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Arabic Semantics
Peter Hallman, University of Vienna
1.
INTRODUCTION
The development of model-theoretic semantics in the late 1960’s, particularly the
work of Montague (1970, 1973 and elsewhere), has lead to striking progress in the
description of the derivation of meaning in natural language. This framework
implements the principle of compositionality, usually attributed to Gottlob Frege,
which states that the meaning of each constituent in a syntactic structure is derivable
from the meanings of its own constituent parts by regular rules. This framework has
proven powerful in describing the relationship between form and meaning in natural
language. Since the development of this framework, Arabic has not been subject to
substantial formal semantic analysis, meaning that Arabic still stands to make
substantial new empirical and theoretical contributions to the development of the field
of semantics. Some issues that have received attention are described in section 2
below, while section 3 describes some aspects of Arabic that appear to represent
fertile territory for future semantic inquiry.
2.
ISSUES
The issues that have received the most attention in the literature on Arabic semantics
relate primarily to the semantic correlates of syntactic and morphological patterns.
Literature on the syntax-semantics interface deals primarily with the interpretation of
A’-chains, the dependency between a clause-peripheral operator such as a wh-phrase
or topicalized phrase and the semantic variable that it binds. Literature on the
morphology-semantics interface deals primarily with the interpretation of verbs,
focusing on tense and aspectual distinctions as well as derivational verb morphology.
Another nacent area of semantic inquiry on Arabic is pragmatics, which deals with
the relationship between linguistic content, discourse context and communicative
intent. In this section, I describe the current state of the art on the interpretation of
syntactic displacement in Arabic, tense and aspect, derivational verb morphology, and
pragmatics.
2.1
Interpretation of Displacement
A variety of observations indicate that some syntactic displacement operations affect
the interpretation of the expression they apply in, while others do not. More
specifically, when a constituent is displaced from position A to position B in a given
construction, the construction may require it to be interpreted in position B (the
derived position), or it may require it to be interpreted in position A (the base
position), or it may allow either interpretational option. Another dimension to this
pattern is that the displacement itself may be covert. That is, the constituent may be
interpreted in position B while occurring overtly in position A.
The first subsection below reviews a body of literature on A’-chains in this
connection. The subsequent section augments this literature with some observations
about covert quantifier raising, an operation bearing a closer resemblance to Amovement.
2.1.1
Topicalization and Reconstruction
In Arabic, a sentence-initial topic may be linked to a pronoun in the comment, as the
Lebanese examples in (1) show, from Aoun and Benmamoun (1998). Non-subject
pronouns are enclitics morphologically bound to their governor. As the examples in
(1) demonstrate, the dependency between a topic and the associated pronoun is not
obviously island-sensitive, crossing over the adjunct island boundary in (1b), a
constituent from which movement is illicit in English.
(1)
a.
təәlmiiz-a ʃ-ʃitaan btaʕrf-o [ʔəәnno kəәll mʕallme ʔaaaṣaṣəәt-o].
student-her the-naughty know.2S that every teacher.F punished.3SF-
him
‘Her naughty student, you know that every teacher punished him.’
b.
təәlmiiz-a ʃ-ʃitaan fallayto [ʔablama kəәll mʕallme t-ʔaaaṣəәṣ-o].
student-her the-naughty left.2P before every teacher.F 3SF-punished-
him
‘Her naughty student, you left before every teacher punished him.’
In each example, the phrase təәlmiiz-a ʃ-ʃitaan (her naughty student) stands in a
syntactic dependency with the object inflection -o (him), which is contained in a
complement clause in (1a) but in an adjunct clause in (1b) (the bracketed constituent
in each case). Generally, adjunct clauses but not complement clauses are syntactic
islands, constituents from which nothing may be extracted (Ross 1967). Aoun and
Benmamoun observe that the topic təәlmiiz-a ʃ-ʃitaan may be construed within the
semantic scope of the quantifier kəәll mʕallme in (1a) but not in (1b). Specifically, (1a)
may be read as asserting that you know that each teacher punished her respective
naughty student. That is, the naughty students vary with the teachers. This reading is
not available when the bound object inflection -o is contained in an island in (1b),
which may only be understood to assert that there is one particular naughty student
who every teacher punished, and you left before this happened. Aoun and
Benmamoun conclude on the basis of this and other evidence that on the relevant
reading of (1a), the topic occurs in the backeted constituent containing the object
inflection -o at the level of representation at which the structure of the sentence is
‘fed’ to the interpretative component, which is the representation that reflects the
meaning of the sentence. Topicalization and insertion of the inflection are superficial,
‘post-semantic’ processes that do not impact quantifier scope. Another derivational
source is available where the topic is base generated in the clause-initial position prior
to the point at which the structure is interpreted, and binds a null pronoun in the
position indexed by the -o inflection. The island in (1b) prohibits the movement
derivation, so that the only derivational source for (1b) is base generation of the topic
in the clause-initial position. This dependency does not show a semantic scope
ambiguity because it is derivationally unambiguous. Guilliot and Nouman (2006) note
that Jordanian Arabic shows scope ambiguities over island boundaries, but only when
the resumptive element is morphologically weak. They develop an analysis that links
the possibility of resumption without movement to the morphological weakness of the
resumptive pronoun. Cross-linguistic variation in the availability of this reading
indicates that the interpretational properties of A’-chains discussed above are subject
to variation.
2.1.2
Quantifier Raising
In this section, I expand on the observations described above on scopal interactions in
A’-movement/topicalization configurations by describing local (intra-clausal) scopal
interactions between quantifiers. The judgments described below represent relative
trends in speakers’ attitudes toward specific interpretations of various word order
configurations in standard Arabic. Variation in these judgments exists, but contrasts
between pairs of sentences in the relative availability of a scopal configuration are
consistent. For example, in the VSO word order, a quantificational subject easily
scopes over an indefinite object, illustrated in (2a). However, a quantificational object
may not readily take scope over an indefinite subject that precedes it, as in (2b). (2b)
is inappropriate in a context in which each vase is broken by a different child. That is,
inverse scope (where two terms show a scopal order that is the inverse of their surface
linear order) is restricted in Arabic. The examples below reflect the fact that the
quantifier kull (every) is more natural when its nominal associate is modified, for
example by a min (of) phrase below, especially in object position. The -n declension
(‘tanwiin’) on indefinite nouns below is glossed N.
