Abstract
This paper focuses on the obligatory movement operations that Najdi Arabic (NA) verb forms must undergo to satisfy the morphosyntactic requirements within the minimalist program (MP). Recall that the practice of the MP syntactic theory, including its further advancements, proposed by Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2001) springs from the fact that the grammar of a language starts basically from the lexicon from which suitable words are selected to form clauses. The selected words undergo some syntactic operations such as Merge, by which larger constituents are formed, and Move, by which the formed constituents move to higher positions in the hierarchy to fulfil some specific syntactic purposes. When the elements have undergone the operations of Merge and Move they are spelled out into phonetic forms (PF) and logical forms (LF). In light of this, we argue that NA verbs start out as roots in the head of VP before merging with the vocalic affixes in the head of Tax-AspP to satisfy the subjectverb agreement requirements and mark the aspect features. Perfective verb forms must then continue to move to T to merge with the past tense abstract features while imperfective forms stay in Tax-AspP. The thematic subject is generated in Spec,VP; it may stay there to derive the VSO order, or move higher to derive the SVO order. The findings show that obligatory movements indicate interactions between the functional categories of TP, Tax-AspP and VP: NA verbal roots obligatorily move to Tax-Asp to derive (im)perfective forms; perfectives obligatorily move to T.
Highlights
Najdi Arabic (NA) clauses show VSO and SubjectVerb-Object word order (SVO) word orders
This paper focuses on the obligatory movement operations that Najdi Arabic (NA) verb forms must undergo to satisfy the morphosyntactic requirements within the minimalist program (MP)
The findings show that obligatory movements indicate interactions between the functional categories of Tense Projection (TP), Tax-AspP and VP: NA verbal roots obligatorily move to Tax-Asp to deriveperfective forms; perfectives obligatorily move to T
Summary
NA clauses show VSO and SVO word orders. The aim of this paper is to explore how these different word orders are formed and what the basic word order is. This relation suggests a SubjectVerb-Object word order (SVO) This is on a par with Kayne’s (1994: 47) claim that all languages present “S-H-C order” where S-H-C stand for Specifier, Head and Complement respectively. It is important to emphasize that investigating the possible word order structures in NA will take us far afield, so the paper limits its attention to the obligatory movement of the verb forms, which in turn shows the basic word order. It shows how an alternative word order may be derived.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
