Syntax of Spoken Arabic - Chapter 2_Part_1

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2 UMBER, AGREEMENT, ND POSSESSION20 Inroducion

Ths chapter exames pattes of plural umber agreemet ad

getve (possessve mofcato of ous the four dalect regos.

Each of these structures has two possble sytactc mafestatos

spoke Arabc: plural ous may be modfed wth ether plural or

feme sgular forms, ad possessve relatoshps may be expressedusg ether the costruct (/fa! or a perphrastc getve wth agetve partcle or expoet. Pattes of feme sgular agreemetwth plural ous occur all four dalects ad are dffcult f ot

mpossble to expla purely formal terms. wll argue that the

cotuum of dvduato (. helps expla the choce of oe

agreemet form over aother. Hags ( 80 study of getve

costructos spoke Arabc proposes certa stylstc" motvatos

for the choce of the perphrastc getve over the costruct her

coclusos are reexamed here wth the framework of dvduato.Chapter 1 proposed that speakers use defte ad defte

markgs to dcate the degree of dvduato of a ou such that thehgher the degree of dvduato of the ou the more lkely the

speaker to assg to t a specfyg or defte artcle. The followgfeatures were show to affect the dvduato of ous (repeated

from secto

1 Agenc/Animc2 Definiteness3 Secificit4 Textu rominence

5. Qulifiction or modifiction6. Quntifiction

These features also play a role the sytactc realzato of agreemetpheomea ad getve/possessve costructos the dalects.

The construct consists of two consecutive nouns the second of which"ossesses (li terll or figurtivel the first In gener the construct insoken Arbic folows the sme rules tht govern it in forml Abic excet

tht the former hs no cse mrkings.44



2. The Dual

Th discussion o numr agrmn gins wih a ri ovrviw

o h dual in spokn Araic. Whil h dual oal Aaic consius

mo a morphological han a synacic cago, is counar in spokn

Araic carris synacic implicaions and is o comparaiv inrs.

2.1 The u

Two major aricls y Blanc and Frguson srss ha h dual is

no a produciv cagory in spokn Aaic2 Whil h dal suix

n (Moroccan ayn is produciv in many aras as a nominal nding,no dual adjcival or vral markings xis Frguson ( 1959) idnis

h asnc o dual agrmn as on cas o grammaical consisncy

among h dialcs which is no ound in Classical Araic. H inds

ha h dual is las produciv Morcan and Souh Araian dialcs,

and mos produciv in h SyroMsopoamian ara.

Blancs (1970) sminal sudy o h dual in spokn Araic

concluds ha Araic dialcs shar a wopar dual sysm, comprisdo dual and psdodal Blanc disinguishs rgular, produciv duals

from a nonproduciv, rozn psudodual cagory consising mainly

of words rrring o paird pars o h ody (.g., Syrian /'irn/

legs Ths psdodals uncion smanically and synacically as

plurals, and in a numr o dialcs, no ala plural orms or such

words xis. Blanc concluds ha h dual is no a concord cagory in

spokn Araic; rahr dual nouns uncion synacically lik ohr

numrad nouns, and gnrally ak plural agrmn.

211 Nonspeciic ul

Cowlls Syrian grammar claims ha h dual is usd o spciy

acly o o whavr h noun as dsignas" ( 1964:367, mphasis

By contast, the dual in fomal Aabic caies full inlection in nouns,adectives elative and demonstative ponouns and veb conugationsExceptions noted by Blanc fo Syian and Mooccan in which dual nounscan be modified by feminine adectives o vebs may be explained using theindividuation hieachy All examples cited contain tempoal nouns such asday oh o year These nouns consistently occu in syntacic constctionslow in individuation, such as non-esumptive elative clauses see 3 Sections2.2 and 2.3 show that feminine o colective ageement is consistent withspeaes peceptions of such nouns as not highly individuated.



6 Nuber Agreee ad Possessio

ogal. Ths asseto s euted by examples om vaous dalects

whch the dual epesets a small but exact quatty taslatable

as a ouple of o seeral Expessos such as /yom/ a ouple ofdays o seeral days ad /klmt/ (Egypta /klmt/ a ouple ofwords o a few words ae commo both Sya ad Egypt. Feghal

coms that the dual Lebaese usually expesses ue quatt

dteme" (18141

Ths dual clealy alls the o-specc age the Sya

ego whee t s ote moded by the dete-specc atcle /�/:

U� , m bayt la-blus bdha st swa

om Beut to-Tpol wats-she hous- dvgro Beiru o Tripoli i's abou a woour drie

the cetal dalects the oe ucto o the dual sux /-/

s to dcate a o-specc paucal plual a ouple of o seeral

Mooccas o the othe had use the pephastc dual athe tha thedual sux /-ay/ o such expessos A Moocca omat gves

two possbltes o a ouple of seps meag a sor disane (both

elcted

M3 . lt�

zz xlt

two steps

1 zz d lxwt

two ge the-stepsO all ou dalects Moocca has the most estcted use o dual

suxes Secto . 1 . wll dscuss seveal eatues o the Moocca

dual that set t apat om the dual as used othe dalects

212 Dua i Moocca

Moocca dstgushes phoetcally betwee dual oms such as/may/wo years ad what ae othe dalects pseudo-duals amelypats o the body whch Moocca take the sux //: as /ydd/ ands ad /l/ (Haell 16: 1 05 Blac 1 70:48 . Moocca speech the sux /-ay/ (also poouced as /-y/ sestcted to a te set o ous volvg a ew umeals physcalmeasues tme ad moey such as /may/ wo years /alay/ wo



The Dual 4

tousand and yumayn two days (ee arre 96200 ee ao

Lerchundi 900 or a imi ar centuryod decription o northe

Moroccan Thee orm are rozen containing a nuua ay diphthong

that occur ony in certain context in Moroccan (arre 962 4)

hence the norma Moroccan reex o the diphthong ay i /(rather

than a ound in other diaect a in /bt! oom or /bayt (or /bt!

Educated Moroccan inormant reject orm uch a /kbayn a not

Moroccan. The Moroccan ayn uix i thu not productive a

contrated to the eate n/ which may be attached to many type onoun Finay wherea the peudodua orm in other diaect may

be paired with pura orm with which they coey correpond in

uage (Banc 97046) the Moroccan peudodua" n i the onypoibe noninguar orm or part o the body

Banc ue thee act to upport the ditinction he make between

what he ca the true" dua and the peudodua A Banc note

peudodua contitute a imited ca hared by mot i not a diaectregion ( 97043) But whie the true dua in other diaect i aproductive categoy the ony productive dua in Moroccan i theperiphratic contruction d two of oowed by a pura d

ktub two books (arre 962206 my inormant give /ktba or

books

Moroccan i the ony diaect among the our whoe ony productive

dua i periphratic but orm o periphratic dua are ound in aregion The oowing ection examine the orm and unction othee nonuixed dua

2.1. Peiphatic Dual

n addition to the Moroccan periphratic dua d two of with

a oowing pura two other diaect contain periphratic duacontruction a we Kuwaiti and a rura diaect in outhe Syria

oe note that ome Gu peaker ue a periphratic dua orm o thecontruction plual noun + numeal two a in /kutub inn/ two bookswhich ateate with /kitbn/ two books ( 990 49) One exampe othi periphratic dua occur in my Kuwaiti data rom the odet andeat educated peaker



Nuber Agreeet ad Possessio

K3 ij . � L � i iIJ � ( i � i

ayyl nda maa am ntn wada lwa bass hu m ybbhaha m lwa bass ybbha

man at-hm wfe wves two one petty but he neg heloveshe

that-one neg petty but he-loves-he

A man is married as two wies one is pretty but e doesnt

loe er te oter one isnt pretty but e loes er

The fact that ths example s used by an eldely uneducated speakesuggests that ths pephastc dual s not a ecent development. Thesame fom of pephastc dual was used twce n convesaton by an

educated female speake ognally fom n a southe Syan aea

whose dalect has a numbe of bedoun featues (Cantneau 946).

S 4 and � 0

l nn nswn ntnmen two (m women two (Two men Two women

My Kuwat and ual Syan examples of the pephastc dual contanonly human nouns

t seems sgnfcant that Mooccan and Gulf dalects and a ual

Syan dalect all shae the featue of pephastc dual snce one would

expect these egons to be moe consevatve lngustcally than thecental egons.

