Properties of the Arabic language
5.4 Testing Levin’s Alternations for Arabic
5.4.10 Uninterntional interpretation of object
5.4.10.1 Uninterntional interpretation with reflexive object (358) Paulina cut herself (on the sharp stone).
(ambiguous: intentionlly or unententionally) (359) jarah
˙a ‘hurt’ verbs (some): jarah
˙ ‘enjure’, haraqa ‘burn’, Paad
¯aa ‘hurt’,
injured DEF-cook-NOM self-ACC-his
‘The cook injured himself.’
‘hit’, faˇsaxa ‘spank’, falaqa‘hit’, kasaca ‘hit’, lat
˙aca ‘spank’, lat
˙ama ‘spank’, lakaPa ‘punch’, lakama‘punch’, lakaza ‘punch’, lakka ‘punch’, lasaca ‘prick’, nat˙ah
˙a ‘butt’, naqara ‘peck’, qaras
˙a ‘pinch’, rat
˙ama ‘spank’, rafasa ‘kick’, rakala ‘kick’, wat
˙asa ‘hit’, wajaPa‘hit’, wakaza‘punch’, waqat
˙a‘hit’, xabat
˙a
‘hit’
(362) s
˙afaca saliim-un nafs-a-hu.
spanked Salim-NOM self-ACC-his.
‘Salim spanked himself’
(unambiguous: only intentionally)
Comment:
This alternation is found with some verbs of contact by impact with a strong manner specification. These verbs have the property of implying an intentional interpretation with a reflexive object. However, not all verbs which can take a reflexive object also involve an unintentional interpretation. The subject is interpreted rather as an experiencer than as an agent since it does not possess typical agentivity properties.
5.4.10.2 Unintentional interpretation with body-part object (363) Sylvia cut her finger (on the knife).
(ambiguous: intentionally or uninterntionally) (Levin, 1993, 102–104) (364) jarah h˙araqa ‘burn’, batara ‘cut’, fadaca ‘twist’, jarah
˙a ‘injure’, kasara ‘break’, waqas
˙a‘break’, xadaˇsa ‘scratch’, xamaˇsa ‘scratch’, xammaˇsa‘scratch’, . . . (365) jarah
˙a t
˙-t
˙abbaax-u Pus
˙buc-a-hu.
injured DEF-cook-NOM finger-ACC-his
‘The cook injured his finger.’
(ambiguous: intentionally or unintentionally)
‘hit’, faˇsaxa ‘spank’, falaqa‘hit’, kasaca ‘hit’, lat
˙aca ‘spank’, lat
˙ama ‘spank’, lakaPa ‘punch’, lakama‘punch’, lakaza ‘punch’, lakka ‘punch’, lasaca ‘prick’, nat˙ah
˙a ‘butt’, naqara ‘peck’, qaras
˙a ‘pinch’, rat
˙ama ‘spank’, rafasa ‘kick’, rakala ‘kick’, wat
˙asa ‘hit’, wajaPa‘hit’, wakaza‘punch’, waqat
˙a‘hit’, xabat
˙a
‘hit’
(367) lat
˙ama-t salmaa xadd-a-haa.
slapped-F Salma cheek-ACC-her
‘Salma slapped her cheek.’
(unambiguous: only intentionally) Comment:
This construction involves an unintentional interpretation. It is found with verbs
of contact by impact but not all verbs involve an unintentional reading. The object of these verbs is not a reflexive pronoun as in the last construction, but a body part of the subject. Here, the subject also lacks agentive properties and acts more as an experiencer than an agent.
5.4.10.3 Bound nonreflexive anaphor as prepositional object
(368) The listi includes my name on iti/*itselfi.
(369) Sheilai brought the book with heri/*herselfi. (Levin, 1993, 104) (370) jalaba ‘bring’ verbs: Pah
˙d
(371) jalaba caliy-uni maca-hui/*-nafs-i-hi kutub-an.
brought Ali-NOMi with-himi/*-self-GEN-his books-ACC-IND
‘Alii brought books with himi.’
