Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
2.0
Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Agency/Animacy
Definiteness
Specificity
Textual prominence
Qualification or modification
6. Quantification
These features also play a role in the syntactic realization of agreement
phenomena and genitive/possessive constructions in the dialects.
' The construct consists of two consecutive nouns, the second of which
"possesses" (literally or figuratively) the first. In general, the construct in
spoken Arabic follows the same rules that govern it in formal Arabic, except
that the former has no case markings.
44
45
2.1
The Dual
Two major articles by Blanc and Ferguson stress that the dual is
not a productive category in spoken Arabic.2 While the dual suffix
I-enl (Moroccan I-ayn/) is productive in many areas as a nominal ending,
no dual adjectival or verbal markings exist. Ferguson ( 1 959b) identifies
the absence of dual agreement as one case of grammatical consistency
among the dialects which is not found in Classical Arabic. He finds
that the dual is least productive in Moroccan and South Arabian dialects,
and most productive in the Syro-Mesopotamian area.
Blanc's ( 1 970) seminal study of the dual in spoken Arabic
concludes that Arabic dialects share a two-part dual system, comprised
of dual and pseudo-dual. Blanc distinguishes regular, productive duals
from a non-productive, frozen pseudo-dual category consisting mainly
of words referring to paired parts of the body (e.g., S yrian /'izren/
legs). These pseudo-duals function semantically and syntactically as
plurals, and in a number of dialects, no alternate plural forms for such
words exist. Blanc concludes that the dual is not a concord category in
spoken Arabic; rather dual nouns function syntactically like other
enumerated nouns, and generally take plural agreement.3
2By contrast, the dual in formal Arabic carries full inflection in nouns,
adjectives, relative and demonstrative pronouns, and verb conjugations.
3Exceptions noted by Blanc for Syrian and Moroccan, in which dual nouns
can be modified by feminine adjectives or verbs, may be explained using the
individuation hierarchy. All examples cited contain temporal nouns, such as
day, month, or year. These nouns consistently occur in syntactic constructions
low in individuation, such as non-resumptive relative clauses (see 3.4) Sections
2.2 and 2.3 show that feminine or collective agreement is consistent with
speaker's perceptions of such nouns as not highly individuated.
46
':;",J
&-a
M3
.:;.. 1I J t:.
two steps
zuz xalrat
zuz d al-xatwat
Of all four dialects, Moroccan has the most restricted use of dual
suffixes. Section 2. 1 .2 will discuss several features of the Moroccan
dual that set it apart from the dual as used in other dialects.
47
thousand, and Iyumaynl two days (see Harrell 1 962: 1 00- 1 ; see also
Lerchundi 1 900 for a similar, century-old description of northern
Moroccan). These forms are frozen, containing an unusual layl diphthong
that occurs only in certain contexts in Moroccan (Harrell 1 962: 1 4) ;
hence the normal Moroccan reflex o f the diphthong layl is /II (rather
than leI as found in other dialects), as in /bit! room for /baytl (or /bet!).
Educated Moroccan informants reject forms such as /kHibaynl as not
Moroccan. The Moroccan I-aynl suffix is thus not productive, as
contrasted to the eastern I-en/, which may be attached to many types of
nouns. Finally, whereas the pseudo-dual forms in other dialects may
be paired with plural forms with which they closely correspond in
usage (Blanc 1 970:46), the Moroccan "pseudo-dual" I-inl is the only
possible non-singular form for parts of the body.
Blanc uses these facts to support the distinction he makes between
what he calls the "true" dual and the pseudo-dual. As Blanc notes,
pseudo-dual constitutes a limited class shared by most, if not all, dialect
regions ( 1 970:43). But while the "true" dual in other dialects is a
productive category, the only productive dual in Moroccan is the
periphrastic construction IzOz dl two of followed by a plural: IzOz d
l-ktubl two books (Harrell 1 962:206; my informants give /ktObal for
books).
Moroccan is the only dialect among the four whose only productive
dual is periphrastic, but forms of periphrastic dual are found in all
regions. The following section examines the forms and functions of
these non-suffixed duals.
