Representation of Zero and Dummy Subject Pronouns Within Multi- Strata Dependency Framework

Representation of Zero and Dummy Subject Pronouns within multi- strata dependency framework

Dina El Kassas Faculty of languages and Translation Minya University, Minya Modyco Laboratory Nanterre University, Paris [email protected]

ing-Text Theory (MTT) terminology the zero Abstract pronoun. An MTT zero pronoun is exactly a linguistic sign that has a meaning of ‘people’ The objective of this paper is to discuss a or ‘element’. formal representation of subject pronoun Studies on expletive subject pronoun repre- within a multi-strata dependency model. We sentation have focused on its semantic empti- propose criteria to describe consistently sub- ness and its non-referential (non-endophoric) ject pronoun variations, naming subject pro- status. The construction including an expletive nouns that have no meaning and/or no morpho-phonological expression. We will pre- subject pronoun governed by finite verbal sent particular syntactic structures raised clause is commonly identified as impersonal from a change of voice category; and will construction. Again, following the terminology emphasize the problematic representation of used in MTT, we will call it the dummy pro- Pro-Drop impersonal construction within noun. the multi-strata framework. We propose a formal description of zero and dummy pronouns within the framework of 1 Introduction MTT that offers a rigorous exhaustive cover- age of linguistic sign and makes explicit its The present study aims to describe the typo- intersection with voice (Mel'čuk, 2006). As in logically widespread pronoun dropping and the many other dependency frameworks (XDG, expletive pronoun subject phenomena. The FDG …), MTT model posits multiple strata of representation is based on the core of the na- representations related by explicit interfaces. ture of linguistic sign as well as the main The study refers primarily to examples from communicative function of the pronoun as a the Arabic. grammatical part of speech. The paper is structured as follows: The term Pro-Drop describes a feature of Section 2 presents: the linguistic sign as de- some languages that does not require an scribed within the MTT framework; a typology obligatory overt actant to be present in the covering sentences featuring zero and dummy clause. Languages allowing Pro-Drop fall into subjects; and a formal treatment of these con- three categories (Dryer, 2008): those allowing structions within the Meaning-Text depend- Pro-Drop only in particular context; those al- ency syntax framework. lowing Pro-Drop only in subject position; and In Section 3, we discuss the grammemes of those allowing both subject and direct object the Arabic voices. The objective is to shed Pro-Drop. light on some issues concerning zero and The dropped subject pronoun is commonly dummy construction representations provoked identified by Universal Grammar as a null sub- by the deep-syntactic level. ject and is defined as a linguistic sign that has Section 4 is dedicated to the conclusion and a meaning but doesn't have a phonetic realiza- future work. tion. The result is an independent clause lack- We take for granted the basic notions of the ing an explicit subject. The verb agreement Meaning-Text dependency syntax (Mel’ čuk, expresses person, number and/or gender with 1988), such that the representations are multi- the referent. We will call it following Mean- stratal with intermediate interfaces.

193 The sentence structure at the semantic level According to these two distinctions, we is a dependency network. Each node is labeled have four possible combinations in case of by a language-specific semantic unit which subject pronoun: corresponds to one particular word-sense. The 1) Subject pronoun having a phonetic re- oriented arcs connect the head predicate to its alization and filling an endophoric func- arguments, or semantic actants. Arc labels are tion → [full pronoun] consecutively numbered. These numbers dis- It is off-topic to discuss here full pronoun. tinguish semantic relations of the argument-to- At any rate, subjects of type (1) are not rele- predicate type. Roughly, the numbering fol- vant for our topic. The pronominalized and lows the needs of semantic decomposition. communicatively salient subject appears on the The sentence structures at deep and surface surface in Anti-Pro-Drop structures. The in- syntactic levels are dependency trees with lex- definite pronouns ON (French) and MAN emes being represented as nodes and syntactic (German) linked to the semantic collec- relations as arcs. At the deep-syntactic level, tive/generic actant are considered as subject the syntactic relations presenting actant rela- full pronouns. tions are numbered by I, II, III, etc. and are 2) Subject pronoun having no phonetic assumed to be universal. At the surface- realization but filling an endophoric syntactic level, the encoded syntactic relations function → [zero pronoun] are language-specific functions (e.g. subject, By zero pronoun, we mean a pronoun that is direct object, oblique-object etc.). morpho-phonetically empty. We are aware that the term in MTT terminology refers to zero 2 Linguistic sign in MTT meaning and not zero physical expression. Yet, According to the traditional Saussurean defini- we use it for lack of a better term. The subject tion, a linguistic sign combines a signifier (a pronoun appears in the SSyntS as a meaningful sound image, i.e. signifiant ) and a signified (a zero or empty lexeme and controls the agree- concept, i.e. signifié ). So, if x is a sign, x ment of the verb. Arabic has a wide range of should be a combination of a phonetic realiza- sentences lacking an overt sentence element. tion and a meaning. For example, the copula K ĀNA ‘(to) be’ has a To these two components of the linguistic zero present indicative form and governs sen- sign entity, a set of properties is added to give tences traditionally called nominal sentences: necessary syntactic information that specifies (1) Økāna 'alqalaqu mubarrarun the correct combination of the given sign with V.is N.concern ADJ.justified other. ‘Concern is justified’ In MTT, the lexeme assuming the surface- vs. kāna 'alqalaqu mubarraran syntactic subject function should be linked to V.was N.concern ADJ.justified nodes in both deep morpho-phonological and ‘Concern was justified’ deep-syntactic levels and must have its own Zero radicals are also frequent in Slavic, syntactics. Romanian and Semitic languages. The zero When the subjectal role is assumed by a sign lacks the signifier. The trace of the pres- pronoun, it should normally have an endo- ence of a zero subject pronoun in the sentence phoric function, i.e. it should refer to another is the feature of its syntactics that is copied on lexeme in the text. We have thus a first distinc- the verb via a rich agreement and is communi- tion: “endophoric ~ non endophoric [subject catively salient: pronoun]” ( or a personal ~ impersonal pro- (2) Rus Stu čat v dver´ ‘[they] knock at door’ noun ). Additionally, the subject pronoun may It Fumo ‘[he] smokes’ or may not have a morpho-phonological reali- Sp Llaman a la puerta ‘[Someone] is zation. Here comes the second distinction: knocking the door’ “overt ~ zero [subject pronoun]” . Ar ' akal ūV.3.pl.masc ‘[they] ate’ By subject pronoun, we refer only to the Hebrew axalti V.active.past. 1.sg tapuax ‘[I] ate an third personal pronouns such as English HE, apple’ SHE or THEY that assume a referential func- In Arabic, the subject pronoun is not real- tion but don't have a meaning in opposition ized phonetically and the verb exhibits a full with pronouns such as English I, WE or YOU PNG agreement. The Arabic inflected verb that do have a meaning. agrees with its subject pronoun in person (1, 2, 3), number (singular, dual, plural) and gender

