This volume includes papers on the study of Arabic dialects and their implications for general linguistics (Section I), as well of papers of a more general nature (Sections II and III). Because the Arabic dialects are similar in many ways, a study of their differences can help isolate precisely the range of permissible interlinguistic variation (i.e. the "parameters" of universal grammar). A number of papers in Section I focus on the contribution of dialect studies to a theory of crossdialectal and crosslinguistic variation; others focus on individual dialects, thus providing data and analyses that can further contribute to our understanding of this type of variation. The papers in Sections II and III of the volume are selected from the general session of the symposium and address sociolinguistic and historical aspects of Arabic, respectively.