a Descriptive Study of Noun Phrases in Modern Standard ...

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

Noun Phrases in Arabic: a Descriptive Study of Noun Phrases

in Modern Standard Arabic and Najdi Arabic

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Masters of Arts in Linguistics

By

Lujain Alkhazy

May 2016

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The thesis of Lujain Alkhazy is approved:

_________________________________________ ______________

Dr. Joseph Galasso Date

_________________________________________ ______________

Dr. Sharon Klein Date

_________________________________________ ______________

Dr. Shadi Ganjavi, Chair Date

California State University, Northridge

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Acknowledgement

First and foremost, I praise God for granting me the blessings of learning and knowledge.

I hold this work as a testimony that proves that success is never an individual effort. Has

it not been for the amazing people around me, I would not been able to write this thesis. I

would like to thank my family at the Linguistics/TESL Department at California State

University, Northridge for offering me this wonderful learning experience. My deepest

gratitude to the wonderful chair Dr. McClave and the entire kindhearted professors in the

department, I thank you all for your constant support and encouragement. I would like to

extend my thanks and gratitude to the best committee members a graduate student could

ever dream of having. Dr. Sharon Klein and Dr. Joseph Galasso, thank you for your time,

for your instructive comments and remarks. My knowledge in linguistics has extended

immensely thanks to you. Last but never the least I am forever grateful and it is my

heartfelt pleasure to extend my appreciation and my deepest gratitude to my dear advisor

Dr. Shadi Ganjavi. Words fail me in trying to thank you for your help and guidance

throughout this journey. You were and will always be more than a professor and advisor.

You have been a mother and a friend guiding and supporting me through this. Thank you!

It would not been possible to be where I am today without the endless love and

support I have had and felt from my family. To my dear parents, I am forever in indebted

for your help throughout my life. To my first and best friend, my dear brother Fares,

thank you for all your help during the past year, moving in with me and my daughters and

being the best brother and uncle! To my husband and number one supporter, thank you

for encouraging me and constantly repeating “a successful mother makes a successful

family.” To the joys of my life and my source of strength, my beautiful daughters

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Aljoharah and Nora, I hope this work inspires you to pursue your dreams and reach your

goals.

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Table of Contents Signature Page ………………………………………………………………………… ii

Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………….... iii List of abbreviations ……………………………………………..………………… iv Abstract …..………………………………………………………………………... vii Chapter One: Introduction ……………………………………………………....… 1

1.1 Literature ……………………………………………………………..…... 3 1.2 Najdi and Qassimi Arabic …………………………………………..…..... 5 1.3 Thesis outline …………………………………………………………….. 7

Chapter Two: Noun Phrases in Arabic 2.1 Definiteness …………………..………………………………..………..…. 9 2.2 Case Marking ..………………………………………………….……….. 12 2.3 Vocative Particle ……………………………………………….…………. 14 2.4. Chapter Summary ……………………………………………………… 16

Chapter Three: The Nominal Sentence 3.1 The initial NP, almubtda ..…………………………………………….…. 19 3.2 The nominal report, alxabar …………………...……………………….… 22

3.2.1 Simple Report …………….………………….………………..... 23 3.2.2 Complex Report ...………………………………..………….…. 24

3.3 Chapter Summary …………………………………………………….…... 28 Chapter Four: Initial NPs in VSO order: subjects or topics?

4.1 Noun Phrases in SV and VS word order ………………………………….. 30 4.2 Agreement Asymmetries in Arabic ………………………………………. 36 4.3 Verbless Sentences as Small Clause ……………………………………… 42 4.3 Chapter Summary ……………………………………………………….... 46

Chapter Five: Modifiers 5.1 Adjectival Modifiers ………………………………….…………………... 48 5.2 The Construct State …………………………………..…………………. 54 5.3 The Analytic Genitive …………………………………………………….. 59 5.4 Chapter Summary …………………………………………………….…... 62

Chapter Six: Conclusion ..……………………………………………………………. 63 References Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C

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ABBREVIATIONS

1 First Person

2 Second Person

3 Third Person

ACC Accusative

DEM Diminutive

EA Egyptian Arabic

F Feminine

GEN Genitive

IMP Imperfective

IMPR Imperative

IND Indicative mood

KA Kuwaiti Arabic

M Masculine

MSA Modern Standard Arabic

MA Moroccan Arabic

NA Najdi Arabic

NOM Nominative

PERF Perfective

P Plural

PRN Pronoun

Q Quantifier

QA Qassimi Arabic

RESMP Resumptive

S Singular

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Abstract

Noun Phrases in Arabic: a Descriptive Study of Noun Phrases

in MSA and Najdi Arabic

By

Lujain Alkhazy

Masters of Arts in Linguistics

The following work provides a general overview of noun phrases in Arabic. A descriptive

study that seeks to lay out the varying range of noun phrases in Modern Standard Arabic

(MSA) and compare them to those found in spoken dialects of Arabic, specifically Najdi

Arabic (NA) and Qassimi Arabic (QA). Secondly, it grounds the description and

comparison in a generative framework that provides a platform for further understanding.

Another objective of this study is to provide an account on a specific syntactic structure

with special reference to a Saudi dialect, in efforts to promote the importance of dialectal

studies as an appropriate mean to better understand the standard and formal form of a

language.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The following work is a descriptive study that aims to lay out and present the

range of Noun Phrases in Arabic, generally in Modern Standard Arabic (Henceforth

MSA), and compare them to those found in Najdi Arabic (NA) and Qassimi Arabic (QA).

This work grounds its description and comparison in a generative framework that

provides a further platform for questions and further understanding. I present the main

constituents of a nominal sentence in Arabic, and look into the agreement system in such

constructions. In addition, presenting the different roles initial NPs take according to the

word order, and highlighting major analyses and descriptions from both classical

grammars and modern linguistic theories.

Conducting this research I have come across and read a great number of linguistic

studies on different varieties of Arabic; works that explored phonological features of a

dialect and other works that studied the syntactic structure of another dialect. However,

when it comes to studies on Saudi Arabic the number of works and research in any

linguistic field is comparatively low. In terms of the two dialects cited in this work, Najdi

Arabic is considered to be a more studied variety than Qasimi Arabic. Studies and works

that discuss NA include Abboud’s works (1964 and 1979) one of which is his Ph.D.

dissertation, on the syntax of NA. Alsweel’s (1987) is another work that looks at the

morphology and phonology of Najdi Arabic. Moreover, a seminal work that I have used

in this study is Ingham’s (1994) Najdi Arabic: Central Arabian, which presents a detailed

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description of the Najdi Arabic’s phonology, syntax, morphology and other linguistic

features. In addition, Prochaza’s (1988) work on Saudi Arabian dialects, which covers

dialects of Riyadh, Qassim, Sudair, Najran, and Bisha. Other works related to QA is

Sowayan’s (1982) study of the phonology of Unaizah, one of Alqassim cities. I

understand that the vast majority of Saudi linguists might be quit reluctant to conduct

research on a colloquial dialect, since spoken dialects are considered less prestigious and

an informal form of the standard high variety of the language. Palmer (2007) in his essay

on promoting the importance of teaching dialects and nonstandard varieties of Arabic,

quotes Versteegh, a linguist and an Arabist who points out that “it remains difficult in the

Arab world to arouse interest in the dialects as a serious object of study. Many speakers

of Arabic still feel that the dialect is a variety of language without a grammar and even in

the universities there is a certain reluctance to accept dialect studies as a dissertation

subject” (2004:132).

Yet, in my own experience studying and researching a specific dialect, has helped

me better understand the rules of the standard form of the language. More importantly I

came to realize the amount of linguistic sophistication and complexity of different

dialects. Due to the number of spoken dialects of Arabic, an objective of this to draw

major distinctions between those varieties and the formal standard form of Arabic. In

addition, to look at classical descriptions of Arabic grammars and providing an analysis

and description that is analogous to modern linguistic theories. Nonetheless, my aim to

document a spoken dialect of Arabic is to provide a platform for future linguistic studies

by looking at possible alternations and differences that may occur in the dialects.

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1.1 LITERATURE

The literature is rich with works and studies on standard languages. In this work I

have initiated my investigation by first looking at traditional grammars, that is

descriptions of Arabic grammar as set by the classical grammarian Sibawayh. I have used

descriptive resources of his followers, for instance Abdullatif et. al., (1997), Alrajihi

(2001), and Abo Almkarm (2007). One of the references is ʔlnɛħɔ ʔlʔəsasi by Abdullatif

et. al., (1997), which covers the basics of Arabic grammar. A key chapter used here is the

first chapter where he explains the characteristics of the Arabic noun. A second work I

have used is ʔljumla ʔlismya by Abo Almkarm (2007). In his book Abo Almkarm delves

into the history the Arabic nominal clause and its structure in Arabic. He describes in

detail the main constituents of the nominal clause. In his description, he provides

different points of view on some of the main issues that concern the nominal clause. He

also presents descriptions of agreement and word order within a nominal sentence

according to traditional grammar. Another important work cited here is Alrajihi (2011)

ʔltatbiq ʔlnahawi, where he provides a clear-cut description of Arabic grammar, and as in

most grammar books his explanations and examples mainly focused and used Modern

Standard Arabic (MSA). His work also provides a thorough explanation of Arabic

declension. (See appendix A for the morphology of tense.)

From contemporary linguistic theories I have looked at analyses and descriptions

from contemporary Semitic linguists focusing on Arabic such as Alabbas Benmamoun

(2000), (2003), (2006), Joesph Aoun (1994), (2010), Lina Choueiri (2002), (2010) and

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their discussions on functional issues like tense, agreement, and negation in MSA and

different dialects of Arabic such as Moroccan and Lebanese. Other works on different

Arabic dialects include, Mohammad Mohammad’s works on sentential structure in MSA

and Palestinian Arabic (1989), (1999), (2000), and Abdlekader Fassi AlFehri’s

discussions on Arabic modifiers (1993), (1999), (2012). Additionally due to their

belonging to the same language family and close syntactic structures, works that are

focused on Hebrew have benefitted this work by providing further arguments and

descriptions. Major works with an emphasis on Hebrew by Elizabeth Ritter (1988),

(1991), Hagit Borer (1996), Tal Siloni (2001), and Ur Shlonskey (1997), (2004) to name

a few, helped provide a solid discussion.

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1.2 NAJDI AND QASSMI ARABIC To begin with I would like to point out the main reason behind using Najdi and

Qassimi dialects. Qassimi Arabic is considered one of the spoken variety of Najdi Arabic.