194 (masculine, feminine). This rich verb agree- presents a case of zero-form semantically full ment allows the suppression, or more precisely pronoun: the verbs are at the ac- the non-realization of the pronominal inaccen- tive.present.3.fem .sg inflectional forms and tuated subject, avoiding thus a grammatical indirectly govern the pronoun hā3.fem.sg , refer- redundancy without giving rise to any ambigu- ring to alsam ā' 'the sky' which is a feminine ity: noun in Arabic. (3) 'akal ūV.eat.active.past. 3.masc .pl (5) a. 'inna=h ā tumt ir [Ø PRO ] 'akalna V.eat.active.past .3.fem .pl Particule=PRO 3.fem.sg V act.pr.3.fem.sg [she] 'ukil ūV.eat.passive .past. 3.masc .pl assert=she rains The meaningful subject pronoun with zero ‘[she] rains’ c form may be compatible with a specific indi- b. tar adu [Ø PRO ] | tabruqu [Ø PRO ] vidual who satisfies the description, giving so V act.pr.3.fem.sg [she] | V act.pr.3.fem.sg [she] an existential reading, but it may also imply a thunders | lightens generic universal reading. In both cases, the ‘[she] thunders’ | ‘[she] lightens’ morpho-phonetically zero-subject pronoun It is also accurate to assign to meteorologi- denotes an endophoric relation with a full lex- cal verbs the noun alsam ā' as an explicit SSynt eme in the sentence or the text. This pronoun subject, thus the following sentences are cor- must be distinguished from the dummy-subject rect: ‘ tumt ir alsam ā'u’, ‘ tar cadu alsam ā'u’, etc. one commonly described as an impersonal This assignation of meteorological verbs to the construction (cf. figure 1). appropriate nature force is frequent in Arabic: (6) a. tahubbu alrij āhu SemR DSyntR SSynt V act.pr.3.fem .sg Nfem .NOM ( ) v V /V/ V blows the winds ‘It blows’ b. jabzu āu alfadzru 1 I Subject V act.pr.3.masc .sg Nfem .NOM emerged the dawn ( ) ‘It dawns’ x PRO PRO PRO .3.SG |Neutre The corresponding equivalent in Anti-Pro- DMorphR Drop language like English is generally an im- /V/ [Ø PRO ] personal construction with a semantically Figure 1: zero-form meaningful subject pronoun empty explicit subject pronoun. 3) Subject pronoun having phonetic reali- Zero subject sign has to be carefully distin- zation but not filling an endophoric guished from deleted subject. The syntactic function → [dummy pronoun] operation of deletion or ellipsis consists in re- The subject is semantically empty and thus moving a sign from a representation, like when presents a dummy sign which is defined as a we answer a question; while zero sign lacks sign lacking the signified. The dummy subject the overt signifier but is not omitted. There are occurs in impersonal constructions. Indeed, an different types of ellipsis but we are not inter- impersonal construction is defined by the pres- ested here in the distinction between discourse ence of an automatically generated subject ellipsis and Pro-Drop phenomenon. Let's just pronoun that does not correspond to a deep- mention that an elided subject can be reconsti- syntactic / semantic actant, which means that tuted in context, but a zero-form subject pro- the pronominal subject is not assuming an noun cannot. In the following example, the endophoric function in the discourse. The term subject hath ā is elided. ‘impersonal construction’ is quite felicitous but (4) - hal hath ā mumkinun? it is so entrenched in the linguistic literature interro. this possible that it is impossible to spare. However, we find ‘Is this possible?’ it more accurate to talk about a semantically c - na am hath ā mumkin dziddan empty non-endophoric subject pronoun and yes possible very so, only 3rd singular pronoun may be the sub- ‘Yes, it is very possible’. ject of an impersonal construction, 1st and 2sd Meteorological expressions present also a pronouns cannot be the subject of an imper- case of meaningful subject dropped pronoun. sonal construction as they have semantic refer- In sentences (5a) and (5b), the verb agreement ents. We have examples of dummy sign in

