Bagrut Arabic Language & Literature flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

inverted pyramid

A news-writing structure where the lead paragraph answers who, what, when, where, and why, followed by details in decreasing importance, allowing editors to cut from the bottom.

thesis statement

The central claim of an informational or argumentative text, usually found in the first or last paragraph, which the rest of the text supports with evidence and examples.

reference resolution

The process of identifying which preceding noun a pronoun or demonstrative (هذا، التي، حيث) refers to, using gender, number, and logical compatibility to avoid ambiguity.

author's purpose

The reason a writer produces a text-to inform, persuade, entertain, or reflect-inferred from verb mood, voice, evaluative vocabulary, and text structure.

Form X verb

The Arabic verb pattern اِسْتَفْعَلَ, typically expressing requesting or considering something as, e.g., استفهم 'to ask for understanding' or استخرج 'to extract'.

إضافة construction

A genitive construction where two nouns are joined without a preposition; the first noun loses its definite article and case ending, and the second takes the genitive case.

كان and sisters

Particles or verbs (كان، أصبح، ظل، بات، صار، ليس) that enter a nominal sentence and make the predicate accusative while leaving the subject nominative.

broken plural

An irregular plural formed by internal vowel changes rather than suffixation, following patterns such as أَفْعَال (أقلام), فُعُول (بيوت), and فِعَال (رجال).

verb-subject agreement

In Arabic, a verb preceding its subject remains singular regardless of subject number, while a verb following its subject agrees in gender and number.

collocation

A habitual word partnership in Arabic, such as أجرى بحثًا 'conducted research' or عقد مؤتمرًا 'held a conference', where substituting a synonym would sound unnatural.

argumentative essay structure

A three-part composition: introduction with thesis, body with two or three arguments supported by evidence and connectors, and conclusion restating the thesis with a recommendation.

cohesion devices

Linguistic tools that link sentences and paragraphs, including pronoun reference, lexical repetition, synonym substitution, and discourse markers like أما... ف and من ناحية أخرى.

register mixing

The inappropriate blending of formal MSA and colloquial Arabic within one written text, considered an error unless it appears in quoted dialogue or deliberate stylistic choice.

summary length rule

A written summary should preserve main ideas and logical order while reducing the original to roughly one quarter to one third of its length, omitting examples and repetition.

qasida

The classical Arabic ode, typically polythematic, opening with a love prelude (nasib), moving through a journey (rahil), and ending with boasting (fakhr) or praise (madih).

muwashshah

An Andalusian strophic poetic form with a refrain and a final kharja, often in colloquial or Romance, developed from the tenth century in al-Andalus.

mahjar literature

Literature produced by Arab émigré writers in the Americas, especially the Pen League (جبران، نعيمة), characterized by romanticism, free verse, and spiritual themes.

maqama

A genre of rhymed-prose narrative featuring a trickster protagonist and a narrator, perfected by al-Hamadhani and al-Hariri, considered a precursor of the picaresque novel.

Tammuzi movement

A modernist Arabic poetic trend using Mesopotamian myth (Tammuz, Ishtar) to symbolize resurrection and renewal, associated with Badr Shakir al-Sayyab and Nazik al-Mala'ika.

Nahda

The nineteenth-century Arab cultural revival that promoted modern standard Arabic through printing, journalism, translation, and educational reform, shaping modern literary forms.

simile (تشبيه)

A figure comparing two things using a particle such as ك or مثل, with four components: the compared, the comparator, the shared quality, and the particle.

metaphor (استعارة)

A figure in which a word is used for something other than its literal meaning, with the comparator and particle omitted, transferring a quality from one domain to another.

narrative perspective

The point of view from which a story is told-first person (ضمير المتكلم) or third person (ضمير الغائب)-shaping the reader's access to characters' thoughts and the story's reliability.

plot arc

The structural sequence of a narrative: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, used to analyze how tension and meaning develop.

diglossia

The coexistence in one speech community of a high formal variety (الفصحى) for writing and education and low colloquial varieties (العامية) for everyday conversation.

Modern Standard Arabic

The contemporary form of classical Arabic used in writing, media, and formal speech across the Arab world, based on Quranic Arabic with modernized vocabulary and syntax.

Arabization (تعريب)

The process of adapting or coining Arabic terms for foreign concepts, using derivation, calques, or revival of classical vocabulary, often regulated by language academies.

code-switching

The alternating use of two language varieties or languages within a conversation, common in Arabic between MSA and colloquial or between Arabic and Hebrew in Israel.

language academies

Institutions such as the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo that regulate vocabulary, coin terms for modern concepts, and preserve grammatical standards.

cognate

A word in one language that shares a common ancestral root with a word in another, e.g., Arabic سلام and Hebrew שלום from the root س-ل-م/ש-ל-מ.

false friend

A word that looks or sounds similar in two languages but differs in meaning, such as Arabic خَطَر 'danger' versus Hebrew חטר 'rod', requiring careful verification.

idafa translation

Rendering an Arabic genitive construction into Hebrew as either a construct-state phrase (סמיכות) or a של phrase, depending on definiteness and naturalness in the target language.