<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Arabic-L: Wed 17 Nov 2010<br>Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dil@byu.edu">dil@byu.edu</a>><br>[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l@byu.edu]<br>[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to<br><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:<br> unsubscribe arabic-l ]<br><br>-------------------------Directory------------------------------------<br><br>1) Subject: Query on Arabic yes/no questions<br><br>-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------<br>1)<br>Date: 17 Nov 2010<br>From: reposted from LINGUIST<br>Subject: Query on Arabic yes/no questions<div><br></div><div>[This was posted on LINGUIST, but I thought some of you might like to answer. Please respond directly to May, but I will also post your answers to the list if you like.--dil]</div><div><br></div><div>My name is May Mahdi Al-Ramadan, from Saudi Arabia. I am a lecturer <br>and I am studying for a PhD in Applied Linguistics in King Saud <br>University in Riyadh. <br><br>I am working on a paper about the formation of Yes/No questions in <br>Arabic. What interests me about this subject is the claim that I read in <br>Carnie (2007) that complementizer particles and subject/verb inversion <br>are in complementary distribution. He states that languages can either <br>have this or that but not both. In Standard Arabic, a complementizer <br>(Hal) is used at the beginning of yes/no questions. The verb precedes <br>the subject in Standard Arabic in both sentences and questions. An <br>example for this is as follows:<br><br>1) Hal thahaba abouka?<br> C went father-your<br> "Did your father go?" <br><br>In Saudi Arabic, on the other hand, the complementizer is dropped. <br>Subject/verb inversion is used instead. An example:<br><br>2) Obouk raH?<br> Father-your went<br> "Did your father go?"<br><br>My question is that, how is it possible to incorporate the view that <br>complementizers vs. subject/verb inversion are in complementary <br>distribution into the analysis of Arabic that obviously has both methods <br>of forming questions? Or possibly is it more valid to assume that the <br>two varieties of Arabic are distinct and no generalization can be made <br>with reference to both of them? <br><br>I would appreciate any suggestions and resources from the List!<br><br>Thank you so much,<br><br>May Mahdi Al-Ramadan<br><br>Reference:<br><br>Carnie, A (2007). Syntax: A Generative Introduction. Blackwell <br>Publishing. <br><br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>End of Arabic-L: 17 Nov 2010</div></body></html>