Causative Construction in Hail Arabic: A Minimalist Account

Abstract

Natural language marks causation by variable means which fall into three categories: (i) periphrastic, (ii) lexical, and (iii) morphological. In this study, the researcher utilizes Minimalist Program (MP) to analyze causative construction in Hail Arabic (HA), a spoken dialect in Saudi Arabia. According to our findings, HA exhibits the three types of causation: morphological, lexical, and periphrastic. I propose that causative constructions project a CAUSE head below the tense node (T), which gives rise to a causative meaning. Also, I assume that the CAUSE head is not always overtly realized in HA due to the various strategies for forming causative. In lexical causative, for instance, I assume that there is a null causative feature on the CAUSE, the head of the Cause Phrase (CauseP), which provides the sentence with a causative interpretation. On the other hand, in periphrastic and morphological causatives, I show that the CAUSE head is filled with the causative particle xalla ‘made’ or with a causal affix. I demonstrate that the three types of causation require an additional argument (i.e., a causer) in addition to an internal argument (a causee). I claim that there is a Voice Phrase (VoiceP) beneath the CauseP that is responsible for introducing the internal argument (the causee). Additionally, I assume that the external argument (i.e., the causer) is base generated in the specifier (Spec) position of the Cause Phrase (Spec, CauseP) before it raises to Spec, TP to satisfy the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) feature.