2.1.3 Periphrastic Duals
In addition to the Moroccan periphrastic dual Izoz d-I two of with
a following plural, two other dialects contain periphrastic dual
constructions as well: Kuwaiti and a rural dialect in southern Syria.
Holes notes that some Gulf speakers use a periphrastic dual form of the
construction plural noun + numeral two, as in /kutub i!nen/ two books,
which alternates with /kitaben/ two books ( 1 990: 1 49). One example of
this periphrastic dual occurs in my Kuwaiti data, from the oldest and
least educated speaker:
48
K3
J 4-.)
and
0 1 "....u
rjal i!nen
men two (m)
niswan !inten
women two (0
Two men
Two women
-I
..o
Ja t.:...
.
itnen :?ubba
40n the other hand, Ingham's description of Najdi syntax lists only a regular
dual, and does not mention periphrastic dual forms. Ingham also notes feminine
singular adjectival agreement with dual nouns (betenin zenah/ two good houses,
1 994:63), a construction rejected by informants from the four dialects areas
examined here.
49
(.u
-
itnen libnaniyye
two Lebanese-p
libnaniyyen
It Lebanese-two
It
The dual of other word classes may be expressed with either the
periphrastic dual or the dual suffix. Both of the following forms are
acceptable:
. t..... 1 I
itnen 'asatze
two teachers
&:!,jL:... 1
'istazen
two teachers
SBlanc remarks only that U[i]n all dialects, there are nouns that do not admit
the dual at all" (1970:43). An inventory of morphological and lexical restrictions
on the use of the dual suffix is a subject suitable for a morphological study.
50
The fact that dual marking often occurs on the first mention of nouns
suggests its use is pragmatically marked, and not simply a case of free
variation. Nouns marked with the dual suffix usually represent new
topics; that is, they represent the first mention of textually prominent
entities. Cowell notes that the dual is used in contrast to the singular,
not the plural, and that expression of a quantity of two in definite
possessed form uses the definite plural followed by the number two
( 1 964:367):
. . " '/ 1 (
k;)tbi t-tnen
books-my the-two
my two books
6Rules for adding pronoun suffixes in formal Arabic dictate that the /n/ in
both dual and sound masculine plural suffixes be dropped. In spoken Arabic,
the /n/ may be retained, but the resulting construction is usually avoided.
51
2.1.5 Pseudo-duals
As Blanc notes, pseudo-duals of parts of the body actually
constitute a form of plural in Syrian and Egyptian. In fact, Cowell
points out that a separate, "true" dual form also exists for such words
in Syrian, formed by inserting a I-t-I before the dual suffix /-en/. Cowell
gives the following examples ( 1964:367):
'zrteno
'ilten
tenten
two hands
two eyes
This "new dual" ending must have developed sometime after the original
dual ending (Blanc's pseudo-dual) was reinterpreted as a plural. This
development, the apparent result of speakers' "need" to express the
quantity "exactly two" specifically for parts of the body, suggests that
the historical development of the pseudo-dual has been divorced from
that of the "true" dual. While Syrian I-t-I distinguishes /'iden! hands
from /'i(d)ten/ two hands, it cannot be used to differentiate between
/yomenl a couple of days and /yomten/ two days. The fact that a
particular dual ending exists for a specific semantic field does not
necessarily mean that it extends to others, and any history of the dual
in spoken Arabic must be category-specific, taking into account the
fact that different kinds of dual exhibit different behavior. For example,
Blanc points out that only pseudo-dual forms admit pronoun suffixes
with the elision of the Inl from I-en/ (as in formal Arabic), such as in
Egyptian /riglayyal my legs ( 1970:48). His "true" duals rarely admit
such suffixes, except in formal registers of Arabic. This pattern suggests
that the pseudo-dual may be older than the "true" dual in spoken Arabic.
