The syntax of temporal and conditional adverbial clauses in Najdi Arabic

Abstract

This thesis investigates the syntax of temporal and conditional adverbial clauses in Najdi Arabic (NA, henceforth). It essentially brings several pieces of empirical evidence that such clauses maintain the peripheral vs. central dichotomy which has been attested in some other (un)related languages (see, mainly, Haegeman 2003, 2004, 2006, and subsequent works). This means that conditional adverbial clauses are sub-classified into peripheral conditional adverbial clauses and central conditional adverbial clauses. The same classification is applied to temporal adverbial clauses, i.e. peripheral temporal adverbial clauses and central temporal adverbial clauses. The study also furnishes empirical evidence that the two types of clauses (peripheral vs. central) are at odds over their external syntax (i.e. the adjunction site within the accompanying main clause) and their internal syntax (with particular focus on their CP structure). The study shows that NA peripheral adverbial clauses (both temporal and conditional) are ‘less’ integrated with the accompanying main clause. They are adjoined to the CP of the accompanying clause; hence they do not fall within the syntactic domain of several operators of the accompanying main clause. As for the inner structure of NA peripheral adverbial clauses, the study shows that such clauses obtain a richer CP inner structure; no functional phrases within the CP layer are truncated. I mainly dwell on the observation that movement to the left periphery of NA peripheral adverbial clauses is allowed. The only exception is that such clauses lack the upper Topic Phrase. On the other hand, NA central adverbial clauses (both temporal and conditional) are ‘much’ integrated with the accompanying main clause. They are adjoined to the vP/VP/TP layers of the accompanying clause. This indicates that such clauses fall within the domain of several operators of the accompanying main clause. Such a type of clauses does not, e.g., have their independent temporal anchoring. As for the inner structure of NA central adverbial clauses, the current thesis argues that such clauses have a truncated CP structure in that functional phrases of Topic Phrase and Focus Phrase are truncated. The lack of such phrases gives consequently rise to the observation that no topicalization nor focalization is permitted in such clauses. As for why such clauses begin with a verb (i.e. the VSO word order is the only option allowed), the study argues that the lexical verb undergoes a head movement to adjoin to the head of Finiteness Phrase (FinP; cf. Rizzi 1997). The study argues the head of FinP has no Edge Feature (EPP), something that results in that no element such as subject or object is permitted to move to Spec,FinP.