Innovating postverbal negation in North Africa

The present study investigates the grammatical origin of the postverbal negator ḇu in Rif Berber (Afroasiatic, Berber; North, Northeast, and Northwest Morocco) and in Moroccan Arabic of Oujda (Afroasiatic, Semitic; Northeast Morocco), the only languages in which it is commonly attested up till now. Based on new data obtained from recent fieldwork in Morocco, the study will demonstrate that this negator is most probably of Berber origin and has been construed out of an existential by system-internal grammaticalization. The study will also provide evidence for quadruple negation marking in Rif Berber, relating to a reduplication of the ḇu-negator. Moreover, it will show how Berber constantly innovates its cyclical negation system, in which, in this case, different Jespersen Cycles and a Negative Existential Cycle are interlaced. Accordingly, the study will prove that ḇu in Moroccan Arabic is an innovation phenomenon induced by contact with Rif Berber and instantiated through the processes of pattern replication and matter borrowing.

The Behavior and Representation of Geminate Consonants in Moroccan Arabic

The present paper explores the special behavior of geminate consonants in Moroccan Arabic vis-á-vis short consonants and consonant clusters. By way of comparison, it is shown that geminates exhibit properties that are reminiscent of both unit structures and cluster structures. In particular, we reveal that geminates in MA demonstrate an inconsistent behavior in relation to the process of schwa epenthesis. In this context, we ask whether geminates get split up in MA, and when and how that happens. In order to characterize the patterning of geminates in MA, different phonological representations of geminates are examined against the variable behavior of geminates. On this basis, it is eventually suggested that geminates should be depicted as two root nodes that are underlyingly associated with a mora at the prosodic level.

Translation of Moroccan Paremias Into French: Equivalence Between Paremias Starting With « lli » in Moroccan Arabic and « qui » in French

The purpose of this study is to search for equivalences between the paremias in Moroccan Arabic and French. Our study is based on a corpus of Moroccan and French paremias belonging to the same class: Moroccan paremias starting with “lli” and French paremias starting with “qui” (which is the French equivalent of “lli”).The corpus was drawn mainly from works identifying phraseological units, audio recordings of spontaneous conversations of speakers of Moroccan Arabic and notes taken while listening to conversations in different contexts. After the morpho-phonological transcription of the corpus, we proceeded to the analysis of the phraseologies in order to: (i) highlight the convergences and divergences between paremiological phraseology in Moroccan Arabic and French, and their degrees of equivalence, and (ii) check the existence of paremiological universals by studying the equivalences between two different languages.

The Problem of Word Order and Verbal Movement in Moroccan Arabic

This paper attempts to investigate word order and verbal movement in Moroccan Arabic in the Minimalist framework. We observe that the unmarked word order in MA is SVO while the derived structure is VSO. SVO follows an English-like derivation where the subject moves from [Spec, vP] to [Spec, TP] whilst the verb moves from v to T. This paper raises the issue of the verbal movement when it comes to VSO order in languages that have VSO as the derived order and SVO as the underlying order. To derive VSO, we propose that the verb moves from T to Focus based on pragmatic reasons: verbs positioned in the left-periphery denote new information that is focused compared to SVO. We also test our new proposal against the marginal word orders OSV and OVS and propose that object topicalization is the result of the object moving to [Spec, TopicP] which dominates FocusP. Moreover, we go back to the issue of verbal movement and trace the verbal cyclic movement. We argue that the verb moves from V to v based on the position of the adverb. The verb further moves to T based on the quantifier evidence and feature checking: Focus and T form a complex and probe into v to check [TNS] and [V] features. Moreover, T-to-Focus occurs in wh-constructions except when /lli/ ‘that’ is present. In WH-VO (WH as a wh-subject), the verb stays in T while the wh-subject stays in [Spec, TP]. If /lli/ ‘that’ is present, then the wh-subject is forced to move further to [Spec, FocusP]. In WH-SV, the wh-elements move to [Spec, FocusP] while the subject moves to [Spec, TopicP] and the verb moves to Topic. In WH-VS, the wh-elements move to [Spec, FocusP] while the verb moves to Focus.

Flouting Gricean Maxims for Comic Implicatures in Hassan El Fad’s Sitcom Comedy Tendance Forth Episode

This paper explores how the flouting of the Gricean maxims is used to bring about comedy and humorous effect in Hassan El Fad’s 4th episode of Tendance sitcom. Therefore, it aims at finding out what maxims are flouted the most to create comedy and what maxims the two main characters disobey for the sake of making people laugh. To reach the study objective, the paper is based on the analysis of the fourth episode transcription. That is, the study relies on a qualitative descriptive method as it aims at exploring the flouting of Grice’s cooperative principle in Moroccan Arabic comedy and describing how such flouting generates humour and comedy. The results show that the most frequently flouted maxim was the maxim of quantity (39.3%), followed by the maxims of quality (29.6%), manner (26.2%) and the least maxim flouted was relevance (4.9%). The results suggest that the use of flouts has to do with their different moods and personalities, which is why the main characters did not use as many flouts in order to create comedy, since it would not be in line with their personalities. Furthermore, the study shows that most of maxim flouts that create comic implicature are perceived via the use of obscure overstatement and personification, use of misleading conventional-coded expressions, irrelevant oddness of conversation-established ideas, and flouting of Moroccan communication patterns. The study concludes that the use of urban accent of Marrakech city alongside maxims flouting generated humorous effect.