awej 5 no.4 full issue 2014

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.4, 2014Motivation and Methods in Learning Arabic in an AFLMcPhee & O‟BrienMaddoxrefer to a habitual event or an event in progress with disambiguation provided inthe adverbial time phrase as illustrated in the following example.Table 9.Habituality and progressivityAmna is writing a letter to her mother. .Amna writes a letter to her mother every .day.ذَنْرُدة آٍْح رِسَاىح إِىَى أُدٍَِّٖاذَنْرُدة آٍْح رِسَاىح إِىَى أُدٍَِّٖا مو ًٌ٘In situations that are classed as habitual in the past, the concept of habituality is generallyconveyed through the imperfective form of the verb together with the past form of the verb „tobe‟. The same verb phrase is also used for past progressive and habitual events with the pastmarker indicated in the use of the verb „kaan‟ (to be- past form). The Arabic perfective formgenerally expresses punctual and completed events in the past. The following table illustrateshow the habitual event is communicated on the verb form in Arabic whereas past habituality inEnglish is generally expressed through the adverbial phrase.Table 10. Past habituality and past punctualAmina played tennis yesterday..Amina played tennis every day last year. .Both imperfective and perfective Arabic verb forms (table 11) can encode the equivalent to theEnglish present perfect with the imperfective indicating the English continuative present perfectin terms of an event that is still on-going and the Arabic perfective to illustrate the existential useof English present perfect.ىعثد أٍٍْح ىرْس أٍسماّد أٍٍْح ذيعة ىرْس مو ًٌ٘ ىعاً‏ ىَاضً‏Ali has lived (been living)in Dublin for three years.I have not seen him sinceSaturday.Table 11. English present perfectimperfective verb form in .Arabicperfective verb form inArabic‏ٌسنِِ‏ يً‏ فً‏ دُدتيِ‏ ىَُِدلج سْح‏ٍا رَأٌْرُدُٔد ‏ٍُدْْذُد ًٌَْ٘ ىسَّثْد .ii.Another example of conceptual and form differences are found in the expressionof conditionality and possibility. In conditional clauses, verb choice cancommunicate the modality of the event in both languages. Choice betweenArabic particles „law‟ or „idha‟ indicates the likely or unlikely nature of an eventwhile the choice of verb form (perfective or imperfective) indicates timerelationship between the event in the main clause and the conditional clause.The logic of sequence affects the choice of Arabic verb form so a likely eventwill have a verb in the conditional clause in the perfective form and the mainverb in present or future form. An unlikely event is expressed through animperfective verb form in the conditional clause thus giving the opposite ofwhat constitutes verb choices in an English conditional clause as illustrated inthe following table:Arab World English JournalISSN: 2229-9327www.awej.org21