(2)
a.
kassar-a kull-u walad-i-n min l-ʔawlaad-i mazhariyyat-a-n
broke-3MS every-NOM child-GEN-N of the-children-GEN vase-ACC-N
‘Every one of the children broke a vase.’
b.
kassar-a walad-u-n kull-a mazhariyyat-i-n min al-mazhariyyaat-i
broke-3MS child-NOM-N every-ACC vase-GEN-N of the-vases-GEN
‘A child broke every one of the vases.’
The impossibility of inverse scope in (2b) is unlike English, where an object may
scope over a preceding subject; the English translation of (2b) admits a reading by
which each vase is broken by a different child. This reading is said to be derived by
covert movement of the object to a position preceding the subject, a syntactic
transformation known as ‘quantifier raising’ (May 1985). Arabic allows such a
permutation in its surface word order, shown in (3). On this word order, a
quantificational object readily scopes over following indefinite subject; (3a) may be
understood to assert that each vase was broken by a different child. In addition,
though, a quantification subject may scope over a preceding indefinite object; (3b)
may be understood to assert that each child broke a different vase. That is, in the VOS
order, the surface scopal order is available, as in the VSO order, but also the inverse
scopal order is available, unlike the VSO order. Therefore, a reading in which the
subject scopes over the object is available regardless of the surface order of the two
arguments, but a reading in which the object scopes over the subject requires linear
precedence of the object. This in turn suggests that the syntactic prominence of the
subject over the object is structurally basic, and therefore inherited by various word
order permutations, whereas prominence of the object over the subject is derived.
(3)
a.
kassar-a kull-a mazhariyyat-i-n min l-mazhariyyaat-i walad-u-n
broke-3FS every-ACC vase-GEN-N of the-vases-GEN child-NOM-N
‘A child broke every one of the vases.’
b.
kassar-a mazhariyyat-a-n kull-u walad-i-n min l-ʔawlaad-i
broke-3FS vase-ACC-N every-NOM child-GEN-N of the-children-GEN
‘Every one of the children broke a vase.’
The generalization described above is identical to facts reported by Mohammad
(1984) about coindexation in Arabic. When an object occurs with a pronominal
enclitic, the clitic can be coindexed with the subject regardless of word order (4a-b).
Both are grammatical on the reading where -hu refers to the subject ʔaħmad.
(4)
a.
rama-a ʔaħmad-u-n kurat-a-hu
threw-3MS Ahmad-NOM-N ball-ACC-his
‘Ahmadi threw hisi ball.’
b.
ramaa kurat-a-hu ʔaħmad-u-n
threw-3MS ball-ACC-his Ahmad-NOM-N
‘Ahmadi threw hisi ball.’
However, when the subject bears an enclitic pronoun, the pronoun may be coindexed
with the object only when the object precedes it. In (5a), therefore, where the subject
(including the pronoun) precedes the object, the pronoun -hu cannot be interpreted as
referring to ʔaħmad, while in (5b), where the object precedes the subject, it may.
(5)
a.
*ḍarab-a ṣadiiq-u-hu ʔaħmad-a-n
hit-3MS friend-NOM-his Ahmad-ACC-N
(‘Hisi friend hit Ahmadi.’)
b.
ḍarab-a ʔaħmad-a-n ṣadiiq-u-hu
hit-3MS Ahmad-ACC-N friend-NOM-his
‘Hisi friend hit Ahmadi.’
This parallelism suggests that in Arabic, the mechanism that establishes co-reference
is related to that which establishes quantifier scope. This mechanism is tied closely to
syntactic prominence. A constituent has scope over, and may identify a pronoun in, a
constituent that is structurally subordinate to it. See Reinhart (1976), Chomsky (1981)
and May (1985) on this notion of prominence, where it is identified with the syntactic
‘c-command’ relation. In Arabic, syntactic prominence for the purposes of
quantification and coreference may be established with reference to a basic structure
in which the subject is more prominent than the object, or the surface structure, in
which the object may be more prominent than the subject (as in (3), (4b) and (5b)
above). Since the subject has structural prominence over the object in the base
structure, prominence of the object over the subject must be derived by displacement
of the object to a higher structural position. In Arabic, this displacement must be
overt, while English allows covert displacement.
One clear interpretational parallel between Arabic and English, though, is the ‘scope
freezing’ effect found in double object constructions in both languages (see Larson
1990, p. 605 on English). The verb ʔaʕṭaa (give) has two internal objects, a theme and
a possessor who comes into possession of the theme by virtue of the action described
by the verb. As in English, the two internal objects may either appear in the ‘double
object’ frame [V possessorACC themeACC] or in the ‘prepositional’ frame [V themeACC
li-possessorGEN], where the theme is introduced by the preposition li- (to). The scope
of the two objects is ‘frozen’ in the surface order in the double object frame but not
the prepositional frame. Like its English translational equivalent shown below, the
double object frame in (6a) may not be read as asserting that each toy in the cupboard
was given to a different child, but rather only that there is a particular child who was
given every toy. In the prepositional frame, however, the possessor may have inverse
scope over the theme that linearly precedes it. An interpretation is available to (6b)
that asserts that every child was given a different toy, again like its English
equivalent. Arabic mirrors other languages in the conditions that govern the
availability of inverse scope in multiple-object constructions.
(6)
a.
ʔaʕṭay-tu walad-a-n kull-a luʕbat-i-n fii l-xazaanat-i
gave-1S child-ACC-N every-ACC toy-GEN-N in the-cupboard-GEN
‘I gave a child every toy in the cupboard.’
b.
