Abdelkader fassi fehri

• Doctor of State. Arts & Human Sciences
• Professor at Mohammed V University

We motivate the view that Arabic psych construction types originate as root phrases, devoid of categorial specifications, rather than verbal phrases, as commonly assumed. It is shown that roots are categorially and ontologically flexible, and that valency affixes are arguably roots, not categorical templates . Furthermore, the root/template divide,...

The paper provides a novel motivation in favor of a complex and fine-grained syntax of spatial PPs in Arabic. It neatly fills a gap between the complex semantics of spatial expressions and their morphosyntax, which remains unexplained using wide spread cognitive approaches. We propose a fine-grained architecture of root nodes, categories, and featu...

We motivate a ‘rooted’ PP shell analysis of Arabic prepositional phrases, which takes into account the prepositional dual life, as a lexical root item and as a vocabulary word, projecting a lexical √P headed by the P root, and a functional pP headed by p, the syntactic case assigner. Moreover, PlaceP and PathP projections are motivated by different...

We motivate a ‘rooted’ PP shell analysis of Arabic prepositional phrases, which takes into account the prepositional dual life, as a lexical root item and as a vocabulary word, projecting a lexical √P headed by the P root, and a functional pP headed by p, the syntactic case assigner. Moreover, PlaceP and PathP projections are motivated by different...

Currently working on Motion Events in Arabic

The paper presents an analysis of Arabic motion events, typically daxal ‘enter’ and xaraj ‘exit’, and their kins, within the Arabic Constructional and Variational Lexicon (ACVL) project, originally designed by Fassi Fehri (2020), based on previous seminal work, namely Fassi Fehri (1986, 1997), and implemented more recently in Fassi Fehri & Salem-Ta...

number variation across categories, verbal number, plurative, number gender convergence

Morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of a specific plural/collective construction in Arabic, which I call the plurative, are examined and analysed. The plurative is shown to be a complex third entity, resulting from a convergence process of both Number and Gender features (and/or categories). It behaves as a syntactic expression denoting groups...

Distinct senses of universal quantification are expressed not only by vocabulary inventory variation, but also through features and categories which build the various quantifier types. It can be shown that the most productive Arabic universal kull (and arguably its kins in Semitic and other languages) conveys three universal quantifier senses, roug...

Rather than being confined to an intrinsic nominal property (of the low n ), and expressing sex or animacy, gender is shown to be polysemous, contributing ‘unorthodox’ meanings such as quantity, perspective, evaluation, performativity, and interacting with various layers and categories in the nominal domain. It is then constructional , and distribu...

Numerosity building from the root up to higher numeral projections and interpretations

Contrary to a widespread sex-based typology/theory of Gen(der), where it is essentially construed as (a) a nominal class marking device, (b) semantically sex-based, and (c) syntactically reflected in gender agreement through sexed-animate controllers, I argue instead that Gen is (a) polysemous, (b) multi-layeredly distributed in the DP, CP, or SAP...

The article argues that Gender expresses a multitude of meanings including individuation, collectivity, abstractness, quantity, size, evaluation, perspectivization, in addition to the most known sex-animacy. In contrast to the dominant view in the literature, which sees Gender as essentially (a) a nominal class marking device, (b) semantically sex-...

The analysis is an attempt to make verbal and nominal classifications fall out from one and the same unified system, based on two valued features: [± atomic] and [± singulative], yielding essentially four classes for both nouns and verbs.

Pour une justice linguistique pluridimensionnelle au Maroc : Prolégomènes et ingrédients 1 « Il n'y a pas de pire injustice que de traiter comme égales des choses inégales » (Aristote) La justice étant la vertu première de toute institution, nous supposons que toute politique linguistique recevable doit avoir pour objectif la gestion politique just...

In light of recent generative minimalism, and comparative parametric theory of language variation, the book investigates key features and parameters of Arabic grammar. Part I addresses morpho-syntactic and semantic interfaces in temporality, aspectuality, and actionality, including the Past/Perfect/Perfective ambiguity akin to the very synthetic te...

The present volume presents cutting-edge research on Arabic linguistics. It features a set of papers which continue a long tradition of seeking new explanations for familiar or previously undiscovered structural patterns. While the papers illustrate a range of approaches, from formalist to functionalist, each paper combines rigorous analysis of a s...

In consistent null subject languages (= NSL; including Arabic, Italian, or Irish), silent subject pronouns are interpreted as exclusively referential, while a third person singular pro is exclusively generic in non-consistent NSL (e.g. Finnish or Hebrew). A third person singular generic is available in consistent NSL, but only with a specific voice...