195 Anti-Pro-Drop languages: IT (English), IL b. nīma fī ald āri (French), etc. V SubjSupp.3.masc.sg PREP N GEN (7) a. Fr. Il tonne = ‘It thunders’. slept in the.house b. Fr Il est arrivé 3 personnes = ‘It comes 3 ‘[Someone] slept in the house’ persons’. We will discuss thoroughly the SubjSupp c. Fr Il a été détruit 3 camions = ‘It was de- grammeme in section 3. Let's say here that, on stroyed three trucks’. the one hand, the subject pronoun has no In principle, the dummy construction can physical expression and thus presents a zero be used with all types of verbs (transitive, in- pronoun. On the other hand, it will not be ac- transitive, pronominal) and combines with curate to describe it as a dummy zero pronoun voice grammemes in the language. Figures (2) because it is not semantically empty: even if and (3) present semantic and syntactic patterns the zero-subject pronouns in examples (9a) and of impersonal constructions: (9b) are not linked to specific entities, the sentences still have an existential reading: ‘one or SemR DSyntR SSyntR few persons passed by Hind’, ‘one or few per- ( ) sons slept in the house’. The semantic actant in v V /V/ V both cases must be a human agent: the subject pronoun of a verb in the subjective suppressive Subj voice could not correspond to a non-human agent. Thus, the sentences marra alkil ābu bi=hindin ‘the dogs passed by Hind’ could not PRO PRO.3.masc.sg be transformed to the subjective suppressive. Figure 2: Impersonal construction (7a) We would rather refer to this structure as an SemR DSynt R SSynt R INDEFINITE PERSONAL like in the Russian ( ) tradition, or the pronoun ‘ON’ in French. v V /V/ V As we see, the study of zero and dummy subject pronouns is intrinsically related to 1 II Quas-subi Subj voice grammemes that it's why the next section will be dedicated to the formal representation ( ) of voice grammemes in Arabic. x X /X/ N PRO PRO .3.masc .sg

Figure 3: Impersonal construction (7b) and (7c) 3 Formal Representation of Voice 4) Subject pronoun having no phonetic Category in MTT realization and not filling an endophoric In the MTT framework, a diathesis of a word- function → [dummy zero pronoun] form is defined as the correspondence between The fourth case presents subjectless sen- its Semantic and Deep-Syntactic Actants tences including those lacking subjects even in (SemA ⇔DSyntA) 1; voice is a semantic the SSyntS. The pronoun represents a sign inflectional category whose grammemes lacking both the signified and the signifier: specify modifications of the basic diathesis of (8) It. Piove ‘Rains’ = ‘It rains’ a lexical unit L without affecting the Serb. Grmi ‘thunders’ = ‘It thunders’ propositional meaning of L 2. The basic Arabic has a particular zero-subject pro- diathesis of L is its lexicographic diathesis. noun featuring an impersonal structure, as in Voices help to construct different messages the examples (9a) and (9b) featuring a subjec- about the same situation. tive suppressive voice; the verbs are systemati- As we said above, the semantic actant cor- cally in the SubjSupp.3.masc.sg inflectional responds to the argument of the predicate and form: is identified by a distinctive asemantic number. (9) a. murra bi=hindin A DSyntA of a lexical unit L is another lexical V SubjSupp.3.masc.sg PREP=N GEN unit depending syntactically on L and corre- passed by=Hind sponding to a SemA of L or to a Surface- ‘[Someone] passed by=Hind’ Syntactic Actant [SSyntA] of L 3. An important

