"does the pronominal copula exist in the Arabic verbless clause?": A Cardiff Grammar approach
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2022
Abstract
This study attempts to offer a single unified account for the syntactic features of the pronominal copula in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), traditionally known as amīr al-fal 'Separation Pronoun/SP' within the Cardiff Grammar (CG) model of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). Such a pronoun is typically used in nominal verbless clauses to separate Subject from its Predicate (Complement) when both are definite. This study argues against the two traditional accounts that analyze it either as a redundant pronoun that has no significant syntactical function or as the second Subject in the nominal embedded clausal Complement of the first Subject. The study also proposes that the modern generative account that considers it a pronominal copula is problematic as the function of this pronoun is not linking, but rather separating, emphasizing, and disambiguating. Therefore, the study proposes to analyze this SP as an Extension of the Subject (SEx) in a tripartite structure. © 2022 Copyright 2022 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Keywords
Cardiff Grammar, Modern Standard Arabic, pronominal copula, verbless clauses
Divisions
FLL
Publication Title
Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics
Volume
14
Issue
1
Publisher
Brill Academic Publishers