Arabic-L:LING:Form IV query

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 14 Aug 2000
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1) Subject: Form IV query

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1)
Date: 14 Aug 2000
From: Mark Letourneau <SAGMLETOUR at aol.com>
Subject: Form IV query

Greetings. I am studying the syntax of derived Form VI verbs with understood
reciprocals in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and I would appreciate your help
with the following questions.

"Blocking" of  Form I by Form VI

Lebanese Arabic has sentences like the following (from Aoun, Benmamoun, and
Sportiche 1994:214):

(1)         Kariim w Marwaan biHibbo ba9Dun
            'Kariim and Marwaan love each other.'

Do such sentences exist in MSA?  For example, is (2) possible (or, better,
attested)?

(2)         Kariim(un) wa Marwaan(un) yuHibbuuna ba9Dahum ba9Dan
            'Kariim and Marwaan love each other.'

I am wondering whether sentences like (2) are "blocked" by Form VI verbs that
express the same meaning with an implicit reciprocal, for example, taHaabab:

(3)         yataHaababu Kariim(un) wa Marwaan(un)
            'Kariim and Marwaan love [each other].'

If Form VI verbs with implicit reciprocals as in (3) do block Form I verbs
with overt reciprocals as in (2), examples of any other Form VI verbs with
which this blocking takes place would be useful.

Grammaticality Judgments

My specific concern in this research is agreement between compound subject
NPs and Form VI verbs in VSO sentences.  I'd therefore like to know whether
the following sentences are grammatical or not (ignoring nunation). To
simplify coding responses, please list the numbers (and, if applicable, lower
case letters) of the sentences; then put a dash "---" after the number
(letter) if the sentence is grammatical and an asterisk "*" if it is
ungrammatical. The Form VI verbs below, together with their glosses, are all
drawn from Wehr-Cowan.

(4)         taqaaraba Kariim wa Marwaan wa AHmad kulluhum
            Kariim and Marwaan and Ahmad all approached [each other].'

(5)         tatamaathalu Kariima wa Marwaan al-ithnaani
            'Kariima and Marwaan both resemble [each other].'

(6)         taraa?aa Kariim wa Marwaan kullu waaHidin
            'Karim and Marwaan each saw [each other].'

(7)     a. taqaatala Kariim wa Marwaan sawaa?an
                 'Kariim and Marwaan fought [each other] together.'

        b. qatala ?alirhaabiyyu ?al9asuufa sawaa?an
                 'The terrorist killed the despot together.'

(8)     a. tajaadhaba Kariim wa Salwa fii nafsi ?al-waqTi
                 'Kariim and Salwa attracted [each other] at the same time.'

        b. jadhaba al[rajulu al-mar?ata fii nafsi ?al-waqTi
                 'The man attracted the woman at the same time.'

I surmise that (8b) has a reading in which fii nafsi al-waqTi is anaphoric to
a time mentioned in a previous sentence. The reading in which I am interested
is the nonanaphoric reading that parallels the one in (8a).

(9)     ?iltaqaa Kariim wa Marwaan
        'Kariim and Marwaan met [each other].'

(10)    man ?iltaqaa Kariim wa Marwaan?
        'Whom did Kariim and Marwaan meet [each other]?'

(11)    xarajat al-mudarrisatu wa al-Taalibu ?alladhaani yataqaabalaana
        The teacher (f.) and the student who met [each other] left.'

(12)    a. man fattasha Kariim wa Marwaan qabla maa pro qaarabaa(haa)?
            'Whom did Kariim and Marwaan investigate before they approached
(her)?'

In this sentence, Kariim wa Marwaan antecedes the understood subject pro, as
it does in (12b, c), and man antecedes -haa.

        b. man fattasha Kariim wa Marwaan qabla maa pro taqaarabaa [e]?
             'Whom did Kariim and Marwaan investigate before they approached
each other?'

In this sentence, Kariim wa Marwaan rather than man antecedes the understood
reciprocal, represented by [e].

        c. man fattasha Kariim wa Marwaan qabla maa pro taqaarabaa [e]?
           'Whom did Kariim and Marwaan investigate before they approached
each other?'

In this sentence, man rather than Kariim wa Marwaan antecedes the understood
reciprocal [e].

(13)    tuquubilat Kariiam wa Marwaan
        'Each other were met by Kariima and Marwaan.'
        'Kariima and Marwaan were met by each other.'

Please indicate whether (13) is possible under either gloss.

Thank you.
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End of Arabic-L: 14 Aug 2000