Egyptan and Syan speakes also make use of a pephastcdual fo cetan classes of wods. They have the opton of usng a

pephastc dual of the fom numeral two plural noun wth human

nouns The followng Egyptan example s also acceptable n Syan:

E · tnn ubbtwo oiers (Wse 972: 2)

n t ot nd Ingm's dscition o Ndi sntx ists on gurdu nd dos not mntion rirstic dul oms. ngm so nots mininsingur djctiv gmnt wit du nouns (btnin nto gd hue994:63 construction rctd b inormnts rom t our dicts rs

mind r



The Dul 49

hs perphrastc dual s oblgatory n certan cases as the dua sufx

In cannot be affxed to certan classes of words5 us n Lebanon,

one can only say two usng the periphrastc dual (beow left)

not the dual suffix (beow right):

L ( 1 tnn bnnyye

two Lebanesep

• I bnnyyn

Lebanese-two

he dua o other word casses may be expressed wth ether the

perphrastc dua or the dua suffx. Boh of the foowng forms are

acceptabe:

� 1 &,L 1

tnn 'astze

two

'stzn

two

However my Lebanese normant confirms that perphrastc tnn

two does not mody nanmates or even anmas: the form IQmrnmeans two of the anmal kngdom, whle tnn amr refers to

the human variety

Perphrastc dual constructons n whch the numera two ether

precedes or follows a human noun thus occur n all regons hs use

o the numera two paralles syntactcaly and functonaly the use of

the numeral Iwd as a "new topc marker (see That s,

ke new topc artce Iwd new topc two unctons n part to

ndcate the relatvely hgh ndvduaton (anmacy, specicty and/or

textual promnence) of the enttes t ntroduces Further evdence

supportng ths anayss folows

2.1.4 Dl s NewTopic Mke

Banc notes that the dua may be used to ntroduce two figuresinto a story, wheas menton of them aer that s usualy pural 97

hs sources: Sptta 883 Blau 9 and hs own data) Cowel remarks

that "[]f the number happens to be two but s besde the pont, or to be

taken or grated, then the s used 9437 emphass origa)

Blanc emas only that []n all alects thee ae nons that o no amtthe al at all 9043) A nventoy o mophologcal an lexcal esctonson he se o he al sx s a sbect stable o a mophologcal sty



50 Numer Agreement nd Poeion

The fact that dua makg ofte occus o the fst meto of ous

suggests ts use s pagmatcally maked ad ot smply a case of fee

vaato Nous maked wth the dual suffx usualy epeset ewtopcs that s, they epeset the fst meto of textua y pometettes. Cowel otes that the dual s used cotast to the sgula

ot the plual ad that expesso of a quatty of two deftepossessed fom uses the defte plual followed by the umbe o

( 164:367:

s "

'

( ktb t-t

booksmy the-two

my o boo

Futhe evdece that the dual edg epesets a ew-topc make

les speakes avodace of poou suffxes o dual ous wth the

excepto of body pats Holes pots out that Gulf speakes efa

fom usg poou suffxes o dual ous but ot o huma pluaous edg - ( 1 0 1 50) suggestg that the estcto o

affxg poou sufxes to dual ous has moe to do wth pagmatcfactos tha wth ules of fomal Aabc. f the dual suffx eflects a

kd of salece makg smla to the makg of ew topcs wth the

atce w}d/one the t s moe lkely to cu the moe dvduatg

sytactc costucto cotag a getve expoet tha costuctgetves (see .4

Moocca speakes do ot appea to make use of ths kd ofdual ad have o evdece fo ts exstece Kuwat ethe. Both

dalects use the pephastc dual descbed . 1 3 . The lack of thsdual the two pephea cosevatve dalects suggests that t has ot

always bee a featue of spoke Aabc.

Laguage typology ad the heachy of umbe makg poststhat dual s maked elatve to plual As Coft otes Most commolythe dual s maked wth espect to dstbutoal behavo Fequetlydual foms ae foud oly wth pesoa ad demostatve poous"

us or ng ronoun sus n orm Arbc ctt tt t /n/ nbot u n oun mscun ur sus b ro In sokn Abc

t /n/ m b rtn but t rsutng constructon s usu vo



2 The Dul 5

( 990 00 Tken ogeher wih hi gener ingiic pe

ynchronic eidence rom hee diec gge h i i no o mch

mer o poken Arbic oing prodcie d wih greemen

compemen o no hing i in he ir pce A re dichronic

dy o he d in poken Arbic migh expore he poibiiy h

he d ending n! newopic ience mrker repreen poin

o conc beween om nd poken Arbic nd window on he

roe o prgmic in he pre o yncic boowing

25 Pedodl

A Bnc noe pedo-d o pr o he body cy

conie orm o pr in Syrin nd gypin In c Cowe

poin o h epre re" d orm o exi or ch word

in Syrin ormed by inering beore he d x /n/ Cowe

gie he oowing exmpe (9437

S , , '��no 'in nn

is o legs o an o ees

Thi new d" ending m he deeod omeime er he oign

d ending (Bnc pedod) w reinerpreed pr Thi

deeopmen he ppren re o peker need" o expre he

qniy excy wo" peciicy or pr o he body gge h

he hioric deeopmen o he pedod h been diorced rom

h o he re" d Whie Syrin - diingihe /'idn! andsrom /'i(d)n/ o ands i cnno be ed o dierenie beween

/ymn a ouple of das nd /yomn/ o das The c h

pricr d ending exi or peciic emnic ied doe no

necery men h i exend o oher nd ny hiory o he d

in poken Arbic m be cegory-peciic king ino ccon hec h dieren nd o d exhibi dieren behior For exmpe

Bnc poin o h ony pedod orm dmi pronon ixe

wih he eiion o he n rom n/ ( in orm Arbic) ch in

Egypin /rigyy m legs (97048. Hi re" d rrey dmi

ch xe excep in o regier o Arbic i pe gge

h he pedo-d my be oder thn he true" d in poken Arbic



5 Nmer Agreement nd Poeion

Egypta speakes have at the dsposal plual fos that alteate

wth pseudo-dual fos such as -s pseudo-dual ad uy

-s plual both meag people's eyes t should ot be assumedas Blac does that at most pehaps a shade of stylstc dffeece

( 970:46 5) les betwee them because stylstc dffeece" oftepots to a udelyg pagmatc pcple pehaps a dffeece degee of dvduato Howeve a lage copus of cotextualzed

examples eeds to be examed befoe coclusos ca be daw

2.16 veial DualAothe kd of dual the advebal may ot be dual og. A

small closed class of advebal expessos foud mostly the Levated the suffx -/:

s 'ahl

welome!

aQQt

bon appetit

jmaQ;bt

welome!

�bad

laterBlac clams that 'ahl! welo at bon appetit ad maQ;bt

welome ae duals howeve t seems moe lkely that the fst two ae

actually cases of 'mla deetion o poucato of the vowel a

as a moe foted vowel deflected towads kow to occu the

Levat At some late pot -e (o a stessed legtheed -! was

the eaalyzed as a dual edg ad maQ;bt was the foed byaalogy The vowel shft of 'mla may also be esposble fo thesuffx - /bad after tat the og of whch would that case

be /bad 'a after (wth followg veb foud Sya ad Egypt.

22 geeet Patte of Plual Nou

The Aabc plual has a umbe of subcategoes

Mophologcally Aabc dstgushes soud ad boke pluals adcollectve ad dstbutve oes Sematcally huma ous costtutea goup dstct fom amate oes Howeve ageemet pattes spoke Aabc follow oe of these deleatos

Ageemet pattes of plual ous spoke Aabc seem atfst to be faught wth dfcultes complcated sets of ules ae foud

Fo an ovevew of uas in educated soen Aabic see Saam ( 1979)



22 Agreement Pttern o Plurl Noun 53

in the grammars of several Arabic dialects Holes otes for educatedGulf Aabic which icludes Kuwaiti four "systems of umber/genderagreement, divided along geder d animacy lines 997 Threeof these systems are found i Kuwait ( ) i the first all plural nounstake masculine plural agreement; (2) the second system distinguishesbetween huma and nohuma, ad all ohuma ous ae femiiesingular agreemet ad (3) a third system combies les from and(2) ad allows either masculine plural or femiie sigular agreemet

with ohuman nouns

However, Holes admits hat it is common forspeakers to freely alteate betwee systems a fact which would seemto preclude calling them systems

Holes analysis might stand as an example of interdialectic contactin the Gulf except that dialects in other regions show similar overlappigagreement pattes Adjectives and verbs modifying plural ounsalteate between feminie singular and plural marking. examples

like the following occur in all dialect regions In the first sentence theplural subject /ns/people takes deflected agreemet (feminie singular)on the verb bitfakkir/se tinks whereas the second sentence contaisthe same subject with a plural verb, bisfru/ tey tael:

3 ba'if ns bisfru kill sine

know people indictheytravel every yearI know people wo go aboad eve yea

• . Cl • � ��

_

yani ns bitfakkir innu ale 'di yani

thereis thatis people indic3fsthinks comp3ms thig ( normal(m) thatis thatis

Tee ae people wo tink tat it is a nomal ting tat is

Holes ( 990) oes not nclue ata on collective nouns, nonhuman animatenouns o vebal ageementhe eminine singula ageement patten calle eecte ageement wasegulaize an coiie in omal Aabic uing its ealy histoy Howevethe Quan an othe ealy texts contain examples o both stict an electeageement see Belnap 99) t is easonable to assume that these two typeso ageement, eecte an plua, have coexiste o a long time



54 Numer Agreement nd Poeon

Moeove, the latte example, speake S uses a mascule adectve,

d! nomal to modfy a feme ou, /§ale/ tng

The ageemet pattes the examples cted above ae dffcultto expla puely fomal tems Clealy, lexcal tems do ot cotol"ageemet of ous ad adectves athe, the speake detemes the

sematc o pagmatc cotet of the ous themselves ad chooses

ageemet pattes accodgly Vaato ageemet pattes appeas

to coelate wth pattes of collectve ad dvduated efeece

the case of feme ageemet cted above, /s! people s collectve,

efeg to a goup of people who all thk alke dvduatoo ths case, lack theeofelps expla ths patte Huma ous lowe

dvduato, ot specfed o modfed, but athe vewed as begpat of a collectve whole, ted to take feme sgula ageemet

Seveal studes of ageemet spoke Aabc pot to the ole

of dvduato detemg vebal ad adectval ageemet wth

plual ous. Cowell otes that Sya some pluals ad collectvestake feme sgula ageemet whe collectvty o geealty s

emphaszed athe tha heteogeety o patculaty" ( 964:423) Thsdescpto suggests that the adectval ad vebal ageemet of a plual

ou depeds o the degee to whch the membes of that plual set ae

dvduated, ad that ageemet may be see as a cotuum aggfom collectve to dvduated

Salam shows that quatfcato affects ageemet the educatedspoke Aabc of Egypt ad the Levat ( 1 97937) He cotasts the

uacceptablty of a plual adectve wth a collectve plual ou the

fst of the followg mmal pa to the acceptablty of the secod, to

whch the quatfe /�wayyt! some afew {pees o s added (979:37):

E .

