Containing Charles Ferguson's papers on Arabic linguistics, this volume addresses issues of continuing concern in phonology, syntax, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics. The introduction provides a biographical sketch, including excerpts from interviews with Ferguson in which he discusses his career and dealings with Arabic. A critical overview precedes each of the four sections (Diachronica, Phonology, Register and Genre, and General). This work fills an important gap in the history of linguistics in documenting much of the career and contributions of a formative figure in American linguistics. In addition to updating Ferguson's articles, the volume preserves Ferguson's reflections on the events, personalities, relationships, and issues at the time he wrote the articles, as well as on subsequent developments. A unique and fascinating picture of a pioneer linguist.

The papers in this volume are a selection from papers presented at the Annual Symposia on Arabic Linguistics, held in 2003 (Alexandria) and 2004 (Oklahoma). They tackle a broad range of issues in current linguistic research, particularly in the areas of phonology, morphology/lexicon, sociolinguistics, and L1 and L2 acquisition. They are distinguished for the depth of coverage and the types of data considered.

The papers in this volume approach the study of Arabic, its structure and use, from different linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. The book is divided into three sections: Section I Morphological and Phonological Perspectives; Section II Semantic Perspectives; Section III Sociolinguistic Perspectives.

The Foundations of Arabic Linguistics, IV, contains sixteen studies on grammatical theories from the earliest period of Arabic grammar (end 8th century C.E.) and the evolution of theory by later grammarians.

This volume includes ten papers selected from the Seventh Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. For the first time in this series, three of the papers represent experimental studies dealing with Arabic syllable and morphological structure. Four are focused on aspects of agreement in Arabic. The remaining three deal with certain problems in Arabic phonology and discourse.

This volume provides important contributions to Arabic linguistics and Linguistic research in general by presenting new empirical facts and innovative theoretical analyses. It consists of two major parts: the first contains four papers on phonology and morphology, most of which deal with phonology/morphology interface, while the second part includes five papers on syntax. The papers featured represent some of the current trends in Arabic Linguistics especially in the areas of Phonology and Syntax. Some of the articles are contributions to ongoing debates on the nature and properties of specific aspects of Arabic, such as: gemination and stress assignment in Phonology, and negation in Syntax. Other papers introduce new topics such as: analyzing intonational patterns in Arabic Phonology, investigating the source of the morpheme /-in/ in the less studied varieties of Central Asian Arabic in Morphology, and analyzing “sluicing” in Syntax.