Negative concord in Karak Jordanian Arabic : a bidirectional optimality-theoretic account

Abstract EN

The study investigates the interpretation and distribution of n-words in Karak Jordanian Arabic.

Karak Jordanian Arabic is considered a special case among other negative concord languages because it exhibits both strict and non-strict n-words at the same time.

previous accounts of negative concord in Arabic and other languages suffer the problem of capturing the special case of languages like Karak Jordanian Arabic that exhibit a mixed case of strict and non-strict negative concord.

the current study attempts to extend swart's (2006, 2010) optimality-theoretic approach of negative concord to Karak Jordanian Arabic.

the study shows that optimality theory can account for the facts surrounding the interpretation and distribution of negative concord in Karak Jordanian Arabic.

we assume that n-words in Karak Jordanian Arabic are semantically negative in contrast to some previous accounts that take n-words to be only formally negative.

the study also shows that advanced versions of optimality theory, namely bidirectional and stochastic optimality theory, provide straightforward answers for why n-words seem to lose their negative force in negative concord constructions, and why languages like Karak Jordanian Arabic have both strict and non-strict n-words.