Pro-Drop in Hijazi Arabic: A Minimalist Perspective
Keywords:
Null subject, uD-feature, Chain, Incorporation, P, Agree Relation, Unvalued -features, Hijazi Arabic, A-Topic
Abstract
This paper focuses on investigating the null subjects in Hijazi Arabic and addresses how they are derived and interpreted. There is a strong connection between rich verbal agreement inflection and pro-drop in HA due to the language's highly inflectional nature. It is shown in this paper that HA is a consistent null subject language. This study is framed within Holmberg's (2005, 2010) theory of null subjects. Holmberg proposed that null subjects (henceforth NSs) are defective subject pronouns labeled Ps. The null subjects are derived via incorporation into T after the features valuation and union take place. The head T (a probe) has unvalued -features which are valued by the defective subject pronoun (a goal) and in return, the [u case] feature on P is valued by T. The incorporation of P into T forms a chain which is subject to chain reduction where the lower chain copy (the defective subject pronoun in spec-VP) receives a null spell out. The pronounced elements consist of the valued φ-features of T, which manifest as a verbal affix on the finite verb subsequent to the verb's incorporation into T. This reflects the deletion of the subject in spec-VP. The null subject is interpreted as a definite 3rd person null subject when the [uD(efiniteness)] feature of P is valued by an A-Topic (antecedent) in spec-TopP. On the other hand, it is interpreted as a definite 1st or 2nd person null subject if it is valued by speaker/addressee features in the domain of C (Complementizer).
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References
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29. De´chaıˆne, R. & Wiltschko, M. (2002). Decomposing pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 33. 409–42.
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31. H. van Riemsdijk & F. Zwarts (eds.), Materials on Left Dislocation, Linguistik Aktuell 14, 233–74. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
32. Fassi Fehri, A. (1987). Generalized IP structure, case, and VS word order. Rabat: Faculty of Letters
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34. Frascarelli, M. (2007). Subjects, topics and the interpretation of referential pro. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25(4). 691–734.
35. Haegeman, L. (1994). Introduction to government and binding theory. Massachusetts Cambridge.
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38. Holmberg, A. (2010). Null subject parameters. In Biberauer T; Holmberg A; Roberts I; Sheehan M, ed. Parametric variation: null subjects in minimalist theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 88-124
39. Huang, J. (1984). On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. Linguistic inquiry. 531- 574.
40. Huang, J. (1989). pro-drop in Chinese: a generalized control theory, in Jaeggli and Safir (eds.) 185-214.
41. Hyams, N. (1986). Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters. Dordrecht: Reidel.
42. Jaeggli, O. (1982). Topics in Romance Syntax, Foris, Dordrecht.
43. Jaeggli, O. & Safir, K. (1989). The Null Subject Parameter. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
44. Jarrah, A. (1993). The phonology of Madina Hijazi Arabic: A non-linear analysis. [Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex].
45. Kayne, R. (1975). French syntax: The transformational cycle. Cambridge: MIT Press.
46. Kayne, R. (1984). Connectedness and binary branching. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
47. Kenstowicz, M. (1989). The null subject parameter in modern Arabic dialects. In Jaeggli, O. and Safir, J. (Eds), The null subject parameter (pp. 263–275). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
48. Li, C. & Thompson, S. (1976). Subject and topic: A new typology of language. In Charles Li (ed.), Subject and Topic pages 457–490.
49. Mohammad, M. A. (1990). The problem of subject-verb agreement in Arabic: Towards a solution. In Eid, M. (ed.), Papers from First Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics xiii, 95–125. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
50. Mohammad, M. A. (2000). Word order, agreement, and pronominalization in standard and Palestinian Arabic. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
51. Nunes, J. (2004). Linearization of chains and sideward movement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
52. Olarrea, A. (1996). Pre and Postverbal Subjects in Spanish: A minimalist Account. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington].