52
'ahlen
welcome!
aQQten
bon appetit
j-A
marQ;}bten
welcome!
ba'den
later
Blanc claims that I'ahlen! welcome, Ial:ll:ltenl bon appetit and ImarQ;}btenl
welcome are duals; however, it seems more likely that the first two are
actually cases of I'imalal deflection , or pronunciation of the vowel lal
as a more fronted vowel, deflected towards Iii, known to occur in the
Levant. At some later point I-enl (or a stressed, lengthened I-en!) was
then reanalyzed as a dual ending, and ImarQ;}btenl was then fonned by
analogy. The vowel shift of I'imalal may also be responsible for the
suffix I-enl in /ba'denl after that, the origin of which would in that case
be /ba'd 'ani after (with following verb), found in Syria and Egypt.
2.2
53
53
.J
Ui...!. I
Cl" . I.J" L:.
SHoles (1990) does not include data on collective nouns, non-human animate
nouns, or verbal agreement.
he feminine singular agreement pattern, called deflected agreement, was
regularized and codified in formal Arabic during its early history. However,
the Quran and other early texts contain examples of both strict and deflected
agreement (see Belnap 1991). It is reasonable to assume that these two types
of agreement, deflected and plural, have coexisted for a long time.
54
'
. C L:u
.
J-"
_ - 1*
.,....t I
55
MlO
,-;t. ,i-.< L... V" L:J I . . . (' 1,.,..:.... '1 1 J t 1 L. V" L:J I
n-nas rna bqats n-nii' d I-J:ttiram ... n-nas rna katfhrns ba'<;Iha
the-people neg remained-3fs the-type gen the-respect ... the-people
neg indic-3fs-understand each-other-f
56
S2
There are people like this and people like !hat, it's mixed, that is,
people who accept . . .
S2
. . -. C
- la - I !
' .I
.
.-.c . . ... c . I l
I & I
I.>" . V- """"" r
I L I I . :: . - L.!..:....
..::.....UJ LA
.J
I,)
r!-""'''''''-
'illa ya'ni 'alam 'aswa' min[h]a bi-ktir ktir ya'ni e 'ilon maQi ktir
maraQ minan yiqbalu yaxdu ya'ni ha l-bin;}t
except that-is world worse than-her by-a-Iot a-lot that-is thing
to-them past very sordid in-order-to they-accept they-take that-is
this the-girl
except for people who are much worse than her, that is, people
who have a very sordid past, to accept to marry the girl
Yet another example from the same interview shows I;}l-'alaml people
as subject of two feminine verbs, Itatawwaretl developed and Ima 'adet!
is no longer_ In this case, people is a collective whole, referring to
people in general:
S2
57
58
All the people are sick with diabetes and live by themselves
Why does this speaker use a feminine adjective and a plural verb to
describe the same group of people? In the first clause, people are
viewed and treated as a homogenous group, whereas in the second, the
adverbial phrase lli-wal)duhuml by themselves adds individuation, since
every single person lives alone. A similar example shows the agreement
shifting from feminine singular /hal to plural /huml when the speaker
moves from talking about /Siwayyit l)agatl some things as a homogenous
group to separating and ranking them (example from Belnap 1 99 1 :86;
translation mine):
US
59
60
MlO
':& <
.': . < .
. ...r-:-: J
. . (....JS J
S5
UJ.....:.J. I
. .
. < -: c.J..>-' IS i
L...ll i I
The richest of the rich ofAmerica are going to live in this area
Cowell lists a number of examples containing subjects Inasl people,
I'ahl/ people, folks, and plurals ending in the feminine leI (a Syrian
variant of la/) such as Isaggilel workers, and I'asatzel professors
( 1964:424). All but one of Cowell's examples contain deflected verb
subj ect agreement, but not noun-adjective agreement. The exception
contains two types of agreement with the noun, the plural pronoun
I-honl them and the feminine adjective Ikbirel large ( 1964:423):
61
. .
E5
"
..
-
ciyalu mg mitrabbiyin
children-his neg raised-properly-p
E4
......
..,i. t J w.J 1 .'fi' 1.;r-
. .
62
2.3
Agreement Neutralizationto
63
'
. - 1 . . -: .':.
u .)
L..
..-...... 1
..,-:-
t..a_ .l.J. JJ
IJ
<..
J UL!. . u
.
Kl
J Ul W I .:J.)t.- L....
