Abstract
The study examines question affix analysis in Standard Arabic within the minimalist framework of Chomsky (1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001) and shows how Standard Arabic is different from English in terms of feature strength, feature checking, and I-raising to Q (i.e., raising of the head INFL to the head COMP). The objective is to present a unified treatment of question affix analysis in Standard Arabic and illustrate to what extent possible the Arabic data interacts with Chomsky’s minimalist analysis. It also demonstrates how feature licensing takes place in the right checking domains in the derivation of yes-no questions. It points out that Standard Arabic resorts to ‘Merge’ because it does not have auxiliary inversion, while English resorts to ‘Adjunction’ because of auxiliary inversion. Besides, question particles in Standard Arabic are viewed as merely morphological affixes placed sentence-initially to form yes-no questions. Furthermore, we argue that the interrogative particles in Standard Arabic have one function (that of showing interrogativity) since they do not stand for any DP, PP or AP argument. Given this, we propose that the question particles in Standard Arabic are base-generated in the head C position of CP, since they never undergo any morpho-syntactic movement.
Highlights
The syntax of head movement has been the main concern of generative syntactians and has witnessed major developments in the last few years, especially in the era of minimalism
Following Chomsky’s (1995) minimalist framework, we argue that the complementizer C of Standard Arabic interrogative clauses is strong and that it underlyingly contains an abstract question affix Q, which serves as a device to distinguish the D-structure of an Arabic interrogative from that of its declarative counterpart
The question particles in Standard Arabic are merely morphological affixes attached to the clause-initial position of Arabic interrogative yes-no questions
Summary
The syntax of head movement (auxiliary inversion) has been the main concern of generative syntactians and has witnessed major developments in the last few years, especially in the era of minimalism. Chomsky extends his analysis of feature checking to involve the treatment of the abstract question affix Q, assumed to be present in the D-structure of an interrogative clause. We present the justification why Standard Arabic resorts to the Merge operation (rather than Adjunction as the case in English) in the course of licensing features of a derived yes-no question. It shows how features are checked and licensed in the Arabic derived yes-no questions
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