Wh-Movement in Standard Arabic: An Optimality-Theoretic Account

Btoosh, Mousa A.

doi:10.2478/v10010-010-0001-y

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Taking movement into account, according to J. Greenberg (as cited in Btoosh, 2010), there exist three classes of languages worldwide: languages with obligatory wh-movement, languages with optional wh-movement, and wh-in-situ languages. For him, the wh-element does not undergo any movement in SOV languages.…”

Section: Pfmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On Wh-Elements in Central Kurdish: A Minimalist Approach

2020

ZJHS

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The paper sheds light on the status of wh-elements in Central Kurdish (CK) with respect to the framework of the Minimalist Program (MP). From across the globe, there exist various types of languages whose wh-elements behave according to wh-parameter. There are languages whose wh-elements move, some others have in-situ whelements, and there are others in which the movement is optional. This paper aims to observe CK wh-elements in an empirical way to indicate their parametric features and their conformance to the universal principles. The notion of movement in MP is included within merge, which falls into two types: Internal merge (I-merge) and External merge (E-merge). Another important term in connection with overt movement is the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) according to which the subject position should be occupied by a phonologically expressed constituent. A fact to be known is that not all languages, among them CK, conform to this principle. The violation of certain CK wh-elements to this principle varies because they do not function in the same way. The paper presents several results revealed in the conclusion section which can be regarded as the contribution of the paper to the field of the generative syntax. One of the conclusions arrived at in the paper is that CK whelements are not considered as one inseparable set since they behave differently.

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Section: Pfmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the former, wh-movement occurs while it is optional in the latter. As for SA, Btoosh (2010) states that wh-movement can be found in SA, but it is not triggered by Case or Theta roles. Therefore, what makes wh-movement happen is focalization.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Wh-Elements in Central Kurdish: A Minimalist Approach

2020

ZJHS

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“…In general, Arabic varieties distinguish between three types of sentences, namely, nominal, verbal and equational sentences (Btoosh, 2010). A sentence that begins with a noun is called a nominal sentence, as shown in (5).…”

Section: Tense and Aspect In English And Standard Arabicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tense and Aspect in the Academic Writing of Arab L2 Learners of English: A Corpus-Based Approach

Btoosh

2019

JLE

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This study aimed at explicating the use of tense and aspect in the academic writing of Arab L2 learners of English. The scope was restricted to two absolute tenses (simple present and simple past), perfective and imperfective aspects, and verb-form errors arising from the deletion or addition of the third person singular-s besides the omission of copula and auxiliary verbs. The study was conducted on the basis of a comparative, quantitative analysis of the target forms between a learner corpus and a similar-sized native one. In pursuing and achieving the stated objectives, it also concentrated on the types and sources of the tense, aspect and verb form errors in learners’ performance. In addition to the significant disparity between the two corpora in terms of the frequency count and percentage of most of the target forms, the findings confirmed learners’ tendency to use more verbs than native speakers. Results also showed that learners’ use of the preterit (simple past), and perfective and imperfective aspects were largely constrained by their L1 grammar and semantic interpretation of verbs (independent of the target language norm). Moreover, the findings revealed some common inconsistent erroneous forms attributed to the omission or addition of the third person singular-s and the omission of copula and auxiliary verbs. Several main factors were identified as potentially responsible for learners’ errors, that is, inconsistency inherent in L2 rules, learners’ limited exposure to (authentic) L2, overgeneralization, redundancy reduction, and language transfer. The findings suggest the need to introduce appropriate pedagogical methods to best present the target language rules.

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“…However, in some languages, question can be formed without moving the wh-question. For example, in some Arabic dialects, wh-phrases either are moved to the initial position to create a question while other varieties have the option to move those wh-words fronted or leave them in-situ Btoosh (2010), Gad (2011) and Ayman (2012). It also seems that wh-movement structures in NA are sensitive for the island effects.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wh-Movement in Najrani Arabic

Al-hamami¹,

Alfadly²

2018

IJLL

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Many studies attempted to account for wh-movement from a purely syntactic point of view. This study intends to do an idiosyncratic investigation of the wh-movement in Najrani Arabic within the current version of generative syntax as presented in Chomsky"s 1993 and 1995 Minimalist Program. The study reveals that the wh-phrases have the option either to move to the front position of a sentence or remain in-situ in both transitive and intransitive construction except for the subject wh-argument "min" only in intransitive construction. The [+WH] feature is the trigger of the movement which is obligatorily motivated by EPP. Finally, an alternative wh-movement account for Najrani is applied which involves overt wh-movement, and this idea"s proof comes from island effects as wh-phrases in Najrani Arabic are sensitive for the island constraints (wh-island, and complex NP island).

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Wh-Movement in Standard Arabic: An Optimality-Theoretic Account

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

On Wh-Elements in Central Kurdish: A Minimalist Approach

On Wh-Elements in Central Kurdish: A Minimalist Approach

Tense and Aspect in the Academic Writing of Arab L2 Learners of English: A Corpus-Based Approach

Wh-Movement in Najrani Arabic

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