scholarly journals Resumption and Optionality in Arabic Definite Restrictive Relatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Issa Abdel-razaq
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Restrictive Relatives ◽  
Modern Standard ◽  
Free Variation ◽  
Minimalist Syntax

The present study examines the claim that definite relative clauses in Modern Standard Arabic exhibit free variation between resumptive pronouns and gaps. The implication of such a claim presents a problem for minimalist syntax that does not tolerate true optionality. To solve this problem, the study argues that the original claim is incorrect and that despite similarities in the PF outputs, resumptive relatives are syntactically different from gapped relatives. While the latter is derived from a standard VSO structure, I propose, the former is derived from a topic-comment structure that already contains an RP. Thus, the fact that resumptive relatives contain resumptive pronouns has nothing to do with relativization, as is generally assumed. The study demonstrates that both resumptive relatives and gapped relatives are derived by movement in contexts that do not involve islands. As it turns out, resumption in relatives is used only as a last resort strategy to save structures in which movement is genuinely blocked, such as islands, from crash. Altogether the study concludes that the variation observed does not reflect true optionality, a finding that supports robust economy principles of minimalist syntax. 

scholarly journals Non-restrictive relative clauses in Arabic

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Abdulrahman A Alqurashi
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses ◽  
Restrictive Relatives ◽  
Modern Standard ◽  
Minimalist Syntax

This paper discusses the syntax of non-restrictive relative clauses in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It provides a thorough description of their structures and attempts to offer a preliminary analysis within the transformation framework: Minimalist syntax. Two relativization strategies are available for Arabic non-restrictive relative clauses. The first strategy is similar to that of definite restrictive relatives in which the relative clause is initiated by ʔallaðiwhich is a relative complementizer, whereas the second strategy is a unique one in which the relative clause is initiated by the special particle wa, appears to be a specifying coordinator, along with the complementizer ʔallaði. The paper also argues that De-Vries’s (2006) coordinate approach to appositive relatives can provide a straightforward account for some the facts of non-restrictive relative clauses in Arabic.

scholarly journals Gaps and resumptive pronouns in Modern Standard Arabic

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansour Alotaibi ◽  
Robert D. Borsley
Keyword(s):  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Resumptive Pronouns ◽  
Unbounded Dependencies ◽  
Modern Standard

Unbounded dependencies in Modern Standard Arabic often involve not a gap but a null resumptive pronoun. The facts are quite complex, but it is not too difficult to extend the SLASH mechanism of HPSG to handle dependencies with a null resumptive pronoun. It is also not too difficult to restrict the distribution of gaps appropriately.

scholarly journals Arabic relativization patterns: A unified HPSG analysis

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hahn
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Adjectival Modification ◽  
Uniform Manner ◽  
Classical Arabic ◽  
Modern Standard

Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic have several relativization patterns, including relative clauses with and without relativizers and adjectival modification patterns. Previous generative work has targeted several phenomena, but there is no analysis which covers all relativization patterns in any generative framework. We present an HPSG analysis that covers these phenomena in a uniform manner. Based on Doron and Reintges (2005), we show that the crosslinguistically unusual syntax of adjectival modifiers is a language-internally expected variant of participial modifiers as found in English. We also present the first HPSG analysis of Arabic broad subjects and argue that they are selected as specifiers, accounting for the similarities between broad subjects and ordinary subjects.

scholarly journals Acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic by Speakers of Different Arabic Colloquial Varieties: Resumption in Object Relative Clauses *1

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Sami Alresaini
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
First Language ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Object Relative ◽  
Modern Standard

It is often claimed that there are no native speakers of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) due to possible effect of late age of first exposure (AoE) and possible effect of the acquired colloquial variety ofArabic, which is considered as the first language (L1). This empirical study examined the impact of AoE and knowledge of the L1on the ultimate attainment of resumption in MSA object relative clauses. 147adolescent participants from Egypt, the Levant, and the gulf regions, were recruited to examine their underlying knowledge ofresumption in MSA through completing an Acceptability Judgment Task. Using ANOVAand planned comparisons, the differences in participants' judgments to resumptionwere evaluated across 5 groups corresponding to different AoE and the colloquialvarieties they speak. The analysis of the data showed no significant effect of AoEnorof the L1, and post hoc tests showed no significant differences between the groups ofparticipants. These results were discussed in relation to theories on L1 influence and tothe critical period hypothesis.

scholarly journals Arabic relative clauses in HPSG

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulrahman Alqurashi ◽  
Robert D. Borsley
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Modern Standard

In HPSG relative clauses have been analyzed in terms of phonologically empty heads in Pollard and Sag (1994) and in terms of a complex system of phrase types in Sag (1997). Modern Standard Arabic has a distinction between relative clauses with a definite antecedent, which are introduced by a special complementizer, and relative clauses with an indefinite antecedent, which are ‘bare’ clauses. Analyses eschewing empty heads and assuming a complex system of phrase types face a number of problems. An analysis in which relatives with an indefinite antecedent are headed by a phonologically empty complementizer is more satisfactory. Thus, in the case of Arabic, the approach of Pollard and Sag (1994) seems preferable to the approach of Sag (1997).

The effects of motivation on processing instruction in the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic gender agreement

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Ayah Farhat ◽  
Alessandro Benati
Keyword(s):  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Processing Instruction ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Modern Standard

The present study investigates the effects of motivation and processing instruction on the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic gender agreement. The role of individual differences (e.g. age, gender, aptitude, language background and working memory) on the positive effects generated by processing instruction has been investigated in the last few years. However, no previous research has been conducted to measure the possible effects of motivation on L2 learners exposed to processing instruction. In addition, a reasonable question to be addressed within the processing instruction research framework is whether its positive effects can be generalised to the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic. The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) and the Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) motivation questionnaires were used to capture different variables that influence motivation in order to create the two different groups (high and low motivated). In this experimental study, forty-one native English school-age learners (aged 8–11) were assigned to two groups: ‘the high motivated group’ (n = 29): and the ‘low motivated group’ (n = 12). Both groups received processing instruction, which lasted for three hours. Sentence-level interpretation and production tasks were used in a pre-test and post-test design to measure instructional effects. The learners were required to fill in gaps in both written and spoken mode for the activities. The study also included a delayed post-test administered to the two groups four weeks later. The results indicated that both groups improved equally from pre-test to post-test in all assessment measures and they both retained the positive effects of the training in the delayed posttests. Processing instruction was proved to be the main factor for the improvement in performance regardless of the learner’s level of motivation.

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