1 Mel'čuk, 2006, p. 187. 2 Idem , p. 191 . 3 Idem , p. 184.

196 feature of DSyntAs is their intermediate char- acter as an interface between the SemAs and X Y the SSyntAs of a lexical unit: they are deter- I II mined either semantically or surface- Subject Object syntactically. The dummy subject, whether The Zero-Subject pronoun in the active with expletive or no physical expression, does voice has a full meaning, a syntactic presence not appear in the DSyntS. but no physical expression ['x' 1,X I,/Ø/ subj-pro ]. DSyntA are identified by meaningful Ro- The verb may be transitive (10a) or intransitive man numbers and ordered following the de- (10b), regardless of the verb tense: creasing obliqueness. Each number corresponds to a family of surface-syntactic con- (10) a. qālat Øpro.3.fem.sg alh aqa structions brought together because of their Vact .past .3.fem.sg Ndef.ACC similarity. Thus, DSyntA I stands for the syn- said [she] the truth tactic constructions that express the subjectal ‘[She] said the truth’ SSynt-relation; DSyntA II represents, among b. janaamuun Øpro.3.masc.pl others, the DirO, the Indirect or Oblique ob- Vact .pres .3.masc.pl ject, and the Agentive complement with the are.sleeping [they] passive form of a transitive verb; DSyntA from ‘[They] are sleeping’ III to VI represent more oblique ob- It will not be accurate to consider the above jects/complements. sentences as elliptical constructions. The omis- The diathesis of L can be modified by one sion is not intentional but grammatically re- of the following three operations: quired: the pronoun filling the subject function PERMUTATION of the DSyntAs of L with does not have a morpho-phonetic expression. respect to the corresponding SemAs, We prefer distinguishing between the gram- SUPPRESSION of DSyntAs of L (which matical obligatory omission and the discursive means that the SemA involved cannot be mani- or stylistic omission even if the latter one is fested syntactically as a direct syntactic de- occasionally obligatory also. pendent of L. This means blocking the slot of We should also differentiate the zero sub- this DSyntA), REFERENTIAL ject pronoun from the completive clause that IDENTIFICATION of two SemAs, with may fill the subject function as in the follow- obligatory suppression of at least one DSyntA. ing example: There are four possible main voices: active, (11) balagha=n ī [anna=ka satarh alu ] passive, suppressive and reflexive. The passive subjClause V act.pr.3.masc.sg =PRO 1.pl [CONJ=PRO V] subj voice consists of assigning another DSynt-role was.informed=me [that=you will.leave] (II or III) to the expression that fills the DSynt- ‘I was informed that you will leave’. role I in the active voice. There are five possible passive voices: A Demotional Active voice [DemAct.] − Full, if both DSyntAs of L are affected (I The detransitivization of some verbs may II and simultaneously II I). feature an impersonal construction: the subject Ø − Partial, if only one of the DSyntAs of L is is a dummy zero subject pronoun (Ø 3.MASC.SG ), affected (I III, while II remains in place the SemA 1 [X] is demoted to DSyntA II rank, and nothing becomes I). the SemA 2 is omitted and the DSyntA III [Y] − Promotional, if the passive promotes the keeps its rank:

DSyntA II to I and demotes the DSyntA I. X Y − Demotional, if the passive demotes the II III DSyntA, without promoting anything. OblO OblO − Agentless, if the passive does not allow for an Agentive Complement. Let's take the example of the trivalent verb KAFAA meaning ‘suffice’ (X suffices as Y for According to this formalism, Arabic has the Z): following six voice grammemes: (12) takf ī=n ā als ūratu šāhidan 1) Active voice [Act.] DirO subj co-predicate V=PRO Ndef.NOM Nindef.ACC It is the basic diathesis: the DSyntA I corre- suffice=us the.picture a.witness sponding to the primary semantic argument is ‘The picture suffices for us as a witness’ linked to the SSynt subject ['x' 1,X I,/x/ subj ]:

197 ferring to the SemA I of the verb in the af- The verb is in the demotional active present firmative form. 3 feminine singular form as in agreement with (14) a. mā fāza 'illa 'anti the singular feminine noun als ūratu filling the Pa V Pa PRO subject function. Its actants are distributed as DemAct.past.3.masc .sg 2.fem .sg neg won except you follow: ‘Only you have won’

b. lā jadkhulu almawki ca 'illa 'alfatajātu X Y Z Pa V DemAct.pr.3.masc .sg Pa N3.fem.pl I II III neg enters the site except the girls Subj DirO CoPred ‘Only girls may enter the site’ als ūratu nā šāhidan The pronoun [ 'illa 'anti 2.fem.sg ] or the noun

