Clause Structure and Word Order in Hebrew and Arabic: An Essay in Comparative Semitic Syntax (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax)

304 Pages·1997·13.95 MB·English

by  Ur Shlonsky

CLAUSE STRUCTURE
and WORD ORDER
in HEBREW and ARABIC
OXFORD STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE SYNTAX
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Clause Structure and Word Order in Hebrew and Arabic: An Essay in
Comparative Semitic Syntax
Ur Shlonsky
CLAUSE STRUCTURE
and WORD ORDER
in HEBREW and ARABIC
An Essay in Comparative Semitic Syntax
UR SHLONSKY
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1997
Oxford University Press
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Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1997 by Ur Shlonsky
Published by Oxford University Press, inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shlonsky, Ur.
Clause structure and word order in Hebrew and Arabic : an essay in
comparative Semitic syntax / Ur Shlonsky.
p. cm. — (Oxford studies in comparative syntax)
ISBN 0-19-510866-3; —ISBN 0-19-510867-1 (pbk.)
1. Hebrew language—Clauses. 2. Hebrew language—Word order.
3. Arabic language—Clauses. 4. Arabic language—Word order.
5. Hebrew language—Grammar, Comparative. 6. Arabic language—
Grammar, Comparative. 7. Grammar, Comparative and general—Syntax.
I. Title. II. Series
PJ4717.S55 1997
492.492.4'5—dc20 96-30845
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Acknowledgments
W
hen I arrived in Geneva in 1991, I discovered that there was insufficient
shelf space in the office to store the files and notes that I had been dragging
along with me in cardboard boxes across three continents for several years. I
therefore decided to reread my notes, load them onto my PC, and then throw away
the paper into the recycling bin.
Times have changed, I now have a larger office, shelves, and cabinets along
with an unobstructed view of the Jura mountains. I have also brought to a close the
process of rearranging my notes, of which this book is the product.
In writing it, I have been assisted and supported by many colleagues. I wish to
thank L. Haegeman and L. Rizzi for their encouragement, for discussion, and for
their comments on drafts of this work. A. Belletti, G. Cinque, E. Doron, T. Guasti,
C. Laenzlinger, T. Siloni, and an anonymous reviewer have read and commented on
various parts of this essay. Most of the material covered in this book was presented in
my Semitic syntax class over a two-year period, and questions and comments of
numerous students have helped me shaipen many points.
Since I have been practically obsessed with this work for quite a while, I doubt
whether there is any linguist whom I've spoken to in the last couple of years who
hasn't somehow contributed to forging this manuscript. In addition to the people
mentioned above, I would like to express my gratitude to J. Ouhalla, I. Roberts, T.
A. Cardinaletti, H. Borer, M. Starke, M-A Friedemann, E. Doron, M. Diesing, and
R. Kayne.
Parts of this work have been presented at the Second Conference on
Afro-Asiatic Linguistics in Sophia Antipolis, in the summer course in linguistics
in San Sebastian, at the Generative Linguistics in the Old World colloquium in
Vienna, at the Boston meeting of the Linguistic Society of America and at the
Incontro di Grammatica Generativa in Milan. I am grateful to participants at these
meetings for their questions and comments. I have also presented sections of this
work at the School of Oriental and African Languages in London, the University
of Wales in Bangor, the University of Venice, the University of Stuttgart, the
vi Acknowledgments
Universities of Paris VII and VIII, and Tel Aviv University. I wish to thank my hosts
at these schools for providing me with the opportunity to present my work.
An earlier version of Chapter 4 appears in Lecarme, Lowenstamm, & Shlonsky
(eds.), (1996), and a draft of Chapter 9 has appeared in the Geneva Generative
Papers (see Shlonsky 1994a). The present book supersedes this preliminary work.
The judgments on the Hebrew examples have been double-checked with H.
