Sane M. Yagi

Systematic verb stem generation for Arabic

Performing root-based searching, concordancing, and grammar checking in Arabic requires an efficient method for matching stems with roots and vice versa. Such mapping is complicated by the hundreds of manifestations of the same root. An algorithm based on the generation method used by native speakers is proposed here to provide a mapping from roots to stems. Verb roots are classified by the types of their radicals and the stems they generate. Roots are moulded with morphosemantic and morphosyntactic patterns to generate stems modified for tense, voice, and mode, and affixed for different subject number, gender, and person. The surface forms of applicable morphophonemic transformations are then derived using finite state machines. This paper defines what is meant by stem, describes a stem generation engine that the authors developed, and outlines how a generated stem database is compiled for all Arabic verbs.

Language Labs and Translation Booths: Simultaneous Interpretation as a Learner Task.

In spite of the negative attitudes towards translation tasks in TEFL, the study reports successful outcomes for a TEFL module based on simultaneous oral translation from Arabic into English. The learners worked individually in a traditional language laboratory. Following preparatory work on an English narrative text, also conducted in the laboratory, they were required to do a simultaneous interpretation (SI) of the passage, i.e. to convey its content, in spoken English, in response to an Arabic version heard on the earphones. The results show that SI significantly improves learner performance and that it is an excellent tool for diagnosing learner competence in grammar and vocabulary. The paper examines the results, and suggests some reasons for the success of the method and possibilities for extending its use.

Exploring and exploiting a historical corpus for Arabic

AbstractnnThis paper presents a historical Arabic corpus named HAC. At this early embryonic stage of the project, we report about the design, the architecture and some of the experiments which we have conducted on HAC. The corpus, and accordingly the search results, will be represented using a primary XML exchange format. This will serve as an intermediate exchange tool within the project and will allow the user to process the results offline using some external tools. HAC is made up of Classical Arabic texts that cover 1600xa0years of language use; the Quranic text, Modern Standard Arabic texts, as well as a variety of monolingual Arabic dictionaries. The development of this historical corpus assists linguists and Arabic language learners to effectively explore, understand, and discover interesting knowledge hidden in millions of instances of language use. We used techniques from the field of natural language processing to process the data and a graph-based representation for the corpus. We provided researchers with an export facility to render further linguistic analysis possible.

Arabic Conjunction WA : A Conflict in Pragmatic Principles

Arabic Conjunction WA: A Conflict in Pragmatic Principles This paper discusses the Arabic coordination particle wa and its use and function on the basis of the Gricean cooperative principle. It aims to provide an outline of the maxims utilized by Arabic speakers in their interpretation of this conjunction. It demonstrates that interpretation brings out a conflict between the Gricean conversational maxims. The context of communication is investigated for a resolution of the conflict. It is argued that context and the functional understanding of language are more decisive in the interpretation of language utterances than either the conventional meaning of a linguistic element or the principle of communicative cooperation.

UOS EASY EXAM Arabic Computer-Based Examination System

In this paper we present a fully fledged Arabic computer based examination system called UOS easy exam. We will discuss the problems faced, the steps taken to tackle such problems and the full specifications of our system.

A Framework for Benchmarking Arabic Verb Morphological Tools

Arabic morphology tools are numerous, but there have been no standard tests of performance with which success and extent of coverage can be gauged. Much of the testing has been done by developers in accordance with ad hoc standards of their own. Although many claim success, users remain skeptical of the efficiency and level of coverage. In this study, we discuss the problems that Arabic morphological tools need to address in order to be considered successful, and describe a test set that we are advancing as a proposal for golden standards for computational Arabic verb morphology.