64
(a)
<.! bJ,) ,J
(b)
warda baladi
<.! I 4+U 1
il-Iahga I-mari
'asida 'arabi
a Arabic poem
a home-grown rose
(c)
'-F->"-
(d)
II Sallam's observation that Ibaladi/ occurs in the feminine in the phrase /magalis
baladiyya/ local councils (1979:27) is explained by the fact that Ibaladi/ in this
latter case has a different meaning, referring to the local township (the phrase
does not mean native or unsophisticated councils). I suspect that the adjective
/mari/ Egyptian functions in a way opposite that of Ibaladi/, at least to some
extent. For most Egyptian speakers, /mari/ carries a highly positive identity
connotation, and in this sense should tend to show patterns of high individuation.
A sociolinguistic investigation of this topic might produce interesting results.
65
.li;J I JL:..S: I,)"l:a t"A .- .It;; ..l . . . J.i....!. r,';' U J L:..S: JL:..S: I J j J
wuzara kular kuUir 'amalt-ilhum ugl ... itagalt rna' nas kutar
fi-I-balad
ministers many-p many-p did-I-for-them work '" worked-I with
people many-p in-the-country
S2
66
Another text from northern Syria contains the noun /'islam/ lslam
(rather than /muslimin/ Muslims) to specify the sectarian identity of
Muslims who moved into the (Christian) speaker's town of Sulaymaniyya
(Behnstedt 1989:66, translation mine):
S
rna kanet m'ammra s-sleymaniye, rna fiya xal' ktir. ba'deyn iiret
tt'ammar, aru l-'iilam yint'lu u aret halla' hawnik ya'ni nas,
iiru 'islam.
neg was-3fs built-up-f Sulaymaniyya, neg in-3fs creation many.
then became-3fs 3fs-get-built-up, became-3p the-world 3p-move
and became-3fs now there that-is people, became-3p Islam
Sulaymaniyya was not built up, there weren't many people there
(in it). Then it started getting built up, people started moving
{there] , and now, there, there {have] come to be, you know,
people, they {have] come to be "Islam" {Muslims] .
Does the use of /'islam/ Islam in this text also represent linguistic
posturing? Lebanese informants confirm that the terms /'islam/ lslam
and /masiiyye/ Christian or Christianity are often used by Lebanese
of both religions to refer to the sectarian identity of groups of people
(an informant insists that these terms do not refer to the religions
themselves but rather to people). The use of the nominal form /'islam/
rather than the adjective, which would have to be the more individuating
plural /muslimin/ Muslims, may simply emphasize the collective identity
rather than the individual.
As Belnap points out, the search for the purpose of agreement,
syntactically redundant in many languages, has frustrated linguists for
years ( 199 1 :25). What is the motivation for retaining a syntactic function
that seems to carry little or no meaning of its own? Perhaps the reason
lies partly in social meaning. Evidence from spoken Arabic suggests
that agreement is a feature that allows speakers to claim for themselves
or others a degree of social status or power, a kind of linguistic posturing.
Belnap notes among his informants a "general tendency of male
speakers to favor deflected agreement more than female speakers,"
67
W J /. '::' L..
mat-3ms minha 'arbae ubyan
died-he from-her four boys
En
68
S4
dJ
.)1....0
L.. r 41 i . dJ
.) 1....0
L.. I
You haven't even [been married] a week yet, not even ten days
Another example, from Behnstedt and Woidich's rural Egyptian Delta
texts, introduces a stolen water buffalo. In the first sentence, indefinite
feminine /gamOsa/ (a) water buffalo is preceded by a masculine singular
verb, /insara'/ it was stolen, while in the second, the now defined
/ig-gamOsa/ the water buffalo is preceded by a feminine singular verb
/insara'it/ it was stolen (Behnstedt and Woidich 1 987 :26, translation
mine):
L....U . &--
t...".
.. ... 4- ....:u J I . L:, .1.:Io. IJ r \, 1 &-- i .)-"
... J t...".
.. .. 4-l 1 ..::...l 1
There [was] one day a man among us who had a water buffalo
stolen /rom his house. So when the water buffalo was stolen and
got out . . .
While verb-subject neutralization patterns i n spoken Arabic often
parallel formal Arabic rules, these formal rules themselves reflect the
same pragmatic principles that other agreement patterns do. One pattern
that emerges from the examples of verb-subject neutralization cited
here is that the subject is often indefinite, non-specific, or non-human.
