Table Of ContentA GRAMMATICAL SKETCH OF SOQOTRI:
with Special Consideration of Negative Polarity
A Thesis Presented to
The Faculty of the Department of Linguistics
Northeastern Illinois University
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Linguistics
By: Amani Aloufi
Date: April, 2016
ProQuest Number: 10109571
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
ProQuest 10109571
Published by ProQuest LLC (2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author.
All rights reserved.
This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
ProQuest LLC.
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346
i
Abstract
This study describes the major syntactic features of the Soqotri language, spoken in Socotra
Island, Yemen. The Soqotri language belongs to the Modern South Arabian (MSA)
languages which with the modern Ethiopian Semitic languages and Central Semitic form
the West Semitic sub-branch of the Semitic family (Huehnergard and Rubin, 2011). Based
on UNESCO’s classification that shows the levels of language endangerment, Soqotri is
considered to be a severely endangered language which is spoken only by grandparents
and older generations, and is not spoken to young children any more (Moseley, 2012, p.
4). Since Soqotri is regarded as a severely endangered language, it is of utmost importance
that it be described and documented.
The main purpose of undertaking this study is to document the key syntactic
features of Soqotri. I present the salient aspects of Soqotri, including basic word order,
noun classes, verbs, prepositions, and clausal relations of the Northern Soqotri dialect
which is spoken in some villages, such as Qadhub, Hadibo, the Capital City of Socotra,
and Hawlef. I also explore the distribution of certain lexical items in Soqotri and their
relationship with two linguistic phenomena: negative concord and negative polarity. The
study also contributes to typological and historical studies of Semitic languages in the
Middle East.
This study was carried out by interviewing a Soqotri native speaker consultant, who
also speaks Arabic, and by examining published data gathered by other scholars in past
years. Furthermore, I hope this grammatical sketch will act as a springboard for other
researchers who are interested in documenting Soqotri. This thesis also might fill the gap
and give insights into the distribution of the negative concord and negative polarity
ii
phenomena.
The results show that Soqotri shares many grammatical characteristics with other
Semitic languages, such as verbal and nominal paradigms. Soqotri active clauses basically
follow the VSO order. SVO and VOS are also alternatively used for pragmatic motivations.
Each type of modifier including adjectives, demonstratives, and relative pronouns agrees
in both number and gender with the head noun. According to Giannakidou’s (2000)
classification of negative concord (NC) languages and based on the data found, we can
conclude that Soqotri does not show both types of negative concord. Exclusively, it is a
strict NC language. That is, Soqotri NC clauses require the co-occurrence of the sentential
negative marker and the neg-word in the clause.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my profound thanks to my thesis advisor and the chair of
my committee Dr. Lewis Gebhardt for his constant support and advice during my thesis
development. I have no doubt that I will not be able to do anything in return but my success.
I cannot thank him enough for believing in me and my ability to conduct such a research.
Thanks to my committee Dr. Judith Kaplan-Weinger and Dr. Shahrzad Mahootian
for their support, guidance, comments and recommendations to improve this study.
My endless thanks to my friends and family who were there for me whenever I
needed them. Thank you for making everything possible by supporting my decision. My
unique and warm thanks to my little friends Safana and Mashael for helping me a lot at the
beginning of my thesis journey.
My sincere appreciation to Dr. Judy for all the mornings we spent teaching, talking,
and laughing together. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work and learn from
you.
There are not enough words can express my thanks and gratefulness to my friend
Nuha for being in my life, supporting, and helping me through this time. Your words and
deeds have inspired and encouraged me to do the best and not to give up all time. I am
sorry for keeping bothering you with my daily email entitled ‘My Thesis So Far,’ which
was so comforting to me.
Many thanks to my Soqotri consultant for his patience and continuous clarifying
and explaining to help me complete the study. I will never forget his exceptional and unique
passion for his native language and his efforts to save and support Soqotri.
iv
Finally, thanks to the faculty of the Linguistics Department in the Northeastern
Illinois University for their support during my master’s degree study.
v
Table of Contents
page
Thesis Acceptance and Approval i
Abstract ii
Acknowledgements iv
Table of Contents vi
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Figures xi
List of Tables
xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 The Scope of the Study 1
1.2 Genetic Affiliation 4
1.3 Overview of MSA Languages 7
1.4 The Outline of the Thesis 11
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12
2.2 The Soqotri language 12
2.3 Negative Polarity 16
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND DATA 20
3.1 Data 20
3.2 Methodology 20
CHAPTER 4: SYNTACTIC OVERVIEW 22
4.1 The Declarative Category 22
4.1.1 Verbal Clauses 22
4.1.1.1 verbs 22
4.1.1.2 Active Transitive Clauses 23
vi
page
4.1.1.3 Passive Clauses 25
4.2 The Interrogative Category 26
4.2.1 Terms of affirmation and negation 31
4.3 The imperative category 32
4.4 Lexical verb negation 32
4.5 Nominalization 33
4.6 Adverbs 34
4.1.2 Nominal Clauses 35
4.1.2.1 Nouns 35
4.1.2.2 Definiteness and indefiniteness 36
4.1.2.3 Nominal predicates 37
4.1.2.4 Adjectives 39
4.1.2.5 Adjectival predicates 39
4.1.2.6 Pronouns 41
i. Personal pronouns 42
ii. Object pronouns 43
iii. Demonstrative pronouns 44
iv. Relative pronouns and clauses 45
v. Possessive pronouns and clauses 46
i. Possessive pronouns 47
ii. Synthetic genitive construction (SGC) 50
iii. Analytic genitive construction (AGC) 50
4.7 Adpositions and locative adverbs and predicates 51
i. Adpositions 51
ii. Locative predicates 52
iii. Adverbs of place 53
4.8 Cardinal numbers 54
4.9 Quantifiers 56
4.10 Quantifiers, demonstratives, numerals ordering 59
4.11 Embedded clauses 61
vii
page
4.12 Embedded questions 65
4.13 Nominative-accusative language 66
4.14 Negative polarity 66
4.14.1 The Soqotri sentential negative particles and negative words 68
4.14.2 Negative concord (NC) 75
4.14.3 Negative polarity items (NPIs) 78
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND FUTURE STUDY 81
REFERENCES 83
viii
