Semantic constraints on locativization in english and Arabic

Abstract EN

This study reports on the findings of a contrastive analysis of locative verb constructions in two unrelated languages, namely, English and Arabic.

The analysis has been carried out within the framework of Pinker's ( 1989 ) theory of verb argument structure.

The analysis shows that Arabic has a locative alternation marked by a preposition, as is the case in English.

Moreover, it suggests that the semantic constraints on locativization in English, as proposed by Pinker, can account for the locative alternation of a large number of verbs in Arabic.

However, the "finer-grained" constraints on the English locative alternation fail to account for the alternation of three subsets of Arabic verbs.

Hence, the study proposes three new finer-gained" constraints that govern the alternation of these verbs.

The fact that Pinker's constraints can account for the majority of locative alternations in Arabic provides some preliminary evidence that such constraints show tendencies toward universality.