Embedded complementizer phrase subjunctive and features checking : a contrastive study between English, Arabic and German

Abstract EN

The objective of this work is to examine the formal and informal universal features of complementizer in the mandative subjunctive structure used in English, Modern Standard Arabic and German with reference to Chomsky’s (1981 and1995) and Radford's (1988) views on Modern Linguistic Theory.

This article is restricted to explaining such features of the category complementizer phrase which is selected by a verb and initiated by the complementizer ‘that’, an ‘that’ and dass ‘that’ for the three languages respectively.

The researchers prove that the formal features of the languages are tense phrase, noun phrase, verb phrase and complementizers that serve as mood-force indicators are universal.

They also find out that there are informal universal features, namely, (i) the nominative case, (ii) the theta marking of complementizer phrase and (iii) agreement –subject.

Both features are unpredictable; thus, they constitute problems to the grammaticality of the sentence if they are not checked properly at all levels of syntax.

It is syntactically significant to Arabic in the sense that though Arabic is rich in morphological realizations; still, the embedded subject needs a case; the researchers found that the feature of empty tense is the only case assignor in subjunctive structures that made the sentence grammatical.