C 1 *

_ * §taa mabs kwayys* bought-we clothes goodp We bogt ne p lotes

E � �.§taa �wayyt malbs kwayysboughtwe some clothes ce-pWe bogt soe ne lotes



Agreement Pttern o Pur Noun 55

In the llwing tw Mccan assages th taken m thesame seake and text, the same nun is given tw dieent ageements,ne eminine singula and ne lual I the ist the seake teats thenun n-nspeople as an unsecied unqualied, hmgenus geneicgu e cnvegence these eatues, all them nnindividuatingseves t ush the nun t the nn-individuated end the individuatincntinuum The lw individuatin nnspeople is maniested inthe eminine singula m the ve m kathm hey don'

undersand and the nun ha n aha eah oher e secndstatement cntains a dieent knd eeence t nnspeople Inthis case a me secific gu ele is named and the nun isualiied y wld ld sons of he on This highe degee secicity is eflected in the lual ageement shwn n the ve hasem w kaymw hey no longer go

MO ,;

.

i-

(1,1J

t L

nns qat n-n d -tim nns kath ahathe-ele neg emained-s the-tye gen theesect the-eleneg indics-undestand each-the-People no longer hae] respe people don undersand eah

oher

MO I,_" ' J L J J J kat zz d nns wld ld qw kaymw laindic-yusee a-lt gen the-ele sns -the-twn neg eainedthey indictheyg the-seaYou see many people on naies no longer go o he beah

The emiine singula ageement n the elexive nun ahaeah oher in the me sentence is wth nting since elexivity is

ne the eatues Kan classiies as nnindividuating 984470).Hweve nt all elexive nuns ae entiely nnindividuated as thellwing Syian examle shws Cwell 94425)

S L ha alwn insu a'n[this thecls neg indic-theyaeaiate each-theThese olors don go ogeher



56 Numer Agreement and Poeon

Cowell agues that the eflexvty hee adds to the dvduato of

these colos howeve the speakes efeece to ceta specfc colos

suggests that dvduato s a poty of the colos themselves. Cowellhmself obseves that the same dea may be expessed by a feme

eflexve veb m bt;tsab tey 3fsJ don't mat

The pcple of dvduato affects ageemet pattes th

opposte mae as well that some mophologcally sgula" ous

that efe to a collectve goup may take plual ageemet the

followg two Sya passages about pematal datg the speake

commets that some people accept t ad some do ot. both stacesshe uses mascule ous lam eople lteally world ad W(lteally ting wth plual ageemet each case t s ot thelexcal tem tself that detemes the ageemet, but ts efeet a

goup of people

S . . I r · � J • �J � r �

S

lam hk w lam hke m�akkal ya lam byqbalu .thee-s wold lkethat ad thees wold lke-that mxedms

that-s wold they-acceptTere are people like tis and people like at it's mixed tat is

people wo aept .

-

C

-

! ..c

.

c

I l & I� '

�

� I V

"

r

• L

I

·

:

� . I r"lla ya lam aswa m[ha b-k kt ya �e lo m kt

m�a�aQ m� yqbalu yxdu ya ha l-b;t

except thats wold wose tha-he by-aot a-lot thats thg

to-them past vey sodd -ode-to they-accept they-take that-sths the-gl

eept for people wo are mu worse tan er tat is peoplewo ae a e sorid past to aept to mar te girl

Yet aothe example fom the same tevew shows ;l-lam people

as subect of two feme vebs taawwaet deeloped ad m det!

is no longer_ ths case people s a collectve whole efeg topeople geeal



22 Agreement Ptte o Plurl Noun

S2 J"i "l L

lainnu taaret il'lam de miil ael

5

becaue3m deeloped3f theorld neg remained3f like frtBeause people deeloped tee no longe like te wee befoe

Vieing the grammatical feature of plural agreemen a acontinuum allo a pincipled accoun of the ariaion that occur, andreflect the peaker control oer thi feature At one end of thecontinuum lie collectiiy, hich correpond to feminine ingularagreemen and a the oher, indiiduaion, hich correpond o pluralagreemen. The choice of agreemen depend on he feaure thatinfluence indiiduation, epecially pecificiy and agency. Thicontinuum allo for he prediction that many plural noun ill not belimied o one agreement pae: n people may be more or leindiiduaed and hu may ho either feminine ingular or maculine

plural agreemen.Thi ie of number agreemen alo predict ha dual nountake plural agreement rather than ingular by naure, a dual nounindicate ome degree of indiiduation and hence uually doe notproide collectie reference. Similarly, in he dialec hat hae anoerlap of plural and peudodual fo he pate of uage may beinfluenced by he degree of indiiduaion of he noun phae; in oher

ord, the choice an Egyptian peaker make beteen 'enn innte ees peudo-dual) of te people and uyn in-n te ees plural)of te people may be baed on the degree o hich in-n te people

i indiiduated.In the mot exenie tudy of agreemen patte in Arabic to

date, Belnap inetigate agreement pate in Cairene Arabic,concluding tha a number of facor combine o affec agreement, among

hem animacy 99 alience (85) diance from he head noun tothe modifier (85) and entence typology 89). Hi tudy confi thatpragmaic "functional and pychological) factor ubume foal andpoitional principle 99 Belnap alo conclude tha it i the peakerho really conrol agreemen pate, no the head noun 143).

The folloing Egyptian example, from Belnap daa proide

another cae in hich the peaker control agreemen pate and




suggests that individuation plays a cental ole in the selection ofageement. This speake uses a feminine adective ayya sik ad

a plual veb, /biyiudu they stay to modify the same ou within thesame setece (Belnap 996)

E r-. IJJ cL 1

kull i-s ayya bi-s-sukka wibiyiudu Ii-waduhum

all the-people sickf with-the-suga ad-theysit bythemselves

A the pepe are sik with diabetes and ive by themseves

Why does this speake use a femiine adective ad a plual veb todescibe the same goup of people? n the fist clause people ae

viewed and teated as a homogenous goup, wheeas in the second the

advebial phase li-waduhumby themseves adds individuation, sinceevey single peson lives aloe. A simila example shows the ageemet

shiftig fom femiie singula /ha to plual /hum when the speake

moves fom talking about /iwayyit agt sme things as a homogeous

goup to sepaatig and aking them (example fom Belnap 9986tanslation mie

E U j l �J ' " 1 . ,'- I

u . . 4L�",

�uwayyit agt .. m bi-tatb ahammiyyitha .. wi bad f

'iza kunna niattibhum

some thigs .. eg byak impotace-3fs .. and-the we-see ifwee-we we-ode-them... a ew things .. nt in rder their iprtane . and then

we see i we an rder them

The distance fom head noun pinciple Belnap otes may be

elated to individuation. The moe that is said about a ou the moespecified and textually pominent it becomes theefoe, if the distance"between the noun and its modifie includes futhe metio ospecificatio of that noun its individuation will icease ad thepobability of plual ageemet wi ll l ikewise icease The followigSyia example echoes Belnaps Egyptia oes while the fst vebmodifyig l-'adiqa/riends is feminine the est of the setece showsplual ageemet (example fom Gotzfeld 965 97 taslatio mie



22 Agreement Ptte o Plurl Noun

s � u '.�. �. C.� l'

la�diqa la-and aQon w iydu ala aQon

59

hefiends indic3fs-goes o-a eachohe and indic-heywishhayholidays fo eachohe]Frends go to each others houses and wsh each other happyhoys

nfounaely, he Kuwaii exs colleced have no examples ha

conas defleced and lual ageemenThe seakes eceion of he individuaion of a noun husaffecs his o he choice of ageemen f a noun is highly indivduaed,animae, secific, exually ominen, o quanifed, he seake endso choose lual ageemen; convesely, if he noun is collecive, nonsecifc, collecive, and less omnen, he ageemen will end o efeminine singula makes sense o call hese ageemen aes

ndvduated and coectve individuaed ageemen efeng o heuse of lual ves, adjecives, and onouns, and collecive ageemeno feminine singula modifcaion These ems eflec he pagmaicchoice made y he seake in eesening he naue of he eniy sheo he is descing

One coollay of he heoy ha individuaion undelies ageemenaes is ha modified luals will e moe likely o ake lual

ageemen han unmodiied ones A unmodied lual noun is lesslikely o individuaed, and hus mo likely o aed a collecive,aking a feminine singula ve o edicae, wheeas adjecivalmodificaion auomaically makes he noun moe secifed and husmoe individuaed xaminaion of ageemen daa in he dialecs yieldsseveal indicaions ha ageemen paes of ve and sujec diffefom hose of adjecives

n ooccan, Haell noes ha nanimae nouns only aely, "inisolaed idioms and seeoyed phases, ake feminine singulaageemen ( 1962: 15. y ooccan cous conains one insance nwhich a lual noun akes a feminine adjecive, and hee, he noun inquesion, /masil/ thngs elongs o he fomal egise of Aaic,which oaly explains he feminine singula adjecive /qla/ugy



60

MO

Numer Ageement nd oeion

J

.

< '

• .

�

kaybqa yqUl i lma qbQa, kayqU i masil qbQa

idic-he-keeps idic-hesays some word ugly idic-he-says somethigs uglyHe keeps sayng sme nast wrd he says sme nasty thngs

Caubets Morocca grammar icludes a similar example, also somewhat

formal i style ( 3i i74, traslatio mie

M ) � rYi &

ky aflm hidiyya kaytrmuha bddrathereis films dia idictheytraslate3fs ithecolloquialThere are ndan mves they transate nt qua

The formal register of these examples otwithstadig, both cotai

idefiite, o-specific ous low i idividuatio, which may also

play a role i the use of collective agreemet.