['illa 'alfataj ātu 3.fem.pl ] could not be considered The co-predicate may be omitted without as the subject of the head verbs for several rea- affecting the sentence's grammaticality: sons: ‘takf ī=n ā als ūratu ’. The direct object may also First, the verbs do not agree in gender with be omitted: ‘takf ī als ūratu ’, meaning ‘the pic- these elements. ture suffices’ or ‘the picture is enough’. The Second, the verbs are in the negative form DSyntA III could be realized as an oblique- or these lexical elements correspond to the object: ‘takf ī als ūratu ka PREP =š āhidin GEN ’. SemA I of the verbs in the affirmative form, as The verb may also have a particular gov- it shows the translation. ernment pattern with a demoted DSyntA I as in Third, as we said above, the subject pro- the following sentence: noun has no physical expression in Arabic and (13) kaf ā [ bi=als ūrati ] šāhidan so the pronoun 'anti in (14a) cannot fulfill the VDemAct.past.3.masc .sg [prep= Nfem .sg.GEN ] NACC subject function. This pronoun will disappear is enough [of the picture] witness for example in the affirmative non-exclusive ‘The picture suffices as a witness’. construction: fuzti Act.past.2.fem.sg ‘you won’. By The sentence literally means ‘It subject analogy, the noun 'alfatajātu in (14b) is not the makes_sufficient witness CoPred with the pic- subject. The sentences may be literally trans- ture OblO ’. The verb is in the demotional active lated by: ‘It won not except you’ and ‘It enters past 3.masculine .singular form. It will not be not the site except the girls’. inaccurate to use the verb in the present form, For these reasons, in my opinion, it will be yet we don't notice a frequent use of it: ‘jakfī pertinent to distinguish between an active and bi=als ūrati š āhidan ’. The valency of a demotional active voice. kaf āact.pr|past.3.masc.sg is (Ø subj , OblO, CoPred). 2) Full Promotional Passive voice We can't follow the Arabic traditional In Arabic, as in Semitic languages, the pas- grammar and analyze the prepositional phrase sive voice is originally used only when the [bi=als ūrati] as a subject. We have here a de- agent could not be expressed because it is un- motional transformation of the DSyntA I from known or the speaker does not want to name it. SSynt Subject rank to SSynt Oblique Object Therefore, the general rule is that the verb in rank, the result is an impersonal construction the passive voice does not govern an agentive with a subject pronoun featuring no meaning complement corresponding to the SemA I. and no morpho-phonetic realization. The verb However, even if the full passive voice is not is systematically in the DemAct.3.MASC.SG frequent in Arabic, there are a number of inflectional form. prepositions and complex prepositions that are Some verbs govern by default this excep- believed to be the equivalent of English agen- tional construction. In the following sentences tive by . The SemA 1 is demoted to the DSyntA the verb is systematically in the De- II rank, and conversely, DSyntA II is pro- mAct.3.MASC.SG whether the verb is in the moted: past (14a) or the present (14b) form even if the lexemes expressing the SemA I are feminine X Y nouns. These examples express the exclusion: II I the verb preceded by a negative particle gov- AgCo Subject erns an exclusive construction composed of the exclusive particle 'illa followed by a noun re-

198 The most common prepositions and com- 1) Verbs governing 'an/anna -constructions plex prepositions introducing an agentive The government pattern of some verbs complement (AgCo) are: /bi/, /li/ /min/ /cabr/ categories, mainly verbs of speech includes ‘by’; /bi-sababi/ ‘because of’; /min dz ānibi/ three actants: a subject, an 'an/anna - ‘from the side of’; /cal ā jadi/'ajdi/ ‘at the hand/s construction as a direct object, and according of’; /min qibali/ /min khil āli/ ‘on the part of’; to the verb, an indirect object. With the /biw āsit a/; / can t ar īqi/ ‘by means of’. The agen- agentless passivization process, the direct ob- tive complement may denote a human agent ject completive clause is promoted to the sub- (15a) and (15b) or an entity expressing the way ject rank: or the instrument (15c) and (15d): (15) a. kutibat alriw āyatu biw āsit ati zajdin X Y was.written the.novel by Zayd – I ‘The novel was written by Zayd’. – Subject 'an/anna-construction b. futih at alris ālatu can t ar īqi almustaqbili was.opened the.message by the.receiver No changes occur in the clause and the verb ‘The message was opened by the re- is systematically in the 3.masc.sg inflectional ceiver’. form (17a). We notice that some verbs are c. futih a albar īdu can tar īqi mawqi ci more frequently used in the passive form rather was.opened the.mail by my.site than the active on (17b). The most common ‘The mail was opened by my site’. equivalent in this case is the impersonal con- d. muni ca albaladu cabra al'istift ā'i struction {IT + to be + ADJ}. Yet, the Arabic was.prevented the.country by construction is not an impersonal one: the head the.referendum verb governs systematically a completive ‘The country was prevented by the ref- clause as subject. erendum’. (17) a. luh itha ['anna… ]subj_Clause The full passive transformation is strongly VAgPass.past.3.masc.sg [CONJ…]subj_Clause due to the impact of translation from European noticed [that …] languages in contemporary practice, particu- ‘It was noticed that…’. larly in journalism and IT fields. In the active b. justah sanu ['an tah dira ]subj_Clause voice, the agentive complement is promoted to V AgPass.past.3.masc.sg [CONJ…]subj_Clause the subject rank. Examples (16) present the is.better [that you.come] active transformation of the sentences in (15): ‘It would be better if you come’. the agent regains its position as a subject in the 2) Intransitivization nominative form followed by the direct object When a bivalent verb undergoes agentless in the accusative form (ended by the vowel passivization, the direct object is promoted to /a/). the subject rank and the SemA 1 is not expressed: (16) a. kataba zajdun subj alriw āyat a

b. fatah a almustaqbilu subj alris ālat a c X Y c. fatah a mawqi isubj albar īda c – I d. mana a al'istift ā'u subj albalad a – Subject 3) Agentless passive voice [AgPass] It is the most frequent passive in Arabic. The lexeme filling subject SSynt Relation The passivization of a bivalent verb consists of has generally a vague or a general meaning the suppression of the DSyntA I corresponding like [en. MATTER], [fr. AFFAIRE] and [ar. to the subject in the basis diathesis and the 'AMR] (18 a-b). We note that the verb agrees promotion of the DSyntA II. The agentless in gender with the lexical subject. passive voice is intrinsically related to the de- (18) a. qud ija ['al'amru ]subj transitivization process. In the remainder of the V AgPass.past.3.masc .sg Ndef.masc .sg.NOM sub-section, we will present three specific was.settled the.matter cases: first the passivization of verbs govern- ‘The matter was settled’ ing 'an/'anna ‘that’-construction, the decreas- b. nuthirat [al=mas'alatu ]subj ing of the valence of bivalent verbs (intransi- VAgPass.past.3.fem .sg Ndef.fem .sg.NOM tivization), then the decreasing of the valence was.reviewed the issue of trivalent verbs governing a clausal object. 'The issue was reviewed'

