Arabic verbs and their theta-grid

Abstract EN

This paper discuss the manner in which the traditional Arab grammarians classified the Arabic verbs ;they basically, referred to the theory of transitivity for their purpose .as this theory was unable to account for the grammatically and the ungrammatically of various Arabic sentence , we opt for theta- theory of Chomsky (1991) to solve the problem faced by the traditional analysis.

With the help of theta- theory , we put modern standard Arabic verbs in specific sub ground on the basis of their semantic , all intransitive verbs require one essential argument.

However , the nature of that essential argument differs from verb to verb depending on some semantic factors .

for instance , we find that some intransitive verbs may take an agent, others a theme or an experiencer as their argument.

Transitive verbs that need two essential argument can also be divided in sub groups on the basis of the types of theta-theory that their argument will have.

We find that ditransitive verbs may require three essential argument in a well- formed sentence .

we have realized that Arabic like languages , has some unique verbs that take a CP as one of their argument .

the nature of these verbs and their theta- roles have also been discussed in detail in the course of our analysis.

as this theory regards NP,IP,PP & CP essential argument, all the problems of classification verbs are solved .