4. RESULTS


4.1 Concordances for the three nodes

Using the concordance in both Sara and WordSmith Tools allowed us to retrieve all of the occurrences of the search patterns ‘Makkah’, ‘Makkah (Mecca)’ and ‘Mecca’ in the corpora with their immediate contexts. The output is displayed in KWIC format in appendix A. Table 3 and figure 1 offer more information about the frequency of each form in both corpora. There are some samples of the three nodes’ concordances sorted five words to the right and five to the left in both corpora.


Makkah
Makkah (Mecca)
Mecca
BNC Makkah Corpus BNC Makkah Corpus BNC Makkah Corpus
0 239 1 43 194 245

Table 3 Occurrences of ‘Makkah’, ‘Makkah (Mecca)’and ‘Mecca’ in both corpora


Fig. 1 Variations of occurrences of the search pattern in both corpora
• Concordance for ‘Makkah’ in Makkah corpus

the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah. The Holy City
Maliki, who has been living quietly in Makkah for many years, banned
e beloved hometown of the Prophet (SAW).Makkah is a remarkable city.
to dignify and honor the Holy Mosque of Makkah. To do so was not only
d: “InshaAllaah. I will not depart from Makkah until I see this Shaik
e this one, the day I was to leave from Makkah to Jeddah and then
half people prayed in the holy city of Makkah on Tuesday. An ocean o
rohibited as it is in the case of Haram Makkah. Jabir bin Abdullah
Report by Mohammed Amil Usmani (Makkah & Taif) June, 2001
Qu'raysh, the residents of the city of Makkah who were the
Information Resource - The Holy City of Makkah = 3); var markerOn =
n Firdous Restaurant( Harah tul bab) in Makkah Al-Mukarramah.
o the revered place," the pilgrimage to Makkah, is the the most
high, on all roads leading to, or from Makkah. On the northern side
Saudinf Related Items Holy Mosque in Makkah See also: Holy
Books See available travel books for Makkah Additional time
ub thought to send his brother Anees to Makkah to get him some news
with what he heard. So, he set out for Makkah to know the Prophet.
social and economic characteristics of Makkah residents reveals some

Table 4 Sample concordances for Makkah from Makkah corpus


• Concordance for ‘Makkah (Mecca)’ in BNC and Makkah corpus



Table 5 Sample concordances for Makkah (Mecca) from BNC


a Mada'in-Salah MECCA Riyadh Mecca (Makkah in Arabic) is the
رمة, Kaaba and mekka, makkah mecca
رمة, Kaaba and mekka, makkah mecca (Hits:
y since 630CE when Mohammad made Mecca (Makkah) the centre of the
itted by: Abdulrhman Al-Hussaen Mecca / Makkah 2 Medium: 1
ccommodation, hotel directory of Mecca (Makkah), Saudi Arabia
the city core. Mecca: Although Mecca, Makkah in Arabic, is
y in Medina but returned to take Mecca (Makkah) in 629, purifying
also comprises Medina and Jedda. Mecca (Makkah) stands almost 300
iscounts - Events: Mecca and the Kabah (Makkah, Saudi Arabia)
Kaaba is located in the city of Mecca (Makkah) in the Arabian
ral Information {mek'-uh} Mecca (Arabic:Makkah), the birthplace
Arab Time: What is the time in Mecca (Makkah) Makkah Time SA
a is Islam's holiest city.  Mecca (Makkah) is the birthplace
al-islam.org The Kabah, in the city of Makkah (or Mecca) is
  Mecca Weather Forecast (Makkah) Mecca Weather
on unclear Mecca or Makkah (infull: Makkah al-Mukarramah;
audi Arabia Mecca and the Kabah Daily Makkah King Abdul Aziz
cation unclear Mecca or Makkah (infull: Makkah al-Mukarramah;
ca, Makka, Makkah Mecca, Makka, Makkah General
tude 21.43°N Longitude 39.82°E Mecca (Makkah) in western Saudi
tres) east of the Red Sea.  Mecca (Makkah) has a resident
Saudi Arabia. Location Of Mecca (Makkah) Mecca is
five prayers pace every day. In Mecca (Makkah), time runs
by the sandy Valley of Abraham, Mecca (Makkah) is surrounded by
he spiritual thrust of the city, Mecca (Makkah) is a place of

Table 6 Sample concordances for Makkah (Mecca) from Makkah corpus


• Concordance for ‘Mecca’ in BNC and Makkah corpus


















Table 7 Sample concordances for Mecca from BNC






There are two different word forms containing mecca in the BNC. Table 8 shows the concordances for the two word forms ‘mecca-based’ and ‘meccas’.