Both dialects are spoken in Saudi Arabia. The name “Qassimi” refers to the province of

AlQassim, one of the major provinces in the Najd region. Najd is located at the heart of

Saudi Arabia, where the capital of the Kingdom, Riyadh, is found (see appendix B for a

regional map). AlQassim encompasses a number of cities, including Buraydah, its

capital. The province is located approximately 400 km northwest of Riyadh.

Najd is divided into three administrative regions: Ha'il, Al-Qassim, and Riyadh,

comprising a combined area of 554,000 km2. Qassimi Arabic is therefore considered one

of the Najdi dialects. According to Ethnologue, Najdi Arabic is not exclusively spoken in

Saudi Arabia, it includes dialects found in Iraq, Jordan and Syria. There are 9,977,00

speakers of Najdi Arabic, with 8,000,000 speakers in Saudi Arabia (ibid).

Since Qassimi is one variety of Najdi, the two dialects share a number of

linguistic features. For instance, the phonemic inventory of Najdi is the same as Qassimi

(see appendix C for Najdi phonemic inventory). A difference may be found in using

some gender suffixes.

For example Najdi speakers tend to use the voiceless velar stop /k/ as the third

person feminine prefix, while in Qassimi speakers affricate the stop to the voiceless

palatal affricate /ts/. So, an example will be like:

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NA QA

/kitabɪk/ /kitabɪts/ ‘book-YOUR.3PF’

/baɪtɪk/ /baɪtɪts/ ‘house- YOUR.3PF’

Other phonetic differences and similarities are evident between the two dialects, however

delving into that discussion will go beyond the scope of this work.

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1.3 THESIS OUTLINE

This work is organized as the following, in chapter two, I will present a

description of the noun phrase in MSA with reference to QA, beginning by describing the

Arabic noun, and then presenting a description of the nominal sentence in Arabic and its

two constituents, mubtda and xabar, Chapter Three. In Chapter Four I briefly discuss the

status of the initial NP in SVO word order, and the differences between initial NPs

treated as topics of a nominal sentence and NPs as subjects. In the second section of

Chapter Four I discuss verbal agreement, and lastly I present Benmamoun’s (2000)

argument on verbless sentences as small clauses with references from QA. Lastly,

Chapter Five I discuss modifiers in MSA, adjectival modifiers and constructs. In Chapter

Six, I present major outcomes from conducting this work, and issues to be addressed in

future studies.

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CHAPTER TWO

NOUN PHRASES IN MSA

This chapter presents a detailed description of the nominal phrase, starting by

looking at the distinguishing characteristics of nouns in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)

characteristics set by traditional grammarians to identify the noun phrase. The first

section describes the Arabic noun in terms of (in)definiteness, Case marking, and

vocative particles.

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2.1 DEFINITENESS

Definiteness in Arabic is depicted by affixation, the prefix (ʔl-) in Arabic marks

definiteness, as in (1) below:

(1) ʔl1-bənt DEF-girl

‘the girl.’ NPs are also regarded as definite when a personal pronoun suffix that indicates

possession is attached, for example:

(2) bənt-ək girl-your

‘your girl.’ Nominals are marked as an indefinite by suffixing a short vowel and the consonant -n to

the nominal, a process sometimes referred to in Western grammars as nunation from the

Arabic term tanwin. The vowel in tanwin changes according to the nominal’s case (-u)

nominative case, (-i) genitive, and (-a) accusative as in the examples below:

1 In Standard Arabic and most spoken dialects the definite marker /ʔl/ assimilates when a coronal sound follows (Watson, 2007:216-221). For example: a. tu:rab ʔt-turab ø-sand DEF-sand ‘sand’ ‘the sand’ b. radʒul ʔr-radʒul ø-man DEF-man ‘man’ ‘the man’ On the other hand when a definite nominal begins with other sounds no assimilation takes place. Consider the following examples: c. hilal ʔl-hilal ø-crescent DEF-crescent ‘crescent’ ‘the crescent’ d. bint ʔl-bint ø-girl DEF-girl ‘girl’ ‘the girl’

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(3) a. bənt-u-n dʒamila-t-u-n girl.SF-NOM-INDEF beautiful-SF-NOM-INDEF ‘a beautiful girl’ b. raʔit-u bənt-a-n saw.I-NOM girl.SF-ACC-INDEF ‘I saw a girl.’ c. kitab-u bənt-i-n book-NOM girl.SF-GEN-INDEF ‘a girl’s book.’ It is important to mention that unmarked, bare NPs are also considered indefinite

as illustrated by the example in (4). Predictably, a given noun cannot be marked as

definite and indefinite simultaneously, and this is illustrated by the ill-formedness of (5)

where we have both definite and indefinite markers attached to the noun, bənt.

(4) bənt girl

‘a girl’ (5) *ʔl-bənt-u-n DEF-girl-NOM-INDEF ‘the/a girl’ Like most modern dialects in NA and QA speakers use nunation to express

indefiniteness. Consider the following example:

(6) dʒaat-na bənt-ə-n ħlil-ah came-us girl.SF-ACC-INDEF nice-SF ‘there came to us a nice girl’ The same indefinite marker, tanwin, is used for plural nouns, as in the following example: (7) kutub-i-n kəbir-a books.PM.GEN-INDEF big-SF

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‘big books’ Similarly, Ingham (1994) reports data from NA, where nunation is used to indicate

indefiniteness. Consider the following examples as was presented by Ingham (1994:52).

(8) aħsan ʃiggit-in ʃifta-ha best flat-INDEF I have seen ‘best flat I have seen’ Fassi Fehri (2012) adds that using other forms of determiners such as waħed ‘one’

followed by the definite article –l is a form of indefiniteness, consider the following

example as presented by Fassi Fehri (2012:162):

(9) ja waħed l-weld came one DEF-boy one (individual) boy came (For more on indefiniteness, nunation and its exact condition see Holes 2004; Fassi Fehri

2004, 2006).2

2 In terms of the structure of DPs in Arabic and headness, it has been argued that the definite article ʔl is the head of the DP (Mohammad 1988, Fassi Fehri 1993, Benmamoun 2000, Hoyt 2008).

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2.2 CASE MARKING

Noun phrases are assigned [+NOM] and marked by (-u) as subjects of VPs. And

NPs are assigned [+ACC] and marked by (-a) when they function as the direct object of

sentence. As in the following pair of examples:

(10) a. ya-ktub-u ʔl-wald-u ʔr-rsala-t-u 3MS.IMPREF-write-IND DEF-boy.MS-NOM DEF-letter-FS-NOM ‘the boy writs the letter.’ b. raʔi-tu ʔl-wald-a saw-1S DEF-boy.MS-ACC ‘I saw the boy.’ From the examples above the same NP ʔlwald has been marked with the nominative case

once, and with the accusative case in the second example.

The genitive case is a property of noun phrases and nominal constructions in

many languages (Longobardi, 2001). According to Abdullatif et. al., (1997) and Alrajhi

(2011) genitive NPs in Arabic are marked by (-i) in the following positions: object of a

prepositional phrase (11), object of a locative clause dʒumla Darfiya, (12), and with the

inner noun phrase of a Construct State, which will be discussed further in Chapter Five.

The following examples are from MSA where the genitive marker (-i) is attached to the

NPs.

(11) kitab-u-n ʕla ʔt- tæwil-at-i book.MS-NOM-INDEF on DEF-table-F-GEN

‘a book on the big table’

(12) ʔəmam-u ʔl-bait-i in front-NOM DEF-house.MS-GEN ‘in front of the house’

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(13) nufayat-u-n ʔamam-u minzil-i-n garbage-NOM-INDEF in front-NOM house-GEN-INDEF

‘garbage in front of a house’ In Arabic grammar, grammarians set a distinction between prepositional particles

and prepositional phrases. Prepositional particles like ʕla (on), min (from), and fi (in)

have a more restricted distribution in Arabic. They assign the genitive case to the nominal

elements that follow them. Example (12a) illustrates where ʕla assigns the genitive case

marker (-i) to the noun tæwila.

Prepositional phrases are called dʒumla Darfiya, (translates to conditional

sentence) (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Hoyt 2008, Alrajhi 2011), as in

example (12b) and (12c). In these examples, ʔəmam specifies the exact location.

Additionally such locative items can be followed by either [+DEF] or [-DEF] nouns, as

evident in the examples given above.

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2.3 VOCATIVE PARTICLE

The following brief section has been added since traditional grammarians discuss

that in Arabic noun phrases can take what is called the vocative particle ya, and they

discuss that such particle is a distinguishing feature of nominal (Abdullatif et. al., 1997,

Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011).

The vocative particle in Arabic is used to address or invoke the addressee, and it

can only precede nominals, as illustrated by the contrast in (14).

(14) a. ya talib ʔə-ntabih voc. student IMPR-pay attention ‘pay attention, student.’ b. * ya ʔə-ntabih talib voc. IMPR-pay attention student ‘pay attention, student.’ The vocative particle can also precede adjectives, where there is an implied nominal

corresponding to ‘one’ in English, as in the following example:

(15) ya karim voc. generous

‘generous one.’ Vocative particle are widely used in QA and NA, commonly found in spoken or reported

form of language, and in everyday interactions. In recent works Fassi Fehri (2012) in his

discussion on bare determination points out that vocatives provide a case for overt/covert

issue of determination (2012:223). Fassi Fehri also draws a distinction between two types

of vocatives. Consider the following examples that illustrate his point:

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(16) ya bent-u voc. girl.SM-NOM

‘hey girl!’ In (16) the vocative has the following properties as discussed by Fassi Fehri (2012): (i)

the vocative is followed by a bare noun, (ii) the noun carries the nominative case, (iii) the

interpretation holds for a designated addressee. Fassi Fehri also adds that the vocative can

have no restrictive modifier (2012:224).

For a better understanding of the second type consider the following example as

presented by Fassi Fehri (2012):

(17) ya radʒ ul-a-n gayra muʔaddab-in voc. man-ACC-INDEF not polite-INDEF ‘Hey impolite man.’ In the second type of vocatives Fassi Fehri points out that the noun is indefinite

and cannot be definite, it carries the accusative case, and the addressee as opposed to the

first type is not designated, and the noun can be modified by restrictive phrase or clause.

Consider the following Najdi proverb:

(18) ya ɣarib ken ʔdib voc. stranger be well-behaved ‘O stranger! Be well-behaved.’

In this example the noun following the vocative, ɣarib, is an indefinite and non-specific

noun. The addressee is not a designated or specific person.