ʔaʕṭay-tu luʕbat-a-n li-kull-i walad-i-n fii ṣ-ṣaff-i
gave-1S toy-ACC-N to-every-GEN child-GEN-N in the-class-GEN
‘I gave a toy to every child in the class.’
The possibility of inverse scope in (6b) extends to prepositional arguments in general,
not just those related to the double object frame. A quantifier in a locative
prepositional phrase may scope above the direct object, as in (7a), which asserts that I
put a different book on each shelf.
(7)
waḍaʕ-tu kitaab-a-n fii kull-i raff-i-n min l-rufuuf-i
put-1S book-ACC-N in every-GEN shelf-GEN-N of the-shelves-GEN
‘I put a book on every one of the shelves.’
Therefore, English and Arabic are largely similar except for the unavailability of an
inverse scope reading of the object over the subject in Arabic when the subject
precedes the object. ‘Inverse scope’ in this case must be accompanied by actual
surface inversion of the two arguments in Arabic. This might be taken to suggest that
the relative restrictiveness of covert scope inversion in Arabic is a by-product of its
relative freedom of word order, while the relative freedom of covert scope inversion
in English is a by-product of its relatively rigid surface word order.
2.2
Tense and aspect
Another area in which semantic inquiry has touched on Arabic relates to the
interpretation of temporal and aspectual verb morphology. Though traditional Arabic
grammarians characterize the imperfective (8a) and perfective (8b) verb forms in
Arabic as signifying the present and past tense respectively (Sibawayhi 2009, vol. 1,
p. 69 and elsewhere), some contemporary authors have characterized the distinction
as an aspectual ‘incompletive’ vs. ‘completive’ opposition (Cohen 1924, Cantineau,
1953, Wright 1981, and others).
(8)
a.
qaraʔ-a l-walad-u l-kitaab-a
readPERF-3MS the-boy-NOM the-book-ACC
‘The boy read the book.’
b.
ya-qraʔ-u l-walad-u l-kitaab-a
3ms-readIMPF-IND the-boy-NOM the-book-ACC
‘The boy is reading the book.’
The aspectual view receives some preliminary support from the fact that the
perfective morphology occurs in contexts other than past tense, and the imperfective
in contexts other than present. The perfective may occur, for example, in the context
of a future copular auxiliary, expressing the future perfect, as in (9). If tense relates
the time of the eventuality described directly to the speech time, this fact is
unexpected.
(9)
saufa ya-kuun-u qaraʔ-a l-walad-u l-kitaab-a
FUT 3MS-beIMPF-IND
readPERF-3MS the-boy-NOM the-book-ACC
‘The boy will have read the book.’
However, Comrie (1976) and Fassi Fehri (2003a, 2004) argue that examples such as
(9) demonstrate instead that tense interpretation is locally relative in Arabic, meaning
that each verb form locates its eventuality time with respect to a reference time
established by its local syntactic context, rather than to the speech time directly. The
auxiliary complex saufa yakuunu (will be) shifts the reference time into the future.
The perfective verb qaraʔa (read) is interpreted as past with respect to this future
reference time. Consequently, perfective morphology systematically signifies past
with respect to a reference time. This reference time is the speech time only in the
default case.
The relative tense view is supported by the fact that a perfective verb cannot express
that the event it describes is simultaneous with a reference time, even when the
reference time is itself in the past. The hypothetical simultaneous reading in such
contexts is called the ‘present under past’, or ‘sequence of tense’ reading in languages
where it is available such as English (Prior 1967, Ladusaw 1977, Dowty 1982, Enç
1987, Ogihara 1995, and many others). In Arabic, simultaneity is expressed by the
imperfective. For example, the imperfective verb yaktubu in (10a) (the imperfective
indicative form of write) describes an event that is in progress at the past time
established by the perfective matrix verb qaala (say) (Fassi Fehri 2004). It asserts that
he said to me at a past time: “I am writing the letter”. The English translation
expresses this temporal relation with the past tense progressive verb was writing. The
past tense morphology in was writing is not interpreted in English. It is a
morphological reflex of the temporal subordination of be writing to the matrix past
tense verb said. As expected in light of (10a), the perfective subordinate verb in (10b)
has only a reading in which it describes a time that is in the past with respect to the
reference time established by the past tense matrix verb, which is itself in the past
with respect to the utterance time. It can only mean that he said to me at a past time:
“I wrote the letter”. Thus, the past/present distinction expressed by the
perfective/imperfective morphological distinction is relative to a reference time in
Arabic, which is the utterance time by default but may be shifted forward or backward
with respect to the utterance time by various temporal operators.
(10)
a.
qaal-a l-ii ʔinna-hu ya-ktub-u r-risaalat-a
saidPERF-3MS to-me that-he 3MS-writeIMPF-IND the-letter-ACC
He said to me that he was writing the letter.
b.
qaal-a l-ii ʔinna-hu katab-a r-risaalat-a
saidPERF-3MS to-me that-he 3MS-wrotePERF-3MS the-letter-ACC
He said to me that he wrote the letter
It should be noted that the possibility of a “present under past” reading of the past
tense in English is limited to stative verbs. Consequently, English actually patterns
like Arabic in (10b), whose English translation also asserts that the letter was finished
at the time he told me that he wrote the letter. Crucially, the “present under past”
interpretation of the past tense in English is not available in Arabic for stative
predicates, which include the progressive interpretation of the imperfective seen in
(10a), as well as basic stative predicates like mariiḍ (sick) in (11) (Fassi Fehri 2004;
see Vlach 1981 on the stativity of the progressive). Without the past tense copula,
(11) asserts that he said to me at a past time that he was sick at that time. With the
past tense copula kaana (was), (11) can only assert that he said to me at a past time
that he had been sick prior to that time.
(11)
qaal-a l-ii ʔinna-hu mariiḍ-u-n / kaan-a mariiḍ-a-n.
saidPERF-3MS to-me that-he sick-NOM-N / wasPERF-3MS sick-ACC-N
He said to me that he was sick / had been sick.