Borer, T. Siloni, I. Hazout, and I. Doron, but responsibility for the facts lies entirely
with me. S. Hasan Shlonsky was my primary source for the Palestinian Arabic data,
and I also relied on help from O. Awad and M. Rishmawi.
Contents
Note on Transcription and Glosses xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Prologue 1
1.2 Clause Structure 2
1.2.1 The Functional Layer 3
1.2.2 The Operator Layer 5
1.2.3 Support Theory and Checking Theory 6
1.3 Elements of Hebrew and Arabic Clausal Syntax 7
1.3.1 Word Order and Verb Movement 7
1.3.2 The System of Tenses and Agreement 9
1.3.3. Clausal Negation 12
1.3.4 A Note on ?et and Accusative Case 17
Part I Verb Movement and Clausal Architecture 21
2 The Active Participle and the Syntax of the Present Tense 25
2.1 Overview 25
2.1.1 Benoni Inflection 26
2.1.2 Categorial Ambiguity of the Benoni 27
2.2 The Verbal Benoni 28
2.3 The Benoni as a Participle 30
2.3.1 The Benoni in Complex Tenses 31
2.3.2 The Benoni in Complement Small Clauses 34
2.3.3 The Benoni in Adjunct Small Clauses 35
2.3.4 The Benoni in Semi-relatives 36
2.3.5 The Benoni in Another Type of Negative Structure 37
2.4 The Benoni as a Present Tense Verb 38
2.4.1 The Auxiliary 'Be' and the Benoni 39
viii Contents
2.4.2 Clausal Adjuncts and Participial (Small Clause) Adjuncts 40
2.4.3 Relative Clauses 41
2.4.4 lo Negation in Present Tense Sentences 42
2.5 Conclusion 42
3 Participles and Auxiliaries 43
3.1 The Benoni Raises beyond AgrPartP 43
3.1.1 Subject Inversion in Present Tense Sentences 43
3.1.2 Inversion in Relative Clauses 44
3.1.3 Copula Inversion (CI) 44
3.2 Weak Auxiliaries and Raised Participles 46
3.3 CI with Nonverbal Predicates and the Nature of [F] 48
3.4 CI in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective 52
3.5 Benoni-Raising: A Second Look 54
3.6 The "Bare" Benoni Present Tense 55
3.7 Summary and Conclusions 56
4 Negation in the Present Tense 58
4.1 Introduction 58
4.2 Properties of ?eyn 58
4.3 ?eyn as a Neg° 60
4.4 The Position of NegP in the Clausal Hierarchy 61
4.4.1 ?eyn and AgrsP 61
4.4.2 ?eyn and TP 64
4.5 ?eyn and Verb Movement 65
4.6 The Scope of Verb Movement in Hebrew 69
4.6.1 Benoni Movement 69
4.6.2 Verb Movement in Hebrew: A Synoptic View 71
4.7 Subject Positions 72
4.8 Subjects under ?eyn, their Traces, and the Complementizer-Trace
Effect 76
4.8.1 Overt Wh-Movement Under ?eyn 76
4.8.2 Whin-situ Under?eyn 78
4.8.3 Quantifier-Raising Under ?eyn 78
4.8.4 Focus-Movement Under ?eyn 80
4.9 Conclusion 80
5 Some Remaining Issues 82
5.1 Introduction 82
5.2 Existential/Locative Predicates under ?eyn 82
5.3 Copular Sentences and Benoni Verbs 87
5.3.1 Negation in Copular Sentences 91
5.3.2 Conclusion 93
Contents ix
6 Arabic Negation and Arabic Clause Structure 94
6.1 Introduction 94
6.2 laa Negation and Clausal Hierarchy 94
6.2.1 The Arabic Imperfect 96
6.2.2 laa and Its Tense Variants 103
6.3 Two Other Negative Structures 105
6.3.1 Participial Negation 105
6.3.2 Neutral Neg 107
6.4 A Typology of Negative Heads 108
Part II Null Subjects and Inversion 109
7 Null Subjects 111
7.1 Introduction 111
7.2 The Distribution of Null Subjects 112
7.2.1 Null Subjects and Pro 112
7.2.2 Personal and Impersonal Pronouns 112
7.2.3 The Theory of Pro 114
7.2.4 Referential Pro in Hebrew 116
7.2.5 The Internal Structure of Pronouns 119
7.2.6 Nonreferential Pro 123
7.2.7 The Internal Structure of Nonreferential Pronouns 124
7.2.8 Reconsideration of the Feature Identification Procedure 125
7.2.9 Summary 127
7.3 The Position of Null Subjects 128
7.4 Null Subjects in ?eyn sentences 129
7.4.1 Expletives, Extraposition, and Sentential Subjects 130
7.4.2 Two Types of Proarb 134
7.4.3 Atmospheric Pro 137
7.4.4 Summary 139
7.5 Null Subjects in Agreeing ?eyn Sentences 140
8 Subject-Verb Inversion 144
8.1 Introduction 144
8.2 Two Strategies of Inversion 145
8.3 Triggered Inversion (TI) 146
8.3.1 The Nature and the Position of the Trigger 146
8.3.2 Triggered Inversion as Movement of I to C 148
8.3.3 The Position of the Subject under TI 155
8.4 Free Inversion (FI) and VP-Subjects 163
8.5 Conclusion 172