Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted A Comparative Target Reception Study of Verbal Humour in Three Animated Disney Films Dubbed into Egyptian Dialect and Modern Standard Arabic: The Case of Saudi Viewers(Saudi Digital Library, 2026) Alsohebani, Lenah; Schiwind Kai; Mckeane, John; Knox, SimoneThis thesis explores the reception of dubbed verbal humour in Disney–Pixar animated films among Saudi Arabian audiences, comparing the use of Egyptian Dialect (ED) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The study investigates how dialect choice and dubbing strategies influence the delivery of humour and audience reception. A mixed-methods research design is employed to analyse verbal humour in three Disney–Pixar films: Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), and Monsters, Inc. (2001), as well as their Arabic-dubbed and redubbed versions, which constitute the study corpora. Qualitative data are collected by analysing humorous expressions from the first thirty minutes of each film and their Arabic versions to identify sources of humour and examine the strategies used to achieve the Humorous Function (HF). Semi-structured interviews are also conducted with dubbing practitioners to explore dubbing practices and the motivations behind the use of different Arabic dialects. Quantitative data are gathered through questionnaires administered to parents and children to assess their reception and preferences regarding ED-dubbed and MSA-redubbed versions. Quantitative data are analysed using SPSS, while qualitative data are examined using thematic analysis procedures (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2012). The study adopts a multidisciplinary theoretical framework integrating audiovisual translation models by Díaz-Cintas and Remael (2007–2021), humour theories by Morreall (1987) and Grice (1975, 1978), functional translation theories based on Vermeer’s (1978) Skopos theory, and audience reception theory as articulated by Jauss (1970, 1982), allowing examination of factors affecting audience reception from multiple perspectives. The findings indicate that ED is generally more effective than MSA in achieving humorous impact and is preferred by children across the three films: 51% for Toy Story, 82% for A Bug’s Life, and 64% for Monsters, Inc., whereas parents favour MSA for educational purposes (78%) and cultural reasons (43%). The study identifies several sources of humour, including wordplay, incongruity, irony, hyperbole, sarcasm, and humorous names, and highlights translation strategies such as cultural substitution, compensation, adaptation, and lexical creativity. Thematic analysis also reveals ideological, economic, and cultural factors influencing dubbing practices. The study concludes that audiovisual translation is a complex linguistic and cultural process rather than a purely technical task. Dialectal variation significantly affects the delivery of humour and audience reception, emphasising the importance of culturally effective translation strategies. The study contributes to audiovisual translation research, particularly in the area of audience reception. The study is among the first attempts to apply reception research to both young and adult film viewers in the Saudi context. The choice of the Saudi audience adds to the originality of the current study, enriches the literature on Arab dubbing, and supports the development of audiovisual translation scholarship in Arab and Saudi universities.10 0Item Restricted Transformer-based Semantic Similarity Exploration on the Holy Quran(Saudi Digital Library, 2025-03) Alsaleh, Abdullah Nassir A; Atwell, Eric; Altahhan, AbdulrahmanThis PhD research explores the application of modern Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to the study of the Holy Quran, with a focus on semantic understanding. It addresses the challenges of working with Classical Arabic and explores how Transformer-based Arabic language models can be used to better understand relationships between Quranic verses, answer questions, and retrieve relevant passages. The thesis makes four key contributions. First, it evaluates QurSim, a semantic similarity corpus in the Quran, and produces a cleaner version of the QurSim dataset to support more reliable experiments. Second, it applies Arabic pre-trained language models to three semantically related tasks: semantic similarity, question answering and passage retrieval, to demonstrate their potential and limitations in handling religious text. Third, it outlines the methods and strategies for tackling the tasks, identifying the most effective approaches to understanding the Quranic text. The central contribution of the thesis is the development of QuranRel, a newly annotated semantic similarity corpus of the Holy Quran. The corpus addresses key limitations in existing resources, including a lack of expert labellers, multi-verse handling and data quality issues. QuranRel provides 12,937 curated and labelled verses, paying attention to context and meaning. The findings of this PhD thesis demonstrate two main contributions. First, the Arabic pre-trained Transformer-based language models can be effectively applied to Quranic text semantic tasks, although their performance varies depending on the nature of the task. Second, the thesis highlights the need for a new semantic similarity corpus of the Holy Quran, grounded in a Quranic exegesis that interprets the Quran through the Quran itself. These contributions advance the field of NLP for the Holy Quran in particular and Classical Arabic in general, providing tools and resources that open new pathways for the computational linguistics of religious text.52 0Item Restricted The differences in language use and attitude towards language between men and women in Saudi Arabia(University of Pretoria, 2022-06-06) Alzahrani, Fatimah; Tirvassen, Rada; Kritzinger, KoosThe topic of gender differences has attracted considerable critical attention from linguists because of the importance that sociolinguistics offers to the complex relationship between language and gender. Gender separation in the social setting could be a significant factor in the disparities in language use between men and women. Consequently, this study aims to investigate the relationship between language and gender in Saudi Arabia, a gender-segregated society. This involves determining if the male and female students differ in their language use and attitudes towards Saudi Arabic varieties.58 0