The tense analysis of the perfective/imperfective contrast maintains that tense in
Arabic functions largely as in other languages, except for the absence of sequence of
tense effects. One point in which certain modern dialects of Arabic are clearly unlike
European languages, and in which Arabic stands to make a empirical contribution to
semantic theory, concerns the interpretation of active participles. The pattern in
question is well documented in Syrian Arabic (Cowell 1964, Boneh 2010), Palestinian
(Wild 1964), Egyptian (Woidich 1975, Eisele 1990), Libyan (Mitchell 1952), Kuwaiti
(Al-Najjar 1984, Brustad 2000), and Najdi (Ingham 1994), and probably occurs in
other dialects. In these dialects, the active participles show a durative or perfect
reading depending on the lexical aspectual type of the underlying verb. Vendler
(1957) identifies four basic aspectual types in English: states are compatible with forphrase duration adverbials (e.g. for an hour) but not compatible with the progressive
(12); activities are compatible with for-phrases and the progressive (13);
accomplishments are compatible with in-phrase duration adverbials (e.g. in an hour)
and the progressive (14); achievements are compatible with in-phrases but not the
progressive (15).
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
a.
Mary saw the star for an hour.
b.
*Mary was seeing the star.
a.
Mary drew for an hour.
b.
Mary was drawing.
a.
Mary drew a circle in an hour.
b.
Mary was drawing a circle.
a.
Mary reached the top in an hour.
b.
*Mary was reaching the top.
[State]
[Activity]
[Accomplishment]
[Achievement]
The predicates that are compatible with in-phrases (the accomplishments and
activities) have in common that they attribute a logical endpoint to the event they
describe (the circle being complete in (14) and Mary being at the top in (15)). These
are referred to as telic predicates (having a goal, or “telos”). The predicates
compatible with for-phrases are atelic, lacking a logical endpoint.
Brustad (2000) proposes that in the dialects in question, if the underlying verb is
atelic, the corresponding active participle describes an ongoing eventuality of the type
described by the underlying verb (the ‘durative’ reading), illustrated in (16) for Syrian
Arabic. If the underlying verb is telic, the corresponding active participle describes a
post-state of the underlying event (the ‘perfect’ reading, so called because it
resembles the English perfect in interpretation), illustrated in (17). These examples
are from Cowen (1964).
(16)
a.
ləәssaa-ni məәtradded
still-1S vacillating
‘I am still vacillating [undecided].’
b.
ʔana maaliyyan məәʕtəәmed ʕalee-h
I financially depending on-him
‘I am financially dependent on him.’
(17)
a.
ʔana ʒaaye ʔaddem ṭalab
I coming submit request
‘I have come to submit a request.’
b.
ṭ-ṭaʔṣ ħəәlu wa-ʃ-ʃams ṭaalʕa
the-weather beautiful and-the-sun coming.out
[Syrian]
‘The weather is nice and the sun has come out.’
The resemblance between structures like those in (17) and the English perfect is
reinforced by the fact that the state resulting from the event the underlying verb
describes must still hold at the reference time, a semantic connotation the English
perfect has (McCawley 1971, McCoard 1978). Example (17a) entails that the speaker
is still present at the utterance time and (17b) that the sun is still out. As Cowell
(1964) notes, while the perfect verb labas means to put on, said of clothing (18a), its
active participle laabis means to wear (18b). That is, it asserts that whoever put on the
clothes still has them on.
(18)
a.
labas tyaab-u.
[Syrian]
put.on clothes-his
‘He put on his clothes.’
b.
laabis tyaab-u.
putting.on clothes-his
‘He has put on his clothes.’ (He is still wearing them)
Another similarity between the perfect reading of the Arabic active participle and the
English perfect is that the present relevance implication disappears in the context of
quantificational adverbs like marra (once). In example (19), the adverb hallaʔ (now)
selects the standard present perfect reading with its present relevance connotation,
while the adverb marra (once) selects the so-called ‘existential’ perfect reading,
which asserts that a cake baking event took place at some point in the past. On this
reading (19) does not imply that the cake in question is still available or in any way
relevant to the discourse context.
(19)
ana ʕaamil gaato hallaʔ/marra
[Syrian]
I making cake now/once
‘I have made a cake now/once.’
In contrast to Brustad’s assessment that the difference between (16) and (17) can be
traced to telicity, Boneh (2010) develops an analysis of the basic pattern in (16) and
(17) that posits a fundamental similarity between activities and accomplishments. She
claims that the participle holds of a (post)-state invoked in the underlying verb
denotation. If the underlying verb is an accomplishment, the participle describes the
post-state of the transition the verb describes, whence the perfect reading in examples
like (17). Activities, on her account, are like accomplishments, describing a complex
event with a development portion and post-state portion. She supports this contention
with the observation that some verbs that function as activity verbs in English, such as
sleep, have counterparts in Arabic that describe a transition, and whose participial
derivatives describe a post state. Hence, the participle naayim appears at first glance
to be synonymous with English sleeping (20a). However, the underlying verb naam in
(20b) does not have an activity reading, but only an accomplishment reading analgous
to fall asleep, which the progressive construction in (20c) clarifies. The progressive in
(20c) does not entail that Sami is asleep yet, unlike the English progressive
counterpart of (20b) Sami is sleeping. Hence, naam means not sleep but fall asleep
and the participle naayim means not be sleeping but have fallen asleep, the usual
perfect reading of the participle.
(20)
a.
saami naayim.
[Syrian]
sami sleeping
‘Sami has fallen asleep.’
b.
saami naam.
sami sleepPFTV
‘Sami fell asleep.’
c.
saami ʕam byinaam.
sami PROG sleepIMPF
‘Sami is falling asleep.’
This analysis captures the fact that most verbs whose English counterparts are activity
predicates have the perfect reading in the participial form in Arabic. If, as Boneh’s
analysis requires, a verb like maʃʃaṭ (comb) in (21a) describes a transition of the state
of Sami’s hair, then, as expected, the progressive form in (21) locates the listener
within that transition (as in (20c)), and the participle in (21c) describes the post-state
of that transition.
