International Journal for Arabic Linguistics and Literature Studies
The main aim of this paper is to describe the main adjectival constructions in Modern Standard Ar... more The main aim of this paper is to describe the main adjectival constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It contributes a new analysis of an adjectival construction in MSA that was analysed in traditional grammar as a special postnominal adjectival construction, called the unreal adjectival construction. We argue that it is an example of prenominal adjectival constructions in MSA. We also provide a new analysis of the prenominal construction, suggesting that the adjective modifies the following noun, and this noun is the subject of the adjective. Moreover, we provide an analysis of predicate adjectives in MSA, whether with or without a copula, arguing that the single-tier analysis in Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) is the appropriate analysis for predicate adjectival constructions in MSA. Additionally, this paper shows the similarities and differences between adjectival words and participial words, which are both used as modifiers in MSA.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2022
This study aims to describe the causative constructions in modern standard Arabic (MSA) and discu... more This study aims to describe the causative constructions in modern standard Arabic (MSA) and discuss their analyses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to discuss the causative constructions in MSA. This study shows that there are three different types of causatives in MSA: the lexical causative, the periphrastic causative, and the morphological causative. We discuss the three types of causatives in MSA and the associated thematic roles of arguments, especially the morphological causatives, where the number of arguments and their thematic roles are changed after the derivation. The role of the causee is always patient, and the role of the causer is always an agent of the event even if the basic verb requires a subject with a different role. The last section of this study presents a syntactic analysis of the three structures of causatives in MSA within the lexical functional grammar framework.
ii The objective of this thesis is to provide a description and analysis for conditional sentence... more ii The objective of this thesis is to provide a description and analysis for conditional sentences and relative clauses that express conditional meanings in Modern Standard Arabic and the Taif Dialect. It argues that the conditional sentence that is intro-duced by the conjunction Pin in Modern Standard Arabic is always a real conditional, whereas the conditional sentence that is introduced by the conjunction law is an un-real conditional. In addition, the thesis suggests that the apodosis in the Taif Dialect plays a main role in identifying the type of conditional. In this case, if the apodosis contains kān or yikūn, the conditional is unreal. Otherwise, the conditional sentence is real. Also, the thesis argues that the conditional sentence is a complex sentence that has two clauses, a subordinate clause and matrix clause. The subordinate clause is introduced by the conditional conjunction and expresses the condition while the matrix clause gives the result. The subordinate or the...
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2017
This paper discusses shared arguments in coordinate structures in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I... more This paper discusses shared arguments in coordinate structures in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It assumes that a shared argument between two conjuncts can be a subject or an object. The paper uses the lexical-functional grammar (LFG) framework for analyzing this kind of structure. In LFG, the two possible analyses for similar structures involve analyzing the shared argument as bearing two functions in the two conjuncts. The first analysis is the split analysis, where the shared argument is zipped to both conjuncts by assuming that the verb phrases in both conjuncts are split. The second analysis is function spreading, in which the function of the shared argument is spread from one conjunct to another. This paper argues that the previous analyses in LFG have faced some problems in accounting for this phenomenon in MSA. To solve these problems, this paper contributes a new analysis for shared arguments that involves analyzing the missing argument, whether it is a subject or an obj...
The main aim of this paper is to discuss aspectual verbs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and subm... more The main aim of this paper is to discuss aspectual verbs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and submit them to syntactic analysis within the the lexical functional grammar (LFG) framework. This paper argues that the structure of aspectual verbs in MSA contains two clauses -a matrix clause and a subordinate clause- and suggests that the two clauses have a control relation. The control analysis is supported by evidence from tests such as dummy subjects, selectional restrictions, passivization and idiom chunks. The paper discusses two possible analyses of control structures in LFG: functional control, in which the subject is assumed to be shared between the two clauses, and anaphoric control, in which the subordinate clause is assumed to contain a pro- noun that refers to the subject in the matrix clause. The evidence in this paper suggests that the anaphoric control is the optimal analysis for aspectual structures in MSA.
The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify... more The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify an accurate means of analyzing these elements within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. The article opens by describing auxiliaries in MSA and then attempts to identify evidence that supports their classification as auxiliaries. The article then discusses the possible means of analyzing auxiliaries presented in the literature: aux-feature and aux-predicate analysis approaches. In the former, the auxiliary is classified as a feature and the lexical verb isclassified as a predicate, while the auxiliary is examined in the latter as a predicate and the lexical verb serves as a complement. This article argues that auxiliaries in MSA should be classified as predicates during aux-predicate analysis.
