Rat Mauzun ‫موز‬ Banana
Usratun ‫أسرة‬ Family Farasun ‫فرس‬ Horse Basalun ‫بصل‬ Onion
Fallahun ‫فالح‬ Farmer Kalbun ‫كلب‬ Dog Jazar ‫جزر‬ Carrot
Mariid ‫مريض‬ Patient Baqaratun ‫بقرة‬ Cow Tuffaahun ‫تفاح‬ Apple

Table 2 Other English Singular Numbers for Objects, Places and Abstract Ideas

Singular Nouns
Object Gloss Place Gloss Abstract Idea Gloss
Haafalatun ‫حافلة‬ Bus Masjid ‫مسجد‬ Mosque Ilmun ‫علم‬ Knowledge
Qitaarun ‫قطار‬ Train Idaratun. ‫إدارة‬ Office Aqalun ‫عقل‬ Sense
Safiinatun ‫سفينة‬ Ship Suuqun ‫سوق‬ Market Niyatun ‫نية‬ Intention
Taa'iratun ‫طائرة‬ Plane Fasulun ‫ فصل‬Class Zikira ‫ذكرى‬ Pondering
Darraajatun ‫دراجة‬ Bike Majlis ‫ مجلس‬Gathering Muhabba ‫محبة‬ Love

The two tables above show Arabic singular nouns from root forms without any affixational

attachment.

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Arabic Dual Number (muthanna ‫(مثني‬

Arabic dual number is called "muthanna" (‫)مثنا‬. It suggests two entities or nouns, it denotes

something more than one but not more than two or above. The realization of dual number in

Arabic is achieved by the addition of "Alif and nunun" (‫ )ان‬or "ya'u and nunun" (‫ )ين‬through

suffixation. Example:

Table 3 Patterns of Arabic Dual Number

Meanings Examples Plural Suffixes Position

Two men arrived at the ‫حضر رجالن إلي المدرسة‬ Rafa'

school. Hadaral rajulaani ilal al "‫"ان‬
madarasati (Nominative
The two diligent men ‫أن المجتهدان محبوبان‬ inaa- Case)
are likable. Anna mujtahidaani mahbuubaani
The two female ‫كان الطالبتان المجتهدتان‬
students are diligent. Kaanal taalibataani al
mujtahidataani
I asked the two famous ‫سألت المعلمين المشهورين‬ Nasab
male teachers. Sa'aaltu al mu'alumaiini "‫"ين‬ (Accusative
Case)
I passed by the two ‫مرت با الطريقين طولين‬ inii- Jaar
long streets. Marartu bil tariiqaiini tawilaiini

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I saw the two male ‫رأيت التلمذين في الفصل‬ (Genitive
students in the class. Ra'aitu al tulmizaiini fil fasal Case)

The table above illustrates the formation of Arabic dual singular number; Arabic dual nouns

carry "inaa-" (‫ )ان‬when it used as a subjective case and "inii-" (‫ )ين‬when used as objective case as

well as possessive case. However, it is important to know that English does not have dual

number at all.

Arabic Plural Number

Plural Number in Arabic ranges from three to above. Arabic Plural System is divided into two

major types. They are regular plural and irregular plural. Arabic regular plural number is also

subdivided into two types: "Jam'u Mazakkat Saalim" (‫)جمع مذكر سالم‬, denoting plural masculine

forms and "Jam'u Mu'annath Saalim" (‫)جمع مؤنث سالم‬, denoting plural feminine forms.

Arabic Regular Masculine Plural (Jam'u Muzakkar Saalim ‫)جمع مذكر سالم‬

Regular masculine plural in Arabic is formed by adding "waawun" (‫ )واو‬or "nuunun" (‫ )نون‬at the

end of an Arabic word as inflectional suffixes. Examples:

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Table 4 Patterns of Arabic Regular Masculine Plural

Meanings Examples Plural Suffixes Position

The dedicated men ‫فاز المجدون‬ ‫رفع‬

have succeeded. Faaza al mujidduuna "‫ون‬-"
The travelers (men) are ‫المسافرون كتبون‬ Rafa'
writers. btarkaaAt nnuunA samtm rA
(Nominative)
anuu-
Muslim (men) have ‫حضر المسلمون إلي المسجد‬
arrived at the Mosque. nnuumtlstAt td samdrs
rdt td stmarlr
The latecomers entered ‫دكلوا اإلدارة متأخرين‬ ‫نصب‬
the office Dakhaluu al idarota "‫ين‬-" Nasab
muta’akkhiriina anii- (Accusative)

