Sous-spécification, accord et pronoms en arabe

Dans cet article, nous proposons un traitement unifié des différents usages des formes pronominales arabes de troisième personne (qu’il s’agisse de pronoms personnels, de copules ou d’explétifs). Nous montrons que cet objectif ne peut être atteint qu’en recourant à une (sous)spécification lexicale ou syntaxique appropriée.En second lieu, nous examinons la variation des formes explétives dans les langues, ainsi que celle des formes d’accord compatibles avec celles-ci. Nous montrons que dans les cas simples, les deux classes de formes sont liées, la liste des formes explétives étant dérivable de celle des formes pronominales de troisième personne qui peuvent être légitimées dans le contexte des formes d’AGR. En outre, un paramètre argunemtal est proposé pour AGR, selon lequel certaines langues autorisent uniquement un NP argumental dans Spec AGR. Par contre, d’autres langues autorisent également des NP non-argumentaux, mais elles requièrent que les traits phi (spécifiés) soient légitimés par des NP argumentaux (qui sont membres de chaînes explétives).The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it provides a unified treatment for various uses of Arabic so-called third person pronominal forms, be they personal pronouns, expletives, or copulas. It is proposed that appropriate lexical and syntactic (under)specification is needed to deal with this problem. Second, it investigates cross-linguistic variation in expletive forms as well as the properties of AGR forms which are compatible with them. It is argued that, in the simple case, the two forms are related, and that the list of expletive forms is derivable from that of third person forms which can be licensed in the context of AGR forms. An argumental parameter for AGR is proposed, according to which some languages allow only argumental NPs in the Spec of specified AGR. Others allow non-argumentals as well, but they still require specified phi features to be licensed by arguments (which are members of expletive chains)

Number and Gender Convergence : the Arabic Plurative

Morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of a specific plural/collective construction in Arabic, which I call the plurative, are examined and analysed. The plurative is shown to be a complex third entity, resulting from a convergence process of both Number and Gender features (and/or categories). It behaves as a syntactic expression denoting groups, which exhibits dual behaviour, licensing plural or single predication, anaphora, or alternating a feminine-singular with a masculine-plural agreement. In its strict sense, the plurative is shown to be both 'one' and 'many', denoting the whole-unity, but also allowing access to the (many) parts. Comparison is made with Slavic group numerals, as well as languages possessing group classifiers like Chinese. The singulative is also argued to be a complex entity, compared to kind collectives and normal singulars. DivP turns out to be too coarse to account for fine individuation differences, and is better split as atomP and unitP.En aquest article s'analitzen les propietats morfosintàctiques i semàntiques d'una construcció plural/col·lectiva de l'àrab, que anomeno pluratiu. S'hi mostra que el pluratiu és una tercera entitat complexa que resulta d'un procés de convergència dels trets (i/o categories) de nombre i gènere. Es comporta com una expressió sintàctica que denota grups i mostra un comportament dual, ja que legitima predicacions i anàfores singulars o plurals o alterna la concordança femenina singular amb la masculina plural. En aquest sentit estricte, el pluratiu es mostra com 'u' i 'molts' alhora: denota la unitat sencera, però també permet accedir a les (moltes) parts de la unitat. Establim una comparació entre el pluratiu i els numerals de grup eslaus, d'una banda, i les llengües amb classificadors de grup, com el xinès, de l'altra. S'argumenta que el singulatiu també és una entitat complexa que contrasta amb els col·lectius genèrics i els singulars normals. El sintagma SDiv resulta massa general per donar compte de les subtils diferències en la individualització i és millor dividir-lo en Sàtom i Sunitat

Free relatives and comparatives in Arabic

Free relativesand comparatives in Arabi

Verbal and nominal classes in Arabic and Chinese

Cet article propose un système de classification verbale et nominale basé sur des traits atomiques identifiant le tout et les parties des dénotations d’événements et d’objets. Nous y présentons un traitement méréologique parallèle des classes verbales et nominales en arabe et en chinois. Ces classes sont marquées par des classifieurs, interagissant avec le Nombre et l’Aspect et servant à former des individus à partir d’espèces, ou à compter des unités ou des temps d’événements.The paper presents a system of verbal and nominal classification based on atomic features which qualify wholes and parts of event and object denotations. It provides a parallel mereological treatment of these classes in Arabic and Chinese. Classes are marked by Classifiers, which interact with Number and Aspect, and they serve as grammatical devices for building individuals out of kinds, or counting event times or event units

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp