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Arabic songs: an affective forum for combating COVID-19 and other insecurities

  • Rania Habib

    Rania Habib received her PhD in Linguistics from University of Florida and is currently Associate Professor of Linguistics and Arabic at Syracuse University. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, language variation and change, cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, bilingualism, pragmatics, child language, and second dialect acquisition. Her most recent research deals with phonological and discourse variation in Syrian Arabic, including publications in Journal of Child Language, Language Variation and Change, and Journal of Pragmatics.

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Published/Copyright: August 26, 2022

Abstract

Like other literary genres, songs can be a successful outlet for achieving certain goals. Using a qualitative and descriptive approach utilizing the stancetaking framework, this study examines the development and use of more than 50 Arabic songs as a vehicle to not only inform the public about COVID-19, but also take affective stances that connect the current distressing situation of the Arab people due to COVID-19 with past hardships and crises. These stances invoke salient sociocultural values that are understood and evaluated similarly by Arab people. Evaluating and positioning the insecurity of the pandemic against insecurities of the past activates the affects and messages of the stance, which align with the evaluations and affects of the listeners. That Arab people from different countries share similar evaluations of their insecurities and invoke similar sociocultural values in response to their dreadful situations is indicative of the co-construction of a shared Arab identity through the sociocognitive intersubjectivity of the stances that are indexed to shared repertoires, sociocultural values, and affects.


Corresponding author: Rania Habib, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, Syracuse University, 325 H. B. Crouse, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA, E-mail:

Funding source: Syracuse University Middle Eastern Studies Program

Award Identifier / Grant number: N/A

About the author

Rania Habib

Rania Habib received her PhD in Linguistics from University of Florida and is currently Associate Professor of Linguistics and Arabic at Syracuse University. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, language variation and change, cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, bilingualism, pragmatics, child language, and second dialect acquisition. Her most recent research deals with phonological and discourse variation in Syrian Arabic, including publications in Journal of Child Language, Language Variation and Change, and Journal of Pragmatics.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2021-0042).


Received: 2021-03-31
Accepted: 2022-08-08
Published Online: 2022-08-26
Published in Print: 2023-11-27

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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