53. Ouhalla, J. (1994). Verb movement and word order in Arabic. Verb Movement, ed. Lightfoot, David and Norbert Hornstein. 41-72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
54. Ouhalla, J. (1997). Remarks on focus in Standard Arabic. In M. Eid and R. R. Ratcliffe (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics X: Papers from the Tenth Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (pp.9–45). Amesterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
55. Perlmutter, D. (1971). Deep and surface structure constrains in syntax. New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston.
56. Picallo, M. (1984). The INFL Node and the Null Subject Parameter. Linguistic Inquiry, 15 (1), 75-102.
57. Platzack, C. (2004). Agreement and the Person Phrase hypothesis. Working papers in Scandinavian syntax. 73, 83-112
58. Radford, A. (1997). Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English, Cambridge University Press, London.
59. Rizzi, L. (1982). Issues in Italian syntax. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
60. Rizzi, L. (1986). Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 501–57.
61. Roberts, I. (2010). Agreement and head Movement: clitics, incorporation and defective goals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
62. Safir, K. (1985). Syntactic chains. London: Cambridge.
63. Samek-Lodovici, V. (1996). Constraints on subjects: An optimality theoretic analysis. [Doctoral dissertation, The State University of New Jersey].
64. Sieny, M. (1978). The Syntax of Urban Hijazi Arabic (Sa’udi Arabia). Lebanon: Librairie du Liban.
65. Sigurðsson, H. (2004). The syntax of person, tense, and speech features. Italian Journal of Linguistics 16, 219–51.
66. Soltan, U. (2006). Standard Arabic subject-verb agreement asymmetry revisited in an Agree-based minimalist syntax. In Boeckx, C. (ed.), Agreement Systems, 239– 56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
67. Speas, M. (1994). Null arguments in a theory of economy of projection. UMass Occasional Papers in Linguistics 17. 179–208
68. Speas, M. (2006). Economy, agreement and the representation of null arguments. Arguments and agreement, ed. by P. Ackema, P. Brandt, M. Schoorlemmer and F. Weerman, 35–75. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
69. Taraldsen, K. (1978). The Scope of Wh-Movement in Norwegian, Linguistic Inquiry 9, 623–640.
70. Tomioka, S. (2003). The semantics of Japanese null pronouns and its cross-linguistic implications. In K. Schwabe and S. Winkler (eds) The interfaces: deriving and interpreting omitted structures. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 321–40.
71. Villalba, X. (2000). The syntax of sentence periphery. [Doctoral dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona].
2. Akkal, A. (1996). How SVO is SVO in Standard Arabic. In A. Fassi-Fehri (Ed.),
3. Liguistique comparee et langues au Maroc (pp. 101–127). Rabat: Universite Mohamed V: Publications de la Faculte des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=13292838531050357281&btnI=1&hl=en
4. Alalamat, H. (2014). Pro and Verb Movement in Arabic Syntax. European scientific Journal 10(2), 442-457. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2014.v10n2p%25p
5. AlBarakati, A. A. (1984). Alnahw wa Alsarf Bain Al-Tamimyeem wa Al-Hijazyeen. (Syntax and Morphology between Tamimi People and Hijazi People).[Unpublished MA dissertation, King AbdulAziz University].
6. Alessandro, D. (2014). The null subject parameter. Bloomsbury Press. Leiden University centre for Linguistics. London
7. Alexiadou, A. & Anagnostopoulou, E. (1998). “Parameterizing AGR: Word order, V- movement and EPP-checking.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16(3), 541-595.
8. Al-Mozainy, H. (1981). Vowel Alternations in a Bedouin Hijazi Arabic Dialect: Abstractness and Stress. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin].
9. Alotaibi, M. (2019). Remarks on the Arabic complementizer 'inna'. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, 27(3), 1295-1312. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17851/2237-2083.27.3.1295-1312
10. Alotaibi, M. & Borsley, R. D. (2013). Gaps and resumptive pronouns in Modern Standard Arabic. In Stefan Muller (Ed), Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (p.6).
