Publisher Description

This book studies the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic. By including new and recently published data that support key issues for the syntax of negation, the book challenges the standard parametric view that negation has a fixed parametrized position in syntactic structure. It particularly argues for a multi-locus analysis with syntactic, semantic, morphosyntactic and diachronic implications for the various structural positions. Thus accounting for numerous word order restrictions, semantic ambiguities and pragmatic interpretations without complicating narrow syntax with special operations, configurations or constraints.

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A Multi-locus Analysis of Arabic Negation: Micro-variation in Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard ArabicBy Ahmad AlqassasThis book studies the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic. By including new and recently published data that support key issues for the syntax of negation, the book challenges the standard parametric view that negation has a fixed parametrized position in syntactic structure. It particularly argues for a multi-locus analysis with syntactic, semantic, morphosyntactic and diachronic implications for the various structural positions. Thus accounting for numerous word order restrictions, semantic ambiguities and pragmatic interpretations without complicating narrow syntax with special operations, configurations or constraints.Key Features* Data from Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic shed light on word order contrasts in negative clauses and their interaction with tense/aspect, mood/modality, semantic scope over adverbs, and negative sensitive items* New data challenging the standard claim in Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed parametrized position in the clause structure* Non-parametric analysis challenging the parametric view of cross-linguistic negation studies and supporting a multi-locus analysisAhmad Alqassas is an Assistant Professor of Arabic Linguistics at Georgetown University

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A Multi-locus Analysis of Arabic Negation: Micro-variation in Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard ArabicBy Ahmad AlqassasThis book studies the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic. By including new and recently published data that support key issues for the syntax of negation, the book challenges the standard parametric view that negation has a fixed parametrized position in syntactic structure. It particularly argues for a multi-locus analysis with syntactic, semantic, morphosyntactic and diachronic implications for the various structural positions. Thus accounting for numerous word order restrictions, semantic ambiguities and pragmatic interpretations without complicating narrow syntax with special operations, configurations or constraints.Key Features* Data from Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic shed light on word order contrasts in negative clauses and their interaction with tense/aspect, mood/modality, semantic scope over adverbs, and negative sensitive items* New data challenging the standard claim in Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed parametrized position in the clause structure* Non-parametric analysis challenging the parametric view of cross-linguistic negation studies and supporting a multi-locus analysisAhmad Alqassas is an Assistant Professor of Arabic Linguistics at Georgetown University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; List of tables; IntroductionChapter 1: Issues in the Syntax of Sentential NegationChapter 2: Locus of Negation in Syntactic StructureChapter 3: Semantic and Pragmatic Effects of Negative MarkersChapter 4: Licensing Negative Sensitive ItemsChapter 5: Distribution of the Negation StrategiesChapter 6: The Jespersen Cycle of NegationChapter 7: Summary and ConclusionsReferences

Review

Alqassas builds on Zanuttini's work on negation in Romance languages. He offers rich analyses of negation in Arabic languages and the variation among those languages, therefore of great interest to specialists in Arabic. He also develops an approach that goes beyond "parameters" and his book will interest the growing number of syntacticians who recognize the limitations and problems in parametric approaches and have been working on how parsing requires new analyses that permit the required variation. -- Professor David Lightfoot, Georgetown University

Review Quote

Alqassas builds on Zanuttini's work on negation in Romance languages. He offers rich analyses of negation in Arabic languages and the variation among those languages, therefore of great interest to specialists in Arabic. He also develops an approach that goes beyond "parameters" and his book will interest the growing number of syntacticians who recognize the limitations and problems in parametric approaches and have been working on how parsing requires new analyses that permit the required variation.

Promotional "Headline"

A micro-syntactic analysis of negation in three varieties of Arabic

Description for Reader

A micro-syntactic analysis of negation in three varieties of Arabic This book studies the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic. By including new and recently published data that support key issues for the syntax of negation, the book challenges the standard parametric view that negation has a fixed parametrized position in syntactic structure. It particularly argues for a multi-locus analysis with syntactic, semantic, morphosyntactic and diachronic implications for the various structural positions. Thus accounting for numerous word order restrictions, semantic ambiguities and pragmatic interpretations without complicating narrow syntax with special operations, configurations or constraints. Includes Data from Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic shed light on word order contrasts in negative clauses and their interaction with tense/aspect, mood/modality, semantic scope over adverbs, and negative sensitive items New data challenges the standard claim in Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed parametrized position in the clause structure Non-parametric analysis challenges the parametric view of cross-linguistic negation studies and supporting a multi-locus analysis

Feature

Data from Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic shed light on word order contrasts in negative clauses and their interaction with tense/aspect, mood/modality, semantic scope over adverbs, and negative sensitive items New data challenges the standard claim in Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed parametrized position in the clause structure Non-parametric analysis challenges the parametric view of cross-linguistic negation studies and supporting a multi-locus analysis

Description for Sales People

A micro-syntactic analysis of negation in three varieties of Arabic Includes Standard Arabic data from corpus studies the Quran and Levantine literature and dialectal data from a Southern Levantine dialect (Jordanian Houran) and a Gulf Arabic dialect (Qatari) shedding Challenges the standard claim in the Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed position in the clause structure Challenges the binary parametric view of cross-linguistic negation studies and supporting a multi-locus analysis

Description for Teachers/Educators

Potential use on postgraduate courses on syntactic theory

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