The main aim of this paper is to describe the system of tense in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It... more The main aim of this paper is to describe the system of tense in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It follows some linguists in distinguishing between three points of tense: the speech time, the event time and the reference time. We describe the past tense in MSA and argue that there are four types of past in this language and they should contain the perfective form, which indicates the past tense in neutral context. In addition, this paper discusses the present tense, which is indicated by the imperfective form. We argue that the imperfective form is ambiguous between two aspects of present: habitual and continuous. Finally, we describe the future tense in MSA and show that it is indicated by the imperfective form, following the prefix sa, which is used for near future, or the particle sawfa, which is used for far future.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2019
This paper aims to discuss the analysis of verbless sentences in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) wit... more This paper aims to discuss the analysis of verbless sentences in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. It discusses the previous analyses in transformational grammar and shows some problems in these analyses, arguing that LFG is more flexible and able to analyze this kind of sentences with fewer problems. This paper argues that verbless sentences in MSA should be divided into two types: the first is when the second part of a verbless sentence is an adjective, and in this type, we argue that the adjective should be analyzed as a predicate within the single-tier analysis. The second type is verbless sentences that contain a nonadjectival complement, and this type is analyzed as containing a null copula within the double-tier analysis.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2019
The main aim of this paper is to discuss two issues in analyzing depictive constructions. The fir... more The main aim of this paper is to discuss two issues in analyzing depictive constructions. The first issue is related to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), where there is an overlap between depictives and adverbs. This paper distinguishes between depictives in MSA, where the word in accusative case is adjective and adverbs, where the word in accusative case is a verbal noun. The second issue that is discussed in this paper is the syntactic analysis of depictives. In this regard, we contribute a new analysis within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework, in which depictives are analyzed as single adjuncts that modify participants in the main predicate in the same way as adjectives, when they function as modifiers, do.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017
This article contributes a new analysis of verbal irony to the literature. It presents the main a... more This article contributes a new analysis of verbal irony to the literature. It presents the main analyses of verbal irony – and the main criticisms of these analyses – found in both older and modern literatures as part of its attempt to build a new account for verbal irony. Thus, this paper discusses traditional, echoic and pretense accounts of irony and the limitations of these analyses. In traditional account, verbal irony is analyzed as a type of a trope or a figurative, in which the speaker communicates the opposite of the literal meaning (see Utsumi (2000)). In echoic analysis, verbal irony is assumed to be an echoic interpretation of an attributed utterance or thought (see Wilson and Sperber (1992)). As for pretense account of verbal irony, it views the ironist as pretending to be an injudicious speaker talking to an uninitiated hearer (see Clark and Gerrig (1984)). The three analyses of verbal irony attract some criticism in the literature (see Kreuz and Glucksberg (1989) and ...
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2020
This paper discusses tense in Arabic based on three varieties of the language: Classical Arabic (... more This paper discusses tense in Arabic based on three varieties of the language: Classical Arabic (CA), Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and the Taif dialect (TD). We argue against previous analyses that suggest that Arabic is a tenseless language, which assume that tense information is derived from the context. We also argue against the suggestion that Arabic is tensed, but that its tense is relative, rather than absolute. We propose here that CA, MSA, and TD have closely related verb forms, and that these are tensed verbs. Tense in Arabic is absolute in a neutral context and verb forms take the perfective and imperfective aspect. Similar to other languages including English, verb forms in Arabic may take reference from the context instead of the present moment. In this case, we argue that this does not mean that tense in Arabic is relative, because this would also imply that tense in many languages, including English, is relative. Further, we argue that the perfective form indicates on...
International Journal for Arabic Linguistics and Literature Studies, 2021
This paper aims to discuss serial verb constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It argues a... more This paper aims to discuss serial verb constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It argues against the claim that this structure does not exist in MSA. We examined parallel structures in this paper: being verbs and what is called albadal ‘apposition’ in the traditional grammar of the Arabic language. This paper argues that the first structure should be analyzed as an auxiliary structure that contains two clauses, while the second structure should be analyzed as a serial verb structure as it denotes, among others, a complex situation, shares the same subject, and contains one clause. Finally, this paper provides a brief syntactic analysis for being verbs and serial verbs in MSA within the lexical functional grammar (LFG) framework, showing the differences between the two structures.
The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify... more The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify an accurate means of analyzing these elements within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. The article opens by describing auxiliaries in MSA and then attempts to identify evidence that supports their classification as auxiliaries. The article then discusses the possible means of analyzing auxiliaries presented in the literature: aux-feature and aux-predicate analysis approaches. In the former, the auxiliary is classified as a feature and the lexical verb is classified as a predicate, while the auxiliary is examined in the latter as a predicate and the lexical verb serves as a complement. This article argues that auxiliaries in MSA should be classified as predicates during aux-predicate analysis.