199 The SSynt subject role may be filled by a (20) tur ā Øpro [māzā hadath ]Obj_clause non dummy zero morpho-phonological sub- VAgPass.pr.2.sg [interro. V act.pr.3.masc.sg ] ject pronoun : a pronoun, as we said above, is.shown [what happened] having a full meaning, a syntactic presence but ‘You are shown what happened’. no physical expression. In the following examples, the non dummy zero subject pronoun is 4) Partial Agentless passive voice [PaAg- the 3rd masculine plural personal pronoun in Pass] (19a), the 1st singular personal pronoun in The partial agentless passivization process (19b) and the 2sd feminine singular pronoun in concerns verbs governing a completive clause (19c). The subject identification was allowed or a free direct/indirect speech. It denotes a by the verb agreement. So, even if the subject detransivization process: the DSyntA I is omit- pronoun is deprived of a physical expression, it ted, the DSyntA II corresponding to the com- has a full meaning and a syntactic presence. pletive clause and the DSyntA III, in case of (19) a. qutil ū Ø djam īcan subj-pro trivalent verb, are respectively promoted. VAgPass.pr.3.masc.pl N have been killed all X Y Z ‘They all have been killed’. – I II b. 'ukaddabu Øsubj-pro dā'iman – Subj.Clause ObjCo VAg.Pass.pr.1.sg ADV am accused of lying always The Examples (21) present the passiviza- ( ‘I am always accused of lying’. tion of trivalent verb qāla (X I, Y II , Z III ) X say ) c. bulli āti Øsubj-pr bi=nadj āhu=ki to Y that Z (21a) and bivalent junt az aru (X I, ( ) VAgPass.pr.2.fem.sg PREP=masdar=PRO ZII ) X expecting that Y (21b). The verb agrees was informed by=success=yours with the subject clause and is systematically in ‘You was informed of you success’. the 3rd masculine singular inflectional form. 3) Decreasing the valence of trivalent verbs The sentences do not present so an impersonal The passivization of trivalent verbs govern- construction even if the English equivalent is. ing a clausal object, e.g. 'ar ā (X I, YII , ZIII) ‘X (21) a. qīla [la=hu ]ObjCo ['irh al ]subj show to Y that Z’, consists of the suppression VPaAgPass.3.masc.sg [PREP=PRO] [] clause of DSyntA I, the promotion of the DSyntA III was.said [to=him] [go] to DSyntA I rank while DSyntA II keeps its ‘It was said to him: go’. rank: b. junt az aru ['an juthmira 'amalu=n ā]subj

VPaAgPass.3.masc.sg [] clause X Y Z is expected [that get fruitful our hope] – II I ‘It is expected that hope get fruitful re- – Obj.Clause Subject sults’.

In the example (20), the verb is in the 2sd 5) Full suppression passive voice [FullSup- singular form. The SSynt subject role is filled Pass] by a non dummy zero morpho-phonological A distinctive feature of the MTT approach subject pronoun. There is a particular com- lies in the definition of voice based on a deep municational issue with the verb 'ar ā in this syntactic level as an intermediate. Any expres- context: the sentence literally means ‘You are sion that syntactically depends on L and mani- shown what happened’, however its accurate fests a SemA of L is a DSyntA of L. Yet, a English equivalent is ‘I wonder what hap- displacement process can take place: L may pened’. This discernible communicational govern a DSyntA not corresponding to one of change is due to the agentless passivization its SemAs. According to MTT: " An added dis- transformation. In the Arabic sentence, even if placed DSyntA is by definition unrelated to any the subject is a non dummy pronoun, it is not of L’s SemAs and therefore cannot modify the 4 individuated. The subject pronoun does not diathesis of L " . also support a general reading. The example Arabic full suppressive passivization proc- (20) presents so a syntactic constraint struc- ess consists of the raising of an adjunct to the ture. It closest equivalent in English is the sen- subject rank; the adjunct denotes the nomina- tence ‘I wonder…’