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2.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY

In this chapter I have presented a description of the main features of a noun

phrase in MSA according to traditional grammarians and contemporary linguistic

theories. Starting with the definiteness feature in noun phrases, where we saw that

definiteness is expressed by affixation, and that the unmarked bare nouns are considered

indefinite in MSA. In section 2.2 I presented the different case markers an NP takes

according to its position within a sentence. And lastly, section 2.3 I briefly presented

vocative particles in Arabic.

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CHAPTER THREE

THE NOMINAL SENTENCE

The following chapter looks at the variation of word order in Arabic, and most

specifically how is the NP treated in different structures. It also looks at NP treatments as

topics or subjects. Looking into Arabic sentence structures, two main structures surface

and are used to contrast one another in traditional literature. The first structure is called

dʒumla fəʔliya, “verbal sentence” where a VP precedes the NP. The second structure is

called dʒumla ismyya, “nominal sentence”, where an NP initiates the sentence (Ingham

1994, Alrajhi, 2011:85). Examples in (1) show the two structures:

(1) a. xərədʒ-a əʔ-talib-u left.3MS-PERF DEF-student.MS-NOM ‘the student left.’ b. ʔl-ʔsʕar-u murtafiʕ-at-u-n DEF-prices-NOM high-F-NOM-INDEF ‘the prices are high.’ In (1a), the VP xərədʒa precedes the NP əʔTalib, and in (1b) on the other hand, the

sentence begins with an NP, ʔl-ʔsʕar-u, hence the two unmarked sentence structures in

Arabic. (For further information and discussions on sentence structure and word order in

Arabic see Fassi Fehri 1993, Aoun et. al., 1994, Ingham 1994, Shlonsky 1997,

Mohammad 2000, Hoyt 2008, Aoun et. al., 2001).

In the following section I will examine the constructions like (1b), the so-called

dʒumla ismyya, nominal sentence. As the discussion unfolds we will see that the nominal

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sentence is composed of two constituents: ʔlmubta, the initial NP, and ʔlxabar, the

predicate. In (1b) the initial NP is ʔlʔsʕaru, and murtafiʕatun is the predicate (Abdullatif

et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Hoyt 2008, Alrajhi 2011). The two constituents are

always assigned the nominative case, and agree in terms of number, gender, and

definiteness, as we will observe in the following sections of the chapter.

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3.2 THE INITIAL NP, ʔLMUBTDA

As mentioned earlier two main constituents make up a nominal sentence in

Arabic, almubtda and alxabar, this section focuses on the initial NP. Key features of the

initial NP, ʔlmubtda, are: (i) it must be [+DEF], (ii) it must carry the nominative case, (iii)

and it has to be a single phrase. Traditional grammars stress that the initial NP can never

be a full a sentence or a clause (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi

2011). On the other hand, ʔlxabar, the predicate (report) can be a single word, phrase, or

a complete sentence (see section 3.3 for specific examples).

(2) ʔt-talib-u fi ʔs-saf-i DEF-student.MS-NOM in DEF-classroom-GEN ‘the student is in the classroom’ There are instances, however, in Arabic where the mubtda of the nominal

sentence is headed by an indefinite noun, or an indefinite plural particle, or diminutives.

Such cases are exceptions, as grammarians explain, where it is acceptable to find an

indefinite noun in initial position of a nominal sentence (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo

Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011). There are a number of such exceptions and listing them all

will deviate from the discussion on nominal sentences, therefore, I will describe cases

that occur more in the spoken dialects.

One of the exceptions for an indefinite noun to head the nominal sentence is only

possible if the head noun is specified and modified (Alrajhi, 2011:93).

(3) kitab-u-n kabir-u-n ʕla ʔt- tæwilat-i book.MS-NOM-INDEF big.MS-NOM-INDEF on DEF-table-GEN ‘a big book is on the table.’

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Notice in the above example the head noun, kitabun, carries the indefinite tanwin. The

structure is well formed and accepted in MSA, and the two constituents kitabun kabirun

together function as the constituents of a nominal sentence in MSA. Nonetheless, both

constituents agree in terms of being [-DEF] and [-PLURAL].

Indefinite initial NPs are widely found in modern dialects of Arabic, the following

example is an instance from QA:

(4) ħadii.gat-in3 dʒədiid-a rħn-a l-ah park.FS-INDEF new-FS went-FP-RESMP to.FS-RESMP ‘a new park we went to.’ (5) bəsah səɣir-a xawafət-uh cat small-FS scared-RESMP ‘a small cat scared him.’

Notice that in both examples the initial NP is [-DEF] yet it initiates the sentences, and in

both examples the [-DEF] NP is modified, hence the grammaticality.

Another exception is when the nominal clause is headed by the indefinite plural

particle kul, ma, or min4, which all translate to all in English, examples (6) and (7) below

(6) kul-u ʔ-Tuləb-u (MSA) all-NOM DEF-student.MP-NOM ‘all the students.’ (7) kilʃ-in yanfaʕ (NA/QA) everything-NOM useful ‘everything is of some use.’

3 In QA and NA the indefinite (-n) is preceded by the vowel (i). 4 In spoken dialects the quantifier kul is more frequent, as the other two particles are homophones to other parts of speech, ma can also be used as a negative marker, and min as a preposition.

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In example (6) the indefinite kul initiates the nominal clause, yet this structure is well

formed and accepted in MSA. Moreover, such structure also occurs in spoken varieties as

in example (7), which is an example of a traditional Najdi proverb.

Further exceptions for indefinite nouns to head a nominal clause include

diminutives. In Arabic the initial NP can be a diminutive noun, such nouns are accepted

to initiate the nominal sentence, as in example (8) found in MSA and (9) an instance from

QA:

(8) dʒubaɪl-u-n fe ʔ-Saħra (MSA) mountain.DIM-NOM-INDEF in DEF-desert ‘a mountain is in the desert.’

(9) gtaɪʕat xubz (QA) piece.DIM bread ‘a piece of bread.’ Another exception of the initial NP to be [-DEF] is possible only when alxabr, the

predicate, is fronted in the sentence. The fronted element can be either a phrase or a

sentence (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011, among others).

(10) fi ʔl-bait-i daif-i-n in DEF-house-GEN guest.MS-GEN-INDEF ‘a guest is in the house.’ The noun Daifin here is [-DEF] and is the initial NP mubtda, yet it does not appear at the

beginning of the clause, instead it follows the prepositional phrase fi ʔl-baiti. Such

construction of the nominal sentence is found in modern dialects, normally in reported

speech and replying to questions.

In this part of the chapter we have observed the nature of the initial NP, almubtda,

of the nominal sentence in Arabic. Definiteness being the main characteristic of the initial

NP, however as we have seen there are a number of exceptions in Arabic where an

22

indefinite noun can head the nominal sentence. And in this section I have presented the

most common exceptions of [-DEF] mubtda. In the section that follows I will describe the

second constituent of the nominal sentence, ʔlxabar.

23

3.3 THE NOMINAL REPORT, ʔLXABAR

In the previous section we have seen the main characteristics of the first

constituent of the Arabic nominal sentence. In what follows is an account on the

predicate, ʔlxabr (which translates to report). Traditional grammarians define the

predicate of the nominal sentence as the second main constituent, which reports, adds,

and completes the meaning of the whole sentence or clause. Furthermore, as we saw in

example (1) of the previous section the report agrees with ʔlmubtda in case [+NOM]

(Alrajhi, 2011:98). In traditional grammars the predicate is described a single word or a

complete phrase (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011, among

others). Since the report, ʔlxabr, of the nominal sentence can take different forms, let us

look at each possible structure.

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3.2.1 SIMPLE REPORT

The nominal sentence can have a simple lexical xabar, report. Additionally,

simple reports can be adjectives or nouns, as in the examples below (11a) mumaizun is an

adjective, and in (11b) dʒabalun is a noun, the report is in boldface:

(11) a. ʔħmad-u mumaiz-u-n Ahmed.MS-NOM special.MS-NOM-INDEF ‘Ahmed is special.’ b. ʔt-tobad-u dʒabal-u-n DEF-Tobad.MS-NOM mountain.MS-NOM-INDEF ‘Tobad is a mountain.’ In both examples the report is a single NP, the report is mumaiz-u-n in the (11a), and

dʒabal-u-n in (11b). Additionally, we notice in both examples the initial NP, mubtda, and

its report, xabar, agree in gender and number. Yet, notice in both examples the predicate

is [-DEF], while the initial NP of the nominal sentence is [+DEF], the predicate receives

definiteness from the initial NP.

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3.2.2 COMPLEX REPORT

A complex report in a nominal sentence can be a verb phrase or another nominal

phrase, such as an AP, or a PP. Contemporary theory identifies such structures as copular

clauses (Hoyt 2008).

(12) a. hɔa karim-u-n S.M.PRN generous-NOM-INDEF ‘He is generous.’ b. Tabuk fi ʔʃ-ʃamal Tabuk in DEF-north ‘Tabuk is in the north.’ c. ʔl-ɛdʒtimaʕ-u bʕd əʔ-ðuhr DEF-meeting-NOM after DEF-noon ‘The meeting is in the afternoon.’

The report in (12a) is an adjectival modifier to the mubtda, notice that in nominal

sentence the adjective follows the noun it modifies and serves as the report to it

(Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011, among others). In example

(12b) the report is the prepositional phrase fi əʔʃamal, which also follows the initial noun

Tabuk. The third example (12c) is instance of what is called in traditional grammars

jumla darfiyya, (which translates to locative clause), it is an example of a nominal clause

with time-specific clause report where bʕd əʔ-ðuhr reports the time of the “meeting.”

26

The second type of complex report, xabar, is a verb phrase (Abdullatif et. al.,

1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011). Consider the following example:

(13) Sara ta-taħɛdaθ-u5 ʔl-ɛnglizij-a Sara IMPR.3SF-speaks- IND DEF-English-ACC ‘Sara speaks English.’ I will first describe verbal reports according to Arabic full declension (see Appendix A

for Case and tense morphology) and how traditional grammarians treat different

constituents. The initial NP Sara is a mubtda carrying the nominative case. Yet, the

analysis of such reports in contemporary linguistics differs. A number of linguists have

treated the initial NP of VP reports as subjects (Mohammad 1989, 1999, Benmamoun

2000) and other linguists consider the initial NP as topics (Fassi Fehri 1993, Ouhalla

1988, 1991, 1994). More on this will be discussed in Chapter Four.