(21)
a.
saami maʃʃaṭ ʃaʕr-u.
sami combed hair-his
‘Sami combed his hair.’
b.
saami ʕam byimaʃʃiṭ ʃaʕr-u.
[Syrian]
sami PROG combIMPF hair-his
‘Sami is combing his hair.’
c.
saami mmaʃʃiṭ ʃaʕr-u.
sami combing hair-his
‘Sami has combed his hair.’
However, some activity verbs do not display the pattern in (21). Verbs such as maʃa
(walk, go) have a durative interpertation in the participial form (in some dialects in
addition to a perfect interpretation, as Brustad 2000 notes) that is more or less
synonymous with the corresponding progressive form.
(22)
a.
saami maʃa bi-ʃ-ʃaṭṭ.
sami walked on-the-beach
‘Sami walked on the beach.’
b.
saami ʕam yimʃi bi-ʃ-ʃaṭṭ.
sami PROG walkIMPF on-the-beach
‘Sami is walking on the beach.’
c.
saami maaʃi bi-ʃ-ʃaṭṭ.
sami walking on-the-beach
‘Sami is walking on the beach.’
[Syrian]
While it is not immediately obvious how Boneh’s analysis might extend to these
verbs, Pallottino (2013) makes the observation that in Tunisian Arabic, the addition of
an endpoint description to an otherwise atelic verb does not effect the interpretation of
the corresponding active participle. Example (23a) below asserts without the
parenthesized material that Ali is walking—the durative reading typical of participles
of atelic verbs like maʃa (walk). The parenthesized prepositional phrase contributes an
endpoint to the spatial path associated with the walking event, making the underlying
event description telic. The participial phrase meʃi li-d-dar (walking to the house),
however, remains durative in interpretation. It does not receive the perfect
interpretation typical of telic predicates (cf. (17)). This observation carries over to
Syrian, as example (23b) shows (cf. (22c)). This means that such predicates do not
receive the perfect interpretation in the participial form even when they are
augmented with material that makes them telic. On one hand, this observation
reinforces Boneh’s point that the activities and accomplishments pattern the same;
activity verbs generally have the perfect reading of accomplishments in the participial
form and activity verbs that for some reason have a durative reading in the participial
form also have a durative reading when they are made into accomplishments by the
addition of a telos. On the other hand, it remains unclear what exactly is exceptional
about verbs like maʃa (walk).
(23)
a.
ʕali meʃi (li-d-dar).
[Tunesian]
Ali walking (to-the-house)
‘Ali is walking (to the house).’
b.
saami maaʃi la-ʃ-ʃaṭṭ.
[Syrian]
sami walking (to-the-beach)
‘Sami is walking (to the beach).’
2.3
Derivational Verb Morphology
Another issue that has attracted attention in the semantics of Arabic and other Semitic
languages concerns the meaningfulness of the verb templates, or ‘forms’. One clear
generalization, articulated by Wright (1981, p. 31ff, vol. 1) and analyzed by Fassi
Fehri (2003b) and (in connection with the cognate Hebrew verb forms) Doron (2003),
concerns the two causative templates faʕʕala (form II) and ʔafʕala (form IV). Both
(24b) and (24c) are causative derivatives of the intransitive verb in (24a). The external
argument of the form II causative represents the immediate source of the action
described by the verb, for which reason example (24b) implies that the captain acted
with the intention to sink the ship. The form IV causative does not carry this
connotation, and so is more readily compatible with the inanimate subject it has in
(24c).
(24)
a.
ghariq-at s-safiinat-u.
sankI-3FS the-ship-NOM
‘The ship sank.’
b.
gharraq-a l-qubṭaan-u s-safiinat-a.
sankII-3MS the-captain-NOM the-ship-ACC
‘The captain sank the ship.’
c.
ʔaghraq-at l-ʕaaṣifat-u s-safiinat-a.
sankIV-3FS the-storm-NOM the-ship-ACC
‘The storm sank the ship.’
Doron claims that the form II template characterizes the external argument of the
underlying verb as what she calls an ‘actor’, while form IV is genuinely causative.
Form II may, but need not, actually add an external argument. This accommodates the
fact that form II is not always valency increasing vis à vis form I, unlike form IV. A
purely intensivizing use of the second form of a transitive verb, that does not
introduce an additional argument, is illustrated by verbs like ḍaraba (hit), which in
the second form (ḍarraba) is still transitive but means ‘beat severely’. Yet, it is not
clear that the intensivizing function of form II can be reduced to the thematic status of
the subject. Fassi Fehri (2003b) describes the intensivizing function of Arabic form II
as pluractionality, i.e., pluralization of the event argument. While (25a) means that the
(implicit singular) subject injured the man once, (25b) asserts that he inflicted many
wounds on him. This pluractionality may distribute over a plural object, so that (25c)
asserts that he injured many soldiers, inflicting one wound on each (Fassi Fehri
2003b, p. 155).
(25)
a.
ʒaraḥ-a r-raʒul-a
wounded-3MS the-man-ACC
‘He wounded the man.’
b.
ʒarraḥ-a r-raʒul-a
wounded-3MS the-man-ACC
‘He inflicted many wounds on the man.’
c.
ʒarraḥ-a l-ʒunuud-a
wounded-3MS the-soldiers-NOM
‘He wounded the soldiers.’
It is therefore unclear whether Doron’s characterization of the meaning of form II
exclusively in terms of the relation of the subject to the event is adequate for Arabic.
Doron makes another claim, however, that holds some promise, in connection with
apparent exceptions to the pattern in (24). She claims that exceptions occur only for
‘singleton’ roots—roots that occur in only one form. Here, the form does not do any
‘work’ distinguishing lexical items in causativity and actionality and therefore carries
no significance. Testing this hypothesis for Arabic requires further research, but it
seems promising that there do not appear to be any verbs in Arabic that show the
opposite pattern as that seen in (24), that is verbs whose form II is compatible with an
indirect causer but whose form IV requires a direct ‘actor’.
