A Cartographic Analysis of Subject Status in Root SV Orders in Algerian Arabic

• Published in: Theory and practice in language studies Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 207 - 216
• Main Authors: Bourzeg, Meymouna, Yasin, Ayman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academy Publication Co., LTD 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Arabic language; Grammar, Comparative and general; Study and teaching; Word order; Algeria
• ISSN: 1799-2591
• DOI: 10.17507/tpls.1301.24

This paper investigates word order derivation in root clauses in Algerian Arabic (AA) with a focus on preverbal and postverbal constituents. The data is collected from audio typed recordings of natural ongoing speeches of 40 Algerian informants. Four cartographic frameworks are applied: Rizzi's (1997) Split-CP system, Frascarelli and Hinterholzl's (2007) topic typology, Kiss's (1998) contrastive-information focus dichotomy and Belletti's (2004, 2005) model of the low periphery. Empirical evidence shows that preverbal elements can have three readings: genuine subject reading, topic reading, or focus reading. Unlike Rizzi (1997) who assumes that topic is a unique category, and in line with Frascarelli and Hinterholzl's (2007), three kinds of topics are licensed in the AA left periphery: non-recursive aboutness topic, recursive familiar topics and non-recursive contrastive topic. AA left periphery hosts only contrastive focus, and informational focus occurs in lower positions. Empirical evidence also shows that AA manifest a low IP area containing low topic and low focus. Different arguments are used to support this view: the behavior of the copula 'ka:na', floating quantifier and the behavior of the exclusive particle 'bark'. Index Terms--Algerian Arabic, topics typology, contrastive focus, information focus, low Ip area