International Journal for Arabic Linguistics and Literature Studies
The main aim of this paper is to describe the main adjectival constructions in Modern Standard Ar... more The main aim of this paper is to describe the main adjectival constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It contributes a new analysis of an adjectival construction in MSA that was analysed in traditional grammar as a special postnominal adjectival construction, called the unreal adjectival construction. We argue that it is an example of prenominal adjectival constructions in MSA. We also provide a new analysis of the prenominal construction, suggesting that the adjective modifies the following noun, and this noun is the subject of the adjective. Moreover, we provide an analysis of predicate adjectives in MSA, whether with or without a copula, arguing that the single-tier analysis in Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) is the appropriate analysis for predicate adjectival constructions in MSA. Additionally, this paper shows the similarities and differences between adjectival words and participial words, which are both used as modifiers in MSA.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2022
This study aims to describe the causative constructions in modern standard Arabic (MSA) and discu... more This study aims to describe the causative constructions in modern standard Arabic (MSA) and discuss their analyses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to discuss the causative constructions in MSA. This study shows that there are three different types of causatives in MSA: the lexical causative, the periphrastic causative, and the morphological causative. We discuss the three types of causatives in MSA and the associated thematic roles of arguments, especially the morphological causatives, where the number of arguments and their thematic roles are changed after the derivation. The role of the causee is always patient, and the role of the causer is always an agent of the event even if the basic verb requires a subject with a different role. The last section of this study presents a syntactic analysis of the three structures of causatives in MSA within the lexical functional grammar framework.
ii The objective of this thesis is to provide a description and analysis for conditional sentence... more ii The objective of this thesis is to provide a description and analysis for conditional sentences and relative clauses that express conditional meanings in Modern Standard Arabic and the Taif Dialect. It argues that the conditional sentence that is intro-duced by the conjunction Pin in Modern Standard Arabic is always a real conditional, whereas the conditional sentence that is introduced by the conjunction law is an un-real conditional. In addition, the thesis suggests that the apodosis in the Taif Dialect plays a main role in identifying the type of conditional. In this case, if the apodosis contains kān or yikūn, the conditional is unreal. Otherwise, the conditional sentence is real. Also, the thesis argues that the conditional sentence is a complex sentence that has two clauses, a subordinate clause and matrix clause. The subordinate clause is introduced by the conditional conjunction and expresses the condition while the matrix clause gives the result. The subordinate or the...
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2017
This paper discusses shared arguments in coordinate structures in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I... more This paper discusses shared arguments in coordinate structures in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It assumes that a shared argument between two conjuncts can be a subject or an object. The paper uses the lexical-functional grammar (LFG) framework for analyzing this kind of structure. In LFG, the two possible analyses for similar structures involve analyzing the shared argument as bearing two functions in the two conjuncts. The first analysis is the split analysis, where the shared argument is zipped to both conjuncts by assuming that the verb phrases in both conjuncts are split. The second analysis is function spreading, in which the function of the shared argument is spread from one conjunct to another. This paper argues that the previous analyses in LFG have faced some problems in accounting for this phenomenon in MSA. To solve these problems, this paper contributes a new analysis for shared arguments that involves analyzing the missing argument, whether it is a subject or an obj...
The main aim of this paper is to discuss aspectual verbs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and subm... more The main aim of this paper is to discuss aspectual verbs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and submit them to syntactic analysis within the the lexical functional grammar (LFG) framework. This paper argues that the structure of aspectual verbs in MSA contains two clauses -a matrix clause and a subordinate clause- and suggests that the two clauses have a control relation. The control analysis is supported by evidence from tests such as dummy subjects, selectional restrictions, passivization and idiom chunks. The paper discusses two possible analyses of control structures in LFG: functional control, in which the subject is assumed to be shared between the two clauses, and anaphoric control, in which the subordinate clause is assumed to contain a pro- noun that refers to the subject in the matrix clause. The evidence in this paper suggests that the anaphoric control is the optimal analysis for aspectual structures in MSA.
The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify... more The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify an accurate means of analyzing these elements within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. The article opens by describing auxiliaries in MSA and then attempts to identify evidence that supports their classification as auxiliaries. The article then discusses the possible means of analyzing auxiliaries presented in the literature: aux-feature and aux-predicate analysis approaches. In the former, the auxiliary is classified as a feature and the lexical verb isclassified as a predicate, while the auxiliary is examined in the latter as a predicate and the lexical verb serves as a complement. This article argues that auxiliaries in MSA should be classified as predicates during aux-predicate analysis.