2.4
Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of the interaction of language use and the grammar of
discourse structure, particularly how the communicative goals of discourse
participants affect how they structure their discourse contributions. As in other areas
of semantic inquiry on Arabic, little research has focused on pragmatic issues.
However, Haddad (2013) presents a thorough investigation of the role of non-
argument dative clitic pronouns in Lebanese Arabic in communicating speaker
attitudes toward the propositional content of their utterances, and the role of these
attitude attributions in enforcing social mores. Non-argument dative pronouns occur
as verb suffixes in Lebanese Arabic. The non-argument pronouns occur in addition to
the thematic arguments of the verb. Haddad claims that the presence of a nonargument dative clitic profiles the referent of the pronoun (the speaker in (26)) as a
holder of an attitude toward the proposition encoded by the corresponding sentence
without the clitic. The attitude need not be negative, but presents a moral evaluation
of the content of the proposition. The propositional content of (26) represents a
situation that is not considered virtuous in a conservative society. One who utters (26)
with the dative pronoun communicates his or her condemnation of Samir’s behavior.
(26)
samiir kill layle byishar-li bi-maṭraħ ʃikil.
[Lebanese]
samir every night stay.out3MS-meDAT in-place different
Lit.: ‘Samir goes out to a different place every night on me.’ i.e., ‘Samir
parties too much.’
The evaluation is not part of the truth conditional content of the sentence and the
listener may not deny the attitude itself, though he or she may criticize the speaker for
being judgmental, in terms like (27).
(27)
leeʃ miin-ak inta ta-yi-shar-lak ʔaw ma yi-shar-lak.
[Lebanese]
why who-you you to-3MS-stay.out-youDAT or not 3MS-stay.out-youDAT
Lit.: ‘Who are you for him to go out on you or not go out on you?!’ i.e., ‘Who
are you to judge him?!’
Omitting the dative clitic from (26) de-profiles the speaker as an attitude holder.
Without the clitic, the sentence may still be taken to imply a moral judgment. As
before, the listener cannot deny the speaker’s attitude toward the proposition. But
without the dative clitic, the listener is also no longer in a position to criticize the
speaker for being judgmental, since the speaker’s judgment is no longer profiled by
the overt form of the utterance. That is, (27) is an infelicitous response to (26) when
(26) lacks the dative clitic. The listener might still take issue with the speaker’s
propensity to gossip by responding with the utterance in (28).
(28)
leeʃ miin-ak inta ta-ti-ħki ʕl-e la-z-zalame.
[Lebanese]
why who-you you to-2MS-talk about-him to-the-man
‘Who are you to gossip about the man?!’
Haddad presents a model of these interactions in the cognitive grammar framework,
while a followup paper (Haddad 2014) describes syntactic conditions on the reference
of the dative clitic.
3.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Arabic is underrepresented in the theoretical semantic literature, and therefore carries
substantial potential to offer new empirical discoveries and novel theoretical
contributions. Some aspects of Arabic grammar that represent potentially fruitful
areas of semantic inquiry but that have gone largely unexplored are described below.
3.1
Tense and Modality
Comrie (1976) cites the example in (29), from Wright (1981, vol. 2, p. 9), in support
of the notion that perfective signifies relative past tense. The perfective subordinate
verb ħmarra (became ripe) describes a time that is in the past with respect to a
reference time established by the future interpretation of the imperfective verb ʔaʒiiʔu
(I come). Although the relative tense view of Arabic has independent support, it is
unexpected that the English translation to (29) contains a present tense verb, rather
than a past tense verb on analogy to the parallelism in the interpretation of (10b),
where both English and Arabic past tense is interpreted as locally relative, because the
verb in question is eventive.
(29)
ʔa-jiiʔu-ka ʔiðaa ħmarr-a l-busr-u
1S-come-you when redden-3MS the-dates-NOM
‘I will come to you when the dates become red.’
This observation suggests that the particle ʔiðaa (if, when) makes a semantic
contribution of its own that interacts with the verb tense in Arabic. No compositional
semantic account of this interaction has been articulated at the time of this writing.
One thing such an account must accommodate is the fact, as Wright notes, that ʔiðaa
may optionally be followed by a verb in the imperfective form, as in (30). He does not
mention any difference in interpretation contingent on the morphological form of the
verb. The particle qad below reinforces the perfect interpretation of the following
perfective verb.
(30)
wa-ʔiðaa tu-tlaa ʕalay-him ʔaayaat-u-naa qaal-uu qad samiʕ-naa
and-when 3FS-readIMPF.PASS to-them verses-NOM-our saidPERF-3P QAD heard-1P
‘And when our verses are read to them, they said we have heard.’
The occurrence of the perfect with ʔiðaa is presumably related to its occurrence with
related particles such as the counterfactual conditional complementizer law (31a)
(counterfactual if) and maa (31b) (as long as). Counterfactual law differs from
conditional ʔiðaa in that it presupposes the falsity of the underlying proposition. (31b)
presupposes that God did not wish to make mankind one nation. The examples below
are from Wright (1981, vol. 2, pp. 6 and 17 respectively).
(31)
a.
law ʃaaʔ-a rabbu-u-ka la-jaʕal-a n-naas-a ʔummat-a-n waaħidat-a-n
if wishedPERF-3MS lord-NOM-your LA-madePERF-3MS the-people-ACC
nation-ACC-N one-ACC-N
‘If your lord had wished, he would have made mankind one nation.’
b.
ʔan-naas-u maa daam-uu fii l-ħayaat-i d-dunyawiyyat-i ghaafil-uuna
the-people-NOM as.long.as remainedPERF-3MP in the-life-GEN the-
temporal-GEN careless-3MP
‘People are careless as long as they remain in the life of this world.’
Wright mentions that as with ʔiðaa, the verb following law may occur in the
imperfect, but here notes a difference in meaning. In this case, law has the meaning of
the non-counterfactual conditional often expressed by ʔiðaa, one that does not
presuppose the falsity of the underlying proposition.
