Arabic-L:LING:standalone wa- speculations

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 19 Mar 2013
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:standalone wa- speculations

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1)
Date: 19 Mar 2013
From:Muhammad Alzaidi <mohd.zaidi2007 at gmail.com>
Subject:standalone wa- speculations

Hi Afra,

Well! `wa' seems to be a hot topic here :). From purely syntactic
perspective, as far as I know, the conjunction 'wa' in Arabic and `and' in
English seem to receive quite attention (in syntax) whether this
conjunction should be adjoined/attached to the following conjunct or not.
An example is `ConjP' (approach) which is assumed in Minimalism framework.
"ConjP" (model) assumes that the first conjunct is the specifier, the
conjunction is the head, and the second conjunct is the complement. This
view is not adopted in other frameworks, as far as I know. People, to my
knowledge, argue for the REAL syntactic position of the conjunction `and'.
 So,
having problems with  what `wa' is and how it behaves linguistically in
Arabic seems to be not an issue that is found only in Arabic, but this
issue seems to be quite common in some languages including English.  And it
is not clear where it can be placed in syntax.

>I cannot recall ever hearing someone do the same with other particles (as
> in 'liiiiiiiii...' or 'biiiiiii...'), but that may be the fault of
> selective memory. If there is indeed a difference, then what are the many
> linguistic functions of 'wa'? It is clearly not just to mean 'and' --
> though the difference may relate, in the end, more to the phonetic
> qualities of the sounds involved ('w,' 'a,' 'l,'i,'  & 'b') than to the
> linguistic functions of the whole particle. It may also be that the
> phonology influences the morphology and other linguistic characteristics
of
> the particle.



An argument seems to be against what you said above is that people
sometimes lengthen particles including li... a scenario for that is as
follows (This is a discourse.)
Ali- Do you want me to tell my mom to whom you gave the flower?
تبيني اعلم  امي لمين اعطيت الوردة؟
Ahmed: No do not tell her please!
لا لا تعلم الله يخليك
Ali: Mom, Mom, Ahmad gave a flower (liiiiiiiiii) DO you want me to
complete.... (liiii
امي ، امي أحمد أعطى الوردة ليييييييي  اكمل؟ ليييي

Sometimes, we lengthen the particle including "li" or "bi" if we forget and
we want to remember and then we can say "liiii (I forget) liiii"..



>Likewise, the functions of 'wa' in speech may influence whether people
> write it as attached or as stand-alone. An example of the margins
> influencing the center or of the center directly affecting the margins?


 How can you make sure that the reason for writing `wa' as attached or
stand-alon is because of its functions? I think one of the members in the
list mentioned that sometimes people type `wa' as a stand-alone because of
the typing purposes (typing machine, etc..), so it seems that investigating
written texts do not solve the problem and based on them seems to be not
linguistically realiable, I think.

>It is clearly not just to mean 'and' -- though the difference may relate,


Do you know what "linguistic" functions this conjunction may have?

Thanks

Muhammad Alzaidi
PhD Candidate
University of Essex
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