ARABIC PHONOLOGY

484 Pages·2012·24.65 MB·English

ARABIC PHONOLOGY:
Implications for Phonological Theory
and Historical Semitic
by
Michael K. Brame
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY-
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY
June, 1970
Signature of Author ....-..-.- .o-.-e....s..e.n.....s..e.*.
Certified by ..-................................
Thesis Supervisor
Accepted by ..............................
Chairman, Departmental Committee
.- ~i Ve on Graduate Students

ARABIC PHONOLOGY
by
Michael K. Brame
submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and
Linguistics on June 15, 1970 in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.
ABSTRACT
This thesis treats the phonology of Arabic in some
detail. Emphasis is placed on rule orderings and there
is a good deal of discussion of cyclic and local order-
ing theories. It is concluded that probably both types
of ordering are needed to adequately generate the
phonology of Arabic. The thesis touches on some recent
issues in syntactic theory, but from the phonological
point of view.
to my mother, for making it possible
to my wife, for seeing me through
to my daughter, for giving me renewed hope
I dedicate this thesis
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation was written under the direction
of Professor Morris Halle, my teacher. I have bene--
fited from his suggestions and owe him the greatest
debt of all. He, more than anyone else in my graduate
career, has given me the impression that not only
could I learn from him, but that he also could learn
from me. This, it seems to me, is all that anyone
desires. Also, I must thank Hugh Matthews and Noam
Chomsky for valuable criticism of earlier parts of
this work. In addition, Ken Hale, Paul Kiparsky, and
Haj Ross have lent their time to reading some of the
earlier work of this dissertation, and I am grateful.
I should also thank the faculty for giving me
the opportunity of teaching some of the contents of
this thesis in my last year at M.I.T. And I thank
those students who helped clarify some of my ideas,
especially John Makhoul.
Finally, I lovingly express my appreciation to
Luise for putting up with this in -the first place.
She too has read some of this dissertation, and her
background in Arabic has been particularly helpful.
JLv
PREFACE
This work was undertaken with two goals in
mind: (1) to contribute to our rapidly expanding
body of knowledge of phonological theory, and (2)
to contribute to the field of Semitic linguistics
by giving a more comprehensive treatment of a
Semitic language than has hitherto been attempted.
Concerning the first aim--it seems to me that
although isolated examples can shed light on real
issues in the theory of phonology, it is only the
comprehensive deep phonology of a language which
must be considered reliable in the final reckoning.
I place emphasis on this point, for in my own
experience I have found that questions concerning
the treatment of a specific segment of the phonology
become clarified, or at least clearer, only when
viewed in the more comprehensive scheme of the total
phonological component of the grammar. Radical
changes in the theory must not be motivated in terms
of isolated examples. With this in mind, I have
looked at a good many rules of Arabic phonology in
order to test the adequacy of the present theory of
generative phonology and so as to determine where,
Y
if anywhere, this theory is in need of revision.-
The current theory is structured so as to rule out
many theoretically conceivable phonologies. At the
same time it allows for much which is theoretically
possible, but not supported by empirical evidence.
For example, the present theory makes the rather
interesting claim that rules are linearly ordered.
This rules out many conceivable orderings. It
prohibits a situation where Rule A precedes Rule B,
Rule B precedes Rule C, and Rule C precedes Rule A.
By and large this claim has not been refuted by ex-
amples from natural hanguages. If this constraining
device is correct, it is very interesting, for it
tells us more about what human language is. The
theory also allows for cyclic application of phono-
logical rules, without, however, making any claims
about what kinds of rules can be cyclic and what kind
not. If the phonological cycle is necessary, it also
is interesting. But as presently conceived, it is
probably too powerful a device, for it allows for too
many possible phonologies. The task of theoretical
linguistics is, then, to constrain. The theory is
obviously. to be formulated on the basis of empirical
examples. I therefore have attempted to understand
better how human language works by investigating some
vi
complex data from Arabic.
There is to be found in these pages an overriding
concern with the interaction of phonological rules.
The thesis becomes interesting when several apparent
ordering contradictions arise in Chapter VI. From
here on it is my task to determine how these con-
tradictions are to be accounted for. We discuss the
possibility of a stem cycle and the possibility of
adopting the theory of local ordering of Anderson.
In the long run, at least one rule must be cyclic,
that of Stress Assignment. But here the constituents
relevant to the correct definition. of the cycle in
Arabic are of some interest. It seems that the subject
pronoun suffixes must be considered as part of the
first cycle, whereas the dual suffix plus the object
pronoun suffixes must constitute, along with the
first cycle material, the second or final cycle. Al-
though the implications are not drawn in the thaitn text,
it appears that this may be explained by assuming
subject pronoun suffixes to be lexical. And there
seems to be no reason to eschew this result. Only
a priori notions about subject-verb agreement will
cause the reader to feel queasy at the mention of
this result.
-T1 P
vii
Concerning the second aim--it seems to me that
the state of historical Semitic linguistics is bank-
rupt. There is not even one good phonology of one'
Semitic language in existence today which goes beyond
the important insights of the Arab grammarians. Indeed
it is my belief that Arabic grammar in particular has
reached its lowest ebb under the thumbs of Western
scholars. Much of the subtlety and insight into
the nature of the language Which the Arab grammarians
give us has been almost totally neglected by Western
linguists. I would like to think that I am approaching
this work in the spirit of the Arab grammarians. At
least this is true in one regard--the problem that so
enthused the Arab grammarians, +hat of determining the
A
,aos r deep representation, of the language. I feel
justified in attempting to go beyond these grammarians
only as a result of advances made in phonology in
recent times.
I.
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
dedication ......
11 ..
abstract ........ . .iii
acknowledgements . . . iv
preface ......... . . ..ov
Chapter I PRELIMINARIES ............ .................. 1
1.0 ................................ . . .
1.1 Terminology and Basic Paradigms .......... . . . ..2
0
1.2 The Phonological Component ..... . . . .13
Chapter II SOME PRELIMINARY RULES OF ARABIC .28
2.0 ................................o .28
2.1 Perfective Verbs ............. .34
.. . ...00
....
2.2 Nouns ............ ....... .35
...
....
2.3 Passive Participles .38
0 0 0
...
2.4 Imperfective Verbs .39
2.5 Active Participles ... .43
00.
Chapter III GLIDE ELISION REVISITED 0 0 .46
...... 0
3.0 ................................ .46
0 0
3.1 Conditions on Height ........... .46
...
...@00
3.2 Some Confirming Evidence .52
00
...
3.3 An If-Then Condition .56
3.4 A Final Condition on Glide Elision Length .72
3.5.0 Alternative Proposals 00...0. ............... 0 * .76
3.5.1 On Reordering Glide Elision and Assimilation .77
3.5.2 Eliminating If-Then ........ ........ 87