Sallams study of agreemet treats adectival cocord i educatedspoke Arabic of Egypt ad the Levat He fids that oEgyptias

showed little acceptace of deflected adectival agreemet with huma

plurals ( 74- The Egyptia patte of collective (deflectedagreemet with huma groups is welldocumeted by Belap (

However, my Syria data ad Cowell s grammar cotai a umber ofexamples i which huma plural subects collocate with a femiie

sigular verb From my data:S5 U

.

<

i �i , J �

aa aiy amrka am trUQ tisku bih l-maarichest oftherich-p of-America prog 3fs-goes 3fslives i-this

theregio

The rhest f the rh f Amera are gng t ve n ths area

Cowell lists a umber of examples cotaiig subects s pepeahl/ pepe fks ad plurals edig i the femiie e (a Syriavariat of a/ such as ale wrkers ad astze prfessrs( 64:44 All but oe of Cowells examples cotai deflected verb

subect agreemet, but ot ou-adective agreemet. The exceptiocotais two types of agreemet with the ou, the plural proou

-ho them ad the femiie adective kbre arge (6443



Agreement Ptte o Plurl Noun

S c

L:W� "

hal-mallat halli bthon kbre[this-the-envelopes re broghtyo3p bigThese envepes ha yu bugh ae age

6

This case o split agreement relects a shit in the individation o/mallat/ envepes in the sbject clase the speaker identiies aspeciic identiiable grop o envelopes while the predicate /kbre/bg classiies them in that they all belong to the class o envelopes thatis too large

In addition to adjectival modiication possession adds specicityas well A contrasting pair o Egyptian sentences sggests that possessednons tend to take individated rather than collective agreement eirst example contains the plral predicate /mitrabbiY/ ased ppeymodiying /iyl/ hs hden while the second contains a collective

verb /bitalla/ (3/s) hangs modiying collective /iliyl! hdenE5 " - . � -iyl m mitbbiynchildren-his neg raised-properlypHs hden haven' been ased ppey aen' e behaved

4

w 1 . � ·

i- JL · l � U

iraman l-iyl bitalla awans i §-§riinRamadan the-children indic3shangs lantes i the-streetIn Raman hden hang anes n he see

More evidence may be ond in other varieties o ArabicRosenhose notes a dierence between verbsbject concord and nonadjective concord in Palestinian bedoin dialects sch that the ormertends to be eminine the latter plra ( 984a: 6 And Belaps stdy

o agreement in Classical Arabic reslts in a mch higher percentage opronons and verbs showing collective agreement than adjectivesrelecting the same pattes od in the dialects ( 99 6 I generalthen collective (eminine siglar verbsbject agreement occrs morereqently than collective singlar nonadjective agreement and thistendency is predicted by the higher degree o individation associatedwith modiied nons



62 Nmer Agreement nd Poeion

Wt ts geeal patte dvdual dalects appea to sow

some degee of vaato. Moocca speakes appea to favo

dvduated (plual) ageemet ove collectve (feme) ageemeta tedecy wc paallels te Moocca pefeece fo a ge degeeof dvduato makg (see secto 6 Caee seems to fall at te

ote ed of ts spectum Belap ad Sallam bot dcate tatCaees ted to use deflected [feme ageemet moe ta speakes

of ote dalects (Belap 99 :6 Ts Caee tedecy to accod

less sytactc atteto t te dvduato of ous s moed as well

te absece Egypta of ceta specfyg atcles ad demostatvefoms foud ote dalects (see Captes ad

2 geeet Neutaizatio

Ageemet eutalzato efes ee to te absece of gede

(feme) o umbe (plual) gammatcal ageemet makg o vebs

ad adectves wose subects o ead ous ae feme o plual.Neutalzato of adectval ageemet s pevalet Egypt amog

ceta classes of adectves ad a few solated cases may be foud

te Levat ad Kuwat. Neutalzato of veb-subect ageemet caoccu vebtal seteces (VS typology), ad epesets a moe

geeal patte foud most vaetes of Aabc.

21 Neutaize jectiva geeetSallams 979 study of cocod te ou pase exames

data collected fom a umbe of educated speakes fom Egypt ad te

Levat, ad otes a patte of ageemet loss o eutalzato fequetamog Egypta speakes. Buldg o te eseac of Mtcell 956

97 ad Wse 97 Sallam otes tat ceta adectves, geeallybelogg to te mopologcal class of elatoal adectves (Aabc

/sba/), especally tose deotg place of og o colo, ofte sowo gede o umbe ageemet. Hs examples, most of tem defte,

clude /ada aab! an Arabi pem ad /asma glz/ an Engishdesign 9797 bot, te ous ae feme ad te adectveseutalzed (mascule).

° e te te te greement netrition from Ben 11



Agreement Neutrliztion 63

Salla nds this phenoenon to be ar less quent in the LeantEen so eidence xists o agreeent neutralization on certain relationaladecties when odiying nouns o low indiiduation Salla notesthat ost o his inorants accept a asculine adectie in the phraselra libnni a Lebanese pund 1741 And in the ollowing Syrianproerb depictig a irstrate person or thing the asculine classiicatoryadectie �ni chna odiies the einine noun zibdiyye bwexaple ro Nelson et al 16424 The low specicity o the

noun phrase any china bowl will do ay also help attract neutralizedagreeent

'. -

.

L •

1 t · I �

�

J

itl iz-zibdiyye ��ni n a ranntha bitrinnlike thebowl the-china rowhere no rangyou-3s indic-3sringsLke a chna bw wheeve yu ap , ngs

The next two exaples ro Syria and Kuwait show the asculineadectie di nma odiying einine nouns o low indiiduation

U . �u

bikn andu ale diindicit-is at-hi thing noral s hm a nma hng

K � W� aallt n�� sa ba'dn �rt is-sla disoreainedI hal hour then becae3s thetalk ( noral-sS emaned ha an �u hen cnvesan became nma

Indiiduation thus sees to aect the neutralized agreeentpattes o certain adecties. Most o Sallas exaples consist o

words or nationality educational classes such as class or coursecurriculu and the like; in other words they proide classiicatorydescription ebership in a class rather than the identiication o aspeciic or particular ite 12 Classiicatory adecties are orelikely to show neutralized agreeent Sallas data and Belnapselicitation tasks both center on ineinite nouns and thus do not proieadequate sapligs coering the entre idiiduation contuu Indirect



64 Numer Agreement and Poeion

evdece suppotg ths aalyss les the paallel of eutalzed

ageemet Egypta to the elatve fequecy of feme sgula

ageemet wth plual ous as compaed to othe dalect egos To eally test ths theoy howeve a full age of both defte ad

defte data s eeded.Sallams Egypta data peset a patcula poblem: whle (a)

(b) ad (c) below ae attested hs fomats eject (d) as ugammatcal

97958; all these ous ae feme all the adjectves mascule)

< bJ,

b> b

c

wrd bdi sd rbia home-grown roe a� Arai poem

< 1ihg mrithe gyptian diaet

d < J ,wrd mri an gyptian roe

Ths patte ca be explaed usg the dvduato heaches The

mascule adjectve /ma/ Egyptian ca modfy the dete but abstactfeme ou /lIahga/ diaet but ot the defte but othewse

dvduated /wada/ rse wer The fact that /wada/ ne rse ca

be modfed by mascule /balad/ native unsphistiated s a fucto

of the adjectve /balad/ Lke othe adjectves that ted to take eutalzed

ageemet vz /t/ ther anther /d/ usua nrma ad /kmany (Belap 99 9 /balad/ descbes somethg completely

uemakable ad that sese udvduated A uexpected use of the fequetly used plual adjectve /kut/

many usually eutalzed as /k (mascule sgula fom) ot olysuppots ths aalyss but also povdes a socolgustc motvato

fo some of these ageemet pattes. Belap ctes a ae stace of

plual ageemet /kut/ many wth both the plual /wuzaa/ ministes

ad the (ofte) collectve /s/pepe 99 9 Sm's obsrvtion tht bdi/ occurs in th fminin in th hrs /mgisbdi/ oa oun 17:27 is ind b th fct tht bdi/ in thisttr cs hs diffrnt mning rfrring to th oc townshi th hrsdos not mn natie or unophitiated ouni) I susct tht th dctiv/mri/ gyptian functions in w oosit tht of di/ t st to somtnt For most gtin srs /mri/ crris high ositiv idntitconnottion nd in this sns shoud tnd to show tts of high individution

A socioinguistic invstigtion of this toic might roduc intrsting rsuts



. Agreement Neutrlzton 65

E I � JL Il .

.I;

l

r,U

J.J JJwuzara ur ur amaltilhum ul . itaalt a' ns utrfibaladministers manyp manyp didIforthem wor woredI withpeople manyp inthecountryMany many mne dd w f hem wed wh

many pepe n he cun

The context of this example suggests a reason for the unusual pluralform u many e saer a cabinetmaer cites the many imatpeople for whom he has wored The plura agreement rases theindiiduation of wuzara mne and ns pepe heightening thespeaers portrayal of them as prominent and powerul indiiduals Ineleating their status the saer increases hs own status by assiationsince they hae sought him out This use of agreement may reflect a

ind of sociolinguistic posturing a way for speaers to signal highindiiduation and hence status of themseles and others.Sectaian identity in the Leant proides another possible example

of the social use of agreement. In the following passage a SyrianChristian attributes the rather strict mores of her society to theconseratie Islamic country in which she lies. In modifying thefeminine baladna u cuny the speaer uses feminine adjecties

muta'a��ibefanac and mui cnevave but uses the masculinefom of islmi amc

S2 \) ! :

A;• �

Jx��a nina an[d]na bil yani baladna muta'a��ibe biqUlu 'anhaislmi w mulfia

especially we atus country thatis countryour fanatical indic3psay about3fs Islamic-m and conseratiefEpecay nce we have a cun u cun fanaca hey ay amc and cnevave

The context and seemingly delirate use of a mascule amc followeddiectly by the feminine cnevave suggest a ind of distancing postueassumed by the speaer.