(32)
law na-ʃaaʔ-u ʔaṣab-naa-hum bi-ðunuub-i-him
if 1P-wishIMPF-IND injuredPERF-1P-them for-sins-GEN-their
‘If we wished, we could injure them for their sins.’
The interactions between these modal and temporal particles and tense deserve careful
investigation in connection with a thorough survey of native speaker judgments of
entailment and contradiction in such cases independently of what the historical
written record appears to show, which does not provide us with robust evidence of
interpretational subtleties. This investigation promises to be fruitful both for the
development of a rigorous theory of tense interpretation in Arabic and for the
understanding of the semantic similarities between the particles in question, by virtue
of which they all allow or require the perfect.
3.2
Scalar Operators
The suggestion that the distinct particles discussed above share a component of
meaning is similar to the case of particles that seem to show a semantic uniformity in
superficially distinct usages. One example of such a particle is ħattaa, meaning either
until or even. In its until use, it occurs either as a subordinating complementizer or as
a preposition governing genitive, both illustrated in (33a). Its use meaning even is
illustrated in (33b-c).
(33)
a.
saar-uu ħattaa ṭalaʕ-at ʃ-ʃams-u / ħattaa ṣ-ṣabaaħ-i
journeyed-3MP until rose-3FS the-sun-NOM / until the-morning-GEN
‘They journeyed until the sun rose / until morning.’
b.
hattaa kariim najaħ-a fii mtiħaan-i l-riyaaḍiyyaat-i
even karim succeeded-3MS in test-GEN the-math-GEN
‘Even Karim passed the math test.’
c.
najaħ-a kariim hattaa fii mtiħaan-i l-riyaaḍiyyaat-i
succeeded-3MS karim even in test-GEN the-math-GEN
‘Karim passed even the math test.’
These two usages are not identical and have a different distribution. In its use as until,
the following proposition or nominal describes what is the case at the endpoint of a
scale associated with the verb, the path of the journey in (33a). In its use as even, it
describes what is the case at the endpoint of a scale of outcomes ordered by surprisal.
(33b) implies that Karim was that last student that anyone expected to pass the math
test. This outcome was maximally surprising. Both usages therefore make reference to
a scale and combine with a constituent that specifies the endpoint of that scale. A
formal semantic analysis is called for that demonstrates what these two clearly related
usages of ħattaa have in common and in what respect they differ semantically, and
how this is connected to the difference in distribution between them. Such an analysis
should also account for the connection evident in (33b-c) between the placement of
ħattaa and the scale of comparison. In combination with a preverbal noun phrase in
(33b), ħattaa compares the surprisal associated with the noun phrase referent to the
surprisal of other values for the subject variable x in the phrase x passed the math test.
In (33c), it compares the surprisal associated with the math test with the surprisal
associated with other values of x in the phrase Karim passed x. An analysis of this
phenomenon should not only relate the meaning of ħattaa here to its use meaning
until, but also account for restrictions on its distribution that distinguish Arabic from
English, where the meaning of even is better studied (see Rooth 1985, among others).
In particular, although ħattaa may combine with a topic noun phrase, as seen in (33b),
it may not combine with a noun phrase inside a prepositional phrase (34a), nor with a
post-verbal subject (34b). Nor may it occur by itself preceding a verb-initial clause
(34c).
(34)
a.
*najaħ-a kariim fii hattaa mtiħaan-i l-riyaaḍiyyaat-i
succeeded-3MS karim in even test-GEN the-math-GEN
b.
*najaħ-a hattaa kariim fii mtiħaan-i l-riyaaḍiyyaat-i
succeeded-3MS even karim-NOM-N in test-GEN the-math-GEN
c.
*hattaa najaħ-a kariim fii mtiħaan-i l-riyaaḍiyyaat-i
even succeeded-3MS karim-NOM-N in test-GEN the-math-GEN
3.3
Degree Constructions
Another type of scalar construction which is likely to be informative for future
research is the syntax and semantics of superlative and comparative constructions in
Arabic. The superlative construction in Standard Arabic has a surface format that
supports standard analyses of the logical form of the superlative construction in other
languages. Superlative adjectives are derived by the prosodic template ʔaC1C2aC3,
where C1-C3 are the root consonants of the adjectival base. I gloss this template as
‘elative’ since it occurs in comparative constructions as well, more on which below.
The Arabic sentence in (35) is analogous in form and meaning to its English
counterpart, modulo independent differences in the structure of noun phrases. The
Arabic superlative adjective follows the modified noun and agrees with it in
definiteness, as well as case, though case agreement is coincidentally obfuscated by
regular phonology in example (35), which deletes the stem-final glide in the base
ðakiyy (smart).
(35)
yasmin hiya ṭ-ṭaalibat-u l-ʔaðkaa fii ṣ-ṣaff-i
yasmin she the-student-NOM the-smartELV in the-class-GEN
‘Yasmin is the smartest student in the class.’
Szabolcsi (1986) and Heim (1999) note that the specification of the scale of
comparison in superlative constructions extends beyond the host adjective to the NP
containing the adjectival host as a whole. (35) does not assert that Yasmin has the
property of being both a student and the smartest person (the smartest person might
not be a student)—the expected intersective reading of the juxtaposition of noun and
adjective in (35)—but rather merely the smartest among the students in the class.
They derive this effect by postulating movement of the superlative morpheme,
without the corresponding adjective, to the left edge of the NP containing it in the
surface structure, deriving a structure that looks schematically like (36). Movement
leaves a degree-denoting trace in the base position, deriving a description be a dsmart student in the class in the case at hand, where the predicate d-smart denotes the
set of individuals who are smart to at least degree d. The superlative morpheme then
names the individual who exemplifies this predicate to the greatest value for d.
