ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Had it not been for the help of my professor Dr. Daniel Seely, this thesis would have
remained merely a dream. Therefore, it is with immense gratitude and appreciation that I
acknowledge the support and guidance that I received from him. I have been very fortunate
to have Dr. Seely as my thesis advisor. His unlimited support and kindness went to the extent
that he offered me financial support when he knew indirectly that I was having some
financial challenges. As for my thesis, he has been a constant source of illuminating ideas.
With him, I learned how to evaluate arguments, question ideas, and express my own
argument in a more appropriate manner. Without any hesitation, I acknowledge that Dr. Seely
is the greatest instructor that I have ever dealt with in my educational journey.
This is not to overlook my exceptional gratitude and appreciation towards my great
teacher, Dr. Damir Cavar. I feel honored to have worked with him on this thesis. His
comments and suggestions were extremely helpful. Working with Dr. Cavar is such a
blessing because of his wisdom, down-to-earth attitude, and vast knowledge. Taking courses
in computational linguistics with Dr. Cavar has had a great impact on the way I see
linguistics. Before his courses, the idea that I chose the wrong major used to haunt me, but
with him, my love for linguistics has grown and is still growing.
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ABSTRACT
The goal of this thesis is to analyze the syntactic structure of the Arabic determiner phrase
(DP) within the confines of Chomsky’s minimalist program. Attention is drawn to a number
of the misconceptions many linguists have about this constituent. Some of the issues that
linguists overlook include the existence of an indefinite article as well as a possessive
determiner that heads the genitive phrase. A new analysis of agreement within DP is
presented, as well as an argument against the construct state analysis and analyses of other
related issues.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........................................................................................................iii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................iv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1
Background ...........................................................................................................1
Statement of the Problem ......................................................................................1
Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................................3
Justification and Significance ................................................................................3
Limitations .............................................................................................................4
The Scope of this thesis: the Nominal Constituent ...............................................4
Thesis Organization ...............................................................................................9
CHAPTER 2: TWO NEW DETERMINERS ..............................................................................11
The Arabic Indefinite Article .................................................................................11
Nunation: The Indefinite Article .........................................................11
Nunation: Exceptional Cases ...............................................................16
Nunation and Ellipsis ..........................................................................16
Nunation on Adverbs ...........................................................................23
Nunation on Proper Nouns ..................................................................24
The Possessive Determiner ...................................................................................26
Summary ...............................................................................................................32
CHAPTER 3: THE STRUCTURE OF THE ARABIC DP .........................................................34
The position of Articles and N to D Movement ....................................................34
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Adjective Phrases inside DP ..................................................................................38
Prepositional Phrases and Complementizer Phrases inside Arabic DP .................54
Summary ...............................................................................................................58
CHAPTER 4: The Modern Standard Arabic Construct State Reanalyzed ..................................59
Overview of the Construct State ...........................................................................59
Arabic Genitive Phrase ..........................................................................................63
Summary ...............................................................................................................72
CHAPTER 5: EXTENDED ANALYSIS .....................................................................................73
Pre-nominal Adjectives, Quantifiers, and Numerals in DP ...................................73
Adjectives with DP Complement .......................................................73
Pre-nominal Adjectives ......................................................................75
Quantifiers and Numerals ..................................................................80
Duals and Irregular Masculine Plurals in the Genitive Phrase ..............................82
Relative Pronouns Agreement with the head of the Matrix NP ............................84
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................88
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................95
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