The (men) researchers ‫كان الباحثون متحيرين‬ ‫جر‬

are confused Kaana al bahithuuna "‫ين‬-" Jaar
mutahayyiriina anii- (Genitive)
We thought well of ‫نرجو الخير الفالحين‬
the farmers. Narjuu al khair al fallaahiina

The illustrations in the table above display that singular masculine words in Arabic are converted

to plural forms by adding "waawun and nuunun" (‫ )ون‬or "yaa'un and nuunun" (‫)ين‬. The Arabic

93
suffixes "wawun and nunun" are attached to singular base word when used as nominative case.

Likewise, the Arabic suffixed "yaa'un and nuunun" attached to the singular base words if used as

accusative and genitive cases.

Arabic Regular Feminine Plural (Jama’ Muannath Saalim ‫)جمع مؤنث سالم‬

The Arabic regular feminine plurals are formed by adding Arabic suffixes "alif" (‫ )ألف‬and

"taa'un" (‫ )تاء‬at the endings of certain Arabic words. Examples:

Table 5 Patterns of Arabic Regular Feminine Plural

Meanings Examples Plural Suffixes Position

The telephones are ‫التلفونات جديدات‬ ‫رفع‬

new At tilfuunaatu jadiidaatun "‫ات‬-"
The mothers are going ‫إن األمهات ذاهبات إلي السوق‬ Rafa'
to the market. Inna al ummahaati zaahibaatun -aatu(n)
ila as suuqi (Nominative)
The women are still ‫ال تزال العتيقات اماء‬
dominated Laa tazaalu al atiiqaatu imaa’an
My father established ‫أسس أبي الشركات‬ ‫نصب‬
the companies. Assasa abii ash sharikaati Nasab
(Accusative)
If the high skies can be ‫لعل السماوات العاليات مصعودات‬ "‫ات‬-" ‫جر‬
climbed up, I must ‫القابلها‬ Jaar
meet her. La’alla as samaawaati al -aati
‘aaliyaati mash’uudaatun la (Genitive)

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 uqaabiluhaa
Those are the houses of ‫هناك بيوت المعلمات‬
the female teachers. Hunaaka buyuutu al mu’allimaati

The examples above in the table portray that Arabic feminine plural numbers are formed by

adding the suffix "alif and taa'un" (aatun /‫ )ات‬when used as nominative case. On the other hand,

the Arabic suffixes "-aati" when used as both accusative and genitive cases.

Arabic Broken/Irregular Plural Number (Jama’ Taksiir ‫)جمع تكسير‬

The Arabic irregular plural is referred to as"Jam'u Taksir" (‫)جمع تكسير‬. Arabic irregular plural is

called broken plural because it violates the conventional rules of forming plural number in

Arabic. The Arabic broken plural system is largely allomorphic in nature. This is simply because

it employs the vowel pattern shift within the word stem like the English plural formation by

means of internal vowel change such as man-men, foot-feet, or tooth-teeth. Broken plural

number in Arabic is subdivided into "Jam'u qillah" (‫ )جمع قلة‬and "Jam'u kathrah")‫ (جمع كثرة‬.

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)Plural of Multiplicity) "‫"جمع كثرة‬Jam'u kasrah

In Arabic, Jam'u kasrah is a category of plural number that denotes a plural form from the count

of ten to above. The English irregular plurals do not have any exact pattern but the Arabic has

numerous strict rules for forming its irregular plurals. For instance, letter "C" is used to represent

a consonant in the Arabic broken plural pattern and double "VV" for long vowel. Scholars like

Ryding (2005) has classified the Arabic irregular plural patterns in accordance to the vowel

change of the words and affixation. Examples:

Table 1 Arabic Broken Plural Patterns With Additional Internal Vowel

Singular Patterns: Plural Pattern CuCuuC: fu'uul ‫فُ ُعول‬ Gloss

Examples

Singular Plural Singular Plural

CaCiC (fa’il) ‫فعل‬ Kabid ‫كبِد‬ kubuud ‫كبود‬ Spleen Spleens

CaCC (fa’l) ‫فعل‬ Qalb ‫ْقلب‬ quluub ‫ْقلب‬ Liver Livers

CiCC (fi’l) ‫فعل‬ Fiil ‫فِيل‬ fuyuul ‫فيول‬ Elephant Elephants

CuCC (fu’l) ‫فعل‬ Jund ‫جند‬ junuud ‫جنود‬ Army Armies

96
The table above shows the formation of Arabic irregular plurals from a singular pattern by means

of infixational morphemes "waawun" (‫)و‬.

