Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators: A Linguistic History of Western Dialects

264 Pages·2014·1.84 MB·English

by  David Wilmsen

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Arabic Inde nites, Interrogatives, and Negators
OXFORD STUDIES IN DIACHRONIC AND HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
general editors
AdamLedgewayandIanRoberts,UniversityofCambridge
advisoryeditors
CynthiaAllen,AustralianNationalUniversity;RicardoBermúdez-Otero,Universityof
Manchester;TheresaBiberauer,UniversityofCambridge;CharlotteGalves,Universityof
Campinas;GeoffHorrocks,UniversityofCambridge;PaulKiparsky,StanfordUniversity;
AnthonyKroch,UniversityofPennsylvania;DavidLightfoot,GeorgetownUniversity;
GiuseppeLongobardi,UniversityofYork;DavidWillis,UniversityofCambridge
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ArabicIndefinites,Interrogatives,andNegators
ALinguisticHistoryofWesternDialects
DavidWilmsen
fi
Arabic Inde nites,
Interrogatives, and
Negators
A Linguistic History of Western Dialects
DAVID WILMSEN
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,ox26dp,
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To my beloved wife Nadia, who bemusedly tolerates my
obsession with tiny details of language, gamely lending me her
insights into the varieties of her native Jordanian Arabic.

Contents
Seriespreface x
Listoffiguresandtables xi
Transcriptionandnotation xii
1. Introduction:Theory,conventions,andtheassessmentoffacts 1
1.1 Arabicinlinguistictheory 4
1.2 Afacts-firstapproachtotheoryandatheory-freeapproachtofacts 7
1.3 Aguidetotheperplexing:chaptersummaries 9
1.4 Acomingtoterms 12
1.5 Arepaymentofdebts 19
2. OntheageandoriginsofspokenArabicvernaculars:
Anunresolvedquestion 21
2.1 OldandNewArabic 22
2.2 NewArabicisold 24
2.3 Retentionsandinnovations 28
2.4 SharedSemiticretentions 29
2.5 Shareddialectalretentions 36
2.6 Inconclusion,thewayforward 39
3. fīšwabiddīš:Thefunctionsofšī 44
3.1 Tracingtheoriginanddevelopmentofthepseudo-verbbidd- 46
3.2 The-šofbiddīš 49
3.3 Conventionalviews 50
3.4 Grammaticalizationofšay 50
3.5 Partitiveši 51
3.6 Polarinterrogativeši 53
3.7 Rhetoricallynegativeši 56
3.8 Negativeši 57
3.9 Distributionofši 59
3.10 Conclusion 63
viii Contents
4. AndalusiArabicnegatorsandinterrogatives:Earlyevidence
ofgrammaticalši 64
4.1 IndefiniteandnegativešiinAndalusiArabic 66
4.2 AJespersen’sCycle? 70
4.3 Interrogativeornegativeiš? 72
4.4 RhetoricalquestionsinArabic 75
4.5 Arabicinterrogativesasexclamatives 79
4.6 Orthographicidiosyncrasies 81
4.7 Conclusion 87
5. InterrogationandnegationwithšiinNorthAfricanand
LevantineArabic 90
5.1 SharedretentionsinAndalusiArabic,NorthAfricanArabic,
andMaltese 92
5.2 CopularinterrogativesinmodernNorthAfricandialects 96
5.3 AHōrānicasestudy 102
˙
5.4 HōrānianaloguesinotherArabicvarieties 110
˙
5.5 Conclusion 115
6. Originsofgrammaticalši:SouthernArabiaortheLevant? 119
6.1 Possibleorigins 120
6.2 AsharedWestSemiticinnovation 124
6.3 Generaandgeography 126
6.4 Dialectswithandwithoutnegativeši 127
6.5 Apre-diasporasouthernArabpresenceintheFertileCrescent 130
6.6 ArabChristiansinthepre-IslamicFertileCrescent 133
6.7 AnancientArabpresenceintheFertileCrescent 137
6.8 LevantineorYemeni? 140
6.9 Conclusion 146
7. Proto-SemiticandProto-Arabicoriginsofgrammaticalši 148
7.1 Earlyevidenceofnegator-š 149
7.2 TheSemiticsofši 154
7.3 ImplicationsforArabic 161
7.4 Implicationsfortheory 163
7.5 Processesofgrammaticalization 164
7.6 Degrammaticalizationofši 167
7.7 Derivationalpathwaysofgrammaticalši 169
7.8 Areassertionoftheory:Croft’sCycle,notJespersen’s 173
7.9 Areaffirmationofanassumption:negatingwithmāisearly 176
7.10 Conclusion 177
Contents ix
8. OnexplanationandtheoryinArabiclinguistics 180
8.1 FormalapproachestoArabic:mistaken,misplaced,andmisguided 180
8.2 Formalapproachestogrammaticalši 188
8.3 Negator-šandnegativepolarity 198
8.4 Conclusion 204
Afterword 209
Appendix:PointsofdivergencebetweenwrittenandspokenArabic 214
References 216
Index 239