Lujain Alkahzy
LING 566
2/4/2015
The following are the preliminary questions that I pondered about to initiate my
research on the nature of the noun phrase in Arabic, or shall I speak in syntactic terms
and refer to it as the determiner phrase. Before I proceed with my questions I would like
to mention some opening notes. Since the Arabic language has many varieties, and
depending on which part of the Arab world a dialect is found, two main varieties are
considered by many Arab Linguists to be the High variety of the language, and they are;
the Quranic Arabic and the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). For my research I chose to
describe and discuss features of dialect spoken in the central region of Saudi Arabia,
more specifically in the Qassim area (QA). Comparing the determiner phrase in QA to
that in MSA.
Therefore and from this very short introduction you may predict that my
preliminary questions were more descriptive question than interrogatives.
1. How is the noun phrase defined in basic Arabic grammar?
2. How does the determiner phrase in MSA look like?
3. How far does agreement play a role in the structure of the DP in MSA? Is it the
same in QA?
4. What about adjectival phrases, how are they described in the literature of MSA?
5. Provide an account of the adjectival phrase in QA.
6. What does the numerical phrase look like in both dialects?
7. Where do demonstrative pronouns fall in the noun phrase structure in both
varieties?