Table 2 Arabic Broken Plural With Internal Vowel Change/Additional Internal Vowel

Singular Patterns: Plural Pattern CiCaaC: fi'aal ‫فِعال‬ Gloss

Plural Pattern CuCCaaC: fu'aal ‫فعال‬ ّ ُ
Examples
Singular Plural
CaCC (fa’l) ‫فعل‬ Tsaub ‫ثوب‬ Thiyaab ‫ثياب‬ Garment Garments
CaCaC (fa’al) ‫فعل‬ Jabal ‫جبل‬ jibaal ‫جبال‬ Mountain Mountains
CiCC (fi’l ) ‫ فعل‬Bi’r ‫ بِ ْئر‬bi’aar ‫بِئار‬ Well Wells
CuCC (fu’l ) ‫فعل‬ Rumh ‫رمح‬ rimaah ‫رماح‬ Arrow Arrows
CaCiiC (fa’iil ) ‫ فعيل‬Mariidh ْ‫ر‬
‫ِم يض‬ miraadh ‫مراض‬ A patient Patients
CaaCiC (faa'il) ‫فاعل‬ Kaatib ‫كاتب‬ Kuttaab ‫كتاب‬ Writer Writers
The above two tables ilustrates the formation of Arabic broken plural by the infixational

morpheme "alif" (‫ )ا‬in the singular form.

Table 3 Arabic Broken Plural With Suffixational Deletion

Singular Patterns: Plural Pattern CuCaC: fu'al ‫فعل‬ Gloss

Plural Pattern CiCaC: fi'al ‫فعل‬
Examples
Singular Plural Singular Plural
CuCCah (fu’lah) ‫فعلة‬ Ghurfah ‫غرفة‬ Ghuraf ‫غرف‬ Room Rooms
CuCCa (fu’la) ‫فعلي‬ Sughura ‫ صغري‬Sughar ‫صغر‬ Small one Small ones
CiCCah (fi'lah) ‫فعلة‬ Qit'ah ‫قطعة‬ Qit'ah ‫قطع‬ Piece Pieces

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The table above shows the realizations of Arabic broken plural through suffixational of "taa'un

Marbutah" (‫ )ة‬and "alif maqsurah" (‫)ا‬.

Table 4 Arabic Broken Plural With Infixational Deletion/Additional Infix and Internal VC

Singular Patterns: Plural Pattern CuCuC: fu'ul ‫فعل‬ Gloss

Plural Pattern CaCCaa: fa'laa ‫فعلي‬
Examples
Singular Plural Singular Plural
CaCuuC (fa’uul)‫فعول‬ Ghayuur ‫ غيور‬Ghuyur ‫غير‬ Jealous one Jealous ones
‫) فعل‬frfttf ) rattd Kitaab ‫كتاب‬ Kutub ‫كتب‬ Book Books
CaCiiC (fa'iil) ‫فعيل‬ Mayyit ‫ميت‬ Mawtaa ‫موتي‬ A Dead one Dead ones

The table above shows the realizations of Arabic broken plural through deletion of infixes such

as "waawun" (‫و‬-) and "alif maad" (‫ا‬-) and additions of infix like "waawun" (‫و‬-) and suffix "alif

maqsurah" (‫ي‬-).

