JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES (original) (raw)
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The null pro subject in Najdi Arabic
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2022
This study aims to examine the null pro subject in Najdi Arabic and directly answer the following questions within Holmberg’s (2008) theory of null subjects: (i) Is Najdi Arabic a pro-drop and hence a consistent null subject language (NSL)? and (ii) How is the null pro subject derived and interpreted in the syntax? We argue that Najdi Arabic is pro-drop and hence a consistent NSL and that full agreement are associated with null subject pronouns. Furthermore, we reveal that the null subject in Najdi Arabic is derived by incorporating a subject pronoun in the head T position as a consequence of Agree. The interaction between Holmberg’s analysis and Najdi Arabic data reveals that the subject pronoun in Spec-vP configuration is not pronounced in Najdi Arabic because it is not the highest chain copy; what has to be articulated of the subject chain is a verbal affix on the verb as a reflection of the deleted subject of the structure. The interpretation of the null pro subject in Najdi Arabic depends on the antecedent of the null pronominal that values T’s D-feature. When the A-topic values the D-feature, then a definite third person null subject structure results in the derived structure.
The Null pro Subject in Early Modern English and Standard Arabic
This paper investigates the syntax of the null pro subject in Early Modern English, Standard Arabic and Modern Standard English and point out how the pro-drop parameter works in these languages. The objective is to show how in languages with rich agreement inflection like Early Modern English and Standard Arabic, the null pro is allowed in the structural subject position of finite clauses, whereas in languages with poor agreement morphology like Modern Standard English it is not permitted. It further illustrates that the rich AGR inflections in Early Modern English and Standard Arabic serve to identify the null pro subject, since the feature-content of the latter (i.e. the pro) can be recovered from the AGR morpheme on the verb morphology. Following Chomsky " s (1995) minimalist analysis, I show how the nominative Case and agreement features of the (pro) subject are licensed and how the tense features of the verb are checked in Early Modern English and Standard Arabic. Furthermore, I present an alternative analysis which accounts for the occurrence of the null pro in finite clauses of Standard Arabic. I assume that the D-feature of I(NFL) is strong in the VSO and SVO structures with null pro subjects in Standard Arabic.
Overt and Null Subject Pronouns in Jordanian Arabic
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2015
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.
Null Conjuncts and Bound Pronouns in Arabic
This paper presents a descriptive overview and a formal analysis of the syntax of pronominal arguments, pronominal conjuncts and bound pronouns in Arabic. I argue that Arabic allows first conjuncts to be null and that this is an instance of a more general pattern of zero anaphora that may affect pronominal arguments or their first conjuncts. First Conjunct Agreement and constraints on the distribution of zero anaphora are accounted for by a new feature sharing mechanism which allows a uniform treatment without appeal to the internal structure of argument NPs. I then argue that Arabic bound pronouns should be analyzed as affixes and present an analysis of their relation to argument structure and coordination. Finally, it is shown how constraints on case marking in Arabic coordination can be formalized. The analysis is part of an Arabic grammar fragment implemented in the TRALE system. † I want to thank Ivan Sag, the participants of HPSG 2011, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments, discussion, and pointers. Of course, I alone am responsible for any errors or inaccuracies.
The Syntax of Word Order Derivation and Agreement in Najrani Arabic: A Minimalist Analysis
The paper aims to explore word order derivation and agreement in Najran Arabic (henceforth, NA) and examines the interaction between the NA data and Chomsky's (2001, 2005) Agree theory which we adopt in this study. The objective is to investigate how word order occurs in NA and provide a satisfactorily unified account of the derivation of SVO and VSO orders and agreement in the language. Furthermore, the study shows how SVO and VSO word orders are derived morpho-syntactically in NA syntax and why and how the derivation of SVO word order comes after that of VSO order. We assume that the derivation of the unmarked SVO in NA takes place after applying a further step to the marked VSO. We propose that the default unmarked word order in NA is SVO, not VSO. Moreover, we propose that the DP which is base-generated in [Spec-vP] is a topic, not a subject. We adopt Rizzy's split-CP hypothesis on the basis of which we assume the existence of a Top Phrase (TopP) projection in the clause structure of NA. We postulate that the phase head C passes its ϕ-features to the functional head T and the Edge feature to TopP. We assume that T in VSO lacks the Edge feature which motivates movement of the subject DP to [Spec-TP]. As a consequence, the subject of VSO structure remains in situ in the subject position of [Spec-vP]. In addition, it explores subject-verb agreement asymmetry (henceforth, SVAA) and shows that the asymmetry in NA is not related to word order differences but rather to gender agreement differences.
A Minimalist Account of Free Relative Clauses in Zahrani Spoken Arabic
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2024
This paper explores the syntax of free relative clauses in Zahrani Spoken Arabic (henceforth ZSA). The paper shows that ZSA possesses two types of free relative clauses, viz., nominal free relative clauses and adverbial free relative clauses. The focus of the paper is on nominal free relative clauses. It is shown that nominal free relative clauses can appear in a subject position and a direct object position, and the range of relativization involves subject, direct object, indirect object, prepositional object and possessor relativization. The derivation of free relatives in ZSA involves resumption relativization strategy only where gaps are treated as null resumptive pronouns. As for distribution of null and overt resumptive clitics, there is an alternation between the use of null and overt resumptive pronouns/clitics in subject and direct object position. However, the utilization of overt resumptive pronouns/clitics is mandatory in indirect object, prepositional object and possessor position. It is argued that the free relative markers illi: and mi:n are complementizers. Furthermore, as null and overt resumptive clitics exhibit a big resemblance with respect to their behaviour in the coordinate structures and parasitic gaps, both free relatives with null or resumptive pronouns/clitics involve a null operator movement (in non-island contexts) from inside the free relative clause to the specifier of a complementizer phrase (spec CP). The CP is adjoined to a null antecedent occupying the head of a noun phrase (NP) which is a complement of a determiner phrase (DP) with an empty D.