11. Al-Qurashi, I. (2007). Constituent Order and Agreement in Modern Standard Arabic, [Unpublished MA dissertation, The University of Queensland].
12. AlQurashi, I. (2013). Nominal phrases in modern standard Arabic: Minimalist and HPSG approaches[Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Essex].
13. Aoun, J., Benmamoun, E., & Sportiche, D. (1994). Agreement, Word Order, and Conjunction in Some varieties of Arabic. Linguistic Inquiry 25: 195- 220.
14. Aoun, J. & Benmamoun, E. (1998). Minimality, Reconstruction and PF Movement. Linguistic Inquiry 29, 569-97.
15. Barbosa, P. (1996). Clitic placement in European Portuguese and the position of subjects. Approaching second: Second position clitics and related phenomena, 1-40.
16. Berjaoui, N. (2009). The Empty Category Principle in English and Standard Arabic. Lincom GmbH.
17. Camacho, J. (2013). Null subjects (Vol. 137). Cambridge University Press.
18. Cardinaletti, A. & Starke, M. (1999). ‘The typology of structural deficiency: A case study of the three classes of pronouns’, in H. van Riemsdijk (ed.) Clitics in the Languages of Europe, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 145-233.
19. Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht.
20. Chomsky, N. (1982). Some concepts and consequences of the theory of government and binding. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
21. Chomsky, N. (1986). Barriers, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
22. Chomsky, N. (1991). The theory of principles and parameters, in Chomsky, N. 1995. (ed.) The Minimalist Program. 13-129. Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press.
23. Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press.
24. Chomsky, N. (2000). Minimalist inquiries. In Martin, R., D. Michaels & J. Uriagereka (eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalism in honor of Lasnik Howard, 83–155. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
25. Chomsky, N. (2001). Derivation by phase. In M. Kenstowicz (Ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language (pp. 1–52). Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
26. Cinque, G. (1977). The Movement Nature of Left Dislocation. Linguistic Inquiry 8, 397–411.
27. Cognola, F. (2013). Syntactic variation and verb second: A German dialect in Northern Italy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California].
28. Cook, W. A. (1969). Introduction to Tagmemic Analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
29. De´chaıˆne, R. & Wiltschko, M. (2002). Decomposing pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 33. 409–42.
30. Escobar, L. (1997). Clitic Left Dislocation and Other Relatives. In Anagnostopoulou, E.,
31. H. van Riemsdijk & F. Zwarts (eds.), Materials on Left Dislocation, Linguistik Aktuell 14, 233–74. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
32. Fassi Fehri, A. (1987). Generalized IP structure, case, and VS word order. Rabat: Faculty of Letters
33. Fassi Fehri, A. (1993). Issues in the structure of Arabic clauses and words. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
34. Frascarelli, M. (2007). Subjects, topics and the interpretation of referential pro. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25(4). 691–734.
35. Haegeman, L. (1994). Introduction to government and binding theory. Massachusetts Cambridge.
36. Harbert, W. (1995). Binding theory, control and pro, in Webelhuth, G. (ed.) Government and Binding Theory and the Minimalist Program, 178-240. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Holmberg, A. (2005) ‘Is there a little pro? Evidence from Finnish’, Linguistic Inquiry 36: 533-564.
37. Holmberg, A. (2005). Is There a Little Pro? Evidence from Finnish. Linguistic Inquiry 36, 533–64.
38. Holmberg, A. (2010). Null subject parameters. In Biberauer T; Holmberg A; Roberts I; Sheehan M, ed. Parametric variation: null subjects in minimalist theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 88-124
39. Huang, J. (1984). On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. Linguistic inquiry. 531- 574.
40. Huang, J. (1989). pro-drop in Chinese: a generalized control theory, in Jaeggli and Safir (eds.) 185-214.
41. Hyams, N. (1986). Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters. Dordrecht: Reidel.
42. Jaeggli, O. (1982). Topics in Romance Syntax, Foris, Dordrecht.
43. Jaeggli, O. & Safir, K. (1989). The Null Subject Parameter. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
44. Jarrah, A. (1993). The phonology of Madina Hijazi Arabic: A non-linear analysis. [Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Essex].
