On the syntax of zero copular constructions in standard Arabic

Abstract EN

The current paper aims to review the previous accounts analyzing the underlying structure of zero copular constructions in standard Arabic ‘verbless sentences’, and provides much support to the non-null analysis based on intriguing piece of evidence, favouring the view that verbless sentences do not have a null or deleted copula.

the most discussed compelling ones are that of the ability of negative marker laysa to change the predicate case from nominative to accusative and that of complementary distribution between laysa and the present copula form ya-kuun.

to examine the validity of these arguments, the paper adopts the theory of agree relation proposed by the minimalist program (chomsky 1995, 2001), the latest theoretical model in transformational generative grammar, to analyze case and agreement on laysa implementing the assumptions of theory of agree casts grave doubts on null copula’s analysis since the derivation of case and agreement on laysa in verbless sentences can be formed without assuming a null or deleted copula as argued by null copula’s analysis.