The paper presents a system of verbal and nominal classification based on atomic features which qualify wholes and parts of event and object denotations. It provides a parallel mereological treatment of these classes in Arabic and Chinese. Classes are marked by Classifiers, which interact with Number and Aspect, and they serve as grammatical device...

It has been observed that languages which exhibit Number (Nb) marking on nouns (tend to) lack classifiers (Cl), or vice versa (cf. e.g. Greenberg (1972)). This has led some authors to postulate a systematic complementary distribution between Nb and Cl, and treat the two markings as discriminately complementary (cf. e.g. T'sou (1976), Chierchia (199...

DPs and BNs are used parametrically in Arabic (as well as in other languages) to express generic/existential contrasts, and mass/count oppositions. Unlike English and Romance, Arabic BNs behave like overt indefinites, give rise to bare singulars, and to numeral BNs, obviating scope or opacity distinctions between bare singulars, duals, or plurals....

Any analysis of the syntax of time is based on a paradox: it must include a syntax-based theory of both tense construal and event construal. Yet while time is undimensional, events have a complex spatiotemporal structure that reflects their human participants. How can an event be flattened to fit into the linear time axis? Chomsky's The Minimalist...

Languages use grammaticalized inflections (GIs), auxiliaries (Auxs), and temporal adverbials (PPs or NPs, etc.; = Advs) to express various kinds of temporal reference (TR). It is largely acknowledged in the literature that GIs are ambiguous or underspecified with respect to TR, and that their forms, even when identical, may lead to different interp...

This volume contains 22 of the papers presented at the 5th Conference on Afroasiatic Languages (CAL 5) held at Université Paris VII in June 2000. The authors report their latest research on the syntax, morphology, and phonology of quite a number of languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Tigrinya, Coptic Egyptian, Berber, Hausa, Beja, Somali, Gamo). Th...

Important characteristics of the Arabic adjectival system are investigated, in view of the question of how the DP system is organized. A first series of issues include: (a) how adjective serialization observes quasi-universal hierarchical ordering restrictions (or their mirror image order), (b) how adjectives and other modifiers and determiners alt...

This volume presents a selection of papers from the 3rd Conference on Afroasiatic Languages, held in Sophia Antipolis, France, in 1996. The languages discussed include (varieties of) Arabic, Hebrew, Berber, Chaha, Wolof, and Old Egyptian.

Preface. 1. Principles, Parameters, and Modules. 2. Word Order, Agreement, and Case. 3. Pronouns, Incorporation, and Feature Specification. 4. Temporal, Aspectual, and Modal Categories. 5. Inflectional Projections in Noun Phrases. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

In this chapter I address three important and related issues in the theory of Arabic clause structure: (a) word order, (b) verb agreement patterns, and (c) Cases of subjects. I establish that Arabic is essentially a VSO language, although it also seems to belong to a ‘mixed’ VSO/SVO type. This typology correlates with properties of inflectional cat...

In this chapter I provide ingredients for characterizing Aspect, Tense, Mood, and Modal relations and categories in Arabic sentences. Verbs, adjectives, and participles, as well as negative and modal morphemes belong to the set of categories which participate in locating time, and expressing aspectual and modal relations. Verbless (or nominal) sent...

In this chapter I examine the internal structure of Arabic noun phrases in the light of the proposal found in Abney (1987), according to which traditional NPs are DPs (determiner phrases), with an inflectional structure paralleling that of sentences.1 Once the DP analysis is adopted, and N raising (to D) motivated, a number of questions arise with...

Forms encoding so-called phi-features (including independent or bound pronouns and inflectional forms) pose challenging problems for linguistic theory. Typically, bound forms occur in configurations in which null arguments are found. One important question which arises with regard to this situation concerns the origin of these bound forms. Two answ...

Since its inception, the generative programme has been concerned with issues centering around the knowledge of language, hence contributing to the development of what has been termed the cognitive revolution. Among the significant issues addressed are the following: (a) what is the nature of linguistic knowledge? (b) what is the origin (or source)...

Résumé Dans cet article, nous proposons un traitement unifié des différents usages des formes pronominales arabes de troisième personne (qu’il s’agisse de pronoms personnels, de copules ou d’explétifs). Nous montrons que cet objectif ne peut être atteint qu’en recourant à une (sous)spécification lexicale ou syntaxique appropriée. En second lieu, no...