Functional or anaphoric control in Jordanian Arabic?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of control in Jordanian Arabic within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) as developed by Bresnan (J. Bresnan, 1982. The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, Cambridge: MIT Press.), Mohanan (K. Mohanan, 1983. Linguistic Inquiry 14.), Simpson (J. Simpson, 1983. “Aspects of Warlpiri Morphology and Syntax,” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.), Simpson and Bresnan (J. Simpson and J. Bresnan, 1983. Natural Language and Linguistics Theory 1), Wager (J. Wager, 1983. “Complementation in Moroccan Arabic,” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, MIT), Pinker (S. Pinker, 1982. The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, Cambridge: MIT Press) and Kaplan and Bresnan (R. Kaplan and J. Bresnan, 1982. The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, Cambridge: MIT Press). The researcher discusses functional and anaphoric control in complex sentences of Jordanian Arabic (JA) within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). By complex sentences, we mean those in which more than one verb appears. These complex sentences in Jordanian Arabic can be produced by using: the lexical entries, phrase-structure rules, and functional structures along with the well-formedness principles: completeness, coherence and consistency (J. Bresnan, 1982. The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, Cambridge: MIT Press). The researcher argues that in Jordanian Arabic we have anaphoric rather than functional control.