Independent and Subordinate Subjunctive Phrases and Theta-Marking in Arabic Syntax: A Minimalist View

Abstract

The objective of this work is to specify the actual structures of independent and dependent subordinate subjunctive clauses visible with the complementizer ?an ‘that’ at spell out and exclude mandative phrases in Modern Standard Arabic. The problems: There is a confusion to specify the actual structures of such phrases whether they are complementizer phrases [C”s] or tense phrases [T”s]. It is also difficulty to decide whether the phrases constitute arguments to check theta roles or not in the absence of a predicate. The theory: this issue is analyzed with reference to Chomsky's minimalist’s views (1995), Radford's (1988) and Jalabneh (2007, 2011, 2017). The conclusions: The structures are syntactically proved to be [C”s] but not [T”s] whether the complementizer ?an ‘that’ is overt at spell out or covert at PF; [C”s] as syntactic units do not constitute arguments for any predicate; thus; they do not check theta roles in Arabic syntax. The analysis shows also that whether the complementizer? an ‘that’ is overt or covert, its syntactic effect is obvious on the morphology of the internal verb. In other words, it is marked with the subjunctive marker [a] at all levels of syntax.