Open AccessSerial verbs in modern standard Arabic
Author(s) -
Yasir Hameed Ayidh Alotaibi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
al-mağallaẗ al-duwaliyyaẗ li-l-dirāsāt al-luġawiyyaẗ wa-al-adabiyyaẗ al-ʿarabiyyaẗ
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2663-5860
pISSN - 2663-5852
DOI - 10.31559/jalls2021.3.4.3
Subject(s) - linguistics , computer science , grammar , arabic , subject (documents) , verb , modal verb , generative grammar , natural language processing , syntactic structure , artificial intelligence , syntax , philosophy , library science
This paper aims to discuss serial verb constructions in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It argues against the claim that this structure does not exist in MSA. We examined parallel structures in this paper: being verbs and what is called albadal ‘apposition’ in the traditional grammar of the Arabic language. This paper argues that the first structure should be analyzed as an auxiliary structure that contains two clauses, while the second structure should be analyzed as a serial verb structure as it denotes, among others, a complex situation, shares the same subject, and contains one clause. Finally, this paper provides a brief syntactic analysis for being verbs and serial verbs in MSA within the lexical functional grammar (LFG) framework, showing the differences between the two structures.