Comment:
This construction involves verbs with a prepositional phrase taking a non reflexive pronoun as the object. This pronoun is always unambiguously coreferent with the subject. In Arabic, this construction is mostly found with verbs of bringing and taking, but not with verbs like Ph
˙tawaa ‘contain’ (369).
5.4.10.4 Directional phrase with mondirected motion verbs (372) a. The truck rumbled.
b. The truck rumbled into the driveway. (Levin, 1993, 105–106) (373) * ranna ‘ring’ verbs: Pajrasa ‘knell’,Pazza ‘fizz’, ˇsaxˇsaxa ‘clink’, h
˙affa
˙aqqa ‘crockle’, baqbaqa ‘babble’, . . . (374) a. Pazza-t t
˙-t
˙aaPirat-u.
fizzed-F DEF-airplan-NOM
‘The airplan fizzed.’
b. * Pazza-t t
˙-t
˙aaPirat-u Pilaa l-mat
˙aar-i.
fizzed-F DEF-airplan-NOM to DEF-airport-GEN
‘The airplan fizzed to the airport.’
(375) qafaza ‘jump’ verbs
Pafaqa‘travel’,Pahraca‘speed’,Pakraba‘rush’,Pasraa‘walk by night’,caama
‘swim’, cadaa ‘run’, caraja ‘limp’, d
¯˙alaca ‘limp’, h
˙abaa ‘crawl’, t
˙aara ‘fly’, t˙afara ‘jump’, baxtara ‘strut’, dabba ‘crawl’, daraja ‘step’, farqaca ‘run’, hafaa ‘jump’, harwala ‘trot’, hazaca ‘hurry’, jaaba ‘tour’, jaraa ‘run’, . . .
(376) a. harwala l-hujjaaj-u.
trotted DEF-pilgrim-NOM
‘The pilgrim trotted.’
b. harwala l-hujjaaj-u Pilaa l-funduq-i.
trotted DEF-pilgrim-NOM to DEF-hotel-GEN
‘The pilgrim trotted to the hotel.’
Comment:
This construction is found with verbs which are typically not verbs of directed motion. The construction adds an unsubcategorized prepositional phrase headed by a direction or goal preposition. In English, it is found in two verb classes, the class of sound emission and the runclass. In Arabic, it is attested only with the class qafaza ‘jump’ (equivalent to the class run in English). The verbs of this class, which are typically activity verbs, do change to accomplishment verbs by introducing a directional PP. The meaning of the new construction makes the manner in which an object moves to some location more precise.
5.4.10.5 Obligatory passive
(377) a. It is rumored that he left town.
b. * They rumor that he left town. (Levin, 1993, 107) (378) Pugmiya ‘faint’ verbs (some): Pugmiya ‘faint’, guˇsiya‘swoon’
(379) a. Pugmiya calaa Salmaa fainted-PASS on Salmaa.
‘Salma fainted.’
b. * Pagomaa t
˙-t
˙abiib-u calaa Salmaa fainted-PASS DEF-doctor-NOMon Salmaa.
(380) Pugrima ‘fall in love’verbs (some): Pugrima‘fall in love’,Puulica‘fall in love’
(381) a. Pugrima caliy-un bi-l-fataat-i.
fell-in-love-PASS Ali-NOMwith-DEF-girl-GEN
‘Ali fell in love with that girl’
b. * Pgarama l-fataat-u caliy-an bi-haa.
CAUS-fell-in-love DEF-girl-NOM Ali-ACC in-her
‘The girl made Ali fall in love with her.’
Comment:
Some verbs are obligatorily used in the passive mode. In Arabic these constructions typically involve verbs of involuntary body reflex like Pugmiya ‘faint’ or verbs involving an emotional state in reaction to some external object like Pugrima ‘fall in love’.
5.4.10.6 Obligatory reflexive object (382) a. The politician perjured himself.
b. * The politician perjured his aide. (Levin, 1993, 17) Comment:
This construction is not available in Arabic. In English, verbs found with this construction obligatorily take a reflexive pronoun as object.