66 Nmer Agreement nd Poeon

Aohe ex fom ohe Sya coas he ou /slm/

(ahe ha /muslm/ Musims o specfy he secaa dey of

Muslms who moved o he (Chsa speakes ow of Sulaymayya(Behsed 989:66 aslao me

" �

:J I W JL ' J '

-

,

· r).1 IJ

ke mamma s-sleymye, fya xal k badey e

amma u l-lam ylu u e halla hawk ya s,u slm.eg was-3fs bul-upf Sulaymayya, eg -3fs ceao may

he became-3fs 3fs-ge-bul-up, became3p he-wold 3p-movead became3fs ow hee has people, became3p slam

Suaymaniyya was nt buit up there werent many pepe there

(in it) Then it started getting buit up pepe started mving

{there and nw there there {have me t be yu knwpepe they {have me t be sam" {Musims

Does he use of /slm/ sam hs ex also epese lgusc

posug? Lebaese fomas cofm ha he ems /slm/ ad /masyye/ Christian o Christianit ae ofe used by Lebaeseof boh elgos o efe o he secaa dey of goups of people

(a foma sss ha hese ems do o efe o he elgoshemselves bu ahe o people The use of he omal fom /slm/

ahe ha he adecve, whch would have o be he moe dvduag

plual /muslm/Musims may smply emphasze he collecve dey

ahe ha he dvdual

As Belap pos ou, he seach fo he pupose of ageeme

syaccally eduda may laguages has fusaed lguss fo

yeas 99:5 Wha s he movao fo eag a syacc coha seems o cay l le o o meag of s ow? Pehaps he easol es paly socal meag Evdece fom spoke Aabc suggessha ageeme s a feaue ha allows speakes o clam fo hemselveso ohes a degee of socal saus o powe, a kd of lgusc posug.

Belap oes amog hs fomas a geeal edecy of male

speakes o favo defleced ageeme moe ha female speakes,"



Agreement Neutrlzton 6

etn th fndn a poble evdence of lntc chane nprore (99 :95) However another plable hypohe hat ocaldentty (n th cae ender) mht affect areement choce n otherword adlt male peaker havn a relatvely hh deree of ta oraency vav other ocal rop tend to e nonndvdatnareement patte more than le prvleed rop f Belnap reltdo reflect a eneral al trend d f ceran al rop e deflectedareement patte to peak abot other the areement mht reflect

or renforce ther own hh tat vav the lower ta of other

2.3.2 VerbSubect Number Agreement

Verbntal entence (V[erb] [bject] entence typoloy) occrn all reter of Arabc Formal Arabc ha a rle that ove verbbject netralzaton n V entence: a verb that pcede t bjectmt how nlar areement Gender areement rule normally apply

ecept that a verb eparated from t bject may how maclnenlar areement reardle of the nmber or ender of the bjectee patte commonly occr n mot dalect a well

I V entence then verbbject aement may be netralzedn mot (f not all) form of Arabc owell note that th phenomenonmot often occr n yran when the bject ndete (964:42 2)Belnap note that th type of areement patte "ometme occr[]n Eyptan h eample alo contan an ndente bject ( 99 : 9):

E W� J/. ' mt3m mnha arba �bynded-he from-her for boyFur bys hers ded

ormally verbal dom whoe bject exp perod of tme exhbt

maclne nlar areement reardle of he bject nmber andender n eample ch a the follown the low ndvdaton ofthe tme perod may affect the deree to whch verb and bject aree:

E < �'- . £

I I •

ba-l a mtannkbecame3mforme hor ( havnbeenwatnfforyo

have been watng r yu r an hur



68 Numr Agrmnt and Poion

S4 Lr4 1 i 1 LIissa r ak jima a�r tiyym r-Iak

yet neg became-3ms foryou week ten days neg became-3msforyou

Yu haven't even [been marred a week yet nt even ten days

Aother exampe from Behnstedt and Woidichs rura Egyptian etatexts intoduces a stoen water buffao n the first sentence indefinite

feminine /gamsa/ a) water bua is preceded by a mascuine singuar

verb /insara/ t was sten whie in the second the now defined/ig-gamsa/ the water bua is preceded by a feminine singuar verb

/insara'it/ t was sten (Behnstedt and Woidich 987 :26 transation

mine

E L. & t" 4 I L J r\ i �

. . . �J " 1 :

fi-marra min iayym wQid indine insara minnu gamsa minbtu. faIamma nsarait iggamsa wu xaragit .

there-is once among the-days one-m at-us was-stoen3ms fom

him water-buffao from househis . so-when wasstoen3fs the

water-buffao and got-away3fs .There [was ne day a man amng us wh had a water buasten rm hs huse S when the water bua was sten and

gt ut . .

Whie verbsubject neutraization pattes i n spoken Arabic oftenparae forma Arabic ues these forma rues themseves refect the

same pragmatic principes that other agreement pattes do. One patte

that emerges from the exampes of verbsubject neutraization citedhere is that the subject is often indefinite non-specific or non-human

I other words these subjects are of ow individuation Another possibeexpanation for the agreement neutraization is hat the indefinite subjectsin some of these cases represent new topics as such they carry thepragmatic fus of e sentence. The verb on the other hand is thematic.

Perhaps the neutraization of thematic sentence eements such assentence- or cause-initia verbs ends greater prominence to the newtopic.



2. Ageement Neutlzton 69

Morocca does ot seem to show the same degree of agreemeteutralizatio as do other dialects. Harrell ad Caubet do ot metiovariatio i verbsubject agreemet i their grammars of Moroccaad examples I foud of verbsubject word order show plual agreemeteve with ideite ous such as the followig with plural /w/ eyame precedig /drri/ ds (Caubet 1993ii:73 traslatio mie):

M I .(,

� <J1 J 1-4w drri ysuwwlu <lk

came-they kids theyask aboutyouSmeJ ds ame asng yu

A Morocca iformat cofirms this geeral patte ad fids thesigular verb /Z uacceptable her but provides the followig miimalpair cotrastig a plural verb (right) with a eutlized verb (let):

M o'I o J I .L ' o J I L

mt-ha b<a d lwld mtula b<a d lwlddied-3ms-ofhers 4 ge the-kids diedpofhers 4 ge thekidsSe ad u de Fu e ds ded

The traslatios give for each setece reflect my iformatsexplaatio of the differece i terms of focus betwee tem: i theexample o the right the focus is o the childre who died whereasthe eutralized example o the left focuses o the woma herself Hisituitio ca be rephrased usig the idividuatio hierarchy. I theexample o the right the childre who died are more idividuated adhece plural agreemet is used By cotrast i the setece o theleft, the childre have lower textual promiece ad hce lessidividuatio which helps to explai the eutralized agreemet

Morocca speakers thus ted to favor plural agreemet for both

adjectives ad verbs. If substatiated by further research the lowerfrequecy of collective ad eutralized agreemet variatio I perceivei Morocca would provide a iterestig parallel to the Moroccatedecy to mark idividuatio escially i huma ous (16).

2A Mooccan inomant inds this example nsal peein i disomekids to the nmaked di kds cited b Cat is intiion conims theMooccan tendenc to avo makin individation in hman nons noted in6.



70 Nmer Agreement d Poeion

24 Geiive ad Poeive Coucio

Spoke Aabic makes use of two costuctios to expess

possessive ad geitive elatioships the costuct phase (Aabic/ifa) that liks two ous togethe to specify a geitive o possessiveelatioship betwee them ad the socalled aalytic" geitive which

makes use of a geitive expoet to expess that elatioship. Haigs

1980 study of these two costuctios icludes all documeted fomsof spoke Aabic ad is fa moe detailed ad compehesive tha is

possible hee He use of the tems sythetic ad aalytic, espectively,to efe to them, ad he chaacteizatio of the geitive expoet as adialectal iovatio" 198010 eect a widely shaed view that spokeAabic has log bee i the pocess of shiftig fom a sythetic laguageto a aalytic oe whose sytactic elatioships ae expessed thoughstigs of discete mophemes.

Ovelooked i this aalysis is that Aabic has thoughout its

documeted histoy had a umbe of alteative costuctios to theifa. As Haig metios a umbe of aalytic" aexatio paticles

ae well-documeted fo Classical Aabic most commo of them /li/

r bengng t ad /mi/ The dialects also make use of these

pepositios as geitive makes Cowell icludes amog his examplestwo pais of syoyms, o the left the costuct phase ad o the ight

its ea equivalet with a expoet 19660

S J I t J I u- t

ha �-�afet a ha ��afe -a

that pece and that pece and

S u J� u J�xe o xa l-oa rad map a rad map

While it may be agued that the cotexts of these pepositioexpoets ae limited i scope, the same holds tue fo the geitiveexpoets i most dialects (the mai exceptio beig uba Moocca)Moeove the costuct phase also has sytactic estictios its fist

te caot be idefiite the followig, the idefiite ou phase/aba uby/ur bys caot take a possessive suffix, ad /miha/ hers idicates the possessio (example fom Beap 199 1 19:



Genitive nd Poeive Contrution

E o� JI mt minha arba' ubyn

died-he from-her four boys

Fou boys o es ded

The use of /i- in formal Arabic is of particular comparativeinterest here While it is grammatically possible to translate e emen

Language Cene using a construct phrase, (a, the preferred rendering

uses the preposition /i, (b:

