A Split Analysis of the Templatic Diminutive in Standard Arabic: Diminutivization and Paucal Quantification

Abstract

This paper investigates the functions of the diminutive template in Standard Arabic (SA) and offers a morphosyntactic account of these functions within Borer's (2005) Exo-Skeletal model. It argues that it resides in two positions within DP. It merges in Size0 over a singular nP. In this unmarked position, it is productively a diminutivizer that reduces the size of a referent. On the other hand, it merges in Q0, acts as a paucal quantifier and yields paucity in number; however, it is marked in this position as it is not productively generated. It resides in Q0 only if it operates over plural nominals, i.e., it selects a Number Phrase as its complement to reduce the number of entities. In so doing, this split analysis adds credence to the proposal that the diminutive category, like plural, is morphosyntactically distributed (see Wiltschko 2006; De Belder, Faust, and Lampitelli 2014). Furthermore, the finding that the diminutive in SA is invariably a syntactic head emphasizes the cross-linguistic implication that languages may vary in terms of the syntactic realization and distribution of the diminutive and classifies SA with languages like Hebrew and Italian (De Belder, Faust, and Lampitelli 2014) where the diminutive is a syntactic head.