However, In Jam'u kathrah, another different plural number is recognized which "Sighat

muntaha al Jumu" (‫)صغة منتح الجمع‬. It refers to all plural forms which are suffixed to two or three

Arabic letters of Huruful Hijaiyyah (Arabic Alphabet), in which sukuun (non-existent vowel) is

placed over the middle letter Sighat Muntaha al-Jumu' as part of Arabic broken plurals under

Jam'u kathrah has nineteen plural patterns and here are some examples:

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Table 5 Patterns of Sighat Muntaha al- Jumu’ in Arabic

Plural Patterns Examples Gloss

Singular Plural Singular Plural
(fawaa'il) ‫فواعل‬ khaatam ‫خاتم‬ khawaatim ‫خواتم‬ Ring Rings
(fa'aaliil) ‫فعاليل‬ qirtaas ‫قرطاس‬ qaraatiis ‫قراطيس‬ Paper Papers

(afaa'il) ‫أفاعل‬ naml ‫نمل‬ anaamil ‫أنامل‬ Ant Ants

(mafaa'il) ‫مفاعل‬ masjid ‫مسجد‬ masaajid ‫مساجد‬ Mosque Mosques

(afaa'iil) ‫أفاعيل‬ usluub ‫أسلوب‬ asaaliib ‫أساليب‬ Pattern Patterns

The above table shows how Sighat Muntaha al-Jumu, as another form of Arabic broken plurals is

formed by using "awzaan" (plural measuring patterns); for example, vowel modification and

addition of infixes are employed like "waawun and alif" (‫ )وا‬as in the words "‫( "خواتم‬khawaatim),

and "alif" (‫ )ا‬and "yaa'u" (‫ )ي‬as in "‫( "قراطيس‬qaraatiis); prefix "alif" (‫ )ا‬and infix "alif" (‫ )ا‬as in

"‫ "أنامل‬, infix "alif")‫ (ا‬in "‫ "مساجد‬and infixes "alif" )‫ (ا‬and "yaa'u" (‫ )ي‬in the word "‫"أساليب‬.

)Plural of Paucity( "‫ "جمع قلة‬Jam'u qillah

Sematically, Jam'u qillah in Arabic refers to any Arabic plural number of which meaning begins

from three to ten. There have been some unique facts in relation to Arabic broken plurals. In fact,

99
a scholarly research has shown that in Arabic there are plurals of the plurals. This often uses the

suffix of regular or form of the broken plural. For instance:

Table 6 Arabic Broken Plural With Additional Prefix and Infixes

Singular Pattern: Plural Pattern: aCCaaC (af’aal) Gloss

‫أفعال‬
Examples
Singular Plural Singular Plural

‫) فعل‬ftff ) tad Bait ‫بيت‬ Abyaat ‫أبيات‬ House Houses

‫) فال‬faaf ) ttd Khaal ‫خال‬ Akhwaal ‫أحوال‬ Uuncle Uncles

‫) فال‬faaf ) ttd Baab ‫باب‬ Abwaab ‫أبواب‬ Door Doors

CaCC (fa'l) ‫فعل‬ Miil ‫ميل‬ Amyaal ‫أميال‬ Mile Miles

The table above highlights the realization of Arabic broken plurals by means of prefixation and

infixation. The patterns of broken plurals above are realized by the assertion "alif" (‫ )ا‬at the

initials of the broken plurals as plural prefix and "waawun and alif" as plural infixes.

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Table 7 Arabic Broken Plural With Additional Prefix and Internal Vowel Change

Plurals Plurals of Plurals Gloss

Many Most
buyuut ‫بيوت‬ abuyaat ‫أبيات‬ Houses Houses

gharaaib ‫غرائب‬ gharaabiin ‫غرابين‬ Strangers Strangers

aydin ‫أيد‬ ayaadin ‫أياد‬ Hands Hands

The above table also shows another unique Arabic broken plurals of plurals by means of internal

vowel change and addition of infix to stem words. Vowel like "waawun" (‫ )و‬is changed to "alif"

(‫)ا‬ as in "‫ بيوت‬to "‫ "أبيات‬buyuut - abuyaat )addition of infix like "yaa'u" (‫ )ي‬as in "‫ "غرائب‬to

"‫( "غرابين‬gharaaib -gharraabiin) as well as "alif" (‫ )ا‬as in "‫ "أيد‬to "‫ "أياد‬respectively.

Findings and Discussions

The research has discovered that gender and number systems are not only productive, but also

very sensitive morphological processes, having contrasted and compared them in both English

and Arabic. The study attests that both aspects help in facilitating a proper and effective

communication in both languages.

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At first, English has four (4) types of gender systems including masculine, feminine, common

and neuter. They are natural, indicating sense of identity and biological facts of their references -

whether animates - or inanimates. While Arabic has only two forms of gender system, masculine

and feminine. They are classified into real masculine and unreal masculine and likewise the

feminine too. Only the real masculine and real feminine are natural and show identities of their

nouns.