Table 8 Concordance for the word forms containing mecca in BNC


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Table 9 Sample concordances for Mecca from Makah corpus


4.2 Collocations of the three nodes

We used the concordance to compute the collocations by sorting the span five words to the left and five to the right in WordSmith Tools. This helps to investigate the habitual environment (semantic prosody) of each form and to know which words appear most frequently with it in the texts. Table 10 shows the results of the top ten collocates of the three nodes in Makkah corpus. For the complete lists of collocations see appendix B.


• Collocations in Makkah corpus using WordSmith Tools

Makkah Makkah (Mecca) Mecca
concept occurrences concept occurrences concept occurrences
Makkah 270 Makkah 86 Mecca 337
The 171 Mecca 53 The 92
And 46 The 61 And 39
Holy 44 Saudi 10 For 34
City 39 Time 9 NBSP 33
From 27 Arabia 8 Exchange 29
Adha 20 City 6 Class 23
That 16 And 5 Center 20
was 15 Arabic 5 SRC 20
For 14 Information 5 Materials 19

Table 10 Top ten collocates of the three nodes from Makkah Corpus
5. DISCUSSION


The results are discussed according to the three forms of the word in both corpora:


5.1 Makkah

In BNC there is no occurrence of the node Makkah, thus evidence assures that this form was not used in the texts in that period of time (1933-1960) especially as Saudi Arabia had just changed the name officially in 1980s.

Makkah is the professional standard transliteration of the name of the holy city. In Makkah corpus, there are 239 entries as seen in table 3. Table 4 shows the concordances for Makkah sorted five words to the right and five to the left. It appears throughout the concordances that the form refers to the holy city’s name.

The top ten collocates of Makkah (table 10) represent the habitual company that co-occur with this form. These collocates are the common associated nodes that Arabs and Muslims usually predict when mentioning the city’s name such as holy, city, Adha, Madinah, etc. The collocation of the search pattern associated with Islamic terms such as Hajj, Arafat, Al-Adha, Koran, etc. Accordingly, the node tends to appear in a positive semantic prosody since no negative nodes appear with it within the whole collocation (Olohan 2004 p82) (see Appendix A and B).

Since the stop list is not used, the functional word the occurs 171 times as the most frequent collocate. The appears 51 times as the fourth word to the right of the node and 32 times as the second word to the left. The was never associated with the node as the first word to the left. This assures that the node Makkah is a proper name in this form (Appendix B).




5.2 Makkah (Mecca)

There was one occurrence of the node Mecca associated with Makkah ‘Mecca (Makkah)’ in the BNC. In fact, this rare example refers to the fact that ‘Makkah’ is also preceded immediately by ‘Mecca’ (table 5). It also indicates that ‘Makkah’ could be used as a synonym for ‘Mecca’.

There are 43 entries for this form in Makkah corpus. This number indicates that this form is less used compared to the other two forms. Table 10 shows Mecca 53 times as the second most frequent word appearing with Makkah. Mecca appears more frequently to appear as the first word to the left of the node rather than to the right of the node (40: 13, 17: 3) in collocations.

It is more common in the habitual environment of the node Makkah to be immediately preceded by Mecca. This fact is similar to the sentence of BNC but it contrasts with the hypothesis that the form Mecca is usually used as a synonym in Arabic and Islamic writing since it followed the form Makkah immediately.

However, when we changed the search pattern to ‘Mecca (Makkah)’ in concordance and collocation (Appendix A, B), the node Makkah appeared more frequently (26) immediately to the left of Mecca. Although Arab and Muslim authors prefer to use the official form Makkah followed by Mecca as a synonym for more clarification and referring to the holy site, the result also indicates that any of the forms could be a superordinate concept that precedes the second subordinate synonym ‘Mecca (Makkah)’ and vice versa.

Despite the capitalisation of the node, the absence of the immediately to the left or to the right of the node assures that the form is a proper name. Again, most of the Islamic and Arabic terms co-occur with the form as seen in table 10. The node tends to appear in a completely positive semantic prosody since it appears in its habitual company that can be predicted in Arabic and Islamic culture.



5.3 Mecca

The form Mecca is the most problematic node since it appears in different environments. It has a wide range of uses which are often metaphorical. It also has other word forms and variations that refer to different meanings. In spite of the original use and meaning of the node, which refers to the holy city name, the node is used in different environments and especially in negative semantic prosody (Kenny 1999 p100-101).

If we compute the total occurrences of the form Mecca in both corpora, it has a higher frequency than Makkah. However, Makkah has one core (specific) meaning while Mecca has different meanings and thus lower frequency to refer to the same concept.

In BNC the form ‘Mecca’ occurs 194 times as seen in table 3. The search pattern includes two other forms that contain the word mecca such as mecca-based and meccas. In table 8, the concordances for the two forms give more information about their meaning in the text. The word form ‘mecca-based’ occurs twice in the category of adjective.

