islam almomani - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by islam almomani
The International Journal of Literary Humanities
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2016
The current research paper attempted at investigating the use of prepositions of standard, prepos... more The current research paper attempted at investigating the use of prepositions of standard, prepositions of possession and prepositions of accompaniment by some Jordanian learners of English. A total of 53 Jordanian English Majors participated in the study from the department of English language at Princess Alia University College. In collecting the needed data for the purpose of the study, the researchers employed fifteen items of a multiple choice test. The results of the study showed that Jordanian learners of English encountered moderate difficulty in learning the three aforesaid usages of prepositions. This difficulty is ascribed mainly to first language interference more than intralingual interference. It was also found that prepositions of standard are the most difficult to learn by the participants, followed by prepositions of accompaniment and prepositions of possession respectively.
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 2016
The paper aims at investigating the properties of passive sentences in Jordanian Arabic (hencefor... more The paper aims at investigating the properties of passive sentences in Jordanian Arabic (henceforth) JA, and providing a deeper understanding and precise description of the syntactic and semantic features of passivization. It also aims at examining the structure and derivat ion of passive sentences under the Minimalist Program. Principles like feature checking, and merger are agued to provide an account for JA passive sentences. In case of active transitive sentences, the paper has claimed that JA has a strong NP feature of T which induces overt NP movement of the subject NP out of the VP internal position, that is, the [Spec, and VP]. In the passive transforms of transitive sentences, the object NP moves to the [Spec, VP], and then to the [Spec, IP] to have its Nom Case check ed off. JA allows the merger between the passive morpheme and the verb. Thus, the verb raises to T to have its φ features checked by the Vfeatures of T. Similar observations can be noticed in intransitive sentences, the subject NP must be fronted to [Spec, TP] in order to satisfy EPP features. The [+V] feature of T attracts the verb to raise and check the [+ V] feature.
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2015
The paper aims at examining the role that morphology plays in allowing and/or motivating sentence... more The paper aims at examining the role that morphology plays in allowing and/or motivating sentences in Jordanian Arabic (hereafter JA) to be formed with or without subject pronouns. It also aims at giving a comprehensive and descriptive presentation of the distribution of overt and null subject pronouns in JA, and tries to determine to what extent there is optionality in its system.
This paper aims at finding the differences between MSA and JA in the area of future. It focuses o... more This paper aims at finding the differences between MSA and JA in the area of future. It focuses on the forms and uses of these markers. It is found that MSA future markers are not used in JA; instead, a number of different markers are used to express different speakers’ attitudes towards the future activity. Moreover, MSA markers are not inflected while some of JA future markers are inflected for person, number and gender. It is found in this paper that differences between the two varieties of Arabic do exist but still they are two dialects of the same language, Arabic, and cannot be considered as two different languages because of some religious and political reasons.
This paper aims at finding how "Case-Assignment" is tackled under the notion "Gove... more This paper aims at finding how "Case-Assignment" is tackled under the notion "Government" in Arabic from the traditional Arab grammarians' grammatical analyses. Its purpose, also, is to argue that case-assignment in Arabic can be assigned under government and thus, this paper adopts the Government and Binding (GB) theory developed in Chomsky (1981, 1982, 1986b) but not Chomsky's "Minimalist theory" (1993 and 1995) because case-assignment is not assigned anymore under the notion "government" but under "Checking theory" in terms of morphological features checking between case assigners and case assignees. Thus, the minimalist theory is excluded here. The basic part of this article is to argue the views of the traditional Arab grammarians concerning case and government. The paper aims at finding out whether the views of the Arab grammarians are compatible with the recent thinking in linguistics i.e., GB theory or both of these a...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, Jul 1, 2015
The paper aims at providing an explanation of pronominals in Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MS... more The paper aims at providing an explanation of pronominals in Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MSA) by assuming that the relation between pronouns and available binders is constrained by the same syntactic condition, i.e., a pronoun cannot be coindexed with a c-commanding NP within its local domain. It also aims at providing a unified account of two types of pronominals in MSA, referential and bound pronouns. These two types of pronouns have different values for their binders; where a referential pronoun requires a name to be coindexed with; a bound pronoun requires a distinct subject, i.e., a quantifier as its binder. The paper adopts Principle B of the theory of binding to account for these pronouns by examining how this principle can express the content of disjoint reference for pronouns embedded in Ss, NPs and PPs in MSA and to see whether the phenomenon of disjoint reference in Arabic supports principle (B).