Moreover, English genders are less found in nouns; they are mostly recognized by means of

pronouns, when used in a sentence to indicate gender variation. Unlike Arabic, gender system

manifests not only in nouns but also verbs, adjectives and pronouns, especially relative, and

demonstrative pronouns.

Again, English has a relatively few nouns that carry certain morphemes to form feminine forms.

The most common one is "-ess" like in the words: hostess, poetess, and lioness. In Arabic, there

are three morphemes marking feminine forms; they are "taa'un murbûtah" (‫ة‬-) e.g. "‫"شجرة‬

(shajaratun/tree), "alif mumdûdah" (‫اء‬-) e.g. "‫( "صحراء‬sahraa/dessert) and "alif maqsurah" (‫ي‬-)

e.g. "‫( "مستشفي‬mustashifaa/hospital). Sometimes, Taa'un murbûtah (‫ة‬-) could be the equivalent

of the English suffix "-ess". For instance, "steward" is marked for masculine and "stewardess"

102
for feminine in English. In Arabic, the word "‫( "طالبة‬tâlibatun/female student), recognized as

feminine with "‫ة‬-", is derived from masculine noun "‫( "طالب‬tâlib), meaning a male student.

More so, English uses "a gender marker" to indicate the masculinity and femininity of its nouns

such as "male doctor" and "female doctor". But in Arabic these words are translated into a single

word for each e.g."‫( "طبيب‬tabiib/male doctor) and "‫( "طبيبة‬tabiibatun/female doctor).

In English however, only a few nouns are marked for gender. Therefore, they are almost

unrecognizable without pronouns e.g. (spouse). In contrast, Arabic nouns are marked for gender

and are relevant to pronouns (like personal, relative and demonstrative pronouns) verbs and

adjectives.

Unlike English, Arabic exhibits gender variations between male and female in reference to

second person singular pronouns like "anta" (you/‫ )أنت‬which is referring to male and "anti"

(you/‫ )أنت‬referring to female. Same gender variation goes to the plural second persons (you) such

as "antum" (‫ )أنتم‬for males and "antunna" for females. Again, Arabic does the same thing for the

plural third persons (they) between males and females - "hum" (‫ )هم‬distinctively used for males -

and "hunna" (‫ )هن‬restrictively for the opposite sexs.

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In terms of the relative pronouns, Arabic makes reference with "allazi" (who) to refer to a male

person while "allati" (who) with a female person. Same is applicable to the Arabic dual relative

pronoun "allazaani and allazaini" (who/that/‫الذان‬/‫)الذين‬, referring to dual male subjective and

objective cases; and "allaati and allataini" (who/that/‫اللتين‬/‫)اللتان‬, referring to dual female

subjective and objective cases.

English has certain nouns like country, ship, the moon and the sun etc., which are often treated as

feminine (with pronoun "she"), although no natural bond shows any femininity in them. But in

Arabic, the moon which is "‫( "القمر‬al-qamar) is treated as masculine and the sun "‫"الشمس‬

otherwise as feminine. Therefore, translating these nouns in a certain text, their translator needs

to be aware of the correct pronouns to use.

Amazingly, the gender system in Arabic is obvious and barely changed, whereas in English,

oftentimes, it cannot be recognized without pronouns or gender markers as earlier stated. This

difference causes problem in translation, e.g. The tall student came; he/she was walking slowly.

It can be translated into Arabic either:

‫جاءالطالب الطويل وكان يمشي بطينا‬

(Jaa’a al ubtaali taw iilsl yawakaa batiinaanna mshii)
‫جاءت الطالبة الطويلة وكانت تمشي بطينا‬

104
(Ja’at al taalibun tawiila tunal tawakaa batiinaannat mshii)

Only the pronoun in English can uncover if ‘the student’ is masculine or feminine. In fact, if the

second clause is omitted, the translator may not identify the teacher’s gender, apart from the text

or context.

While English has only singular and plural forms of number system, Arabic has not only singular

and plural but also dual forms of number system. English plurals begin from the count of two

while Arabic plurals from the count of three. Arabic number system marks singular, dual and

plural gender distinctions between masculine and feminine forms.

