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Alluhaybi, Mohammed Muqbil Swileh (2019) Negation in modern Arabic varieties from a typological point of view. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/32197 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Negation in modern Arabic varieties from a typological point of view Mohammed Muqbil Swileh Alluhaybi Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Linguistics 2019 Department of Linguistics SOAS, University of London Supervisor Dr. Christopher Lucas 3 Abstract This thesis considers negation in 54 modern Arabic varieties from a typological point of view (as in Song 2001, Croft 2003 and Miestamo 2005). The types of negation investigated here are: standard negation, non-verbal negation, negative imperatives, negative existential clauses, negation with pseudo-verbs, negative indefinite pronouns and negative concord constructions. This approach results in 30 generalizations capturing different ways of expressing different types of negation among the contemporary varieties of Arabic; for example: the construction for standard negation in modern Arabic varieties is almost always symmetric (done by the addition of the negative morpheme to the affirmative clause only) and very rarely asymmetric (an example is the dialect of ʔAbha); there is no š-variety (a variety that uses …-š negatively in standard negation) where …-š is not, at least optionally, omitted in emphatic negation; the negator mā can commonly negate imperatives in every Arabic region, except in the Arabian Peninsula where this is extremely rare. One of the most interesting results the study reveals is that negation in Arabic is going through a cycle additional to the Jespersen’s cycle which is already identified by several studies (e.g., Lucas, 2009 and Diem, 2014). In the first stage of this additional cycle, a single negator is used to negate both verbal and non-verbal clauses. In the second stage, this negator is attached to a personal pronoun to negate non-verbal clauses only. In the third stage, a new single morpheme is coined and generalized to negate any non-verbal clause. In the fourth stage, this new morpheme is used to negate certain types of verbal clauses. In the last stage, verbal and non-verbal clauses return to be negated similarly, in that this new coined morpheme can negate both of them. In the study, this cycle is referred to as the Arabic negative cycle. 4 Acknowledgements First and foremost, “Thank You Allah”. Thank You for everything You have blessed me with. Thank You for being always with me in both my difficult and happy times. My knowledge of You has been always the most comfortable thing in my life. Second, as the Prophet Muhammad puts it, “who does not thank people, does not thank Allah”; in this vein, I thank my government (the government of Saudi Arabia) for financing my study here in London. Third, it seems typical for postgraduate students to thank their supervisors in their theses; however, I cannot emphasize this strongly enough to make it sound sincere rather than typical. It is the least I can do. It is the least to do for an extraordinary person who has provided me with so much help that is beyond his duty. There are literally no words to thank Dr. Christopher Lucas enough. And even if there are, I am not sure from where should I start, should I thank him first for the things I have learnt from him, or his patience and encouragement, or for his kindness and making me always feel welcome. Nevertheless, I have no choice but to use words, hoping they can express my deepest gratitude. Many thanks Dr. Lucas for everything, without your help, this work would definitely be impossible. Finally, I dedicate this thesis to my mother Amnah, who makes me always feel special, and my wife Maram, who makes everything in life meaningful. 5 The total word count of this thesis, including references and appendices, is 81,232 and 76,403 excluding these. 6 List of abbreviations 1 First person INF Infinitive 2 Second person LOC Location 3 Third person M Masculine ABS Absolutive NEG Negative marker ACC Accusative NH Non-hypothetical A Aspect NOM Nominative ASER Assertive NSI Negative-sensitive item AUX Auxiliary NSP Non-specific COMP Complementizer OBJ Object COP Copula PASS Passive DEF Definite article PTCP Participle DEM Demonstrative PRF Perfect EMPH Emphatic PL Plural EX Existential POSS Possessive F Feminine PRES Present FUT Future PRG Progressive GEN Genitive PST Past HAB Habitual SBJV Subjunctive IMP Imperative SG Singular IMPF Imperfect T Tense JUSS Jussive VOC Vocative particle INCL Inclusive IND Indicative INDEF Indefinite 7 List of tables Table 1: Consonants in Standard Arabic ........................................................................ 18 Table 2: Some consonants in contemporary Arabic ...................................................... 19 Table 3: Standard Maltese consonants ........................................................................... 21 Table 4: Vowels in Standard Arabic .............................................................................. 22 Table 5: Additional vowels used in the study ................................................................ 24 Table 6: SOV and SVO preference ................................................................................ 53 Table 7: List of varieties and their sources .................................................................... 62 Table 8: Negators and their functions in Standard Arabic ........................................... 102 Table 9: Modern Arabic varieties where standard negation is single .......................... 105 Table 10: Modern Arabic varieties where standard negation is bipartite .................... 116 Table 11: Modern Arabic varieties where standard negation is Single~Bipartite ....... 118 Table 12: Standard negation in group (C) .................................................................... 129 Table 13: š-varieties ..................................................................................................... 134 Table 14: The variation of omitting …-š ..................................................................... 143 Table 15: The progress of modern Arabic varieties in Jespersen’s cycle .................... 161 Table 16: Stage IV varieties ......................................................................................... 165 Table 17: Standard negation in the Maghrebi varieties ............................................... 175 Table 18: Standard negation in the Egyptian varieties ................................................ 178 Table 19: Standard negation in the Sudanic varieties .................................................. 181 Table 20: Standard negation in the Levantine varieties ............................................... 182 Table 21: Standard negation in the Mesopotamian varieties ....................................... 185 Table 22: Standard negation in the Arabian Peninsula varieties ................................. 186 Table 23: Standard negation in the Yemeni varieties .................................................. 188 Table 24: Standard negation in the seven regions ........................................................ 190 Table 25: Non-verbal negation in the Maghrebi varieties ............................................ 202 Table 26: Non-verbal negation in the Egyptian varieties ............................................ 206 Table 27: Non-verbal negation in the Sudanic varieties .............................................. 209 Table 28: Non-verbal negation in the Levantine varieties ........................................... 211 Table 29: Non-verbal negation in the Mesopotamian .................................................. 213 Table 30: Non-verbal negation in the Arabian Peninsula varieties ............................. 215 Table 31: The negative personal pronoun paradigm of some of the Arabian Peninsula ............................................................................................................................... 220 Table 32: Non-verbal negation in the Yemeni varieties .............................................. 223 Table 33: The dependent and independent pronouns in Standard Arabic ................... 232 Table 34: The negative personal pronoun paradigm of some modern Arabic varieties ............................................................................................................................... 234 Table 35: The mū~miš negator .................................................................................... 239 Table 36: The progress of modern Arabic varieties in the Arabic negative cycle ....... 246 Table 37: Modern Arabic varieties of type III ............................................................. 264 Table 38: Modern Arabic varieties of type IV ............................................................