(a)CA

markaz al-ut al-yaman

center (o thelanguages

theYemeni

)

almarkaz alyaman iut

the-center theYemeni

for-languages

The preferred title, (b, places a contrastive focus on Language not

conveyed by (a, and for this reason, presumably, is favored, since thetitle refers to the Yemeni Language Center, as opposed to the YemeniCuua Center, he Yemeni ade Center, or any other center in Yemen

By contrast, (a places a focus on emen and might refer to a emen

Language Center as opposed to an gypan or Saud anguage Center

This function of /i parallels one of the functions of the dialect

exponents Cowell provides examples from Syrian, including the

following minimal pair, of which (a is preferred over (b 964460)a) b)

S far d taba bt

far -bt -dd

the fuiture the-new gen thehouse fuiture of-thehouse thenewe new unue o e ouse e new unue o e ouse

I will show that constctions volving the exponents often conveyspecic pragmatic information that the construct phrase does not The

choice a speaker makes between the two constructions is goveed by

general principles shared to some extent by most dialect regions, eventhough the frequency of the exponents varies considerably

Table 2 lists the most common genitive exponents in the fourdialects




Tale 2-1: Getive Expoet

Geitive Expoets

Mascuine Feminne Plual

Mocan dyl d -

Egyptian bit bitt ile

Syan taba - tabaUl)Kuwat ml mlat) mlt)

Gende and numbe ageement s oblgatoy only in Egypt Syangammas give no feminne fom coesponding to taba; Cowegives two optonal pual foms /tabat and tabaU/ 6.Kuwat mascuine ml often modfes feminne and plual nouns

2.4.1 Hag' Stuy

Haigs 1980 compaative study of the costruct ad geitive

expoets coves all documeted Aabic-speakg egios ad exploes

the eative fequecy of the geitive expoets ad factos that motivate

thei use i Aabic dialects. Haig classiies the geitive expoets

i six goups maily accodig to fequecy geogaphy ad type of

society (rual bedoui ad uba agig fom Goup i which theexpoets ae limited to fixed expessios to Goup V i which theexpoet is moe poductive tha the costuct 980: 5860 Sheotes two mao dividig lie(s" oe sepaatig weste Noth Aficafom the est of the egio ad the othe sepaatig ua ual ad

beoui societies 60The fou diaects studied hee epeset thee of Haigs six

goups agig fom the highest fequecy cout of Moca (Haigs

Goup V to the secod lowest fequecy of Kuwaiti ad Sya Goup. he middle age stads Egyptia (Goup V.

he Pesia Gulf dialects Haig lists both /m/ ad /agg/as e tive expoets accodig to my data oly the fome fulfillsht oe Kuwaiti. Johstoe 967 90 cofims that Kuwati /agg/



Gentve nd Poeve Contructon 3

fuctio idirect object mrker tht my be ed predictively,

d h the me meig ofo rom my dt

K 'J" � hb ummh gg rgold of-mother-her for NurHe mohes god s fobeongs o Nua

e followig typicl exmple how tht g ully (bt ot lwy

precede ou, where ormlly cur with proou object

K I c � J�I,w g gg mmmd b ixr

d I-y to Mohmmed moig ofthegood say o Mohammed Good monng

K J�I

gl lk

I Iy toyou e you

Hig oberve tht tive ted to coti higher rcetge

of expoet th diloge, d propoe dicour motivtio for the

electio of tht prticulr cotctio i crti rrtive cotext

98068 However, ot ll rrtive cotext re turlly

coducive to the pperce of expoet e bece of expoetfrom oe of my Kuwiti rrtive text i to be explied by it topicof rrgig mrige, ice geitive expoet ted ot to ued to

modify fmilil d mritl reltiohip (for exceptio i Egypti,ee 4 Mot of the exmple of geitive expoet i my Kwiti

dt come from iterview with elderly illiterte wom, rther

th the iterview with the youger, more dcted peker

e im of thi brief overview of geitive cotructio i thedilect i to ivetigte poible forml d prgmtic cotrit or

fctor motivtig the choice of cotructio Hig tudy mkeeverl importt obervtio bout wht he cll tylitic" fctor,which my be more preciely decribed prgmtic d dicourefuctio She ote , for exmple, tht certi climctic pge itive ted to coti expoet phre tht give more weight to



74 Nmer Agreement nd Poeon

e pssge nd n prllel gene onsruons e longer

weger exponen prses end o our e end of e ls s

sgnl of losure 1980:37, 9 1 143)Rer n ewng e oe beween e onsru nd e

exponen prse s oe beween wo prllel gene sysems

sgnllng dynm proess of lnguge deelopmen Hng1 980 1) e exponen s beer ewed s belongng o e sme sysem

s e ons us s /l nd oer preposons e lwys proded

lees o e onsru n forml Arb Te speker ooses

beween osru nd n exponen on e bss of forml semnnd prgm onsderons wll now be exmned

242 Foal Motivatio fo the Ue of the Geitive Expoet

In sudy of e gene onsruon n Nor Afrn dles

Mrs 1977) pons ou e morpologl form nd weg of

e prse ply role n e oe beween e onsru nd nexponen He rbues e use of e ler o mulerm nounprse suffxed or oerwse modfed nouns or o prse n w

dre nnexon would dsfgure e syllb sruure 1977:171)Hng lss smlr moons for e use of exponens n Kuw

1980:35 6) gypn 90) nd yrn 52).

Borrowed words of foregn orgn nd words endng n long

owel n generl nno ke pronoun suffxes nd do no redly fno Arb morposyn pes; erefore, ey end o our

w possesse exponen rer n n onsru see elTons

1 982 16) Duls exludng e pseudodul prs of e body) lso

end no o be sed n onsru prses Hng 1 9806 1 elTons1 982 16 Mrs 1977 17 1 ) perps beuse of e morpologlwkwrdness of ddng suffx o e dul suffx n/ Prgms

mg ply role ere s well beuse e dul endng ofen ndes degree of ndduon for nds o for e use of egene exponen

Te mn forml moons for e oe of e exponennlude mule nnexon ree or more nouns) e presene ofmodfyng dees nd prlel prses w more n one ed



Genitie nd Poeie Contrution 5

noun Of the following Egytian ai elonsi gives stong efeence

to (a) ove (b) (982:9:

E

a, W l t I malab ittinis bit inndi

cout thetennis gen theclub

he enns u he ub

malab tinis in-ndi

cout tennis theclub

he enns u he ub

Cowell gives two ossible Syian vaiants fomy unes gasne san

both of which contain eonents ( 964:46 he vaiant on the ightcaies an emhasis on gasne while the one on the let highlights myune as ossesso n each case, the eonent focuses attention on a

aticula iece of infoation:

s ' · · f u

mae lbann taba ammi

[station the-gas gen unclemy]

· · f .

mlaet ammi taba lbann

[station unclemy gen the-gas]

my unes gasne san my unesgasolin san

The following Kuwaiti sentence contains a comle hase consisting

of thee nouns, one of which is a ossessive onoun abends/ha he and il-madase he sh t is syntactically imossible to

aend a noun afte a ossessive onoun, so this seake has littlechoice but to use the eonent ml/:

K3 . JL .abiha ml ilmadasa yiynha w yt ummha w adathum

fiends-he gen the-school theycometohe and cameshe mothe

he and thewoutthemHe ends m sh wud vs he and he mhe ameand hew hem u

hese stuctual factos aallel the agmatics of infonationackaging. I the following section, will show that the use of eonents

allows a focus on the ossesso not esent in the constuct haseAnothe ossible motivation fo avoiing multi-te constucts may liein the ambiguity of the multile elationshis n ocessing twoossessive elationshis at the same time, it may hel the listene tonow which one caies aticula weight o focus Hence, stuctual

and agmatic consieations seem to be at least atly elate



76 Nmer Agreemet d Poeio

24 Pagatic Fuctio

Hag otes fo vual alect aeas stylstc actos that

fluece the choce of getve costucto, clug the toucto

of a ew theme a cotast 1 980378 634 91 2) Ths obsevato

may be moe pecsely phase pagmatc tems: the getve expoets

ulfll specfc pagmatc uctos that the costuct phase oes ot

st, the expoet places a focus o the pssessing ou ( lea

tems, the seco ou ot coveye by the costuct phase

ato, the expoet les a possessve phase geate textualpomece, sgalg a elatvely hgh egee o vuato,

cotastve ocus o the fst meto of a etty scouse These

featues atually ovelap thus t s ot supsg to f moe thaoe at wok may cases.

The expoet s lkely to occu getve phases that ae specfe

o vuate Cowell pots out that Sya /taba/ geeally cates

etcatoy aexo, a oly aely classcatoy 196446). t sote use to expess poessoal elatoshps, such as his ier

the followg 1 3

S2 <<bt tabau

theoffce ge-hs

his ier the followg passage, the Egypta speake escbes how a

nsect crawled into her ear. The nsect s hghly ndvduated, textually

pomet a has the powe to cause the speake pa, all factos

whch help attract the use of the gentve exponent /bt'/ n the phrase

/mw btaha/ its jurne

2� .uw lUI"

•

.# 1 w� � ¥hyya axalt, axalt la a abla m afa ta, a'aatxabba ablt w a ta tkamml ba'a lmw btaha

\JAs em (1986) has shown he conce of alenaly hes exlan whygenve exonens ae no geneally used o exess eaonshs nvolvng

famly and as of he ody whch ae nalenae eaonshs.



