Chapter fourWord Order in MSA

 

• Traditionally, MSA is viewed as having two major sentence types, nominal and verbal. The former starts with a noun, while the latter can start with a verb.

• In what follows, we shall be concerned exclusively with verbal sentences. At the outset, we should note that English has only one major word order (SVO) whereas MSA

allows a number of word orders. To illustrate, consider the following simple sentences:

• 1a katab-a l-walad-u d-dars-a• Wrote-3MS the boy-nom the lesson-acc• ‘The boy wrote the lesson’.• b* katab-uu l-awalaad-u d-dars-a• Wrote-3MP the boys-nom the lesson-acc• ‘The boys wrote the lesson’• c. katab-a l-awlaad-u d-dars-a• Wrote the-boys the lesson• ‘The boys wrote the lesson’• 2a katab-a-t l-benet-u d-dars-a• Wrote-3FS the girl-nom the lesson-acc• ‘The girl wrote the lesson’

• b* katab-n-a l-banaat-u d-dars-a• Wrote – 3FP the girls-nom the lesson-acc • c katab-a-t l-banaat-u d-dars-a• Wrote – 3FS the girls-nom the lesson-acc• ‘The girls wrote the lesson’

• the examples in (1a) and (2a) exhibit VSO word order, and also display ‘weak agreement, which is based on gender only (cf.. Fassi Fehri, 1988a; Mohammed, 1989, and others). Therefore (1b) and (2b) which exhibit gender and number are not licit, and the singular verb forms in (1c) and (2c) are required even with plural subjects.

The paradigms in (1) and (2) should be compared with those in (3) and (4):

• 3) a al-walad-u katab-a d-dars-a• The boy-nom Wrote-3MS the lesson-acc• ‘The boy wrote the lesson’. b al-awlaad-u katab-uu d-dars-a• The boys-nom Wrote-3MP the lesson-acc• ‘The boys wrote the lesson’• c* al-awlaad-u katab-a d-dars-a• the boys-nom Wrote-3MS the lesson-acc• ‘The boys wrote the lesson’

• 4a l-benet-u katab-a-t d-dars-a• The girls-nom Wrote-3FS the lesson-acc• ‘The girl wrote the lesson’ b l-banaat-u katab-n-a d-dars-a• The girls-nom Wrote – 3FP the lesson-acc• ‘The girls wrote the lesson’ • c* l-banaat-u katab-a-t a-dars-a• The girls- nom Wrote – 3FS the lesson-acc• ‘The girls wrote the lesson’

• These examples exhibit SVO word order with the verb displaying ‘rich’ agreement which involves person, number and gender. This SVO word order has been seen by some as an instance of topicalisation in MSA. Indeed, the Arabic traditional grammarians of Basra interpreted the subject in SVO order as a topic

• On this construal, the verbal suffix is constructed as a clitic . Linguists view subject in (3) and (4) as base generated in the sentence initial position [ spec, CP]. However, this view can be questioned, by considering the example in (5):

• 5) ?z-zwaar-u HaDar-iiVisitors-nom arrived-3. M.pl.‘The visitors, they arrived. The visitors arrived’

• As the translation suggest, this sentence is in fact structurally ambiguous, and Fassi Fehri (1993) referring to similar data suggests that it can have a topic reading or a subject reading. If this judgement is correct, then the outline structures corresponding to the two readings might plausibly be (6a) and (6b) respectively:

• link

• In (6a), the subject occupies a position external to IP[spec, CP], and the verbal suffix is construed as a clitic suffix,

• (6b) the subject is located in [spec, IP] and the verbal suffix is construed as an agreement suffix. Linguists adopting this view state that the subject in (6b) is moved from its base generated position to the sentence initial position [spec, IP].

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• In what follows we adopt the view that the subject is located in [spec, IP] in SVO order. We assume that the thematic subject is base generated in VP internal position in both word orders. And that the VSO order is derived by verb movement to I. The SVO order involves a further raising of the subject to [spec, IP].

• Under this analysis, the two sentences in 7. would have the representations in (8a) and (8b) respectively:

7)a katab-alawlad-u d-dars-a• wrote the boys-no, the lesson-acc• ‘ the boys wrote the lesoon’ • b alawlad-u katab-u d-dars-a• the boys-nom wrote the

lesson-acc• ‘the boys wrote the lesson’• Link

• In addition to VSO and SVO orders, MSA also contains what we shall refer to as Oacc-initial and Onom-initial word orders. These are illustrated in (9) and (10) respectively: 9a.ad-dars-a, katab-a Zayd-un

• the lesson-acc wrote Zayd-nom• the lesson, Zayd wrote’ b ad-dars-a, Zayd-un katab-a• the lesson-acc Zayd-nom wrote• the lesson, Zayd wrote

• 10aad-dars-u, katab-hu Zayd-un

• the lesson-nom wrote it Zayd-nom• the lesson, Zayd wrote it’ • b ad-dars-u, Zayd-un katab-

hu• the lesson-nom Zayd-nom wrote-it• the lesson, Zayd wrote it’

• VSO word order must be considered as the canonical word order of MSA, since it is the order, which is pragmatically found in neutral contexts. Here I offer a couple of observations relevant to this claim.

• First, this word order occurs in both root and embedded sentences. Consider the following examples:

• 11)a katab-a zayd-un d-dars-a• wrote Zayd-nom the lesson-acc• ‘zayd wrote the lesson’ • b ?uriid-u ?an yuqaabil-a Zayd-un

Hind-an• want-I that meet Zayd-nom Hind-acc• ‘Iwant Zaydto meet Hind’

• c* ?uriid-an Zayd-un yuqaabil-a hind-an

• Want-I that Zayd-nom meet Hind-acc• The observations in (11) provide prima facie

evidence for VSO order being the basic word order in MSA.

• Secondly, consider object extraction as in (12) below. We find only the order VS following the extracted object and we do not find SV. This is further prima facie evidence for the V-initial word order being basic.

• 12a.maaDa katab-a Zayd-un• What write Zayd-nom• ‘What did Zayd-nom write• b maaDoa Zayd-un katab-a• What Zayd-nom write

• This asymmetry between VS and SV orders extends to embedded questions as well. By way of illustration, consider the examples in (13):

• 13a. hal ta9lam maaoa katab-a Zayd-un?• Q know-you what wrote Zayd-nom• ‘Do you know what Zayd-nom wrote • Again, after wh-embedded objects, in these

examples we find only VS and not SV order.