The proposal set by Mohammad (1988), (1990), Benmamoun (2000) suggests that

initial NPs with verbal reports are subjects, and not topics. Consider the following

example in MSA:

(14) ʔl-fnan-u ya-rsəm-u lawħ-t-a-n DEF-artist-NOM IMPR.3MS-draw-IND painting-FS-ACC-INDEF ‘the artist is drawing a painting.’ Following with traditional theories, in (14) the initial NP ʔl-fnan-u is the subject to the

VP ya-rsəm-u . This is also true since the initial NP, the preverbal subject, is a definite

specific noun. Additionally, the verb agrees with the initial NP in gender, person, and

number (Aoun et. al., 1994, Benmamoun 2000, among others).

5 In most forms of imperfective verbs in Arabic is realized by affixation, where the prefix carries tense, person and gender, and the suffix carries number in addition to gender (Aoun et. al., 2010:59)

27

The second treatment of such structure analyzes initial NPs as topics. That is

analyzing the nominal sentence as a “Topic-Comment” structure. That is a structure with

a topicalized presupposed subject followed by a predicate/comment, (Ford, 2009). More

on subject position and word order will be discussed in Chapter Four.

This analysis basically focuses on agreement, since initial NPs control full

agreement in gender and number (Aoun et. al., 2010). In (15) below the initial NP and

verbal predicate agree in gender and number (more on initial NPs and subjects is

discussed in chapter four)

(15) Hind-un samiʕ-a-t əʔ-sout-a Hind.FS-NOM heard-PERF-FS DEF-noise-ACC ‘Hind, she heard the noise.’ Brustad (2000) discusses Arabic as a topic prominent language, and suggests that

the initial subjects NPs can “fulfills two roles at once, that of a grammatical subject, and

that of a pragmatic topic”(2000:331). However, in spoken Arabic sentences that contain

initial NP topics do not fill the syntactic role of a subject. Consider the following example

from Kuwaiti as Brustad illustrates (2000:332):

(16) killuhum zaʕlan ʕalihum all-of-them angry at-them all of them, [I was] angry at them6 Brustad (2000:332)

As noted further by Brustad, killuhum does not represent the subject of the sentence,

which is, in the given example an omitted subject (ana, I) (2000:332). Therefore, initial

NPs in Arabic can be topics and subjects as in (15) and (16) or exclusively topic as in

6 Example (15) is quoted from Brustad (2000) as she states it in her book, including the gloss (cf. 2000:332). Brustad extracts this example from a dialogue.

28

Brustad’s illustration. Similarly in other modern dialects for example in (QA) are found

in the following example,

(17) ʔl-ʔglam ʃarit-uh-um mi:n ʔl-məħal

DEF-pen.P buy.IMPERF-RESMP-I from DEF-store

‘the pens, I have bought them from the store’

In the example above ʔl-ʔglam, cannot be treated as the subject of the verb ʃarituhum

since the verb carries an embedded subject ‘I’, and therefore it is more accurately

analyzed as the topic of the sentence (For further discussion on topicaliaztion in Arabic

see Brustad 2000: Ch.10).

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3.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY

In this chapter I have focused solely on describing one type of sentences in

Arabic, the nominal sentence. Describing the main constituents of Arabic nominal

sentences and their main features (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Ingham 1994, Brustad 2000,

Abo Almkarm 2007, Hoyt 2008, Alrajhi 2011). I showed the nominal sentence is

composed of two constituents: the initial NP ʔlmubta, and a predicate ʔlxabar. The initial

NP, mubtda, can be simply defined as any [+DEF], generic, or specified, NP heading a

sentence. The predicate, xabar, of nominal sentences can be a number of different types

of nominal or verbal constituent (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Ingham 1994, Abo Almkarm

2007, Hoyt 2008, Alrajhi 2011). Presenting a discussion on the generalities of nominal

sentences is important at this point of the study to set the preliminaries for following

topics that will be presented in this work. Nonetheless, such information will aid in

exploring the nominal sentence for future studies. The chapter that follows looks in more

detail at the variation of word order in Arabic. It also looks at NP treatments as topics or

subjects.

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CHAPTER FOUR

INITIAL NP IN SVO ORDER: SUBJECT OR TOPIC?

The first few chapters of this work focused on mainly outlining major differences

between traditional and contemporary descriptions of the nominal sentence in Arabic.

Being rich in its morphology, Arabic allows different sentence and clause structure, with

SVO and VSO being the most common ones. In what follows I will present the analysis

and treatment of the NP in these two structures.

In the literature two main approaches are found in regards to the treatment of the

initial NP in SVO word order. The first approach I will present is the treatment held by

Basran grammarians of the initial NP, and that is as a topic and not a subject. The second

approach, advocated by modern linguists, looks at initial NPs in SVO order as subjects

(Mohammad 1992, Benmamoun 1994, 2000, Ouhalla 1994 and others).

Historically, the treatment of initial NPs as topicalized elements has been a

debatable issue among traditional grammarians (Ford 2009:3). Traditional Grammarians

of Albasra argued that SVO was never a possible word order, however, in contemporary

linguistics there is a wide acceptance of such structure. In contemporary linguistics

analysis the distinction between SVO and VSO sentences is based on the variation of

subject agreement. What follows is a presentation of both treatments and their related

arguments.

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4.1 NOUN PHRASES IN SV AND VS WORD ORDER

Before we move forward in the discussion and for the sake of clarity, let us look

at the unmarked main sentence types in Arabic. The first type is the verbal sentence

where a verb initiates the structure (VSO) and in traditional grammars it is called dʒumla

fəʔliya, as in the following example:

(1) xərədʒ-a əʔ-talib-u left-PERF.3MS DEF-student.MS-NOM ‘the student left.’ The second sentence type in MSA is what traditional grammarians used to

contrast the first type is the structure where a noun phrase initiates the sentence, the

nominal sentence, what is known as dʒumla ismyya in traditional grammars7. As in the

following example:

(2) hɔa karim-u-n SM.PRN generous.MS-NOM-INDEF ‘He is generous.’

In MSA, VSO word order reflects the structure of a verbal sentence. Traditional

grammarians have always described that the verb precedes the subjects and never follows

it (Alrajihi, 2011, among others). Yet, as we saw in Chapter Three, a nominal sentence

may have what is called xabar, as a verbal report (predicate). When an NP precedes a VP

in MSA, according to traditional grammarians, it is considered to be the mubtda (the

7 Please note here that in this work seeks to explore the status of the subject in SVO word order, maintaining the focus on nominals and nominal sentences in Arabic, since the discussion on subject position in varying word orders goes beyond the scope of this work. (c.f. Mohammad (1988), (1989), (1990), (2000), Aoun et. al., (1994), Benmamoun (2000), and Aoun et. al., (2010)).

32

initial constituent of a nominal sentence in MSA) and the structure is considered a

nominal sentence, as we have seen in Chapter Three.

I will present the two main reasons traditional grammarians use to argue against

treating initial NPs as subjects. The first reason is that in MSA whenever a verb is

[+PLURAL], a bound morpheme suffix carrying number and gender is attached to it, and

that suffix functions as the subject for the verb. The second reason has to do with the

difference in meaning when an NP precedes a verb.

To illustrate the first reason let us look the following examples where the verb is

[-PLURAL] in (3) and [+PLURAL] (4).

(3) katab-a ʔt-talib-u ʔl-wadʒb-a write-PERF.3MS DEF-student.MS-NOM DEF-homework-ACC

‘the student wrote the homework.’ (4) katab-uu ʔt-tulib-u ʔl-wadʒb-a write-PERF.3MP DEF-students.MP-NOM DEF-homework-ACC

‘the students wrote the homework’

Example (3) is considered an instance of a verbal sentence, which depicts full agreement

with both the verb and the subject being [-PLURAL]. The subject of the verb kataba is the

overt NP following it, ʔttalibu, which also agrees with it in number and gender. However,

(4) is considered ungrammatical in MSA, since in such a sentence there are two nominal

elements that are functioning as a subject appearing in one sentence. The verb katabuu

has the plural, perfective masculine suffix (-uu) attached to it, and in Arabic full

declension this plural suffix functions as the subject of the verb (see appendix A). In

order to correct the ungrammaticality of (4), the verb has to be [-PLURAL]. Thus, the

correct form of (4) is as follows:

33

(5) katab-a ʔt-tulib-u ʔl-wadʒb-a write-PERF.3MS DEF-students.MP-NOM DEF-homework-ACC

‘the students wrote the homework.’

In the above example both the verb and the subject agree in person and gender only.

Notice the verb is [-PLURAL]. And the sentence has one lexical subject, thus satisfying the

traditional description of a verbal sentence in MSA.

The second reason traditional grammarians state is related to the different

meanings inferred when a subject precedes a verb and when it follows it. Consider the

following examples:

(6) katab-a Omar ʔr-risalah write-PERF.3MS Omar DEF-letter ‘Omar wrote the letter.’

(7) Omar katab-a ʔr-risalah Omar write-PERF.3MS DEF-letter

‘Omar, he wrote the letter.’ Traditional grammarians argue that there is a difference in the meaning carried by the two

structures, and as it is evident in the gloss translation. In (6) a verbal sentence, where the

verb is initiating the structure, thus the sentence is describing an event, an action. The

sentence is focused on the event and the action described by the verb. However, in (7)

being a nominal sentence, the focus is on the subject main topic of that sentence.

Therefore, the subject or the initial NP here is considered a topic, and the whole sentence

has a “Topic-comment” structure. The second argument traditional grammarians rise

against treating an initial NP as a subject, is due to the different information structure in

both orders. In a verbal sentence, VSO order is event-prominent and carries different

information structure than nominal sentences.

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The short discussion here presents the traditional description of the subject in a

sentence in MSA. An NP is considered a subject only when it follows the verb and not

precedes it i.e. in verbal sentences of MSA. On the other hand when the verb follows the

NP, the NP is considered as a mubtda, i.e. a topic and not a subject.

Contemporary linguists on the other hand argue for both treatments of initial NPs.

The initial NP can be a subject or a topic, unlike traditional grammars. A number of

linguists, including Fassi Fehri (1993), and Ouhalla (1988), (1991), (1994), analyze initial

NPs as topics that are left-dislocated from the post-verbal subject position. Other linguists

argue that initial NPs are not topics but pre-verbal subjects Mohammad (1989), (1990),

(2000), Aoun et. al., (1994), Benmamoun (2000).

I will begin by presenting the first treatment of initial NPs in SVO word order as a

topic. Before proceeding with the discussion and for the sake of clarity I will present a

short overview from different linguists and their descriptions and definitions of a topic

and initial subjects.

