The Rise of Agreement

The Rise of Agreement PDF Author: Eric Fuß
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027294143
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
This book investigates the historical paths leading from pronouns to markers of verbal agreement and proposes a unified formal account of this grammaticalization process. In opposition to beliefs widely held in the literature, it is argued that new agreement formatives can be coined in a multitude of syntactic environments. Still, the individual paths toward agreement are shown to exhibit a set of underlying similarities which are attributed to universal principles that govern the reanalysis of pronominal clitics as exponents of verbal agreement across languages. It is claimed that syntactic principles impose only a set of necessary conditions on the reanalysis in question, while its ultimate trigger is morphological in nature. More specifically, it is argued that the acquisition of inflectional morphology is governed by blocking effects which operate during language acquisition and promote the grammaticalization of new markers if this change serves to replace ‘worn-out’, underspecified forms with new, more specified candidates.

The Rise of Agreement

The Rise of Agreement PDF Author: Eric Fuß
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027294143
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book investigates the historical paths leading from pronouns to markers of verbal agreement and proposes a unified formal account of this grammaticalization process. In opposition to beliefs widely held in the literature, it is argued that new agreement formatives can be coined in a multitude of syntactic environments. Still, the individual paths toward agreement are shown to exhibit a set of underlying similarities which are attributed to universal principles that govern the reanalysis of pronominal clitics as exponents of verbal agreement across languages. It is claimed that syntactic principles impose only a set of necessary conditions on the reanalysis in question, while its ultimate trigger is morphological in nature. More specifically, it is argued that the acquisition of inflectional morphology is governed by blocking effects which operate during language acquisition and promote the grammaticalization of new markers if this change serves to replace ‘worn-out’, underspecified forms with new, more specified candidates.

A Formal Approach to Spanish Syntax

A Formal Approach to Spanish Syntax PDF Author: Jos Hallebeek
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900465352X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description


Approaches to Arabic Linguistics

Approaches to Arabic Linguistics PDF Author: Harald Motzki
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047422139
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 794

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Book Description
For a lifetime Kees Versteegh played a leading role in Arabic linguistics, dialects (diglossia, creolization, pidginization), the history of Arabic grammar, and other fields related to Arabic. From among his global contacts, colleagues contributed to a Liber Amicorum in appreciation of his stimulating efforts to reopen, deepen and complete our knowledge of Arabic Grammar and Linguistics. In three sections, History, Linguistics and Dialects, 27 contributors discuss (alphabetically): bilingual verb construction; contractual language; current developments; language description; language use; lexicology; organization of language; pause; sentence types; and specific topics: ʾallaḏī; featuring; government; homonymy; ʾiḍmār; inflection; maṣdar; the origin of grammatical tradition; variety conflicts; and verbal schematic (ir)regularities; waqf; and ẓarf.

A New Approach to Teaching Arabic Grammar

A New Approach to Teaching Arabic Grammar PDF Author: Abdallah Nacereddine
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1449039855
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Abdallah Nacereddine first taught Arabic in the United States before moving to Switzerland, where he led Arabic language courses at the League of Arab States and in conjunction with the Arab-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. He directed his own Institute for Arabic Language Teaching in Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, and Zurich, and taught Arabic at the United Nations in Geneva for over twenty-two years. At present, he is teaching at the International Labour Office. His teaching materials are the result of this experience and have been thoroughly tested in class. One of the first Arabic grammar books was published in the 13th century, under the title al-Alfia (didactic treatise in one thousand lines) by Ibn Malek (600-673 A. H. / 1203-1274 A. D) Since that time, Arabic grammar has not changed at all. In 1636, Thomas Erpenius published his definitive work, Grammatica Arabica, in Latin at Leiden. He followed a methodology which suited the European mind and adopted a specific terminology, which had to be applied by every non Arabic-speaking grammarian. Following this, several Arabic grammar books were published in different languages. Contrary to the grammar of other languages which have continued to evolve, Arabic grammar has remained unchanged. There are already a certain number of Arabic grammar books. What then is the point of publishing yet another? From his childhood, the author studied Arabic grammar, mainly from the al-Alfia treatise. He started to teach it in exactly the same archaic manner that he had learnt it. It was when he began to teach Arabic at the United Nations in Geneva to non-Arabic speakers in a multicultural context that he had to learn a new teaching method and its terminology. He therefore started to follow the European methodology for teaching Arabic grammar and to use its terminology.

Key Features and Parameters in Arabic Grammar

Key Features and Parameters in Arabic Grammar PDF Author: Abdelkader Fassi Fehri
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255652
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
In light of recent generative minimalism, and comparative parametric theory of language variation, the book investigates key features and parameters of Arabic grammar. Part I addresses morpho-syntactic and semantic interfaces in temporality, aspectuality, and actionality, including the Past/Perfect/Perfective ambiguity akin to the very synthetic temporal morphology, collocating time adverb construal, and interpretability of verbal Number as pluractional. Part II is dedicated to nominal architecture, the behaviour of bare nouns as true indefinites, the count/mass dichotomy (re-examined in light of general, collective, and singulative DP properties), the mirror image ordering of serialized adjectives, and N-to-D Move in synthetic possession, proper names, and individuated vocatives. Part III examines the role of CP in time and space anchoring, double access reading (in a DAR language such as Arabic), sequence of tense (SOT), silent pronominal categories in consistent null subject languages (including referential and generic pro), and the interpretability of inflection. Semantic and formal parameters are set out, within a mixed macro/micro-parametric model of language variation. The book is of particular interest to students, researchers, and teachers of Arabic, Semitic, comparative, typological, or general linguistics.

Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators

Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators PDF Author: David William Wilmsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198718128
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book traces the origins and development of the Arabic grammatical marker s/sī, which is found in interrogatives, negators, and indefinite determiners in many Arabic dialects. It argues that s/sī does not derive from Arabic say 'thing' but from a Semitic demonstrative pronoun.

The Verb in Literary and Colloquial Arabic

The Verb in Literary and Colloquial Arabic PDF Author: Martine Cuvalay-Haak
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110820870
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description


Kitāb Sībawayhi: Syntax and Pragmatics

Kitāb Sībawayhi: Syntax and Pragmatics PDF Author: Amal Marogy
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047440528
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book presents a comprehensive portrait of the Kitāb Sībawayhi. It offers new insights into its historical and linguistic arguments and underlines their strong correlation. The decisive historical argument highlights al-Ḥīra’s role, not only as the centre of pre-Islamic Arabic culture, but also as the matrix within which early Arab linguistics grew and developed. The Kitāb’s value as a communicative grammar forms the crux of the linguistic argument. The complementarity of syntax and pragmatics is established as a condition sine qua non for Sībawayhi’s analysis of language. The benefits of a complementary approach are reflected in the analysis of nominal sentences and related notions of ibtidā’ and definiteness. The pragmatic principle of identifiability is uncovered as the ultimate determiner of word order.

The Syntax of Arabic

The Syntax of Arabic PDF Author: Joseph E. Aoun
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521650178
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
A guide to Arabic syntax covering a broad variety of topics including argument structure, negation, tense, agreement phenomena, and resumption. The discussion of each topic sums up the key research results and provides new points of departure for further research.

Syntactic Structures

Syntactic Structures PDF Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3112316002
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
No detailed description available for "Syntactic Structures".