5.4.10.7 Inalienably Possessed Body-Part Object (383) a. Jennifer craner her/*his neck.
b. Jennifer craned her neck/*arm. (Levin, 1993, 107–108) (384) lawwah
˙a ‘wave’ verbs (some): PawmaPa ‘wink’, Pawmad
˙a ‘gesture’, s˙afaqa ‘clap’, s
˙affaqa ‘clap’, bas
˙bas
˙a ‘squint’, gamaza ‘wink’
(385) a. gamaza l-fataat-u bi-cayn-i-haa/-*hi.
winked DEF-girl-NOM with-eye-her/-*his
‘The girl winked her eye.’
b. gamaza l-fataat-u bi-Pudun-i-haa/-*hi.
winked DEF-girl-NOM with-ear-her/-*his
‘The girl winked her ear.’
Comment:
This construction is found with verbs of gesture of the classlawwah
˙a ‘wave’ and partially with verbs of caring. In Arabic the body part involved by these verbs is realized as a prepositional complement, and is inalienably possessed by the subject. Each verb specifies one body part as an argument (or a synonym of it).
Verbs of caring involve one and only one body part, but can be referenced with other participants than the subject.
5.4.10.8 Expletive it object (386) a. Let’s call it a day.
b. They’ve got it made.
c. You’ve really lived it up. (Levin, 1993, 109)
Comment:
This construction is not found in Arabic, since there is no element in Arabic which is in meaning and function equivalent to the impersonal pronoun it.
5.4.10.9 Obligatory Adverb (387) a. The teacher meant well.
b. The teacher meant. (Levin, 1993, 109)
Comment:
A similar construction is available in Arabic. However, the presence of an obligatory adverb is not attested.
5.4.11 Summary
49 of alternations listed in Levin (1993) are also available in Arabic (see table 5.1). Most alternations related to accusativity introduce overt morphological head marking. This is also the case for other alternations promoting external arguments in the subject position such as the inchoative alternationand the substance/source alternation. The templates used to mark these promotions depend on the position of the argument being shifted and the base morphological structure of the verbs.
This stand in contrast to shifting arguments to the object position. This kind of shifting does not require a morphological marking of the verb, as can be seen in (154), repeated here as (388). Shifting l-wuruudu ‘flowers’ into a more prominent position does not cause any change in the morphological structure of the main verb.
(388) a. raˇsˇsa-t salmaa l-maaP-a calaa l-wuruud-i.
sprayed-FSalma water-ACC with DEF-flowers-GEN
‘Salma sprayed water on the flowers.’
b. raˇsˇsa-t salmaa l-wuruud-a bi-lmaaP-i.
sprayed-FSalma DEF-flowers-ACC with-water-GEN
‘Salma sprayed the flower with water.’
This is to say that the morphological material typically used to mark inchoativity and other meaning related to subject positions is rather used to mark the “pro-motion” of the external argument to the subject position than marking meaning aspects. This explains why features used to mark inchoatvity with some verbs can be used to mark reflexivity or causativity with other verbs.
Not only inchoativity is morphologically marked in Arabic, but also alternations
introducing reflexivity and reciprocality. Reflexivity is realized in two different ways: Structural reflexivity requires a reflexive anaphor such asnafs- ‘-self’. Mor-phological (lexical) reflexivity is incorporated in the lexical material of the verb.
However, as in other languages allowing for the two forms of reflexivity such as French, the two ways are not interchangeablly but complementarily used. Verbs which do not allow for morphologically marked reflexivity such as verbs of change of state, are expressed structurally as in (389).
(389) a. * Pin-qat
˙aca l-walad-u.
MID-cut DEF-boy-NOM.
‘The boy cut himself.’
b. qat
˙aca l-walad-u nafos-a-hu.
cut DEF-boy-NOM self-ACC-him
‘The boy cut himself.’
Some verbs assign two different meanings to each of the two types of reflexives, but the majority of them associates the two types with one and the same semantic meaning as with the verb jahhaza ‘equip’ (390).
(390) a. jahhaza l-jayoˇs-u nafs-a-hu.
equipped DEF-army-NOMself-ACC-him
‘The army equipped itself.’
b. ta-jahhaza l-jayoˇs-u.
MID-equipped DEF-army-NOM
‘The army equipped itself’.