Mohammad (1989) defines a topic or more specifically the process of

“topicalization” as “when an NP can be optionally moved from a base-generated position

that is not sentence initial to another position which usually is leaving a gap behind”

(1989:93). Similarly Fassi Fehri (1993) in his discussion on the differences between

topic and pre-verbal subjects points out that subjects occur in the IP domain whereas

topics are outside that domain (1993:30). To illustrate, consider the following examples

reproduced from Fassi Fehri (1993:28)

(8) a. ʔl-ʔawlaad-u darab-tu-hum DEF-children-NOM beat-I-them ‘the children, I beat them.’

35

b. jaasuus-u-n ʔaqbal-a ʕalay-na spy-NOM-INDEF appeared-PERF.MS on-us ‘A spy has appeared to us.’ As pointed out by Fassi Fehri in the above examples the preverbal NP, ʔlʔawlaadu, in

(8a) is a topic and occupies a position external to IP. This is also true semantically since

the action of “beating” in (8a) is not performed by the initial NP ʔlʔawlaadu, but by the

speaker. The subject in this sentence is the imbedded pronoun I, and not the explicit NP

ʔlʔawlaadu in sentence initial position. On the other hand the NP jaasuusun, in (8b) is

internal to IP (1993:28). Notice in (8b) the preverbal NP jaasuusun, is the entity

performing the action of “appearing.”

I will proceed now to a different discussion regarding the initial NP in SVO; that

is the treatment of them as subjects and not topics. Fassi Fehri (1993) continues with his

discussion of initial NPs and draws the distinction between topics and preverbal subjects

in terms of definiteness. He argues that Arabic topics are definite whereas preverbal

subjects can be indefinite. (As we will see in the following section, preverbal subjects

when marked indefinite have to be specific, bound by a modifier, or generic (Fassi Fehri

1993, Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Abo Almkarm 2007, Alrajhi 2011, among others)). In

terms of preverbal subjects Aoun et. al., (2010) present two arguments, the first is based

on agreement and agreement asymmetries in MSA, the second is based on non-specific

indefinite subjects. I will present their arguments in the following section.

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4.2 AGREEMENT ASYMMETRIES IN ARABIC

Aoun et. al., (1994), Benmamoun (2000), and Aoun et. al., (2010) uses

agreement asymmetry to discuss the status of preverbal subjects, and the treatment of

initial NPs in SVO word order. Their arguments are based on: (1) agreement asymmetries

in MSA, and (2) based on non-specific indefinite subjects.

In SVO word order when the subject precedes the verb, full agreement is

observed in number, person and gender, as illustrated by the following example:

(9) ʔt-taalib-aat-u xardʒ-na DEF-students-FP-NOM leave-PERF.3FP ‘the students left.’ (10) ʔt-talib-at-u xardʒ-at DEF-student-FS-NOM leave- PERF.3FS ‘the student left.’

In both examples (9) and (10) the verb and the initial NP subject agree in person, gender,

and number, what Benmamoun (2000) refers to as full agreement.

The second agreement paradigm presented by Benmamoun (2000) and Aoun et.

al., (2009) is partial agreement found in VSO word order. Consider the examples in (11):

(11) xardʒ-at ʔt-talib-at-u leave- PERF.3FS DEF-student-FS-NOM ‘the students left.’ (12) xardʒ-at ʔt-talib-aat-uu leave- PERF.3FS DEF-students-FP-NOM ‘the student left.’ Notice that the verb in both instances is [-PLURAL] both in example (11) where the subject

is [-PLURAL] and in (12) where the subject is [+PLURAL]. Agreement is limited to person

and gender. Such an agreement paradigm is found in traditional discussions of verbal

37

sentences, dʒumla fəʔliya, where the verb initiates the sentence is always [-PLURAL]

(Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Alrajhi 2011, among others).

Ohualla (1994) presents a similar analysis of agreement patterns in Arabic. He

observes that the subject agrees with the verb in the SV(XP) order but not in the VS(XP)

order. Consider the following example from Ohualla (1994):

(13) ət-tullab-uu wasal-u DEF-student.PM-NOM arrive.PREF-3PM

‘the students arrived.’ (14) wasal-a8 ət-tullab-u arrive.PREF-3PM DEF-student.PM-NOM ‘the students arrived.’ In the examples above, notice that full agreement is observed in (13), as the SV structure,

the NP əttullabuu carries the features [+PLURAL], and [+MASCULINE], similarly the VP

wasalu carries the same features. On the other hand, in (14) which has a VS order, the VP

wasala carries a [-PLURAL] feature, while the NP subject is [+PLURAL]. In other words,

full agreement is observed in SV structures, while partial agreement occurs in VS

structures.

Benmamoun (2000), however, points out that in modern spoken dialects of

Arabic, like Moroccan, such agreement asymmetry does not arise, and that the verb

carries full agreement in both orders. Consider the following example from Moroccan

Arabic (MA) from Benmamoun (2000:121):

8 Perfective and imperative verbs in VSO word order in MSA are marked as mabni, that is a fixed form of the verb, and mabni is marked by the suffix (-a) (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Hoyt 2008, Alrajhi 2011). While in SVO word order the perfective verb, as in the given example above, is marked as nominative (-u) since it functions here as the predicate, xabar, of a nominal sentence, and hence has to agree in case (see appendix A).

38

(15) a. kla-w lə-wlad (MA) eat. PREF-3MP DEF-children ‘the children ate.’ b. lə-wlad kla-w (MA) DEF-children eat.PREF-3MP ‘the children ate.’ As pointed out by Benmamoun in MA the verb carries full agreement with both preverbal

and postverbal subjects. This is also true in QA, as evident in the examples (16a) and

(16b).

(16) a. ʔl-bnaat laʕ-an (QA) DEF-girl.P leave-PREF.3FP ‘the girls left.’ b. tlaʕ-an ʔl-bnaat (QA) leave-PREF.3FP DEF-girl.P ‘the girls left.’

Full agreement is observed in QA as in the given examples above, the subject and verb

agree in number and gender. Full agreement is also observed in MSA, when the subject is

[-PLURAL], consider the following examples:

(17) a. katab-a ət-talib-u ʔd-dars-a write-PREF.3MS DEF-student.MS-NOM DEF-lesson.ACC

‘the student wrote the lesson.’ b. ət-talib-u katab-a ʔd-dars-a DEF-student.MS-NOM write-PREF.3MS DEF-lesson. ACC

‘the student wrote the lesson.’ Notice that in both (17a), where word order is VSO, and in (17b) with SVO word order,

full agreement is observed; that is, agreement in number, gender and person as well as.

These structures are also discussed in Aoun et. al., (2009), where as the authors note in

39

MSA the verb and subject fully agree in both orders. The following examples are

reproduced (Aoun et. al., 2010:57):

(18) a. ʔakal-a l-muʕallim-u eat-IMPERF.3MS DEF-teacher.MS-NOM

‘the teacher ate.’ b. l-muʕallim-u ʔakal-a DEF-teacher.MS-NOM eat-IMPERF.3MS

‘the teacher ate.’ From the examples in (18), we notice that the verb is [-PLURAL], agrees with the subject

regardless of the subject’s position, i.e., whether it is postverbal in (18a) or preverbal as

in (18b) (Aoun et. al., 2001:57-58).

The second piece of argument is based on indefinite specific subjects, Aoun et.

al., (1994), Benmamoun (2000), Mohammad (2000) and Aoun et. al., (2010), argue that

in most Arabic dialects including MSA definite NPs can occur in preverbal and

postverbal positions. While indefinite NPs have a more restricted distribution. Indefinite

NPs are only allowed in postverbal positions (Mohammad 1999, 2000; Aoun et. al.,

2001). Consider the following examples from Palestinian Arabic as presented by

Mohammad (2000:09):

(19) ʔadʒ-a walad (PA) come-IMPERF.3MS boy ‘a boy came.’ *walad ʔadʒ-a (PA) boy come-IMPERF.3MS ‘a boy came.’ A similar example is also found in (Aoun et. al., 2010:62-63), the following is an instance

from Moroccan Arabic:

40

(20) ʒa wəld (MA) come-IMPERF.3MS boy ‘a boy came.’ *wəld ʒa (MA) boy come-IMPERF.3MS ‘a boy came.’ Similarly in QA and NA, indefinite and nonspecific NPs fail to occur in the preverbal

position, as in the example below.

(21) dʒ-a wald QA/NA come-IMPERF.3MS boy ‘a boy came’ * wald dʒ-a QA/NA boy come-IMPERF.3MS ‘a boy came’ However, Mohammad (2000) points out that are indefinite and specific NPs can occur

preverbally, as in the following example from Palestinian Arabic (PA) (2000:11)

suggests:

(22) walad tawiil ʔadʒ-a (PA) boy tall come-IMPERF.3MS ‘a tall boy came’ Moreover, indefinite specific NPs also appear in preverbal positions in QA, as in the

following example:

(23) walad tawiil dʒ-a (QA) boy tall come-IMPERF.3MS ‘a tall boy came’ (24) banat sɣar ya-lʕab-uun (QA) girls young IMPER-play-3FP ‘young girls are playing’

41

We can conclude from these instances that the more specific the NP, the more freedom it

has to appear preverbal or postverbal (Aoun et. al., 2009).

In this section we have seen how some contemporary linguists argue for the

position of preverbal subjects in MSA and other modern dialects. I have presented Aoun

et. al., (1994), Benmamoun (2000), and Aoun et. al., (2001), discussions on agreement

asymmetry, where they held two main arguments for treating the initial NP in SV word

order as subject, the first is based on agreement asymmetries in MSA, and the second is

based on non-specific indefinite subjects.

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4.3 VERBLESS SENTENCES AS SMALL CLAUSES

So far the discussion on possible word orders in Arabic and sentence types in

Arabic have led to the question on the structure of the verbless sentence in the present

tense and how to account for the presence of present tense without an overt verbal

projection. In the following discussion Benmamoun’s (2000, 2008) analyses for these

structures is presented. In his analysis Benmamoun is arguing that tense is universally

projected without the need for an overt verbal projection (2008:106).

We saw in Chapter Three in Arabic, present tense sentences may contain only a

subject and a non-verbal predicate, a structure that traditional grammarians called

nominal sentence or dʒumla ismyya. As we saw in section (3.3), the nominal sentence can

have a verbal predicate and once a verbal predicate is present, accountability for tense is

dismissed. But how can we account for the present tense sentence that contains a subject

and non-verbal predicate that can be a noun phrase, an adjectival phrase or a

prepositional phrase. I will present Benmamoun’s (2008) analysis on this issue, which is

the analysis that I have adopted in this work.