(36)
Yasmin is mostd [a d-smart student in the class]
One curious facet of this analysis is that the derived description is semantically
indefinite; we compare individuals with respect to the description be a d-smart
student in the class. If we compared individuals with respect to the description be the
d-smart student in the class, then for any given value for d we would have the
presupposition, associated with the, that there is only one student who meets that
description. This uniqueness presupposition would then clash with the fact that, as
mentioned above, the predicate d-smart is true of any individual who is at least dsmart. For any student who is smart to a given degree d, all the smarter students are
also smart to degree d, so no alternative student can fulfill the uniqueness
presupposition introduced by definiteness. Heim and Szabolcsi suggest for this reason
that the definite article in superlative constructions is a surface epiphenomenon, and
that superlative constructions are fundamentally indefinite. On the basis of (35),
where the definite article also appears in the surface structure, it appears this logic
applies to Arabic as well.
Movement of the superlative morpheme is not overt in English. However, in Arabic
the format in (35) is in free variation with two other formats that show displacement
of the superlative morpheme. First, the entire adjective containing the superlative
morpheme may be fronted to the left edge of the NP containing it in what is arguably
the base structure in (35), deriving (37). This construction has some of the properties
attributed to the logical form of the corresponding English construction. The
superlative morpheme is fronted out of its canonical position to the position where it
is postulated to occur in the logical form according to the standard analysis of
superlatives in English. Further, the construction is morphologically indefinite. There
is no definite article and the head noun ṭaalibatin (student) bears the ‘tanwiin’ suffix
(-n) typical of indefinites. On the other hand, (37) does not represent exactly the
structure posited as the logical form of superlative constructions, since the entire
superlative adjective is preposed, not just the superlative morpheme by itself.
(37)
yasmin hiya ʔaðkaa ṭaalibat-i-n fii ṣ-ṣaff-i
yasmin she smartELV student-GEN-N in the-class-GEN
‘Yasmin is the smartest student in the class.’
However, even this last mentioned option is available in Arabic. (37) can be
reformulated as (38), in which the term ʔakθaru (most) precedes the head noun
ṭaalibatin and the adjective occurs in its nominal form (ðakaaʔ = smartness) as an
accusative adjunct of the head NP. The term ʔakθaru is itself the superlative
derivative of the adjective kaθiir, meaning much, or many, which arguably occurs
here as a default morphological base for the superlative morpheme, which is itself a
prosodic template.
(38)
yasmin hiya ʔakθar-u taalibat-i-n ðakaaʔ-a-n fii ṣ-ṣaff-i
yasmin she muchELV-NOM student-GEN-N smartness-ACC-N in the-class-GEN
‘Yasmin is the smartest student in the class.’
This example has roughly the surface form that Heim and Szabolcsi attribute to the
logical form of the corresponding English construction. The Arabic counterparts lend
credence to the superlative displacement approach, and suggest as well that the
distribution of the definite article is contingent on the surface position of the
superlative morpheme. Its occurrence in (35) may represent a surface morphological
marking of the covert movement required to derive the proper interpretation of the
construction.
The comparative in Arabic is expressed by the same morpheme as the superlative,
with the preposition min (from) introducing the standard of comparison. In light of the
facts about the superlative described above, it is significant that the comparative never
occurs with a nominal head. It may occur as a predicate adjective as in (39a), and in
this function may be separated from the associated scalar term as the superlative may,
illustrated in (39b).
(39)
a.
yasmin hiya ʔaðkaa min muʕiin
yasmin she smartELV than mu’en
‘Yasmin is smarter than Mu’en.’
b.
yasmin hiya ʔakθar-u min muʕiin ðakaaʔ-a-n
yasmin she muchELV-NOM than mu’en smartness-ACC-N
‘Yasmin is smarter than Mu’en.’
However, a comparative adjective may not occur in construct with a nominal head, as
the superlative may, illustrated in (40a). It may only occur as a modifier of a noun,
illustrated in (40b), as a positive adjective would.
(40)
a.
*yasmin hiya ʔaðkaa ṭaalibat-i-n min muʕiin
yasmin she smartELV student-GEN-N than mu’en
b.
yasmin hiya ṭaalibat-u-n ʔaðkaa min muʕiin
yasmin she student-GEN-N smartELV than mu’en
‘Yasmin is a smarter student than Mu’en.’
That is, the comparative morpheme has the distribution of the associated adjective,
while the superlative morpheme shows this distribution, illustrated in (35), in addition
to a distribution corresponding to the logical form of the superlative construction
posited by Heim and Szabolcsi. These observations suggest that the superlative
construction is fundamentally nominal, the case of (35) being a base for covert
displacement of the superlative to an adnominal position, while the comparative
construction is fundamentally adjectival. These observations demonstrate substantial
cross-linguistic uniformity in degree constructions and warrant further investigation.
The exploration of logical and syntactic relationships between the constructions
described above and their interaction with their semantic and syntactic context
promises to shed light on parallels in structure between different sortal domains in
semantics, i.e. individuals, degrees, and times, and the significance of these parallels
for a general combinatorial theory of meaning in natural language. These are a few
issues in an extensive range of similar issues relating to conditionals, modality in
general, tense, quantification, degree constructions, and other areas of semantic
inquiry that are under-described in Arabic and that represent fertile ground for future
semantic research.
4.
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5.
FURTHER READING
Boneh, Nora and Ivy Sichel (2010). Deconstructing Possession. Natural Language
and Lingusitic Theory 28:1-40. This article discusses the connection between
the choice of preposition used to express possession in Palestinian Arabic and
the animacy and definiteness of the subject and the alienability of the possessive
relation.
Elghamry, Khaled (2004). Definiteness and Number Ambiguity in the Superlative
Construction in Arabic. Lingua 114:897-910. This article treats the partitive
superlative construction in Standard Arabic and documents parallels to
quantifier constructions.
McNabb, Yaron and Christopher Kennedy (2011). Extraction and Deletion in
Palestinian Arabic Comparatives. In Bloselow, Ellen and Hamid Ouali (eds.)
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXII-XXIII. John Benjamins Publishing
Company, Amsterdam, pp. 149-166. This article treats syntactic constraints on
ellipsis in comparative constructions in Palestinian Arabic.
Word Count: 8,673