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2011
... (67). a. Hind-un T-Taalibat-u Hind-nom the-student-F-nom Hind is the student.‟ b. Hind-un j-... more ... (67). a. Hind-un T-Taalibat-u Hind-nom the-student-F-nom Hind is the student.‟ b. Hind-un j-jamila-tu Hind-nom the-beautiful-F-nom Hind is the beautiful girl.‟ In certain contexts, the copula appears in ... In P. Beninca (ed.), Dialects Variation and the Theory of Grammar, 85-103. ...
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2013
This study investigates the syntax of wh-constructions in Jordanian Arabic (JA). JA exhibits appa... more This study investigates the syntax of wh-constructions in Jordanian Arabic (JA). JA exhibits apparent optional movement whereby both options of fronting the wh-phrase and leaving it in-situ are possible.
The researchers claim that wh-questions in JA are driven by focus which is
embodied in the form of an intonational morpheme. They also claim that there are two distinct focus morphemes in JA (i) the information focus morpheme which is a variable that is bound to the focused constituent in situ and (ii) the contrastive focus morpheme which enters derivation with the operator ?ɪllɪ ‘who’ which accounts for its leftward location in the clause. When a wh-phrase enters the derivation with the contrastive focus morpheme and the particle ?ɪllɪ, it moves to the leftward position triggered by the features of the focus morpheme. Fronting of the wh-phrase is therefore triggered by features of the particle ?ɪllɪ. However, the particle ?ɪllɪ is not present in two cases when the wh-phrase is fronted. In the first case it occurs with the subject wh-phrase where the presence of the particle ?ɪllɪ is optional. In the second one it occurs with adjunct wh- hrases when they are fronted, they can never occur with ?ɪllɪ.
In case of the subject wh-phrase, wh-in-situ form is not possible because the subject wh-phrase must be fronted for two reasons (i) EPP features which trigger movement of the
subject wh-phrase from [Spec, VP] to [Spec, IP] and (ii) contrastive focus features which trigger movement from [Spec, IP] to [Spec, FP]. In case of the object wh-phrase, fronted
object wh-phrases are always associated with an overt ?ɪllɪ particle whereas in case of the adjunct wh-phrase, fronted adjunct wh-phrases can never take an overt ?ɪllɪ particle.
The International Journal of Literary Humanities
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2016
The current research paper attempted at investigating the use of prepositions of standard, prepos... more The current research paper attempted at investigating the use of prepositions of standard, prepositions of possession and prepositions of accompaniment by some Jordanian learners of English. A total of 53 Jordanian English Majors participated in the study from the department of English language at Princess Alia University College. In collecting the needed data for the purpose of the study, the researchers employed fifteen items of a multiple choice test. The results of the study showed that Jordanian learners of English encountered moderate difficulty in learning the three aforesaid usages of prepositions. This difficulty is ascribed mainly to first language interference more than intralingual interference. It was also found that prepositions of standard are the most difficult to learn by the participants, followed by prepositions of accompaniment and prepositions of possession respectively.
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 2016
The paper aims at investigating the properties of passive sentences in Jordanian Arabic (hencefor... more The paper aims at investigating the properties of passive sentences in Jordanian Arabic (henceforth) JA, and providing a deeper understanding and precise description of the syntactic and semantic features of passivization. It also aims at examining the structure and derivat ion of passive sentences under the Minimalist Program. Principles like feature checking, and merger are agued to provide an account for JA passive sentences. In case of active transitive sentences, the paper has claimed that JA has a strong NP feature of T which induces overt NP movement of the subject NP out of the VP internal position, that is, the [Spec, and VP]. In the passive transforms of transitive sentences, the object NP moves to the [Spec, VP], and then to the [Spec, IP] to have its Nom Case check ed off. JA allows the merger between the passive morpheme and the verb. Thus, the verb raises to T to have its φ features checked by the Vfeatures of T. Similar observations can be noticed in intransitive sentences, the subject NP must be fronted to [Spec, TP] in order to satisfy EPP features. The [+V] feature of T attracts the verb to raise and check the [+ V] feature.
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2015
The paper aims at examining the role that morphology plays in allowing and/or motivating sentence... more The paper aims at examining the role that morphology plays in allowing and/or motivating sentences in Jordanian Arabic (hereafter JA) to be formed with or without subject pronouns. It also aims at giving a comprehensive and descriptive presentation of the distribution of overt and null subject pronouns in JA, and tries to determine to what extent there is optionality in its system.
