A minimalist-based approach of tense and subject features in standard Arabic and Yemeni Arabic

Abstract EN

-The present study is an investigation of the syntactic issues of Tense and Subject features in SA and YA.

This study is cast within the MP advocated by Chomsky (1993, 1995).

The main objective of the study is to examine the structural properties of the subject in SA and YA and its relationship with its verb.

More specifically, the study shows that the subject in SA and YA has two forms, namely lexical noun, and suffixed pronoun.

Therefore, the suffixed morphemes within the verb have been proved to be real pronoun subjects of the verb whether they occur alone within the verb or followed by a lexical DP as the case in some of YA sentences.

Based on empirical evidence, the preverbal DP was affirmed to be a topic that occupies the [Spec TopP] while the post-verbal DP, which occurs after a suffixed pronoun, was proved to be a noun in apposition that occupies a position below VP.