Application of Government and Binding Theory on Agreement in Standard Arabic

Abstract

Standard Arabic (SA) has two basic patterns that are SVO and VSO. On light of Government and Binding Theory (GB), these word orders are illustrated in relation to the AGR Criterion that accounts for the restrictions on agreement associated with the two word orders in SA. Examples from Standard Arabic (SA) and Moroccan Arabic (MA) with reference to the Expletive Hypothesis show some of the problems related to rich or full agreement in SVO structures. Also, the issue of poor agreement or partial agreement in VSO structures is extensively discussed in SA and MA respectively. The researcher concludes with the evidence that AGR Criterion is responsible to regulate the features between AGRs and the NP-subjects in accordance with their positions in the sentence, whether in SVO or VSO structures.