In some cases, reflexivity and inchoativity, which are two semanticly distinct phenomena, are associated with the same verb. The fact that the two phenomena are similarly marked leads some linguists to see them as one and the same and to paraphrase them indistinctly as V PRON-self (Chierchia, 1989). However, as example (391) shows, the verb tajahhaza‘MID-equip’ in (391b) cannot have a reflexive meaning since its subject lacks any agentivity property. In (391b), the same verb has a reflexive meaning since the subject shows all substantial agentivity properties.
(391) a. ta-jahhaza l-jayoˇs-u bi-Paslih
˙at-in
REFL-equipped DEF-army-NOMwith-weapons-GEN
mutat
˙awwirat-in.
sophisticated-GEN.
‘The army equipped itself with sophisticated weapons’.
b. ta-jahhazat l-binaayat-u bi-kaamiraat-i
INCH-equipped DEF-building-NOMwith-camera-PL-GEN
muraaqabat-in.
surveillance-GEN
‘The building was equipped with a surveillance camera.’
Based on this understanding, the lexical reflexivity is considered as a part of the Arabic-specific alternations.
Another meaning that is accompanied by morphological marking is the reciprocality and all alternations related to it. Transitive verbs of social interaction likeh
˙aaraba
‘battle’,ˇsaawara ‘consult’, jaadala ‘argue’ show an intransitive reciprocal variant ta-h˙aaraba‘RECP-battle’, ta-ˇsaawara ‘RECP-consult’, RECP-tajaadala ‘argue’. The reciprocal assigns two coequal thematic roles (actor 1and actor 2) to the verb’s arguments. In the transitive variant, the two actors are explicitly realized as the subject and as the object or a prepositional object. In the intransitive variant they are implicitly present as a plural or dual NP or as a subject with a conjoined NP. Noteworthy is the close relation between reciprocality and intransitivity in the case of verbs like h
˙aaraba ‘battle’,ˇsaawara ‘consult and jaadala‘argue’. The reciprocality arises here as effect of intransitivizing the verbs by the morpheme ta-. Here, the morpheme ta- has here–as we have argued before– mere functional properties. It has the structural effect of preventing an object to appear in the sentence. In the reciprocal, the meaning arises when the role assigned to the object in the transitive variant is incorporated into a single subject NP or realized as the object of the preposition bi or maca ‘with’.
(392) a. Transitive varaint:
ˇsaawara l-mudiir-u sikritiir-a-hu consulted DEF-director-NOM secretary-ACC-his
‘The director consulted his secretary.’
b. Intransitve reciprocal variant:
ta-ˇsaawara l-mudiir-u wa-sikritiir-u-hu.
INTR-consulted DEF-director-NOMand-secretary-NOM-his
‘The director and his secretary consulted.’
c. Intransitive (not reciprocal) variant:
ta-ˇsaawara l-mudiir-u mac sikritiir-i-hu.
INTR-consulted DEF-director-NOMwith secretary-GEN-his
‘The director consulted with his secretary.’
Alternations associated with a change in the valency of the verbs or with an argument shift to a non-subject position are not overtly marked. This is the case for verbs which allow for an arbitrary drop of the object or some oblique argument as is the case with the unspecified object alternation,the PRO-arb object alternation, the characteristic property of agent alternation, the characteristic property of instrument alternation, and with alternations allowing one element to be either realized as the direct object or as the object of some preposition such as with the locative preposition drop Alternation and maca ‘with’ preposition drop Alternation.
Most of Levin’s alternations which are not attested in Arabic are—as one can expect— those alternations associating a meaning with specific lexical elements which have no correspondence in Arabic. This is the case with alternations introducing elements indicating a result state or a direction, as in the case of the apart reciprocal alternation, the together reciprocal alternation, the resultative alternation expressed by a (result) adjective and the X’s way construction.
In the same context, the meaning associated with one alternation in English can only be associated with one of its variants. For instance, the benefactive in Arabic is generally expressed by a PP headed by lior min Pajli‘for’, but not by a dative object.
Other alternations associate a meaning with a specific element taking a preverbal subject position. These elements constrain the “real” subject to appear in a postverbal position. This is the case for the there-insertion alternation and the expletive it subject construction. The two alternations are not expected to be found in Arabic since the language simply lacks elements similar in meaning and function to there and to the impersonal pronounit.
