Arabic-L:LING:lam with perfective verbs

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 28 Feb  2005
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:lam with perfective verbs

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1)
Date: 28 Feb  2005
From:mustafa.mughazy at wmich.edu
Subject:lam with perfective verbs

Dear List members

I have noticed that in some Egyptian folk tales and epic narrations
(e.g., al-seera al-hilaaliyya) the past/negative operator lamm is used
with perfective verbs. For example, lamm kont (I was not),lam roHt (I
did not go) and lamm raDeet (I did not agree).

I find this pattern quite interesting because it is different from the
negation patterns of MSA/CA and because none of the dialects of Egypt
employs lamm as a regular negative operator. Besides, this observation
has some implications for a theory of tense in Arabic.

My question is

Are there any other dialects of Arabic that you are familiar with that
allow using lamm with perfective verbs?

Do you know of any research done on this particular issue?

Thank you

Mustafa Mughazy
Western Michigan University

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End of Arabic-L:  28 Feb  2005