الفهرس 
Literature ReviewOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study is an attempt to point out the similarities and differences of lexical categories used in the selected English and Arabic children’s short stories. The selected texts for this study are حكايات شعبية من مصر / ħika:ja:t ʃaʕbijah min masˁr / Folk Tales from Egypt (2012) written in Arabic by Amany Hassan Al-Ashmawy and, in contrast, A Very Crazy christmas (2011) written by Abby Klein. Based on the theory of Short and Leech (1981), these lexical categories were analyzed adopting the approach of Dualism through online text analysis software, Sketch Engine. The study also aims at clarifying the semiotic resources and how they associate with the principle of Bucholtz and Hall (2005). This study finally aims at clarifying how the semiotic resources reflect the identity, cultural values and traditions of the characters affecting the children’s perception directly and indirectly. The results show that both English and Arabic short stories consist of colloquial words which reflect part of a society. Abstract nouns are used in both of them to clarify the rational side which completes the artistic image of the stories. The writers use concrete nouns to give the diagnostic description of the place and people to highlight the interpersonal conflict. Both of the writers use various connotations to manifest the bedrock of Egyptian and American identities. On the other hand, proper nouns in Arabic short stories reflect the personality of the character. However, there is no relation between the names and their characters in English short story. Arabic short stories rely on simple descriptive adjectives more than evaluative adjectives. However, the English short story depends on evaluative adjectives to create an empathetic connection between the child and the characters.
Keywords: Identity, Short stories, Lexical categories, Lexical features, Dualism Approach, semiotic resources, denotation, connotation.