Let us first look at examples of present tense verbless sentences. For his argument

Benmamoun cites and compares instances from Moroccan Arabic (MA) and Hebrew. I

will demonstrate Benmamoun’s argument using examples from QA. Consider the

following examples from QA where in (25) the predicate is a noun phrase, in (26) the

predicate is an adjectival phrase, and (27) where the predicate is a prepositional phrase:

43

(25) ʔħmad mudaris9 Ahmad.MS teacher.3MS

‘Ahmad is a teacher.’ (26) ʔl-kitab tsibir DEF-book.MS big.MS

‘the book is big.’ (27) ʔr-ridʒal bl-l-baɪt DEF-man.MP in-DEF-house

‘the man is in the house.’ In his argument Benmamoun concludes that verbless sentences in Arabic are not

small clauses, but “full fledged clauses that display the same properties that obtain in

tensed clauses” (2000:42), basing his argument on Case, NP movement, expletives,

complementizers, and coordination (ibid, 2000 39:42). I will sum up the points of his

argument in what follows.

To begin with, the example in (28) can have a temporal adverb that can only

occur in the presence of tense:

(28) ʔr-ridʒal bl-l-baɪt ʔl-ħin DEF-man.MS in-DEF-house DEF-now ‘the man is in the house now.’

In addition, Benmamoun presents the argument on complementizers in Arabic

and points out that in MA he states that the complementizer bəlli introduces and selects

tensed clauses. Similarly, in QA and a number of spoken dialects, the relative pronoun

and temporal nominalizer illi functions as a sentence complementizer (Brustad,

9 In QA and a number of spoken dialects, Case is usually dropped. So, in (25) the form in MSA would be as in (i): (i) ʔħmad-u mudaris-u-n Ahmad. MS-NOM teacher.MS-NOM-INDEF

44

2000:104). Consider the following example from QA, where similar data presented by

Benmamoun a complementizer is used:

(29) ʔr-ridʒal illi bl l-baɪt DEF-man.MS that in DEF-house

‘the man that is in the house.’ (30) raħ ar-rɪdʒal illi kan bl l-baɪt leave.PERF.3MS DEF-man.MS that was in DEF-house

‘the man that was in the house left.’ Furthermore, in MSA finite complement clauses are headed by ʔanna/ʔinna and

nonfinite clauses are headed by ʔan, which both assign Case. Benmamoun (2008) draws

these similarities found in MSA and its counterpart complementizers in spoken dialects.

Consider the following example from MSA where the embedded clause is headed by

ʔanna:

(31) qal-a ʔanna ʔl-muʕlimm-a ɣaʔib-un say.he-PERF that DEF-teacher-ACC absent-NOM

‘he said that the teacher is absent.’ the grammaticality of sentence (31) suggests that the embedded must contain a functional

category T, which will eliminate the possibility of treating them as a small clause.

An additional argument Benmamoun (2000, 2008) presents that in MSA Case is

morphologically realized and subjects are assigned the nominative Case. In the example

below, the fact that the subject is assigned the nominative Case follows that there is a T

head that checks or assigned for the nominative Case (2000:40-42).

Another argument, which asserts that verbless sentences are full clauses and are in

fact CPs, is that the subject and predicate of such structures can undergo wh-movement.

Consider the following example questions from QA:

45

(32) a. wain ʔl-bnat? where DEF-girls.PF ‘where are the girls?’ b. min bl-l-baɪt who in-DEF-house ‘who is in the house?’ (33) ʔl-bnat bl-l-bait DEF-girls.PF in-DEF-house ‘the girls are in the house’ The questions above in (32) can have the same answer (33), which is a nominal sentence. Benmamoun (2008) concludes his argument by presenting the final projection of

verbless sentence (25), where the lexical layer is headed by a nonverbal predicate, and

this layer is dominated by TP, functional layer.

(34) TP

NP T’

T NP/AP/PP

Benmamoun argues here that the difference between Arabic and English is that in

English the presence of T will account for the overt copula in the present tense, while

Arabic has a null copula (2008:111) (For further discussion please see Benmamoun

(2000:37-48) and Benmamoun (2008:105-116)).

46

4.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter aimed at looking at the status of subjects in SVO word order and

present related arguments and discussions.

In the literature two main approaches are found in regards to the treatment of the

initial NP in SVO word order. The first approach held by Basran grammarians of the

initial NP as a topic and not a subject. The second approach, advocated by modern

linguists, looks at initial NPs in SVO order as subjects (Mohammad 1992, Benmamoun

1994, 2000, Ouhalla 1994 amoung others).

This chapter also looked at contemporary linguistics analysis and the distinction

between SVO and VSO sentences is based on the variation of subject agreement, and in

the following chapter is a presentation of both treatments and their related arguments.

The final section of this chapter looked at the structure of nominal sentences as verbless

sentences, adopting Benmamoun’s (2000) analysis of this structure.

47

CHAPTER FIVE

MODIFIERS

In the following chapter I will present an account of modifiers in Arabic, the

discussion will include instances from the two dialects in question, viz., Najdi Arabic

(NA) and Qassimi Arabic (QA). First, I will look at adjectival modifiers, characteristics

of Arabic adjectives and their inflectional properties (case, definiteness, number and

gender). Which will then lead to a discussion of how modifiers in Arabic behave

differently in postnominal and prenominal positions (Fassi Fehri 1999, Shlonsky 2003).

Lastly, in this chapter I will present a brief discussion on two constructs found in Arabic

and indeed other Semitic languages. In section (5.2) the Construct State (CS), a genitive

construction that has been the focus of various studies in Semitic linguistics, I will first

begin by looking at how the CS is treated in traditional literature, where it is known as

ʔlidafah, followed by an account of the CS in contemporary theory. Lastly, section 5.3 I

will describe similar construction known as the Analytic Genitive. In this construction a

preposition like particle is part of the construction and such construction is more evident

in modern dialects.

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5.1 ADJECTIVAL MODIFIERS

In the following discussion on adjectival modifiers I will begin by describing the

serialization and ordering of modifiers in Arabic. The discussion will then lead to a

discussion of agreement in nominal structures and their modifiers.

It has been traditionally described in MSA that adjectives must follow the nouns

they modify. And to account for such Fassi Fehri (1997, 1999) with data from Arabic,

and Shlonsky (2004) with data from Modern Hebrew argue for a movement operation

that yields the Semitic order. Other types of modifiers however, such as quantifiers,

demonstratives and numerals precede the noun. Fassi Fehri (1999) provides evidence for

the existence of prenominal adjectives in Arabic. He argues that Arabic is an A-N

language and that determiners have a prenominal origin. Similarly Shlonsky (2004)

provides an argument on prenominal modifiers and presents a phrasal movement analysis

for such.

I would like to begin by briefly describing the nature of adjectives in Arabic. The

basic classification of Arabic parts of speech, fiʕl ‘verb’, əʔsm ‘noun’, and harf ‘particle’

(Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Alrajhi 2011, Ingham 1994, Lancioni et. al., 2011, among

others). In traditional Arabic Grammars, nouns and adjectives are morphologically

distinguishable, since in Arabic morphology on a lexical item reflects its syntactic nature.

Ingham (1994) adds, in Arabic adjectives can stand alone as the head of an NP and bear

markers of definiteness the same way a noun does (1994:47). Furthermore, Fassi Fehri

(1994) points out how in languages like English adjectives represent a class of words, a

specific category in the lexicon, with basic prototypical adjectives expressing color,

49

dimension, age, speed, etc. He further points out that because such adjectives are

lexically atomic they cannot be derived from other lexical items and they have no verbal

counterparts (Fassi Fehri 1993:176-177). On the other hand, in languages like Arabic,

there are verbs like safar ‘to become yellow,’ ħazen ‘to become sad,’ taal ‘to become

tall,’ are used to describe and express a process. Consider the following examples from

QA:

(1) tal ən-nhar become longer DEF-day ‘the day is longer.’

(2) ħamarat ʔl-eʃar-ah became red DEF-sing-FS ‘the traffic light became red.’

Let us look now at the structural position of adjectives. Traditional grammarians

point out two main positions where adjectives appear in a sentence: first, is what have

been traditionally described as in adjectival modifiers in a free state construction10 in

Arabic must follow the nouns they modify (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Alrajhi 2011, Fassi

Fehri 1993, 1999, Shlonsky 2004). Such ordering in traditional theory is referred to as

naʕt haqiqi11 (real description) (Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Alrajhi 2011). Moreover, Fassi

10 Free and Construct States are both genitive constructions in Semitic. The Free State is similar to the prepositional phrase, that is an overt preposition like particle is part of the construction. On the other hand the Construct State as we shall see in section 5.2, a genitive relation is expressed without an overt preposition. 11 Historically, in traditional Arabic grammar two major schools of grammar are present, to a large degree both schools agree in many grammatical descriptions. However, some differences appear in regards to the analyses of some structures, other differences are apparent only in naming certain parts of speech or structures. For instance here, adjectives in the Arabic literature are referred to by two different terms, naʕt and sifah. Each term is adopted by a certain school, the two schools of grammar I am referring to here, are the scholars from Kufa, and the second one are the scholars from Basra. The

50

Fehri points out the following generalization, all adjectives must surface in post-N

positions (Fassi Fehri 2012:209) which was later extended to Hebrew by Shlonsky

(2004), that all adjectives must surface in post-N positions (Fassi Fehri 2012:209).

Consider the following example:

(3) ʔl-bab-u ʔl-ʔswad-u ʔs-saɣi-u DEF-door.MS-NOM DEF-black.MS-NOM DEF-small.MS-NOM ‘the small black door.’ In the English gloss of the example we notice the structural order of the modifiers

represents a mirror image ordering (MIO) of the English constituents. Semitic Aps occur

in MIO compared to their Germanic counterparts. Similarly in Hebrew, as Shlonsky

(2004) points out adjectival modifiers follow the nouns they modify and not precede

them. Consider the following example from Modern Hebrew Shlonsky (2004:1468):

(4) Volvo xadas Volvo new ‘a new Volvo’ Shlonsky states that the reverse order is not permissible in Modern Hebrew. And he adds

that adjectives are ‘concord’ with the definiteness of the noun therefore they are also

preceded by a definite determiner (Shlosky, 2004:1468).

