Abstract

Language ideology is rarely invoked in studying Arabic owing to the slippery nature of this concept and its historical connotations of ‘false consciousness’ that is rooted in its Marxist origins. This perspective has restricted the kind of data that can be used to link Arabic to its socio-political context. It has also occluded the possibility of linking language attitudes to perceptions of external danger and internal collusion that are prevalent in Arabic modern discourse. Considering these perceptions as a case of language anxiety that is prevalent in most cultures, the paper will argue that what seems to the Arabs to be language specific is in fact a universal phenomenon. More specifically, the paper will show how book titles, as paratexts, constitute an arena for articulating Arabic language ideology and Arab anxiety about Arabic.