Why verbless sentences in Standard Arabic are verbless

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20258596
AutoresRashid Al-Balushi (Sultan Qaboos University, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume57
Fascículo1
Páginas1-30
Data de publicação2012-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0008-4131 • E-ISSN: 1710-1115
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008413100002188
OpenAlexW4243245314
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas15

This article aims to account for why verbless sentences in Standard Arabic lack a copular verb. In contrast to previous accounts which attribute the absence of the copula to some defect of present tense, I claim that a verbless sentence does not take a copula because its nominais do not need structural Case. The proposed analysis argues that structural Case is licensed by a “Verbal Case” feature on the relevant Case-checking heads, and assumes the Visibility Condition. The present analysis is based on a unique interaction between tense and word order, and on the observation that verbless sentences are finite clauses composed of a topic and a predicate, as well as on the observation that they do not involve licensing of structural Case

Copula (linguistics) · Dependent clause · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Predicate (mathematical logic) · Sentence · Verb · Word order · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation