The realization of negation in the Syrian Arabic clause, phrase, and word Isa Wayne Murphy M.Phil in Applied Linguistics Trinity College Dublin 2014 Supervisor: Dr. Brian Nolan Declaration I declare that this dissertation has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and that it is entirely my own work. I agree that the Library may lend or copy this dissertation on request. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract The realization of negation in the Syrian Arabic clause, phrase, and word Isa Wayne Murphy Syrian Arabic realizes negation in broadly the same way as other dialects of Arabic, but it does so utilizing varied and at times unique means. This dissertation provides a Role and Reference Grammar account of the full spectrum of lexical, morphological, and analytical means employed by Syrian Arabic to encode negation on the layered structures of the verb, the clause, the noun, and the noun phrase. The scope negation takes within the LSC and the LSNP is identified and illustrated. The study found that Syrian Arabic employs separate negative particles to encode wide-scope negation on clauses and narrow-scope negation on constituents, and utilizes varied and interesting means to express emphatic negation. It also found that while Syrian Arabic belongs in most respects to the broader Levantine family of Arabic dialects, its negation strategy is more closely aligned with the Arabic dialects of Iraq and the Arab Gulf states. 3 Table of Contents DECLARATION.......................................................................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF FIGURES................................................................................................................... 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................ 8 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 9 2 NEGATION IN THE EYES OF THE SCHOLARS................................................................... 12 2.1 A brief overview of negation................................................................................................ 12 2.1.1 Universally attested, conceptually contested................................................................... 12 2.1.2 Typology of negation................................................................................................. 16 2.2 Negation in Arabic............................................................................................................. 21 2.2.1 Negation in Modern Standard Arabic............................................................................ 22 2.2.2 Negation across the spoken dialects of Arabic................................................................. 24 2.2.3 The literature imbalance............................................................................................. 26 2.3 Chapter summary.............................................................................................................. 28 3 NEGATION IN ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR (RRG)............................................... 29 3.1 Negation and the clause in RRG........................................................................................... 29 3.1.1 Negation and the Layered Structure of the Clause (LSC)................................................... 30 3.1.2 Negation and Logical Structure (LS)............................................................................. 35 3.1.3 Negation and Focus Structure (FS)............................................................................... 40 3.1.4 Negation and complex sentences.................................................................................. 43 3.2 Negation and the layered structures of the noun phrase (LSNP) and the word (LSW)...................... 46 3.3 Chapter summary.............................................................................................................. 48 4 SA NEGATION AND THE LSW, PART 1: VERBS AND NON-VERBAL PREDICATES.............. 49 4.1 Brief introduction to Syrian Arabic matrix verbs...................................................................... 49 4.2 Negation and the layered structure of matrix verbs................................................................... 51 4.3 Negation and the layered structure of non-verbal predicates....................................................... 54 4.4 Comparison with other varieties of Arabic.............................................................................. 57 4.5 Chapter summary.............................................................................................................. 57 5 SA NEGATION AND THE LAYERED STRUCTURE OF THE CLAUSE................................... 58 5.1 Brief introduction to Syrian Arabic clauses............................................................................. 59 5.2 Encoding negation on the clause with the negative particle maː .................................................. 60 5.3 Encoding negation on constituents with the negative particle muː ................................................ 83 5.4 Encoding negation on the imperative and the use of the emphatic negative particle laː .................... 90 5.5 Negative concord and negative polarity elements..................................................................... 94 5.6 Comparison with other varieties of Arabic............................................................................ 100 4 5.7 Chapter summary............................................................................................................. 101 6 SA NEGATION AND THE LSW, PART 2: NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES................................... 102 6.1 Brief introduction to Syrian Arabic nominals......................................................................... 102 6.2 Lexical negation in Syrian Arabic........................................................................................ 104 6.3 Analytical negation with negative particles........................................................................... 105 6.4 Analytical negation with negative nouns and adjectives........................................................... 108 6.5 Analytical negation with negative prepositions....................................................................... 110 6.6 Comparison with other varieties of Arabic............................................................................ 112 6.7 Chapter Summary............................................................................................................ 112 7 SA NEGATION AND THE LAYERED STRUCTURE OF THE NOUN PHRASE....................... 113 7.1 Brief introduction to Syrian Arabic noun phrases.................................................................... 113 7.2 The scope of negation in noun phrases headed by lexically negative nouns.................................. 115 7.3 The scope of negation in noun phrases headed by negative prepositions...................................... 117 7.4 Comparison with other varieties of Arabic............................................................................ 118 7.5 Chapter summary............................................................................................................. 119 8 DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................... 120 8.1 Select significant findings.................................................................................................. 120 8.2 The importance of RRG’s functional approach to the analysis of negation in Arabic...................... 121 8.3 Needs for further research.................................................................................................. 122 9 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................... 124 10 REFERENCES................................................................................................................... 126 11 REFERENCES: SYRIAN ARABIC VIDEO DATA SOURCES................................................. 134 12 APPENDICES.................................................................................................................... 140 5 Table of Figures Figure 3-1. The organization of RRG ................................................................................................ 30 Figure 3-2. The layered structure of the clause ................................................................................... 30 Figure 3-3. The semantic foundation of the LSC .................................................................................. 31 Figure 3-4. Verbal constituent projection ........................................................................................... 31 Figure 3-5. Non-verbal constituent projections ................................................................................... 32 Figure 3-6. Operators and the operator projection of the LSC ............................................................... 33 Figure 3-7. Constituent and operator projections