Preverbal subjects in Makkan Arabic: A feature-inheritance approach
| dc.contributor.author | Makkawi, Amani | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Janzen, Terry (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Oxford, Linguistics (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Hamid Ouali (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Ghomeshi, Jila (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-09-02T13:05:56Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-09-02T13:05:56Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2021-07-07 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-05-10 | en_US |
| dc.date.submitted | 2021-07-07T07:46:21Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation argues that not all preverbal nominals in Arabic are instances of left-dislocation/topicalization but that some can occupy preverbal subject positions. It explores three types of predications that follow preverbal subjects: verbal predicates, copular predicates and sentential predicates. I propose that in all sentence types, preverbal subjects are derived by movement from lower subject and non-subject positions to the specifier of the Subject of Predication (SubjP) projection to satisfy the Subject of Predication (SoP) feature (Cardinaletti, 1997, 2004). Based on the feature-inheritance approach (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2005) in which movement is only motivated by edge features (e.g., EPP), I propose that SoP is an edge feature that motivates movement in Makkan Arabic, and that the EPP feature in Arabic is rather satisfied by verb movement to the head T. The preverbal subject position [Spec, SubjP] position is recursive as it can optionally attract any definite nominal in the clause that bears the interpretable iSoP whether it is a thematic subject, object, object of preposition or possessor inside a DP. Thematic subjects undergo successive movement to [Spec, SubjP] passing through [Spec, AspP] and [Spec, TP] which are blocked for non-nominative nominals. When more than one nominal undergoes movement to [Spec, SubjP], the Shortest Move principle applies so that the highest nominal moves first, and the landing site is the closest [Spec, SubjP] position. I adopt the Copy Theory of Movement, in which movement entails making copies of the moved elements in the new positions, thus creating a movement chain. The successive movement of thematic subjects that bear the nominative Case leaves copies in [Spec, vP], [Spec, AspP] and [Spec, TP], one of which can optionally be spelled out in addition to the head of the chain (Halle and Marantz 1993, 1994). When non-subject nominals undergo movement to the SubjP projection, the head of the chain gets its original Case overridden and receives nominative Case. The copy at the tail of the chain obligatorily spells out in the form of a resumptive pronoun bearing accusative or genitive Case because these copies are marked as distinct by the operation of Copy. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | October 2021 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/35901 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Preverbal subjects, syntactic movement, Makkan Arabic, subject of predication | en_US |
| dc.title | Preverbal subjects in Makkan Arabic: A feature-inheritance approach | en_US |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | en_US |