Splitting NegP in Standard Arabic: A Syntactic Study into VSO Word Order in Negative Sentences

Abstract

This paper strives to overcome the issues of achieving a VSO word order in negated sentences in Standard Arabic. A possible solution would be to split the Negative projection into two, where the higher head hosts the negative particle, and the lower head has the ability to attract and host the verb, which falls within the scope of the negative particle. Splitting the negative projection proved to be sufficient to maintain the integrity and validity of the other theories available in the Minimalist Program. Moreover, it allows for a distinction between the A-movement operation, where verbs move over the Subject to a higher position resulting in a VSO word order, and the A’-Movement operation of a fronted Determiner Phrase (DP) is moved to the utmost left for focal purposes.