The Acquisition of Negation in Najdi Arabic By Turki Abdullah S. Binturki Submitted to the graduate degree program in Linguistics and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson Clifton L. Pye ________________________________ Dr. Utako Minai ________________________________ Dr. Robert Fiorentino ________________________________ Dr. Naima Boussoffara ________________________________ Dr. Susan Kemper Date Defended: April 29 th 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Turki Abdullah S. Binturki certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Acquisition of Negation in Najdi Arabic ________________________________ Chairperson Clifton L. Pye Date approved: April 29 th 2015 ii ABSTRACT This investigation follows the development of negation of a Najdi speaking child. Previous negation studies have treated negation as one unit (NEG) regardless of its form in the adult language ( no and not) . This investigation provides a syntactic account of negation in Najdi in light of previous Arabic studies (Benmamoun 2000). It is argued in this study that verbal and non-verbal negation is captured by the same syntactic analysis. Both the affirmative and negative sentences of an adult and a child were evaluated and negation markers in verbal ( la and ma) and non-verbal ( muhub ) sentences were examined. The data is analyzed by examining six contexts of negation: discourse, imperative, existential, declarative interrogative and non-verbal predicate negation. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to assess the development of negation in Najdi. The results of the study have significant implications for the Continuity Hypothesis (Pinker 1984). The Continuity Hypothesis proposes that children and adults share the same types of grammatical elements and rules. Results of the study show that the subject made clear distinctions between verbal and non-verbal negation markers. The data also show that Najdi children demonstrate the linguistic ability to correctly produce negation in six different contexts. The results of the study support a discontinuous approach to language acquisition for the non- verbal ( muhub ) negation sentences. At the same, the results support continuity in the discourse and imperative contexts ( la ). Only partial support for continuity is shown for ma production in declarative, existential and interrogative contexts. In addition, this research took into consideration whether the input frequency has an effect on the child’s productions. This study shows that input is not the driving factor for the iii early production of negative markers as usage based studies suggest (Cameron-Faulkner, Lieven, & Theakston 2007). iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT All thank to Allah whom all people praise in different languages. All thanks be to him that this work have seen the light. I thank my employer The Institute of Diplomatic Studies whose without their endless financial support this research wouldn’t be realized. There are no words that would describe the level of gratitude that I have for Prof. Clifton Pye. His willingness to share knowledge and experiences has profoundly shaped this research. Along the years, he always maintained a positive energetic attitude towards research. He made himself available on all levels; he is a mentor, an outstanding advisor and a great friend. I am immensely grateful and will always be in debt to Dr. Pye for giving me the opportunity to conduct this research. Thank you also to my outstanding committee members: Dr. Utako Minai, Dr. Robert Fiorentino, Dr. Naima Boussoffara, and Dr. Susan Kemper for your comments and suggestions. It was a true honor to work with you. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues in the. Atef Alsarayreh, Mohammed Almalahmeh, Hesham Aldamen, Saad Aldosari and Phil Duncan thank you for the endless linguistic conversations and for being their when needed. It is such a blessing to have friends and colleagues that understand what it takes to earn a degree in linguistics for that I thank all colleagues in the Linguistics Department. Special thanks to Dr. Harold Torrence for great feedbacks and enriching conversations. I also thank Geoff Husic for his support at Watson library. I acknowledge the efforts of Corinna Johnson for providing support and addressing any administrational concerns. v My friend and advisor at the ISS Yuki Watanabe, your guidance and support are beyond expectations. You managed to understand international students’ concerns and were able to eloquently expunge them. Thank you! To my beloved wife Ghada Alsaif, thank you for everything especially for your endless love and support! You make me special and complete. I can face anything because you are by my side. It should be noted that this work appears to be an individual effort on my behalf, but the truth is I wouldn’t be able to finish this dissertation if not for Allah’s blessing then the prayers, love and support of my family; my mother Aljawhara Binturki, my father Abdullah Binturki, my father in law Abdulaziz Alsaif, and my brothers and sisters: thank you. vi DEDICATION To my mother Aljawhara for her immeasurable love and prayers, to my father Abdullah for his unbroken support, to my wife Ghada for her unconditional dedication and sacrifices and to the apples of my eyes Badr and Jenna who’s without my life would be dull. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................................................. v DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research questions .................................................................................................. 10 1.2 Organization of the Dissertation ............................................................................. 12 CHAPTER TWO: THE ACAQUISITION OF NEGATION IN ENGLISH AND OTHER LANGUAGES .............................................................................................................................. 14 2.1 English Language: Formal studies .......................................................................... 14 2.1.1 Klima & Bellugi (1966) ...................................................................................... 14 2.1.2 Deprez & Pierce (1993)....................................................................................... 18 2.1.3 Batet & Grau (1995) ............................................................................................ 20 2.1.4 Drozd (2002) ....................................................................................................... 23 2.2 English Language: Functional studies .................................................................... 27 2.2.1 Bloom (1970) ...................................................................................................... 27 2.2.2 Choi (1988) ......................................................................................................... 29 viii 2.2.3 Cameron-Faulkner, Lieven, & Theakston (2007) ............................................... 30 2.3 Other Languages ..................................................................................................... 32 2.3.1 Wode (1977) ........................................................................................................ 33 2.3.2 Meisel (1997) ...................................................................................................... 36 2.3.3 Park (1979) .......................................................................................................... 36 2.3.4 Plunkett & Strömqvist (1990) ............................................................................. 37 2.4 Arabic ...................................................................................................................... 38 2.4.1 Omar (1973) ........................................................................................................ 38 2.4.2 Smadi (1979) ....................................................................................................... 40 2.4.3 Al-Buainain (2003) ............................................................................................. 43 2.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER THREE: THE GRAMMAR OF NEGATION IN NAJDI ARABIC ......................... 49 3.1 Negation strategies in Arabic .................................................................................. 50 3.1.1 Verbal predicate negation.................................................................................... 51 3.1.1.1 The morpheme /la/ ..........................................................................................