Some alternations are based on associating meaning with a specific structural configuration, which, indeed, is available in Arabic but is not associated with that meaning. For instance, the conative alternation (Levin, 1993, 41) expresses an attempted action without specifying its end state by realizing the object of the a-variant as the object of the prepositionat , or sometimes withonin the b-variant.
In Arabic, the corresponding meaning is not conveyed by the construction V NP fiy-NP as in English, but by a complex sentence headed by an aspectual verb.
Furthermore, even though some of Levin’s alternations are attested in Arabic, they are not always associated with the same class of verbs. For instance, the obligatory passive constructionin English is attested with verbs like repute,rumor, and reincarnate. In Arabic, however, the same construction is associated with verbs like Pugmiya‘faint’, a verb of involuntary body reflex, or with wujida ‘exist’
which belongs to a class of existence verbs.
Some alternations are more frequent in Arabic than in English or vise versa. One example is the cognate object alternation. As mentioned in section 5.4.9.1, the cognate object alternation is the most frequent alternation in Arabic. It is found with transitive verbs as well as with intransitive verbs and across all verb classes except, a subset of the class Paraada ‘want’ (see section 8.3.18.1). In English, however, the same alternation is restricted to few classes of intransitive verbs.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that Levin’s alternation collection treats only few cases of sentential complements. Thus, we will treat them as part of the Arabic-specific alternations in chapter7. Other Arabic-specific alternations are treated in chapter 6.
Levin’s Alternations Availability Marking
Middle alternation no no
Causative/Inchoative alternation yes yes
Induced action alternation yes yes
Substance/Source alternation yes yes
Unspecified Object alternation yes no
Understood Body-Part Object alternation yes no
Understood Reflexive Object alternation yes yes
Understood Reciprocal Object alternation yes yes
PRO-arb Object alternation yes no
Characteristic Property of Agent alternation yes no
Characteristic Property of Instrument alternation yes no
Way Object alternation no no
Instructional Imperative yes no
Conative alternation no no
Locative Preposition Drop alternation yes no
With Preposition Drop alternation yes yes
Dative alternation yes no
Benifactive alternation yes no
Spray/Load alternation yes no
clear alternation yes yes
Wipe alternation yes no
Swarm alternation yes no
Clearalternation (intransitive) yes no
Material/Product alternation (transitive) no no
Material/Product alternation (intransitive) no no Total transformation alternation (transitive) yes no Total transformation alternation (transitive) yes no Total transformation alternation (intransitive) yes no Simple teciprocal alternation (transitive) yes no Together teciprocal alternation (transitive) no no
Apart teciprocal alternation (transitive) no no
Simple reciprocal alternation (intransitive) no no
Apart reciprocal alternation (intransitive) no no
Fullfilling alternation no no
Image impression alternation yes no
With/Against alternation no? no
Through/With alternation no no
Blame alternation yes no
Searchalternation yes no
Body-part possessor ascension alternation yes no
Possessor object yes no
Attribute object yes no
Possessor and attribute alternation yes no
Possessor subject (transitive) yes no
Possessor subject (intransitive) yes no
As alternation yes no
Time subject alternation yes no
Natural force Subject alternation yes no
Instrument subject alternation yes no
Locatum subject alternation yes no
Lacation subject alternation yes no
Container subject alternation yes no
Raw material subject alternation no? no
Sum of money subject alternation yes no
Source subject alternation yes yes
Virtual reflexive alternation no no
Reflexive of appearance alternation ?no no
There-insertion no no
Locative inversion yes no
Cognate object construction yes no
Cognate prepositional phrase construction yes no
Reaction object construction yes no
X’s way construction no no
Resultative cnostruction no no
Unintentional interpretation
with reflexive object yes no
Unintentional interpretation
with body-part object yes no
Bound nonreflexive anaphor
as Prepositional Object yes no
Directional phrases with
nondirected motion verbs yes no
Obligatory passive yes no
Obligatory reflexive object no no
Inalienably possessed body-part object yes no
Expletive it object no no
Obligatory adverb no no
Obligatory negativity polarity element ?no no
Table 5.1: Levin’s Alternations in Arabic