In other words, these subjects are of low individuation. Another possible
explanation for the agreement neutralization is that the indefinite subjects
in some of these cases represent new topics; as such, they carry the
pragmatic focus of the sentence. The verb, on the other hand, is thematic.
Perhaps the neutralization of thematic sentence elements, such as
sentence- or clause-initial verbs, lends greater prominence to the new
topic.
69
oJ'(,J I oJ J I 4J ..:.L..
oJ'(,JI oJ J I 4J IL..
kids
70
2.4
J ')' I u--
J ')' I ti.i..!J LA
ha -a'fet 1-'arQ
ha -a'fe
xaqe ro'
xaqa l-Hro'
a road map
a road map
J.rb u. J
ti.i..!J LA
rnn
1-arQ
J u. J
71
(a)
CA
I ..::..o WJ I jS.>-'
..::..0
lA1.J
(b)
I jS..,.11
(a)
I ";'I
(b)
I I ";'
72
Masculine
Feminine
Plural
Moroccan
dyal l d
--
---
Egyptian
bitli'
bitli'it
b i llie
Syrian
taba'
--
(taba'Ul)
Kuwaiti
mlil
(mlilat)
(mlilot)
73
K4
KI
I c: 4-- J I ,J
K2
dJ JI
1..:. 1
74
75
(b)
,!.l Wl tl:4 I
mal'ab it-tinis bita' in-nadi
court the-tennis gen the-club
Cowell gives two possible Syrian variants for my uncle's gasoline station ,
both of which contain exponents ( 1 964:46 1) . The variant on the right
carries an emphasis on gasoline, while the one on the left highlights my
uncle as possessor. In each case, the exponent focuses attention on a
particular piece of infonnation:
s
' l f u....-..
. I f
u....-..
K3
r+> .l.;J..,J 4-- ' .::. l:!,J l.f.:. 4...... .J .l.l. 1 J L.. .J
Her friends from school would visit her and her mother came
and threw them out
These structural factors parallel the pragmatics of infonnation
packaging. In the following section, I will show that the use of exponents
allows a focus on the possessor not present in the construct phrase.
Another possible motivation for avoiding multi-tenn constructs may lie
in the ambiguity of the multiple relationships. In processing two
possessive relationships at the same time, it may help the listener to
know which one carries particular weight or focus. Hence, structural
and pragmatic considerations seem to be at least partly related.
76
S2
i<;l-<;labit taba'u
the-officer gen-his
his officer
In the following passage, the Egyptian speaker describes how an
insect crawled into her ear. The insect is highly individuated, textually
prominent and has the power to cause the speaker pain, all factors
which help attract the use of the genitive exponent /bita'/ in the phrase
/l-miswar bita'ha/ its journey.
E2
'J.=J ..:.J..:i". .l
.) 1 # 1 j..s.::. 1..f' w
..:.J..:i". .l
.lJ
hiyya daxalit, daxalit li-l.tadd 'and iHabla mis 'arfa t'addi, fa-'a'da
tixabba fi ablit widni 'asan ti'addi tikammil ba'a l-miswar bita'ha
\J
As Diem ( 1 986) has shown, the concept of alienability helps explain why
genitive exponents are not generally used to express relationships involving
family and parts of the body, which are inalienable relationships.
77
room:
Ml l
Her father was a king, a sultan, and he up and made for her her
very own room (suite)
The next passage contains both constructs and exponents, first the
construct, /waldha/ her son, then the exponent, /l-wald dyalha/ her son
(in boldface). After the first mention of the son, in construct, the
narrator explicitly contrasts the identity of the man's two wives. The
second mention of the son contains the exponent /dyaiha/ her [own] in
reference to the man's first wife, highlighting the focus on her identity
as possessor, while simultaneously emphasizing the horror of her deed:
M1 1
4-Jl..1
gat-Iu 'a r-razal l-mra klat waldha - hadi c;l-c;lrra - zuz d 1_'yalat 14
mzawwaz r-razI, I-mra I-xwra ga[llt-Iu I-mra klat I-wald dyalha
said-she to-him 0 the-husband, the-wife ate-she son-her--this the
second-wife--two gen the-women having married the-husband the
woman other said-she to-him the-woman ate-she the-son gen-hers
' ''he occurrence of /d/ in /1.01. d 1-'yliHit/ two wives is not a true possessive,
but marks the specification of a quantity, in this case two. Moroccan /d/
fulfills this syntactic role for quantities between two and ten.