The second ordering is when the adjective precedes the noun in Arabic such

structure is called naʕt sababi (causal description). Note, however, that in such ordering a

resumptive pronoun is used to refer back to the modified noun as in the following

example. Additionally the adjective carries features of definiteness and gender only.

Examples that follow illustrate each type:

term naʕt is used by grammarians from Kufa, while scholars from Basra alternate and use both naʕt and sifah. (Alkhathran, 1990:80-85)

51

(5) ar-radʒul-u kabir-u-n bait-uh-u DEF-man.MS-NOM big.MS-NOM-INDEF house-RESMP-NOM

‘the man’s big house’ ‘the man’s house is big’

Notice the presence of the resumptive pronoun, uhu, that refers back to the initial NP

radʒulun, and as the translation suggest a genitive relation is observed in this ordering of

adjectives. In this type of construction where the adjective kabir-u-n precedes the noun

bait-uh-u, the adjective is modifying an entity owned/possessed by another NP, ar-

radʒul-u, that is the noun that comes before the adjective. Such construction is an

instance of the nominal Construct State (Fassi Fehri 1997, 1999). And in contemporary

analysis, the head of a Construct State, as Fassi Fehri (1999) describes is not the adjective

but the noun that follows it. In fact, as pointed out by Benmamoun (2000) and Siloni

(2001) among others, the adjective and the noun that it describes are required to be

adjecent (Construct State will be discussed in detail in the following section.)

So far we have seen the structure and ordering of modifying adjectives in Arabic.

I would like now to present an account on agreement between nouns and their modifiers.

Traditionally, adjectives must agree with the nouns in number, gender, and definiteness

(Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Alrajhi 2011). As in the example below:

(6) ʔl-bait-u ʔl-kabir-u DEF-house.MS-NOM DEF-big.MS-NOM ‘the big house.’ In the given example above, the noun ʔlbaitu and its modifier ʔlkabiru agree in feature of

definiteness. Agreement is also observed in the number and gender feature, notice in the

above examples nouns are [-PLURAL] and [+MASCULINE].

To further demonstrate agreement between nouns and adjectival modifiers, let us

look at an example from QA:

52

(7) lambə-t-n səɣiira-t-n lamp-FS-INDEF small-FS-INDEF ‘a small lamp.’

In the example above, the adjective follows the noun it modifies and agrees with it in

number, gender, and definiteness. And as Fassi Fehri (1999) explains postnominal

adjectives carry Case as well as definiteness, number, and gender, as we saw in example

(6).

Agreement is also required in prenominal adjectival modifiers examples in (9)

depict prenominal adjectives, and agreement is observed only in Case and definiteness,

where kabirun is [-DEF] and [+NOM] as baitun, the noun it modifies. Agreement is evident

only between the adjective and the noun it modifies.

Lastly, I would like to point out a type of agreement asymmetry that arises in

postnominal adjectives:

(8) ʔl-buot-u ʔl-kabir-at-u DEF-house.MP-NOM DEF-big-SF-NOM ‘the big houses.’ (9) dʒibal-u-n ʃahiq-a-u-n mountain.MP-NOM-INDEF high-SF-NOM-INDEF ‘tall mountains.’

In MSA and most of its modern dialects, [+PLURAL] [-ANIMATE] NPs are modified by [-

PLURAL], that is agreement in number is not realized in such noun phrases. (10) and (11)

below are from QA:

(10) karati:n-in kəbi:r-a boxe.MP-INDEF big-FS ‘big boxes’

53

(11) ʕəlb-in səɣir-a can.MP-INDEF small-FS ‘small cans’ In the above two examples, both nouns karati:nin and ʕəlbin 12 carry the feature

[+PLURAL], while the adjectives are bare, carrying no number feature.

In this section I have presented the main structural organization of NPs with

adjectival modifiers. And observed Fassi Fehri’s (1997, 1999) generalization on post

nominal modifiers, surfacing in post-N positions. Agreement features of NPs and their

Adjectival modifiers have also been described. It is important to note that there are other

types of modifiers such numerials and demonstratives however, describing them goes

beyond the scope of this work (c.f. Fassi Fehri 1997, 1999, 2012, Shlonsky 2004).

12 Plurality here is morphologically expressed, therefore [-PLURAL] counterparts of the two examples are kerto:n and ʕəlbah respectively.

54

5.2 THE CONSTRUCT STATE

The following section will present a description of well-known nominal

construction in Semitic languages, namely the Construct State (henceforth CS). Briefly,

the CS is a genitive construction without an overt preposition or preposition-like particle,

where strict adjacency between the two NPs its primary syntactic property. They show

other properties which we will observe as the discussion, unfolds in the following

section.

CS has been the focus of various studies in Semitic linguistics (See forth, Borer

1996; Ritter 1988, 1991; Mohammad 1988; Fassi Fehri 1993; Siloni 1997, among

others). In the following section I will present a description of the CS, by presenting

syntactic features of such a construction as argued by (Ritter 1987, 1991 and Benmamoun

2000).

I will first begin by looking at how the CS is treated in traditional literature, where

it is known as ʔlidafah (the term idãfah means “add to”). idãfah is a nominal construction

of two nouns, with an initial indefinite nonspecific NP (i.e. morphologically bare), known

in Arabic as mudaf, followed by another NP/DP, mudaf ilayhi. The second NP/DP (inner

NP) modifies the head NP or depicts a genitive relation to it without the use of an overt

preposition.

(12) a. ħadiq-a-t ʔl-mənzil-i yard-FS-INDEF DEF-house-GEN ‘the house’s yard.’ b.*ʔl–ħadiq-a ʔl-mənzil-i DEF-yard-FS DEF-house-GEN ‘the yard the house.’

55

In example (12) the initial NP ħadiqa-t, is an indefinite mdaf, the second constituent ʔl-

mənzil, carries the [GEN] case, and is definite and thus “adds” to the meaning, and gives

the initial NP specification and definiteness. Notice example (12b) is ill-formed since in

the construct state only the inner NP carries the feature [+DEF] and spreads definiteness to

the head NP. The head NP, is case marked according to its position within a sentence,

that is it can be marked with the nominative, accusative or genitive case. The second

nominal constituent, (mudaf ilayhi) the inner NP, is always marked with genitive case

(Al-Aboudi 1985, Abdullatif et. al., 1997, Alrajhi 2011, among others).

Now let us turn our attention to how CS has been treated in modern linguistics,

where it has been the topic many numerous research, since such construction is found in

most Semitic languages. Ritter (1991) defines this construction as “a type of noun phrase

containing a bare genitive phrase immediately following the head noun” (1991:38). Siloni

also defines this construction as a head initial construction that consists a head noun and a

noun phrase; the noun phrase is marked with the genitive case (2001:229).

Construct States express a wide range of possessive relationships (Ritter 1991;

Hoyt 2008 among others). The following examples from Najdi will depict such varying

relationships, part-whole relationships (13a), alienable possession (13b), quantity (13c),

and location (13d)

(13) a. taraf ʔt-awal-ah13 (NA) edge DEF-table-FS ‘edge of the table.’

13 In NA and other modern dialects morphological markers are dropped, as discussed by Benmamoun (2000) for Moroccan Arabic.

56

b. bent ʔl-dʒiran (NA) daughter DEF-neighbor ‘the neighbor’s daughter.’

c. milʕagat ʕasal (NA) spoon honey ‘a spoon of honey.’

d. ʔaxaɪr ʔ-ʃariʕ (NA) end DEF-street ‘end of the street.’

The examples above highlighted the semantic features of the CS. It is important to note

that in all these example the head noun precedes the genitive phrase. The head noun in

these examples are morphologically bare, while the genitive phrase, the inner NP, is

definite or specific.

Let us now look at major syntactic features of the CS in Arabic as presented by

Benmamoun (2000). Benmamoun describes the CS by pointing out three major features

which are definiteness, adjacency, and the CS as a single prosodic unit, just as we saw in

(13), let us look at another example:

(14) mədras-t-u ʔl-banat-i school-FS-NOM DEF-girls-GEN

‘the girls’ school.’ From the example above the two nouns depict a genitive relationship, without an overt

preposition. The head noun mədrastu carries the nominative case while the second noun

carries the genitive case. In a CS only the second NP, the inner NP, of the construct state,

carries definiteness.

57

A second important feature of the CS is adjacency, the two constituents of a CS

have to be adjacent, consider the following example:

(15) *mədras-t-u ʔl-kabirat-u ʔl-banat-i school-F-NOM DEF-big-NOM DEF-girl.FS- GEN ‘school the big the girls’ As the ungrammaticality of (15) suggests having a modifying adjectives in between the

two constituents of a CS is unacceptable. Adjectives and modifiers can follow the CS, as

long as the two constituents are adjacent (Benmamoun, 2000; Hoyt 2008, among others),

as in the following example:

(16) mədras-t-u ʔl-banat-i ʔl-kabir-at-u school-FS-NOM DEF-girl.FP-GEN DEF-big-FS-NOM ‘the big school for girls’ The third main feature of the CS is in the phonological pattern found in the CS. In

reference to Hebrew, Borer (1996) and Siloni (2001) point out the phonological cohesion

found in the CS, the head NP is stress-less, the main stress shifts on to the second

constituent of the CS.14

14 Benmamoun explains in Moroccan Arabic the /t/ of the feminine suffix /at/ appears only when the noun is in the CS or has a possessive clitic (Benmamoun, 2000:142-143). Consider the following examples from MSA, in (i) is an instance with a possessive clitic (-ti), and in (ii) is an example of CS: (i) rasma-ti drawing-POSS ‘my drawing’ (ii) rasm-at Sara drawing-FS Sara ‘Sara’s drawing’ In all other contexts the /t/ suffix is deleted in word final position and only the vowel of the suffix surfaces for example, (iii) ʔl-rasmah DEF-drawing ‘the drawing’

58

In regards to the treatment of the CS as a whole structure some linguists argue that the CS

structure parallels with the structure of clause (Aoun 1994; Mohammad 1988; Fassi Fehri

1993; Ritter 1988, 1991) as in (17a). Other approaches to the CS argued by Borer (1996),

Benmamoun (2000), Siloni (2003), point out in their arguments that the CS head and

inner NP are morphologically merged, hence the structure in (17b).

(17) a. [DP [D mədras-t-ui] [NP[DPʔl-banat-i]ti]]

b. [DP mədras-t-u ʔl-banat-i]

Baring in mind the main features that distinguish the CS from other constructs as

presented by Benmamoun (2000 and others), from strict adjacency and definiteness, the

two constituents of the CS are most likely to be morphologically merged as one unit (c.f.