45. Kayne, R. (1975). French syntax: The transformational cycle. Cambridge: MIT Press.
46. Kayne, R. (1984). Connectedness and binary branching. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
47. Kenstowicz, M. (1989). The null subject parameter in modern Arabic dialects. In Jaeggli, O. and Safir, J. (Eds), The null subject parameter (pp. 263–275). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
48. Li, C. & Thompson, S. (1976). Subject and topic: A new typology of language. In Charles Li (ed.), Subject and Topic pages 457–490.
49. Mohammad, M. A. (1990). The problem of subject-verb agreement in Arabic: Towards a solution. In Eid, M. (ed.), Papers from First Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics xiii, 95–125. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
50. Mohammad, M. A. (2000). Word order, agreement, and pronominalization in standard and Palestinian Arabic. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
51. Nunes, J. (2004). Linearization of chains and sideward movement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
52. Olarrea, A. (1996). Pre and Postverbal Subjects in Spanish: A minimalist Account. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington].
53. Ouhalla, J. (1994). Verb movement and word order in Arabic. Verb Movement, ed. Lightfoot, David and Norbert Hornstein. 41-72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
54. Ouhalla, J. (1997). Remarks on focus in Standard Arabic. In M. Eid and R. R. Ratcliffe (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics X: Papers from the Tenth Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (pp.9–45). Amesterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
55. Perlmutter, D. (1971). Deep and surface structure constrains in syntax. New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston.
56. Picallo, M. (1984). The INFL Node and the Null Subject Parameter. Linguistic Inquiry, 15 (1), 75-102.
57. Platzack, C. (2004). Agreement and the Person Phrase hypothesis. Working papers in Scandinavian syntax. 73, 83-112
58. Radford, A. (1997). Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English, Cambridge University Press, London.
59. Rizzi, L. (1982). Issues in Italian syntax. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
60. Rizzi, L. (1986). Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 501–57.
61. Roberts, I. (2010). Agreement and head Movement: clitics, incorporation and defective goals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
62. Safir, K. (1985). Syntactic chains. London: Cambridge.
63. Samek-Lodovici, V. (1996). Constraints on subjects: An optimality theoretic analysis. [Doctoral dissertation, The State University of New Jersey].
64. Sieny, M. (1978). The Syntax of Urban Hijazi Arabic (Sa’udi Arabia). Lebanon: Librairie du Liban.
65. Sigurðsson, H. (2004). The syntax of person, tense, and speech features. Italian Journal of Linguistics 16, 219–51.
66. Soltan, U. (2006). Standard Arabic subject-verb agreement asymmetry revisited in an Agree-based minimalist syntax. In Boeckx, C. (ed.), Agreement Systems, 239– 56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
67. Speas, M. (1994). Null arguments in a theory of economy of projection. UMass Occasional Papers in Linguistics 17. 179–208
68. Speas, M. (2006). Economy, agreement and the representation of null arguments. Arguments and agreement, ed. by P. Ackema, P. Brandt, M. Schoorlemmer and F. Weerman, 35–75. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
69. Taraldsen, K. (1978). The Scope of Wh-Movement in Norwegian, Linguistic Inquiry 9, 623–640.
70. Tomioka, S. (2003). The semantics of Japanese null pronouns and its cross-linguistic implications. In K. Schwabe and S. Winkler (eds) The interfaces: deriving and interpreting omitted structures. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 321–40.
71. Villalba, X. (2000). The syntax of sentence periphery. [Doctoral dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona].
Published
2023-12-31
How to Cite
AlQurashi, I. (2023). Pro-Drop in Hijazi Arabic: A Minimalist Perspective. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 19(35), 1. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2023.v19n35p1
Section
ESJ Humanities
Copyright (c) 2023 Issa AlQurashi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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