The Null Subject and Agreement Asymmetry
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is one of languages which allow their subjects to be dropped like Italian and Spanish. They are called Null Subject Languages (NSLs) .The Null Subject (NS) is allowed when there is rich agreement. There are two agreement asymmetries in MSA; full agreement in the marked order SVO and partial agreement in the unmarked order VSO. The main focus in this study is to analyze agreement asymmetry in MSA. This paper investigates the relationship between NS and agreement patterns. The minimalist account of the correlation between NS and agreement patterns is argued in Holmberg (2010a). The full agreement results from copying features and the incorporation process between pro and Tense. The preverbal DP in SVO is considered as a Topic (and not a subject) which is coindexed with NS in Spec v*P. Holmberg (2010a) adopts NS Deletion Analysis in which NS is considered as a deleted pronoun and not an independent syntactic element. Holmberg's (200a) proposal is argued for Romance languages like Italian and Spanish which have Uniform Agreement. Thus, it may explain SVO in MSA but it does not explain partial agreement in MSA. The researcher will modify this proposal to fit MSA context.
The objective of this paper is to provide an adequate account for the following two questions: (a) How are Case and agreement features checked in verbless constructions in Standard Arabic?, and (b) What motivates Wh-movement in such verbless sentences? This paper examines the distribution of verbless sentences, explores their syntactic behavior and spells out two Minimalist proposals to account for these two questions above. Interestingly enough, we have observed that although the verbless sentence in Standard Arabic does not contain any overtly lexical copular verb in the present tense context, there is still a licensing of Case and agreement features. Following analyses in Chomsky (1995), Bemamoun (2000) and (Fakih 2003, 2005), we have attempted to account for this phenomenon by claiming that, given feature checking considerations and the EPP, such verbless sentences behave as such because their tense is specified only for one categorial feature, namely the feature [+D] which must be checked by the subject in the syntax; we argue here that it is this nominal [+D] feature which is responsible for licensing Case and agreement features. Interestingly, when the tense of the verbless sentence is in the past or in the future context, the verbal copula must lexically show up; we argue here that the tense is specified for two categorial features, namely the feature [+V] and the feature [+D] which must be checked by a legitimate head in the course of derivation. Moreover, this paper seeks to account for what really forces Wh-movement in verbless sentences in Standard Arabic. Following Chomsky's (1995) Minimalist analysis of Wh-movement in English and Fakih's (2003, 2005) account of wh-raising in Standard Arabic, we propose that in a simple interrogative clause of Standard Arabic C (i.e., COMP) has an abstract strong [+Q] feature and that the question word operator, which raises to it (i.e., COMP), has also a strong [+wh]feature that moves overtly for feature checking. We argue that the question word in Standard Arabic is motivated to move overtly to [Spec, CP] to check its own morphological features against that hosted in the interrogative C under the Spec-head agreement relation.
The Morphosyntax of Negative Pronouns Constructions in Jordanian Arabic
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2017
The main aim of this paper is to investigate the asymmetric distribution of negation strategies in verbless constructions in Jordanian Arabic and similar dialects. In particular, negative pronouns constructions present two major problems for analyses of sentential negation. The first problem lies in the use of the verbal negation strategy in such constructions although they are verbless. The second problem is the merger of subject pronouns that are clear maximal projections with the negative marker occupying the head of the negative projection. To solve these problems, the paper provides an analysis that is based on the morphosyntactic properties of negative pronouns as well as the discourse properties of the constructions in which they occur. To account for the merger between the pronoun and the head of the negative, the study demonstrates that such pronouns belong to the class of weak bound subject pronouns that undergo head movement to Neg to check and delete its uninterpretable [+D] feature. The proposed analysis treats negative pronouns constructions as topic-comment structures that involve a fronted DP followed by a complete string of predication. As such, the paper concludes that the use of the marked negation strategy is a natural outcome given the discourse properties associated with topic-comment constructions to which negative pronouns constructions belong.
The fine structure of low topics in Najdi Arabic
Linguistics , 2022
This article explores the low IP area of Najdi Arabic, with special reference to a construction involving a post-verbal object that is resumed on the verb (as in 'The man saw-her the woman'). We provide evidence that the object is a topic in the low IP area in such cases. However, the position of the object in the low IP area is masked by the movement of the verb to T0 or, in some cases (if T0 is lexically filled) to the head of the low Focus Phrase. We also provide evidence that Najdi Arabic low topics exclusively express given, accessible information (i.e., familiar topics), which is found to be a prominent characteristic that distinguishes them from high topics (in the CP domain). High topics are shown to be ambiguous with respect to their specific discourse-informational value (aboutness/shifting vs. contrastiveness vs. familiarity). Additionally, we offer evidence that low topics in Najdi Arabic are recursive, dominated by a low Focus Phrase (FocP > TopP*). At a general level, the study demonstrates that topics in the low IP area are more restrictive in their informational content than previously believed.