Benmamoun 2000:145-149).

In this section characteristics of the CS were discussed and the two major

approaches to analyze the CS were also briefly mentioned. In what follows I will present

a discussion on a construct that is more evident in modern dialects, the analytic genitive

construction.

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5.3 THE ANALYTIC GENITIVE

In previous section I presented an account of the Construct State (CS), type of

genitive or possessive construction in Arabic. There is, however, another type of

construction that depicts a genitive relation, known as the Analytic Genitive. The CS is

referred to in the literature as the “synthetic” genitive, since its structure lacks an overt

lexical preposition. In the analytic genitive, as opposed to the CS, a preposition-like

particle is part of the construction. The analytic genitive is more evident in modern

dialects.

Shlonsky (2004) in his discussion of Semitic noun phrases points out that the

analytic genitive is similar to “the prepositional genitive construction of Romance

languages” (2004:1467). He uses the pair of examples below from Hebrew and Moroccan

Arabic to illustrate his point:

(18) a. ha-dira sel ha-sar b. da-dar dyal l-wazir the-apartment of the minister ‘the minister’s apartment’ (Shlonsky, 2004:1467)

The sentences above are examples of the analytic genitive, also known as the free state.

Borer (1996) among others discusses the properties of such construction. She states that

such construction is a head initial construction and the head must be marked with

definiteness. In addition, when an adjectival modifier is used it must follow the head

directly. Additionally, Ohualla (2009) defines this construction as a type of a possessive

noun phrase that has a different preposition, a preposition that is subject to dialectal

variation (2009:311-312). The following is a list of examples the analytic construction,

from different Arabic dialects.

60

(19) malʕab it-tinis bitaʕ in-nãdi (EA) court DEF-tennis poss.MS DEF-club ‘the club’s tennis court.’ (20) ʔl-kitab mal ʔl-walad (KA) DEF-book poss.MS DEF-boy ‘the boy’s book.’ (21) ʔl-maktab-ah ħagat ʔl-dʒamʕah (NA/QA) DEF-library-FS poss.FS DEF-university ‘the university’s library.’ (22) ʔl-maktab-ah ʔl- kabir-ah ħagat ʔl-dʒamʕah (NA/QA) DEF-library-FS DEF-big- FS poss. FS DEF-university ‘the university’s big library.’ As evident from the examples above different dialects use a different participle,

moreover, each possessive particle agrees in gender and number with the head noun. In

(20) is an example from the Kuwaiti dialect, speakers use the masculine participle mal

(and its feminine counterpart malat). Examples (21) and (22) are instances from the

dialect of Najdi and its provinces speakers of the dialect use the particles ħagat and ħag .

In most varieties of Saudi Arabic both CS and the analytic genitive construction

are found. Frequency and tendencies in speakers to use one form over the other varies

among individuals. Social factors, play a role in motivating speakers to use one form over

the other, and such investigation goes beyond the scope of this paper (see Harning 1980

and Brustad 2000 for further discussion).

Contrary to the CS, where the definiteness feature is not carried by the head NP,

in the analytic genitive the definite feature is found in the head NP. A further distinction

between the CS and the free state is found in regards to the adjacency requirement, while

the constituents of the CS have to be adjacent and adjectival modifiers are not allowed

61

between the two constituents, in the free state a modifying adjective can appear between

the two constituents.

62

5.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY

In this chapter I have looked at modifiers in Arabic, the discussion included data

from the two dialects in question, Najdi (NA) and Qassimi Arabic (QA). The first section

looked at adjectival modifiers, characteristics of Arabic adjectives and their inflectional

properties (Case, definiteness, number and gender). The discussion also included how

modifiers in Arabic alternate in postnominal and prenominal positions (Fassi Fehri 1999,

Shlonsky, 2004). Lastly, in this chapter I have briefly explored two constructs found in

Arabic, the Construct State (CS) and its main properties and the analytic genitive. I have

looked at how the CS is treated in traditional literature, where it is known as ʔlidafah,

aided with an account on the CS in contemporary theory. Lastly, in section 5.3 I have

discussed the analytic genitive, where we saw that in such construction a preposition like

particle is part of the construction and demonstrated how this construct is more evident in

modern dialects.

63

CONCLUSION

The objective of this work was to describe the noun phrase in Arabic through a

descriptive study that demonstrated the varying range of noun phrases in Modern

Standard Arabic (MSA), and compare them to what is found in two modern dialects in

Saudi Arabia: Najdi Arabic (NA) and Qassimi Arabic (QA).

The work begins by presenting a description of the main features of a noun phrase

in MSA according to traditional grammarians and contemporary linguistic theories. In

Chapter Two, I looked at how the feature of definiteness and indefiniteness in Arabic is

expressed by affixation and the process of nunation, comparing MSA with modern

dialects. The second section of the chapter presents a description of case features of noun

phrases in Arabic. Chapter Two is concluded, by presenting a description of vocatives as

a distinguishing characteristic as set by traditional grammarians.

Chapter Three looked at the two main sentence structures in Arabic. The first

structure is called dʒumla fəʔliya, “verbal sentence” where a VP initiates the sentence and

a noun phrase follows. The main focus of this chapter is the second structure called

dʒumla ismyya, “nominal sentence”, where an NP initiates the sentence. This chapter

focused at presenting the nominal sentence in Arabic and its constituents ʔlmubta, the

initial NP, and ʔlxabar, the predicate as described by traditional grammarians.

Chapter Four described the basic sentence structures in Arabic and the role of the

NP in SV and VS word orders. It also discusses the two main approaches found in the

literature regarding the status of the NP in SV word order. The first approach presented is

the treatment held by Basran grammarians of the initial NP, in which the noun phrase is

treated as a topic and not a subject. The discussion is followed by the second approach in

64

analyzing the initial NPs, the approach advocated by modern linguists arguing that initial

the initial NPs in SVO order function as subjects. In this chapter I have presented the two

main arguments for treating the initial NP in SV word order as the subject; where the first

is based on agreement asymmetries in MSA, and the second one is based on non-specific

indefinite subjects. The last section presents Benmamoun’s (2000) analysis of verbless

sentences in Arabic.

Chapter Five presents an overview of modifiers in Arabic. The first section is on

adjectival modifiers in Arabic and serialization of modifiers. Traditional grammarians

describe two main positions for adjectives to appear in a sentence: first following the

noun they modify and the second position is to precede it. Moreover, in this chapter I

continued by describing each ordering in terms of agreement, and agreement

requirements between the nouns and their adjectival modifiers. The chapter then presents

two genitive constructs in Arabic. The first is the Construct State, a genitive construction

without an overt preposition where strict adjacency between the two NPs is its primary

syntactic property. The last section of Chapter Five examines the analytic genitive, which

is a construction more evident in modern dialects. I showed the construction of the

analytic genitive, which requires a preposition-like particle, as part of its construction, by

citing instance from different modern dialects.

My goal is to study the different sentence structures in Saudi Arabic, specifically

Najdi Arabic, focusing mainly on SV and VS word order based on the discussion

presented in Chapter Four. I believe that my next step should involve collecting data from

speakers and examining the function of the noun phrase in both word orders, focusing on

the features of agreement, specifically the (in)definiteness and number features between

65

verbs and noun phrase as a possible source behind the varying word orders, and different

interpretations of the noun phrase.

66

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APPENDIX A The following paradigms demonstrate inflectional morphology in Arabic, using the verb dars “to study.” The paradigms in (A) and (B) show tense morphology in MSA as described by Aoun et. al., (2010), and Benmamoun (2000) and the paradigms (C) and (D) show tense morphology on the same verb in Najdi Arabic. Standard Arabic Perfective15

Person Number Gender Affix Verb+Affix 1 singular F/M -tu daras-tu 2 “ M -ta daras-ta 2 “ F -ti daras-ti 3 “ M -a daras-a 3 “ F -at daras-at 2 Dual M/F -tumma daras-tumma 3 “ M -aa daras-aa 3 “ F -ataa daras-ataa 1 Plural M/F -naa daras-naa 2 “ M -tum daras-tum 2 “ F -tunaa daras-tunaa 3 “ M -uu daras-uu 3 “ F -na daras-na Standard Arabic Imperfective

Person Number Gender Affix Verb+Affix 1 singular F/M ʔa- ʔa-daras 2 “ M ta- ta-daras 2 “ F ta-ii ta-daras-ii 3 “ M ya- ya-daras 3 “ F ta- ta-daras 2 Dual M/F ta--aa ta-daras-aa 3 “ M/F yaa--aa ya-daras-aa 1 Plural M/F na- na-daras 2 “ M ta--uu ta-daras-uu 2 “ F ta--na ta-daras-na 3 “ M ya---uu ya-daras-uu 3 “ F ta-na ta-daras-n 15 Benmamoum, Elabbas. 2000. The feature structure of functional categories: A comparative study of Arabic dialects (Vol. 16). Oxford University Press on Demand.

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Najdi Arabic Perfective

Person Number Gender Affix Verb+Affix 1 singular F/M -t daras-t 2 “ M -t daras-t 2 “ F -ti daras-ti 3 “ M Ø daras 3 “ F -at daras-at 1 Plural M/F -naa daras-naa 2 “ M -tum daras-tum 2 “ F -ten daras-ten 3 “ M -uu daras-uu 3 “ F -en daras-en Najdi Arabic Imperfective

Person Number Gender Affix Verb+Affix 1 singular F/M ʔ- ʔ-daras 2 “ M ta- ta-daras 2 “ F ta-en ta-daras-en 3 “ M ya- ya-daras 3 “ F ta- ta-daras 1 Plural M/F na- na-daras 2 “ M ta--un ta-daras-un 2 “ F ta--en ta-daras-en 3 “ M ya---un ya-daras-un 3 “ F ta-en ta-daras-en

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APPENDIX B

http://mapsof.net/saudi-arabia/saudi-arabia-regions-map

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APPENDIX C

CONSONANTAL PHONEME INVENTORY FOR EIGHTH-CENTURY CE CLASSICAL ARABIC

Adopted from Watson (2007), The phonology and morphology of Arabic.

PHONEMIC INVENTORY OF NAJDI ARABIC Adopted and modified from Ingham (1994) Najdi Arabic.

Bilabial Labio dental

Dental Alveolar Palato alveolar

Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal

Stop

b t d t

k g

q ʔ

Nasal

m

n

Trill r Tap ɾ

Fricative f θ ð ð

s z s

ʃ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h

Affricate dʒ

Approximant j

Lateral Approximant

l