Lexical Borrowing (Taʿrib) in Arabic Computing Terminology: Issues and Strategies

Abstract

Computing technology is evolving rapidly, which requires immediate terminology creation in the Arabic language to cope with such an evolution. Technical loanwords form a big part of modern Arabic terminology and they are spreading rapidly within the language. This research investigates the extent to which the Arabic neologization mechanism of taʿrīb (lexical borrowing) is used in computing terminology creation in comparison with the mechanisms of ishtiqāq (derivation), majāz (semantic extension) and tarkīb (compounding). In addition, it assesses the impact and importance of taʿrīb as a computing terminology creation mechanism in Arabic. This research is based on a corpus of specialised dictionaries and specialised literature. The aforementioned mechanisms are used to various degrees in Arabic in the creation of computing terminology, and are used interchangeably to produce equivalents of single foreign terms, which has caused confusion in the use of the language. The extent of the use of taʿrīb in computing terminology creation, and its impact on, and importance to Arabic as a computing terminology creation mechanism is determined based on two criteria. First, a comparison of the extent of use of the aforementioned mechanisms based on three selected corpora of dictionaries and magazines of Arabic technical computing terminology is presented. Second, an assessment of the lexicographical treatments of the computing terms coined by the aforementioned mechanisms is offered, with special consideration of the terms coined by taʿrīb as the main mechanism under discussion. The findings show that taʿrīb is by far the most used Arabic word formation mechanism in terms of computing terminology creation, followed by tarkīb, ishtiqāq and majāz. In addition, it has been concluded that taʿrīb clearly has a major impact on, and is of great importance to Arabic in computing terminology creation.