The Morphosyntax of Verbs and Argument Selection in Arabic

This book is a study of the verbal system of Arabic, both Modern Standard Arabic and Moroccan Arabic. In particular, it develops a theory of the syntax-morphology interface under the purview of the Minimalist Program and Distributed Morphology, the ultimate purpose being to explore the claim that syntax is the only generative mechanism responsible for the formation of words, phrases and sentences. The bulk of the relevant evidence coming from the derivation of verbs, causative formation, passive and anticausative constructions seem to substantiate a number of the claims the theory of DM espouses, most important of which is that there is no generative lexicon. The work also advances the major claim that DM and Optimality Theory can operate in a single grammar. The book is assumed to target a wide range of audience, of whom students, teachers of Arabic, typologists, and theoretical linguists are only ones.