This paper aims at describing the syntactic properties of the Hijazi Arabic negative particles. It presents the basic hierarchy within which the negatives under study occur. It then shows the properties of the Hijazi Arabic negatives and that they project a NegP that has scope over the proposition. It scopes over perfective, imperfective verb forms.It also modifies non-verbal clauses. Thus, NegP may select for a verbal or non-verbal predicate according to the negative element generated in NegP. The NegP interacts with the functional categories (TP, AspP, Tax-AspP, and VP/PredP) and this interaction is witnessed in the incorporation process that takes place in NegP.

The present study aims at describing the grammaticalization phenomenon of some HA elements that, to the best of the author’s knowledge, have not been dealt with. It argues that the elements xən, ʕsəs and lissa have gradually developed from the verb xalla, the preposition phrases (PP) ʕla asa:s and ila al-sa:ʕah respectively. To achieve this, the paper speculates that these developed forms have followed the prevalently agreed upon grammaticalization chains where they have undergone desemanticization (semantic shift), decategorialization (morphosyntactic shift), cliticization (morphophonological shift) and erosion (phonetic shift). These chains exhibit the grammaticalization stages of the elements under study.

Multifunctionality is a cross linguistic phenomenon. It refers to the linguistic capability of a linguistic form to manifest itself in different syntactic structures that result in different syntactic functions. Treating multifunctionality from a generative perspective, the paper focuses on the different functions of the Hijazi Arabic (HA) maa and contributes to the HA literature by describing these different functions and claiming that they are not instances of homonymy, but of multifunctionality. Those different functions are governed by the different syntactic environments that maa occurs in. Its occurrence in multiple syntactic environments suggests that maa has a feature matrix that includes its morphosyntactic features and their specifications that express the appropriate use and interpretation of a given structure. The findings show that maa may function as a negative particle, emphatic particle, relative pronoun, infinitival particle, conditional particle, interrogative particle, exclamative particle and a particle of inclusion. These uses differ in their syntactic flexibility and rigidity (restrictedness). Although more than one function can incorporate to express multiple senses, the salient point about the different functions of maa is that there is no semantic or syntactic ambiguity between its functions.

The current paper examines the syntactic properties of HA stripping: a type of ellipsis. Within the Minimalist framework, the paper adopts the PF-Deletion approach to show that stripping in HA is derived firstly by the movement of the remnant constituent from TP to Focus Position (FP), and, secondly, by the deletion of the TP. These two operations are licensed by the Ellipsis feature (E) located in the focus head F°. Thus, on the one hand, the paper contributes to the existing body of literature supporting the hotly-debated issues on the movement of the stripping remnants, and on the other, enriches the very minimal HA studies on ellipsis. The findings show that HA stripped constituents must move to Spec, FP, before the TP- deletion process. Two pieces of evidence in support of the focus movement to FP spring from Island sensitivity and p-stranding facts in HA.