Clause Structure and Word Order in Hebrew and Arabic: An Essay in Comparative Semitic Syntax

by Ur Shlonsky

Overview

Shlonsky uses Chomsky's Government and Binding Approach to examine clausal architecture and verb movement in Hebrew and several varieties of Arabic. He establishes a syntactic analysis of Hebrew and then extends that analysis to certain aspects of Arabic clausal syntax. Through this comparative lens of Hebrew, Shlonsky hopes to resolve a number of problems in Arabic syntax. His results generate some novel and important conclusions concerning the patterns of negations, verb movement, the nature of participles, and the gamut of positions available to clausal subjects in both languages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195355246
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/12/1997
Series:	Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)
File size:	6 MB

Table of Contents

	Note on Transcription and Glosses	xi
1	Introduction	1
1.1	Prologue	1
1.2	Clause Structure	2
1.2.1	The Functional Layer	3
1.2.2	The Operator Layer	5
1.2.3	Support Theory and Checking Theory	6
1.3	Elements of Hebrew and Arabic Clausal Syntax	7
1.3.1	Word Order and Verb Movement	7
1.3.2	The System of Tenses and Agreement	9
1.3.3	Clausal Negation	12
1.3.4	A Note on pet and Accusative Case	17
Part I	Verb Movement and Clausal Architecture	21
2	The Active Participle and the Syntax of the Present Tense	25
2.1	Overview	25
2.1.1	Benoni Inflection	26
2.1.2	Categorial Ambiguity of the Benoni	27
2.2	The Verbal Benoni	28
2.3	The Benoni as a Participle	30
2.3.1	The Benoni in Complex Tenses	31
2.3.2	The Benoni in Complement Small Clauses	34
2.3.3	The Benoni in Adjunct Small Clauses	35
2.3.4	The Benoni in Semi-relatives	36
2.3.5	The Benoni in Another Type of Negative Structure	37
2.4	The Benoni as a Present Tense Verb	38
2.4.1	The Auxiliary 'Be' and the Benoni	39
2.4.2	Clausal Adjuncts and Participial (Small Clause) Adjuncts	40
2.4.3	Relative Clauses	41
2.4.4	lo Negation in Present Tense Sentences	42
2.5	Conclusion	42
3	Participles and Auxiliaries	43
3.1	The Benoni Raises beyond AgrPartP	43
3.1.1	Subject Inversion in Present Tense Sentences	43
3.1.2	Inversion in Relative Clauses	44
3.1.3	Copula Inversion (CI)	44
3.2	Weak Auxiliaries and Raised Participles	46
3.3	CI with Nonverbal Predicates and the Nature of [F]	48
3.4	CI in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective	52
3.5	Benoni-Raising: A Second Look	54
3.6	The "Bare" Benoni Present Tense	55
3.7	Summary and Conclusions	56
4	Negation in the Present Tense	58
4.1	Introduction	58
4.2	Properties of Peyn	58
4.3	Peyn as a Neg[superscript 0]	60
4.4	The Position of NegP in the Clausal Hierarchy	61
4.4.1	Peyn and AgrsP	61
4.4.2	Peyn and TP	64
4.5	Peyn and Verb Movement	65
4.6	The Scope of Verb Movement in Hebrew	69
4.6.1	Benoni Movement	69
4.6.2	Verb Movement in Hebrew: A Synoptic View	71
4.7	Subject Positions	72
4.8	Subjects under Peyn, their Traces, and the Complementizer-Trace Effect	76
4.8.1	Overt Wh-Movement Under Peyn	76
4.8.2	Wh in-situ Under Peyn	78
4.8.3	Quantifier-Raising Under Peyn	78
4.8.4	Focus-Movement Under Peyn	80
4.9	Conclusion	80
5	Some Remaining Issues	82
5.1	Introduction	82
5.2	Existential/Locative Predicates under Peyn	82
5.3	Copular Sentences and Benoni Verbs	87
5.3.1	Negation in Copular Sentences	91
5.3.2	Conclusion	93
6	Arabic Negation and Arabic Clause Structure	94
6.1	Introduction	94
6.2	laa Negation and Clausal Hierarchy	94
6.2.1	The Arabic Imperfect	96
6.2.2	laa and Its Tense Variants	103
6.3	Two Other Negative Structures	105
6.3.1	Participial Negation	105
6.3.2	Neutral Neg	107
6.4	A Typology of Negative Heads	108
Part II	Null Subjects and Inversion	109
7	Null Subjects	111
7.1	Introduction	111
7.2	The Distribution of Null Subjects	112
7.2.1	Null Subjects and Pro	112
7.2.2	Personal and Impersonal Pronouns	112
7.2.3	The Theory of Pro	114
7.2.4	Referential Pro in Hebrew	116
7.2.5	The Internal Structure of Pronouns	119
7.2.6	Nonreferential Pro	123
7.2.7	The Internal Structure of Nonreferential Pronouns	124
7.2.8	Reconsideration of the Feature Identification Procedure	125
7.2.9	Summary	127
7.3	The Position of Null Subjects	128
7.4	Null Subjects in Peyn sentences	129
7.4.1	Expletives, Extraposition, and Sentential Subjects	130
7.4.2	Two Types of Pro[subscript arb]	134
7.4.3	Atmospheric Pro	137
7.4.4	Summary	139
7.5	Null Subjects in Agreeing Peyn Sentences	140
8	Subject-Verb Inversion	144
8.1	Introduction	144
8.2	Two Strategies of Inversion	145
8.3	Triggered Inversion (TI)	146
8.3.1	The Nature and the Position of the Trigger	146
8.3.2	Triggered Inversion as Movement of I to C	148
8.3.3	The Position of the Subject under TI	155
8.4	Free Inversion (FI) and VP-Subjects	163
8.5	Conclusion	172
Part III	The Pronominal System	175
9	Semitic Clitics	177
9.1	Introduction	177
9.2	Properties of Semitic Clitics	178
9.3	The Incorporation Analysis	181
9.3.1	Is Subject Agreement a Clitic?	183
9.3.2	Clitics and Agreement in Berber	185
9.4	Semitic Clitics as Agr[superscript 0] Elements	187
9.4.1	Extensions and Consequences	188
9.4.2	On the Absence of Clitic Clusters	192
9.4.3	Predictions Concerning Clitic Doubling	194
9.5	Final Remarks	203
10	Pronouns	204
10.1	The Internal Structure and Distribution of "Unattached" Pronouns	204
10.2	Pronouns Weak and Strong	209
10.2.1	The Weak-Strong Distinction	211
10.2.2	Subject Pronouns	214
10.3	The Syntax of Hebrew Weak Pronouns Reconsidered	217
10.3.1	Weak Pronouns Can Appear Higher than AgrOP	217
10.3.2	Weak Pronouns Can Appear in Spec/AgrO	218
10.3.3	The Nature of Hebrew Weak Pronouns	219
10.3.4	Indirect Object Weak Pronouns and Pronoun Clustering	222
10.4	Conclusion	226
Appendix	Nonpronominal Incorporation	229
	Notes	235
	Bibliography	268
	Index	278