This paper aims at finding the differences between MSA and JA in the area of future. It focuses o... more This paper aims at finding the differences between MSA and JA in the area of future. It focuses on the forms and uses of these markers. It is found that MSA future markers are not used in JA; instead, a number of different markers are used to express different speakers’ attitudes towards the future activity. Moreover, MSA markers are not inflected while some of JA future markers are inflected for person, number and gender. It is found in this paper that differences between the two varieties of Arabic do exist but still they are two dialects of the same language, Arabic, and cannot be considered as two different languages because of some religious and political reasons.
This paper aims at finding how "Case-Assignment" is tackled under the notion "Gove... more This paper aims at finding how "Case-Assignment" is tackled under the notion "Government" in Arabic from the traditional Arab grammarians' grammatical analyses. Its purpose, also, is to argue that case-assignment in Arabic can be assigned under government and thus, this paper adopts the Government and Binding (GB) theory developed in Chomsky (1981, 1982, 1986b) but not Chomsky's "Minimalist theory" (1993 and 1995) because case-assignment is not assigned anymore under the notion "government" but under "Checking theory" in terms of morphological features checking between case assigners and case assignees. Thus, the minimalist theory is excluded here. The basic part of this article is to argue the views of the traditional Arab grammarians concerning case and government. The paper aims at finding out whether the views of the Arab grammarians are compatible with the recent thinking in linguistics i.e., GB theory or both of these a...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, Jul 1, 2015
The paper aims at providing an explanation of pronominals in Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MS... more The paper aims at providing an explanation of pronominals in Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MSA) by assuming that the relation between pronouns and available binders is constrained by the same syntactic condition, i.e., a pronoun cannot be coindexed with a c-commanding NP within its local domain. It also aims at providing a unified account of two types of pronominals in MSA, referential and bound pronouns. These two types of pronouns have different values for their binders; where a referential pronoun requires a name to be coindexed with; a bound pronoun requires a distinct subject, i.e., a quantifier as its binder. The paper adopts Principle B of the theory of binding to account for these pronouns by examining how this principle can express the content of disjoint reference for pronouns embedded in Ss, NPs and PPs in MSA and to see whether the phenomenon of disjoint reference in Arabic supports principle (B).
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2011
... (67). a. Hind-un T-Taalibat-u Hind-nom the-student-F-nom Hind is the student.‟ b. Hind-un j-... more ... (67). a. Hind-un T-Taalibat-u Hind-nom the-student-F-nom Hind is the student.‟ b. Hind-un j-jamila-tu Hind-nom the-beautiful-F-nom Hind is the beautiful girl.‟ In certain contexts, the copula appears in ... In P. Beninca (ed.), Dialects Variation and the Theory of Grammar, 85-103. ...
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2013
This study investigates the syntax of wh-constructions in Jordanian Arabic (JA). JA exhibits appa... more This study investigates the syntax of wh-constructions in Jordanian Arabic (JA). JA exhibits apparent optional movement whereby both options of fronting the wh-phrase and leaving it in-situ are possible.
The researchers claim that wh-questions in JA are driven by focus which is
embodied in the form of an intonational morpheme. They also claim that there are two distinct focus morphemes in JA (i) the information focus morpheme which is a variable that is bound to the focused constituent in situ and (ii) the contrastive focus morpheme which enters derivation with the operator ?ɪllɪ ‘who’ which accounts for its leftward location in the clause. When a wh-phrase enters the derivation with the contrastive focus morpheme and the particle ?ɪllɪ, it moves to the leftward position triggered by the features of the focus morpheme. Fronting of the wh-phrase is therefore triggered by features of the particle ?ɪllɪ. However, the particle ?ɪllɪ is not present in two cases when the wh-phrase is fronted. In the first case it occurs with the subject wh-phrase where the presence of the particle ?ɪllɪ is optional. In the second one it occurs with adjunct wh- hrases when they are fronted, they can never occur with ?ɪllɪ.
In case of the subject wh-phrase, wh-in-situ form is not possible because the subject wh-phrase must be fronted for two reasons (i) EPP features which trigger movement of the
subject wh-phrase from [Spec, VP] to [Spec, IP] and (ii) contrastive focus features which trigger movement from [Spec, IP] to [Spec, FP]. In case of the object wh-phrase, fronted
object wh-phrases are always associated with an overt ?ɪllɪ particle whereas in case of the adjunct wh-phrase, fronted adjunct wh-phrases can never take an overt ?ɪllɪ particle.