The word form meccas refers to the plural form of the form mecca with lower case m. It occurs 8 times in which one of them is a typographical error. In all the eight collocates, the form appears as a plural common noun (places that attract groups). The two word forms in these instances have different collocates with different meanings compared to the proper noun form.

Although the form Mecca with a capital M is supposed or expected to refer to the proper noun of the holy city, it appears from the BNC concordance in table 7 that it also refers to different meanings besides the holy name. Functional words such as a and the, which appear immediately to the left of the node and words such as for and of immediately to the right, refer to the fact that the node Mecca is used as a common noun and no more as a proper noun (see Appendix A).

The sample of concordances in table 7 also shows some instances of the negative semantic prosody. The first word to the right or to the left of the node has a negative meaning in the Islamic and Arabic culture (gambling, Miss England, ballroom, DJ, jazz, Leisure, bingo, Gold Cup, Ltd., fishing and fashion). The form mecca both with a capital and with a small m are associated with negative company of words (group, music, Guinness, art, romance, shops, fans, etc) (see Appendix A).

In Makkah corpus (table 3), the node Mecca appears 245 times. It also has different meanings in addition to the holy name of the city. In table 9 throughout the concordances the form is associated with advertisement and entertainment nodes at least once (cola, coke, debut, fans, drummer, gaming, mates, audio, wine, art, bodega, Gothic, anime, music, restaurant). In most of the cases it is used as a name of different commercial or entertainment businesses.

Throughout the collocation, the node is associated with some for Muslims strange and negative nodes immediately to the right or the left. For example, cola co-occurs 9 times; in 8 of these instances as the second word to the right. Also bingo is sorted 7 times immediately to the right. In fact, the use of the node in these instances reflects a negative and offensive meaning of the holy name. The name loses its habitual and expected environment that should be associated with more spiritual and religious words.













6. CONCLUSION


Using the corpus in this study makes it more accurate to investigate the meaning of the search patterns ‘Makkah’, ‘Makkah (Mecca)’ and ‘Mecca’. On one hand, the study shows how the word has changed and developed throughout English for use in other environments. On the other hand, it shows the semantic preferences and the semantic prosody of the word in both the western and Arabic and Islamic culture.

It appears that the form Makkah is the preferred and the most frequent form that is commonly used by Arab and Muslim authors in the texts in Makkah corpus. The same form was not used in BNC in English in that period of time. The form has never had a negative prosody. Furthermore, the two forms ‘Makkah’ and ‘Mecca’ are usually associated with each other as a synonym to refer to the holy site.

We argue that there are enough examples in the discussion that refer to the misuse of the holy name in the form Mecca. Uses of the form mecca in more negative prosody make it offensive for Muslims and Arabs to use the same form. The form Mecca is not preferred in the Arabic or Islamic culture when writing or translating in English as a result of its negative collocates. This is not the only reason that forces Muslims and Arabs to change the name officially. The mistaken transliteration is another reason to write the form as Makkah, which is more accurate and closer to the correct pronunciation.

The use of the form mecca the western culture in an advertisement or in entertainment language may not be considered as negative since gambling, wine, fans, etc are acceptable in this culture. In contrast, the connotation of the holy city’s name with such things is not acceptable in the Islamic and Arabic culture. Furthermore, this use misrepresents the spiritual symbolism of the name.

In fact, using the term mecca in a metaphoric way to refer to the concept of a place that attracts consumers is a completely wrong adaptation of the concept and the term. The word Makkah (Mecca) in Arabic is merely a place name. The more accurate concept to adapt or to loan to refer to the metaphorical concept is supposed to be qibla rather than mecca.

Despite the growing use of the new form ‘Makkah’, the form ‘Mecca’ entered the English language a long time ago. It is difficult now to stop this usage especially now that it has a wide range of uses. However, there should be more cultural awareness to use the most frequent and preferred form when mentioning the heritage of the Arabic and Islamic culture that is highly restricted to the official form.


اتمنى يكون وصل الي عندي رغم ماعرف والله ليه عيا يتحمل و ينرفع في الشكل الاصلي بس انشالله ما يكون غلط او مو مسموح ارفعو بالطريقة دي تههيء <<< نظامية وتخاف:(

ترا اختك تقدر تختصروا كلو في خمسة عشرة اسطر بس ترا الدش الكتير الي تشوفيه النصوص المختار دراستها يعني خليها تترجم ع ضوء الي قلتو انا اول شي بالعربي بس انا حبيت اوضح لها الطريقة بالانجليش كيف امكن تساعدها و برضو عشان تشوف الجمل كيف جا شكل و لفظ و كتابة ومعنى كلمة مكة فيها. باااااااااااااااي