Gente nd Poee Contructon 77

t entered3fs, entered-3fs to-extent at the-drum neg knowng

tpass sosUngf t-bang n drum of-earmy norderto tpass

tcompete thats thejoey gentsThe nsec eneed eneed as fa as he eadum n beng

able pass s eeps n bangng my eadum n de pass

fnsh s uey

he exponent can aso add contraste focus to a gente phrase,

usualy to the possessor I ths Moroccan exampe, the grs possesson

of the room s sngled out and contrasted n the absolute, he ve wnm

Mll u, 4 � J v id uLbbha mak sn w n dr-ha bt dyha b-udha

fatherher kng sutan and got-up-he madehe forher theroom

gen-her by-self-her

He fahe was a ng a sulan and he up and made f he heve wn m (sue)

he next passage contans both constructs and exponents, frst the

construct, /wdha/ he sn then the exponent, /-wd dylha/ he sn

(n boldface After the frst menton of the son, n constuct, the

narator explctly contrasts the dentty of the mans two wes he

second menton of the son contans the exponent /dyha/ he wn n

reference to the mans frst wfe, hghghtng the focus on her dentty

as possessor, whle smultaneously emphaszng the horror of her deed

M t ( " -) I 1; 1 i 4 •

, l_

1 1 � L Y 1 t .Y 1

gtu rr l-mra klt wldha - hd ra - d _'ylt

mww r-r, mra xra g[tu mra kt wld dylha

sad-she to-hm 0 the-husband, the-wfe ate-she son-herths the

second-wfe-two gen thewomen hang marred thehusband thewoman other sadshe to-hm thewoman ate-she the-son genhers

he occuence of /d/ in / d 1-y two we is not a tue possessivebut mas the specification of a quantity in this case two Mooccan /d/fuis this syntactic ole fo quantities between two and ten.



78 Nme Ageement nd Poeion

She said o him Husband he woman ae her his is heseond we {akingwo women he gu married he oher wie

od him he woman ae he uwat /ml/ ofte occus phases cotastg wth othe amed

o mpled ettes the fst example the speake uses /ml/ to

cotast the fogetfuless of old age wth ha oher kind the secodshe cotasts ove the old days wth love the post-o ea

K3 \lj JL u > u j

l -- ha sy ml kubu m sy ml ko--ths fogetfuless ge oldage eg fogetfuless ge that

his is orgeuness o od age no ha oher kind o

orgeuness

K3 V V ' C I I JJ Ji ubb awwal .. m ml al- ybbha w y fls wyd

fls

love ofold-days . eg ge ow ow he-loves-he ad he-goesmoey much moey

Love in he od das no ike ove o oda hese das he

oves her and eaves her mone os omone

Smlaly hee oe patcula house of ths membe of the ulg famly

s cotasted to hs othe houses

Kn b1 JL 1 I bt amad l-yb ml d-da

house Ahmed al-ab gethe-old-ctyAhmed Aabers house he one o he od i

Nous that play a ole as dscouse topc that s fgue mpotatly

a aatve ofte attact specal sytactc makg 5 2. ). Getve

phases wth expoets ofte play a ole as dscouse topc thefollowg the hair o a ion wll play a dscouse ole the stoyece ts fst meto s maked wth /ml/

K3 J � ybl aa ml sbgof bgf ha ge loGo ring me a hair oa ion



2 Genitive nd Possessive onstructions 9

Athe fact at wk i this exampe is the idetity f the pssess

Athugh the geitive phase emais idefiite the idetity f the

pssess is impicity ctasted sice the wma is equested t get

the hai f a i t the hai f ay the aima

Haig fud Syia t have e f the west fequecies f

geitive expets f ay uba diaects ( 98 5 8 Oe eas f

this w fequecy may be that Syia speakes have at thei dispsa

athe cstucti that heps the speake package (ad heps the

istee pcess geitive ifmati is cstcti is the s-caedbject make" /a/ (see futhe 3 5 The fwig exampectais a cmpex pssessive cstucti csistig f fu tems

/sikit(t/ seceta /ma(t/ we /as/pesdent ad ay /jjma/the unves e geitive is fmed i a twstep pcess fist the

secetays eatiship t a femae fgue is estabished usig a pssessive

pu, /sikitt[h]a/ he seceta the the secd figue is defied

as /mat as j-jma/ the pesdent the unvess we usig atheetem cstuct The age pssessive csists f tw pats bth

geitive cstucts cmbied usig the esumptive tpic make /a/

(see futhe 35, which paces a tpica fcus the atte tem

S5 u� sikitt[h]a amat as ijjma dait taif

secetayhe bjwife fpesidet ftheuivesity caedsheteepheThe seceta the pesdent the unvess we caed

Athugh the pimay fucti f /a/ ivves makig a esumptivetpic, it fte ccus i geitive cstuctis whee it fufis a e

simia t that f geitive /taba/ i that bth patices aw the sake

t de ad ak the eatiships ag mutipe tes i a way thataids the istee t keep tack f them Egyptia the y acceptabeway t expess this idea wud ctai geitive /it/ ( femiie

/bitit/:

E I issta btit mit as iggamathe secetay ge wife f-pesidet ftheuivesity

The seceta the we the pesdent the unves



80 Nmber Agreement nd Poeion

Egyptia /bit/ shaes with Syia /taba/ sytactic estictios

ad most sematic ad pagmatic fuctios the mai exceptio beig

the geate Egyptia use of /bit/ i defiig social elatioships, ascotasted to Syia /taba/ (see 2.45). Fom this pespective the

discepacy Haig fids betwee the fequecy of the expoets i

these two uba aeas is uexpected Howeve the availability of /la/to Syia speakes as a ifoatio packagig device helps to explai

both the lowe fequecy of /taba/ ad why Syia speakes ted ot to

use it as ofte i descibig social elatioships

24.4 Expoet a Iiviuatio

The geitive expoets ted to eflect a high degee of scicatio

o idividuatio as cotasted with the costuct phase Syia ad

Egyptia expoets seem to be limited to this pagmatic fuctio fo

the most pat. Moca ad Kuwaiti o the othe had, allow expoets

to classify (athe tha idividuate ous sytactic tems theexpoets i Moocca ad Kuwaiti ae moe fequetly used to modify

idefiite ous ad/o ospecific possessos tha thei Egyptia adSyia coutepats.

Haig otes qualiicatio as a commo sematic chaacteistic

of expoet phases, but she does ot make the distictio that Cowell

does betwee classificatio ad idetificatio. Thus he examples of

qualificatio" iclude the use of expoets to idividuate, such asEgyptia /il-kitb bit issi/ the bk mag which clealy efes

to a specific book (87) ad Moocca /lma d[] l-bko/ e jus desgueeurs sap unrpe gs 6 a classificatoy idetificatio.

t is impotat to make this distictio betwee classificatio

(geeic idetity low idividuatio ad idetificatio (specific idetity,high idividuatio, because it coespods to a diffeece i the usage

of the expoets i the dialects. Moocca ad Kuwaiti speakes usethei expoets to classify ad idividuate, while Egyptia ad Syia

speakes geeally use the expoet to idividuate but ot to classify

(except i cetai idiomatic expessios oted below.The followig examples fom Moocca ad Kuwaiti data show

the expoets qualifyig o classifyig but ot idividuatig the ous



Genitive nd Possessie Constructions 8 1

they modiy he nouns that constitute the irst tens o these genitive

phrases are all indeinite, and the possessors are generic rather thanspecic e genitive phrase as a whole is thus low in individuation:

M6 UI JJ I�ra magna dyl lma

boughthe watch gen the-waterHe bugh a waep/wah

M <I J 4�c 'm� bli �ild d-bgri[wenthe brought-me some skin gen the-cow]He wen and bugh me sme d whde (Harrell 9:83)

K3 H JL . L j � .i"J L Ji

J41

awwal m� daxtra 'ala znna ayyiz, xtar't ml am

-kubrirst neg-there-is doctors on timeour old-women, inventions gen

the-women the -oldIn he d days hee wee n ds n u me us d

wmen he nvenns f d wmen

In contrast to these Moroccan and Kuwaiti examples in which

the genitive exponent is used to cassiy rather than individuate, theollowing Egyptian example shows /it/ in an individuating phrase

Although the irst noun /ga/ hng is indeite and non-specic the

high individuation o /rabbina/ Gd alows the exponent /it'it/ sincea hng / Gds is unique among all other things

EO LJ 46 IJd L <jzayy a ult lila<ritik da ism w i nab wi ga bit'it rabbina

as nom said-I to-presenceyour this ate and lot and thing genLordourLe I d yu Maam, hs s/ae and smehng f Gds

yian and Egyptian inoants reject constructions with non

scic possessors as weak G o both dialects conn: Cowellremarks that it is rare or yrian /taba'/ to annex an indeinite possessor

94:489) or Egyptian, el-onsi species a limited set o idiomatic



82 Nme Ageement nd Poeion

pedicated cotexts i which /it/ ca aex a idefiite ou

(18i:0.