Both of these languages also have regular and irregular patterns. Unlike English, the Arabic

irregular plurals (broken plurals) are more frequent and have the exact patterns which sometimes

can be explained through morpheme-based model and word-based model. The affixation of

regular plural in Arabic also, unlike in English, contains the gender such as "-iina" (‫ين‬-) or "-

uuna" (‫ون‬-) for masculine plural and "-aat" (‫ات‬-) or "-aati" )‫ات‬-) for feminine. Moreover, this is

in the instance where the Arabic plural suffixes indicate grammatical cases depending on the

context of their use. English suffixes entirely do not exhibit so.

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While plural number in Arabic employs prefixational, infixational and suffixational and vowel

change, English employs only suffixational process and internal vowel change for its plural

number. The Arabic broken plural pattern sometimes employs the internal vowel change which

might involve both vowel change and affixation of consonant. English plural markers occur

mainly in nouns. In contrast, Arabic nouns and adjectives have plural markers and become the

object of Arabic regular and irregular plural marking. Some unique facts of plurality in Arabic

occur such as: plurals of the plurals, plurals not having the singular form, plurals from modified

roots, plural form which means singular and one noun which can be pluralized into regular and

irregular form.

Based on the comparison, it can be stated that gender and number systems are the key tools for

effective communication in both languages. Gender system is wider in Arabic than in English.

The plural marking system in both languages is dissimilar rather than parallel. Structurally,

Arabic plural marking system is more complex than English. Although L2 or FL learners may

find English gender and number systems easier than that of Arabic, yet such a language learner

when studying this research carefully will never fail to improve his/her bilingual competence and

performance.

106
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.0 Introduction

This chapter features the entire summary, conclusion and recommendations of the study. It

summarizes the contents of the research with focus on its aim and objectives, authorial review,

methodology, theoretical framework and findings. It makes the research's conclusion and offers

some recommendations based on the findings of the research.

5.1 Summary

This study is a comparative study on gender and number systems between English and Arabic. It

has been accumulated through primary and secondary sources. The study's primary data were

obtained via oral interviews, direct and indirect participations with the experts of the two

languages. Its secondary data were sourced from published articles, books and journals. The

research employs Robert Lado's Contrastive Analysis theory (1960) as a linguistic tool used to

provide language problem-solving skills - between two distinctive languages - in order to ease

and improve the methods of teachings and learnings.

107
The study comparises five chapters. It introduces the whole background of the study, related to

the research. It presents its reader with the problem of the research, aim and objectives, research

questions alongside scope and delimitation. The research reviews scholarly morphological

concepts, views and understanding related to the study. It further captures relevant works

conducted by others related to the research.

As part of its objectives, the research explores both implicitly and explicitly the nature and

various forms of gender and number systems - between the two languages - and how naturally

both of them work. The research displays in a tabular formats the data obtained from primary

and secondary sources. By so doing, the research exposes explicitly the converging and

diverging points of both languages accordingly.

Finally, the observed, authenticated and objective findings of the study reveal that English and

Arabic share areas of similarities and differences, with regards to both gender and number

systems. English genders are natural, only recognized relatively few with nouns, and explicitly

obvious with pronouns. But in Arabic, they are not only common in nouns, pronouns and its

forms but also adjectives. As for number system, English number system is not as difficult as

108
that of Arabic. English irregular nouns are easier to master them than Arabic irregular or broken

plurals.

5.2 Conclusion

Based on the comparative study and its findings, it could be proper to conclude that gender and

number systems play a pivotal role in both languages. Both provide appropriate and

comprehensive way of language use for effective communication. Gender system is more

prevalent in Arabic than in English. The plural marking system in both languages is dissimilar

rather than parallel. Structurally, Arabic plural marking system is more complex rather than

English. Although L2 or FL learners may find English gender and number systems easier than

that of Arabic, yet such a language learner when studying this research carefully, will never fail

to improve his/her bilingual competence and performance.

5.3 Recommendation

Having examined the findings of the research, it could be unarguably right to say that there are

more areas of linguistic interest that scholars and researchers need to explore concerning both

morphological and syntactical processes of English and Arabic. With this, the researcher offers a

109
recommendation that linguistic aspects such as person and case, tense and aspect, mood and

transitivity as well as voices between English and Arabic to be carried out by scholars and

researchers. Doing so, can surely contribute maximally to scholarship alongside easing the

landscapes of teachings and learning for the consumption of the society.

110
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