4 Mel'čuk, 2006, p. 192.

200 tive case mark and triggers verb agreement SemR DSynt R SSynt R (only for gender, as it is usual in VSO order). ( ) Both DSyntA I and II are suppressed and the nabah a NABAH Apassive nubih a V 1 DSynt A III is promoted: [DSyntA III, CircCo, 1 subj ( ) I Accusatif] ⇒ [DSyntA I, Subject, Nomina- ( ) nabah a dog 2 tive]. nib āhun N ( ) Magn(Nabah a) modif shad īd intensive X Y Z – – I Shad īdun ADJ – – Subject Figure 4: Full suppressive passivization process and non individuated agent In the examples (22), the DSyntAs III cor- A "circumstantial aspect" may also be pro- responding respectively to the SSynt circum- moted to the subject rank. The "circumstantial stantial of time, place and manner are pro- aspect" or the "accusative of relation" is an moted to the SSynt subject rank by a full sup- indefinite singular noun corresponding to the pressive passivization process. The lexemes SemA I of the verb (El Kassas, 2005). A laylat un, almad īnat u and farah u n cannot be synecdochic relation exists between the subject analyzed as direct objects because they denote and the circumstantial aspect. The full suppres- the nominative case mark /u/: sive passivization process consists of the sup- c (22) Time suhirat laylatun mumti atun pression of the subject and the promotion of 5 V pass .3.fem .sg Nfem.NOM ADJ NOM the circumstantial aspect to fill this function. In was.stayed night funny the following example, it exists a synecdochic ‘The night was stayed funnily’ relation between the lexeme /alk ūbu/ ‘the place qudijat almad īnatu glass’ and the lexeme /mā'an/ ‘water’. The first V pass.3.fem .sg Nfem.NOM one is the subject of the verb /f āda/ ‘overflow’ was. spent [time] [in] the city at the active voice, while the second one is ‘The city was spent time in’. promoted to the subject rank at the full sup- manner furih a farah un kab īrun pressive passive voice. Vpass.3.masc .sg Nmasc.NOM ADJ (24) fāda alk ūbu mā'an was.rejoiced joy great V act.past.3.masc.sg N masc.sg.NOM N indef.ACC ‘A great joy happened’ overflowed glass water An individuated Agent generally controls ‘The glass overflowed of water’ the action. Yet, this is not an unrestricted rule. In the following example, the agent is a dog. fīda alm ā'u The meaning of the verb nubih a ‘bark’ disal- V FullSuppPass.past.3.masc.sg Nmasc.sg.NOM lows the individualization of the agent: overflowed water (23) manner nubih a nib āhun shad īdun ‘The water overflowed’ Vpass.3.masc.sg Nmasc. NOM ADJ In brief, the verb in the full suppressive was barked barking intensive passive voice governs systematically a lexeme ‘It was barked intensively’ as a subject. We don't think that a pronoun The following figure presents the respective could fill the subject function of the full sup- Semantic, DSynt and SSynt representations of pressive passive voice. the example (23). We note that the subject function is not filled by a semantic actant of 6) Subject suppressive voice (SubjSupp) the verb, and that the agent is not human. This voice is commonly called impersonal passive . Like Slavic and some Romance languages, Arabic has no physical expression of impersonal pronoun. This analysis follows Teeple (2008), Saad 1982, Mohammad (1999), Fassi Fehri (1982), and Fischer (2002), but contrarily to them, we will not use the term 5 In these examples, the abbreviation 'pass' refers to impersonal passive that we find inaccurate. We the full suppressive passive grammeme. We ought will use rather the term subject suppressive to this abbreviation for space reason, but in exam- voice. This voice occurs with indirect transitive ple (24), we will use the abbreviation 'Full- verb: V (subject, oblique object). The DSyntA SuppPass'.

201 I is suppressed while the DSyntA II keeps its (27) natara [X] subj [almas'alat a]DirO SSynt oblique rank. The SSynt subject role is Vact.pr.3.masc.sg [N def.fem.sg.ACC ] fulfilled by a linguistic sign having no meaning reviewed [X] subj [the issue]DirO.ACC and a zero phonetic realization. The head verb ‘X reviewed the issue’ rd is only in the 3 masculine singular form. nuthirat [almas'alat u]subj

V pass.pr.3.fem .sg [N def. fem .sg.Nom ] X Y was.reviewed [the issue]subj.NOM – II ‘The issue was reviewed’ – OblO nuthira [fī almas'alat i]OblO