Oe of the few istaces i which Egyptia ad Syia expoets/it/ ad /taba/ aexes a idefiite possesso is a shaed idiomatic

expessio meaig smene wh ikes (a meaig have ot foud

fo Moocca /dyl/ o Kuwaiti /ml/:

w 1y.t IJ I da g bit isw

that ma ge wome

Y t

aa mi� bit kalm

eg ge talk

He ikes wmenis a adies man

w iy.t "

huwwe taba isw

he ge wome

He ikes wmenis a adies man

m nt a tak [and n atin

< L '

aa mi taba aki

eg- ge talk'm nt a tak [and n atin

This paticula use of the expoet is ot limited to uba dialects

howeve. Eve cosevative Najdi speakes make use of a paallelcostuctio /fd/ which gham defies as ( 1 4: 1 8:

possessve prtcle fd-h omething elonging to himonened with him, lso used meg ot of peon fond of. . s m fd hssuwlf I m not the ot of peonwho like thi ot of thing

Expoets deived fom ous show vayig degees of

gammatical ageemet goveed by the head ou. Fo Egyptia/it/ ageemet is obligatoy accodig to most souces (Haig

1 80:8 5 el-Tosi 18i : 14 Kuwaiti ad Syia expoets o theothe had show ageemet oy occasioally the fist exampe

plual /mlt/ agees with /l->ashum/ stks but i the secod masculie

/ml modifies femiie /jma/ uniersi The fist cotext isidividuatig as paticula stocks ae idicated wheeas the secod ismeely desciptive as the edely ueducated speake does ot kowo emembe the ame of the uivesity:

4 : L r atta l >ashum mlt l-amiyya awwal-hum b-ismaeve

th -stocks

ge the-associatio chagedhe-them iamehis

ehps deved fom

yd/n he hnd o



Genitive nd Poeive Contrution

Even he shares f he asscan he ransferred hem hsname

K I I Ixaaaw ima m add, ywfinished-they theniversity gen Baghdad, caetheyThey nshed a} he Unvers f aghd hey came bac

Cowes exampes incde pra forms taat and taa In thefoowing, the contrasting agreement on taa, rst singar then pra,

may refect the reative importance of he pcures to each speakere first speaker ays no caim to them, and ses netraized agreement

he second, on the other hand, owns the pictres, and in caiming

possession, perhaps emphasizes their niqeness or importance to him

or her y sing he pra taa (exampe from Cowe 16448

S v - � J. L � � -

taa mn ha war? taai- gen whom this the-pictres? - genmine hse pcures are hese? Mne

Morcan dy, derived from a partice rather than a non, does not

show agreement in ran diaects

The partia agreement of certain exponents may find expanationin the individation of the modied non the more individated the

genitive phrase, the greater the tendency for the exponent to agree innmer and gender rther evidence spporting this anaysis is

Haings oservation that agreement tends to e marked on m ifthe modifier is a persona pronon sffix 1807 that is, in the

framework sed here, if the phrase as a whoe is more individated

245 Socioingisic oiions

Haings stdy concdes y hypothesizing socioctra reasonsfor the higher freqency and distrition of the anaytic genitive inran diaect grops Haing notes that ran diaects tend to show ahigher freqency of exponent phrases than rra or edoin ones,

Hing es a laim by LviPoven ha a eain ual iae of Moanhas feminine an plual foms of /yl/ /yl/ an /yu/ bu an fin noaesed ouenes Haing




abug s g quy gy uba syad ad sa ags a a u su ms

( 980 645. d sug s aayss uds us s da a kds aama sa ass

gya saks aa my ms gy ddsysm us g a gy makd sa d

Ts ds a dad aa us /'/ dsb

ass bw w uma bgs (adad m 982:5:

For humn reltionships the use of bit< is imited to four circes Wife (husbnd in url diects) euphemistic expressions forgirlfriend nd boyfriend.

2. Retionships with people lower in the socil pyrmid Reltionships with people higher in ob clssifiction. Servicebsed retionships with professions

wds gya saks usuay us /'/ d

ass a a aab may aua uy sms ssb a ysa dsa ausd by s

saa w us mg aa dsa as w

T us su ass may sa dsa

d s aa ad aua ass

Pssa ass das aa b ssd

w a ay I my Sya daa a dsag auy

s sgad w (s as Hag 980:57:S2 - I .

QQb aba' gs

Thei mmanding ie

s d say a ad Lba b /a/

ad /-'a 'a/ u maid (Cw ms us bsus Sya 964460.

My Kuwa us as am /m! mdyg a

uma guad :

For sociolinguistic study of soci hierrchy in Egypt see Prinson ( 1985).However issitt bitti is necessitted by the use of sitti to men my

grndmother.



2. Genitive Poeive Contruction

K3 IJt � CJ�JF r J

il m iiri fxU laam w r a liris mla

85

ever da se-bus igs mea ad segoes se-gives oeguard ge3ms da sh old lgs o ma and go g hm o s(h lon's gad

e same speaer uses a cosc o express h d

K3 'J

4J

j' al aUz drwila wjifwe eoldwoma driverer sadigNo, h old oman, h d s sandng

However, e coex ere is a of a geeral saeme raer a aspecific driver of a specific woma. e expoe eds o used icases wic idicae a degree of specifici of eier par or bo.

A e oer ed of e coiuum Morocca speaers ca use/dl/ o refer o a uma relaiosip eve immediae famil

M 4. 'lwld dlae-so geersh son o hs h son

246 oroccn/ dyl

Of all e expoes i e four dialec regios Morca /dl/(varia /d/) sows e iges frequec Haig cocludes a eexpoe prase is more producive a e cosc excep i limiedcoexs of iimae relaiosips ( 980 60 see Haell 96 940

for a lis of "limied coexs i wic e cosc is ormall used)is ig frequec is due a leas i par o e wider rage of sacicroles ha Morocca /dl/ plas compared o is couerpars.

19Haing and Fischer and asow among others, claim that the particle

/dyJ/ is "always (Haing 9805 or usually (Fische and astrow98093 used with pronoun suffixes. Not only is that notion dismissed byseveral informants but my data contain numerous counter-examples to such

claims




Moocca /dyl/ occus vaous sematc ad sytactc cotexts

whch othe expoets ae aely f eve used. Oe of these cotexts

s quatfcato wth umbes fom two to te, whch may ot beexpessed wth the costuct othe dalects

M9 - 4x;msa d dh;m

fve ge dhams

ve drhams

Moocca speakes also use /dyl/ expessos meag a t f adhw muh

M2 ' J4 r4Y jd;ww;za lyym, bzf dyl �-�qapassed-we thedays a lot ge the-tolge passed the ys {dng a t f hard wrk.

M2

J 4 W J4 J

'wa �Ql dyl lmsyl w �Ql dyl hda

yes how-much ge the-poblems ad how-much ge ths -

S many prbems and s muh f ths -

most dalects the getve expoet may ot modfy a aleableou but Moocca /dyl/ ofte does

M 4 . l-w;d dylkthe-eas geyous

the ears f yurs yur ears

M9 �4 J :4 t f I-bl dyleg came3fs the-md geme

t never entered my mnd

ese exampes show that Moocca /dyl/ fuctos as a getvecase-makg patcle that maks ot oly possesso but also

Hrig otes tht (ceturyod) text fro the southwester Moroccdiect of Houwr uses /t/ s the orl geitive expoet (s does theetire regio), but cotis /d/ i the qutifyig phrse /sb d--Ud/ een

on ( 1 80 1 3 1



25 Suary 87

quantification which the exponents of the other dialects may not doe higher equency of Morcan /dyl/ is thus patly explained by itsgreater functional capacity

Chapter 1 demonstrated that animacy d specification seem toaffect definite marking in Moroccan nominal phrases in such a waythat Moroccan speakers tend to prefer definite marking on animate andspecied nouns. It seems possible that the high freuency of /dyl/relative to exponents of other dialects may be partly related to the

relativey wider use of the definite article in Moroccan speech since/dyl/ allows the denite article to retained on one or both nons ina genitive phrase.

25 Smmry

This chapter has expored the influence of individuation on twotypes of noun modication number agreement and possession The

discussion of number aeement included a exploration of the categoryof dual in spoken Aabic.

Examination of various phenomena of dal numr ad agreementled to several conclusions and a hypothesis conceing its historicaldevelopment Building on Blac's distiction tween dual d pseudodual (1970), I proposed further distinctions between productive and

non-productive and specific and non-specific duals. The categoy ofdual consists of several different kinds of dual: frozen fos most ofwhich refer to body pats a non-specific dual meaning ople o anda "new topic dual that has specific pgmatic ctions d is limitedto individuated nouns. The productivity of the dual suffix /-n/ onnouns apars to be limited either to certain classes of words in somecases, or to pragmatic unctions in others Periphrastic dual fos

appear to be the non in Morocco and Kuwait; and the dual sux/ayn/ is not a prductive fo in Morco This evidence led to a callfor a reevaluation of the history of the dual in spoken Aabic one thattakes into account categoryspecic developments

Number agreement pattes in the dialects were shown to beaffected by the hierarchy of individuation e aeement of adjectivesverbs and pronouns tends to be pural if the noun is highly individuated




e s secc dene and/ hgh n exual scal mnence an

ageemen ae called hee ndvduaed lual ageemen By cnas

lual nuns ha elec cllecve asac nnsecc and/nanmae enes lw exual mnence end aac emnne

sngula deleced ve and nun ageemen (adecval ageemenless s ecause adecves end secy gvng he nuns hey mdy

geae ndvduan Ths lae ageemen ae s desgnaed ascllecve lual ageemen

Smlaly he ndvduan a ssessve hase and aculaly

he ssess nluences he chce genve cnsrucn such ha

he me ndvduaed he hase as a whle ne s memes heme lkely he seake exess ha elansh usng a genveexnen. Fmal and sclngusc mvang acs he use

he exnen wee als ned.hn hs geneal shaed amewk slgh vaans ccu

Mccan seakes seem have a geae endency use lualageemen aes han seakes he dalecs Ths endency

vdes an neesng aallel he hgh equency he genve

exnen /dyl/ n Mccan and als he geae use dene and

secyng acles n Mccan ned n Chae 1 A dsncn s und eween he w cenal dalecs n he

ne hand and he w erheal dalecs n he he n he use he

genve exnen (as sed he cnsuc Mccan and Kuwaseakes can use genve exnens ndcae classcay as well as

ndvduaed deny whle Egyans and Syans end esc he

use he exnens ndvduaed hases The ac ha he Mccan

exnen /dyl/ has a much hghe equency han Kuwa /ml/ s

aly due n a he Mccan endency mak ndvduan

n nuns and s wde synacc ange (/dyl/ als quanes nuns

ween w and en n nume Even s hs aallel ween Mcanand Kuwa n he use genve exnens eas wachng uuedevelmens

Documents

Syntax of Spoken Arabic - Chapter 2_Part_1