78
She said to him, 'Husband, the woman ate her son-this is the
second wife {talking)-two women the guy married, the other wife
told him, the woman ate her own son.
Kuwaiti /mal/ often occurs in phrases contrasting with other named
or implied entities. In the first example, the speaker uses /mal/ to
contrast the forgetfulness of old age with that other kind. In the second,
she contrasts love in the old days with love in the post-oil era:
K3
K3
Similarly, here one particular house of this member of the ruling family
is contrasted to his other houses:
Kn
K3
JL.. JJ
rili ylbI-li sa'ar mal sibi'
go-f bring-f hair gen lion
79
S5
u ..:.::.. , J . t+;..,s.....
80
81
they modify. The nouns that constitute the first tenns of these genitive
phrases are all indefinite, and the possessors are generic rather than
specific. The genitive phrase as a whole is thus low in individuation:
M6
U I J l:!J t:. I
He bought a waterproo/watch
M
K3
In the old days there [were] no doctors, in our time, [just] old
women, the inventions of old women
In contrast to these Moroccan and Kuwaiti examples, in which
the genitive exponent is used to classify rather than individuate, the
following Egyptian example shows /hita'/ in an individuating phrase.
Although the first noun /Qaga/ thing is indefmite and non-specific, the
high individuation of /rabbina/ God allows the exponent /hita'it/, since
a thing 0/ God's is unique among all other things:
82
w 1 y....:. t. I J IJ
Y.S t. ...;... LJ I
<
'-rf'". La LJ I
-
K4
1 ..::...,J La r+'""'J 1
83
1.,4
JI JL.. I I
vl
J.,......J LA -
-- taba'Oli
-- gen-mine
-- Mine
Moroccan /dyall, derived from a particle rather than a noun, does not
show agreement in urban dialects.16
The partial agreement of certain exponents may find explanation
in the individuation of the modified noun: the more individuated the
genitive phrase, the greater the tendency for the exponent to agree in
number and gender. Further evidence supporting this analysis is
Haming's observation that agreement tends to be marked on /mall if
the modifier is a personal pronoun suffix ( 1 980:27), that is, in the
framework used here, if the phrase as a whole is more individuated.
84
iQ-Qabi taba'on
the officer gen-theirs
grandmother.
K3
('] L,.
85
Every day she would buy legs of meat and go give them to its
(the lion's) guard
The same speaker uses a construct to express her driver:
K3
' J 4J J .l j ' ,
4J .l .l.l",J '
l-wld dyalha
the-son gen-hers
86
M9
x;}msa d drah;}m
five gen dirhams
five dirhams
Moroccan speakers also use /dyal/ in expressions meaning a lot of and
how much of
M2
ll..!J '
M2
'iwa, Qal dyal l-msayl w Qal dyal hada -yes how-much gen the-problems and how-much gen this
So many problems and so much of this -In most dialects, the genitive exponent may not modify an inalienable
noun, but Moroccan /dyal/ often does:
Ml
dJ 4J J.,J '
l-w;}dnin dyalk
the-ears gen-yours
M9
2.5 Summary
87
quantification, which the exponents of the other dialects may not do.
The higher frequency of Moroccan /dyal/ is thus partly explained by its
greater functional capacity.
Chapter 1 demonstrated that animacy and specification seem to
affect definite marking in Moroccan nominal phrases in such a way
that Moroccan speakers tend to prefer definite marking on animate and
specified nouns. It seems possible that the high frequency of /dyal/
relative to exponents of other dialects may be partly related to the
relatively wider use of the definite article in Moroccan speech, since
/dyal/ allows the definite article to be retained on one or both nouns in
a genitive phrase.
2.5
Summary
88