VSuppPass.pr.3.masc .sg [PREP N def. fem .sg.GEN ] We will content ourselves by mentioning was.reviewed [in the issue]OblO.GEN that verbs accepting the subject suppressed ‘It was reviewed in the issue’ voice may express, among others, a general or In the traditional Arabic grammar, the psychological situation (25a), a physiological prepositional constituent is analyzed as the (25b-c) state, or an action verb (25d). The subject. In my opinion, this analysis is totally OblO in all cases expresses the experiencer. inaccurate. We will not go any further in the semantic In case of intransitive or monovalent verb, classification which will need more details. c the subject suppressive transformation consists (25) a. 'u tunija [bi=h ā]OblO of the omission of all verb' actants. In the fol- VSubjSupp.3.masc.sg [PREP=PRO fem.sg ]OblO lowing examples, the verbs govern only a cir- was.taken.care [of=him] cumstantial of place or time. Again the subject ‘It was taken care of her’ c is a dummy zero pronoun and the verb system- b. 'u āmija [ alaj=hi ]OblO atically in the 3.masc.sg inflectional form: VSubjSupp.3.masc.sg [PREP=PRO masc.sg ]OblO (28) place thuhiba ['il ā manzilu=ka ]Circ was.fainted [on=him] was.gone [to house=your]Circ ‘He fainted’ ‘It was gone to your house’. c. āurrira [bi=him ]OblO place dzulisa [fī al āurfa ]Circ VSubjSupp.3.masc.sg [PREP=PRO masc.pl ] was.sat [in the.room]Circ deceived [of=them]OblO ‘It was sat in the room’. ‘They was deceived’ time sufira [jawmu alsabti ]Circ d. Jī'a [bi=hindin ]OblO was.traveled [day Saturday]Circ VSubjSupp.3.masc.sg [PREP=N fem.sg.GEN ] ‘It was traveled on Saturday’ come [with-Hind]OblO As in a pro-drop language, impersonaliza- ‘They brought Hind’ tion in Arabic means that the subject pronoun The oblique object may also express an ac- has no meaning and zero physical expression, tion and be expressed by a masd ar: which means that the subject function is ful- (26) sumih a [ bi=alkhur ūdzi ]OblO filled semantically, syntactically and morpho- VSubjSupp [PREP=N masd ar ]OblO logically by an empty actant. The analysis is was allowed [to leave] OblO rigorous yet the introduction of an empty ele- ‘It was allowed to leave’ ment in this way jeopardizes its acceptability. The subject suppressive process can lower The only justification of the presence of an the SSynt rank of the DirO in a detransitiviza- empty subject in the sentence is to copy verb tion process, no internal argument is promoted agreement. The following figure presents the to the subject rank. For example, in (27) be- representations of the sentence dzulisa [fī allow, the lexeme almas'alata ‘the issue’ fills the ghurfa ] ‘It was sat in the room’. As we see, the direct object function in the active voice and subject does exist syntactically while it has no denotes the accusative case mark /a/. In the deep-syntactic or morphological existence. passive voice, the lexeme is promoted to the subject rank, takes the nominative case mark /u/ and governs the head verb agreement; while with the subject suppressive transformation, it is demoted to the oblique object rank and takes the genitive case mark /i/. The verb in this case is in the 3.masc.sg form and the subject is systematically a dummy zero pronoun.

202 SemR DSynt R SSynt R References ( ) dzalasa DZULISA SubjSupp dzulisa V.SubjPass. 3.masc.sg Ahmed Kamal El-Din Abdel-Hamid. 1972. A 1 1 . ATTR subj Circ transfer grammar of English and Arabic ( ) PhD dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. ØPeople fī LOC 2 fī PREP Abdelkader Fassi Fehri. 1982. ( ) LOC( ĀURFA) ØPRO Linguistique al āurfa CoPREP arabe: forme et interprétation . Press of the faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of Mo- al āurfa N hammed V University, Rabat. Figure 5: The subject suppressive voice Describing the above sentence as an imper- Wolfdietrich Fischer. 2002. A Grammar of Clas- sonal construction will not be accurate consid- sical Arabic . Translated from the German by Jonathan Rodgers. Yale University Press, New ering that there is no occurrence of a physical Haven and London, UK. non endophoric pronoun like English IT; but it will be accurate if we consider that the first David Teeple. 2008. The Arabic Impersonal syntactic actant of the verb in the passive voice Passive in OT . University of California, Santa has no meaning: the primary semantic agent is Cruz. not identified even if it is not empty and im- Dina El Kassas. 2005. Etude contrastive du plies an individuated agent. The construction Français et de l'Arabe dans une perspective may have an existential reading: ‘[a specific de génération multilingue . PhD dissertation, person] stays in the room’. Paris VII University, Paris. 4 Conclusion Matthew S. Dryer. 2008. Expression of Pro- nominal Subjects. The World Atlas of Lan- In the present paper, we represented four cate- guage Structures Online, ed. Haspelmath, gories of subject pronouns based on its endo- Martin, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil, and Ber- phoric function and phonetic realization. We nard Comrie, chp. 101. Max Planck Digital Li- described syntactic representation of unfamil- brary, Munich. http://wals.info/feature/101. (Ac- iar structures where the subject pronoun exists cessed on 2011-03-28.) only surface-syntactically. A particular atten- Abd-Alkareem Massalha. 2005. The Agentive tion was given to impersonal constructions. Passive Construction in English and Its We criticize some traditional analysis consid- Translation into Arabic. M.A. dissertation, ering that a prepositional phrase may fill the University of Haifa, Haifa. subject function; and stressed on the fact the impersonal construction is not necessarily Igor Mel’ čuk. 1988. Dependency Syntax: Theory translated by an impersonal construction in and Practice. The SUNY Press, Albany, N.Y. another language. Further studies may discuss Igor Mel’ čuk. 2006. Aspects of the Theory of several issues: the representation of this kind Morphology . Ed. de Gruyter, Berlin - New of pronoun in other multi-stratal dependency York. frameworks, its representation within a mono- A. Mohammad Mohammad. 1999. Word Order stratal framework, and its frequency in Pro- and Pronominalization in Palestinian Ara- Drop languages. It will also be interesting to bic . Current Issues in Linguistic Theory . study thoroughly government patterns and se- John Benjamins, Amsterdam / Philadelphia. mantic classification of verbs heading no- meaning zero-phonetic subject pronouns in George Nehmeh Saad. 1982. Transitivity, causa- Arabic. tion and passivization: A semantic-syntactic study of the verb in Classical Arabic . Kegan Acknowledgments Paul International ed. London. I would like to express my gratitude for Igor Mel’ čuk and Yasmina Milicevic for accepting reading and commenting this work from its early phase.

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