The main aim of this paper is to describe the system of tense in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It... more The main aim of this paper is to describe the system of tense in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It follows some linguists in distinguishing between three points of tense: the speech time, the event time and the reference time. We describe the past tense in MSA and argue that there are four types of past in this language and they should contain the perfective form, which indicates the past tense in neutral context. In addition, this paper discusses the present tense, which is indicated by the imperfective form. We argue that the imperfective form is ambiguous between two aspects of present: habitual and continuous. Finally, we describe the future tense in MSA and show that it is indicated by the imperfective form, following the prefix sa, which is used for near future, or the particle sawfa, which is used for far future.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2019
This paper aims to discuss the analysis of verbless sentences in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) wit... more This paper aims to discuss the analysis of verbless sentences in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. It discusses the previous analyses in transformational grammar and shows some problems in these analyses, arguing that LFG is more flexible and able to analyze this kind of sentences with fewer problems. This paper argues that verbless sentences in MSA should be divided into two types: the first is when the second part of a verbless sentence is an adjective, and in this type, we argue that the adjective should be analyzed as a predicate within the single-tier analysis. The second type is verbless sentences that contain a nonadjectival complement, and this type is analyzed as containing a null copula within the double-tier analysis.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2019
The main aim of this paper is to discuss two issues in analyzing depictive constructions. The fir... more The main aim of this paper is to discuss two issues in analyzing depictive constructions. The first issue is related to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), where there is an overlap between depictives and adverbs. This paper distinguishes between depictives in MSA, where the word in accusative case is adjective and adverbs, where the word in accusative case is a verbal noun. The second issue that is discussed in this paper is the syntactic analysis of depictives. In this regard, we contribute a new analysis within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework, in which depictives are analyzed as single adjuncts that modify participants in the main predicate in the same way as adjectives, when they function as modifiers, do.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017
This article contributes a new analysis of verbal irony to the literature. It presents the main a... more This article contributes a new analysis of verbal irony to the literature. It presents the main analyses of verbal irony – and the main criticisms of these analyses – found in both older and modern literatures as part of its attempt to build a new account for verbal irony. Thus, this paper discusses traditional, echoic and pretense accounts of irony and the limitations of these analyses. In traditional account, verbal irony is analyzed as a type of a trope or a figurative, in which the speaker communicates the opposite of the literal meaning (see Utsumi (2000)). In echoic analysis, verbal irony is assumed to be an echoic interpretation of an attributed utterance or thought (see Wilson and Sperber (1992)). As for pretense account of verbal irony, it views the ironist as pretending to be an injudicious speaker talking to an uninitiated hearer (see Clark and Gerrig (1984)). The three analyses of verbal irony attract some criticism in the literature (see Kreuz and Glucksberg (1989) and ...
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2020
This paper discusses tense in Arabic based on three varieties of the language: Classical Arabic (... more This paper discusses tense in Arabic based on three varieties of the language: Classical Arabic (CA), Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and the Taif dialect (TD). We argue against previous analyses that suggest that Arabic is a tenseless language, which assume that tense information is derived from the context. We also argue against the suggestion that Arabic is tensed, but that its tense is relative, rather than absolute. We propose here that CA, MSA, and TD have closely related verb forms, and that these are tensed verbs. Tense in Arabic is absolute in a neutral context and verb forms take the perfective and imperfective aspect. Similar to other languages including English, verb forms in Arabic may take reference from the context instead of the present moment. In this case, we argue that this does not mean that tense in Arabic is relative, because this would also imply that tense in many languages, including English, is relative. Further, we argue that the perfective form indicates on...
International Journal for Arabic Linguistics and Literature Studies, 2021
This paper aims to discuss serial verb constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It argues a... more This paper aims to discuss serial verb constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It argues against the claim that this structure does not exist in MSA. We examined parallel structures in this paper: being verbs and what is called albadal ‘apposition’ in the traditional grammar of the Arabic language. This paper argues that the first structure should be analyzed as an auxiliary structure that contains two clauses, while the second structure should be analyzed as a serial verb structure as it denotes, among others, a complex situation, shares the same subject, and contains one clause. Finally, this paper provides a brief syntactic analysis for being verbs and serial verbs in MSA within the lexical functional grammar (LFG) framework, showing the differences between the two structures.
The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify... more The aim of this article is to explore auxiliaries in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and to identify an accurate means of analyzing these elements within the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework. The article opens by describing auxiliaries in MSA and then attempts to identify evidence that supports their classification as auxiliaries. The article then discusses the possible means of analyzing auxiliaries presented in the literature: aux-feature and aux-predicate analysis approaches. In the former, the auxiliary is classified as a feature and the lexical verb is classified as a predicate, while the auxiliary is examined in the latter as a predicate and the lexical verb serves as a complement. This article argues that auxiliaries in MSA should be classified as predicates during aux-predicate analysis.
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