Pragmatic conditions on subject realization in spoken Jordanian Arabic : a quantitative

Abstract EN

It has been argued that the form of a referring expression can be affected by different pragmatic factors and inherent properties of the referent (Ariel 1990, Gundel et al.

1993).

This paper investigates the effect of a number of pragmatic factors on the choice of subject form (overt/null) in Spoken Jordanian Arabic (JA).

Goldvarb statistical analysis of the data shows that the choice of subject form in JA is significantly constrained by coreference relationships with the subject of the preceding sentence(s) in the discourse, the cognitive status of the subject in the immediate discourse, and the animacy property of the referent