A Multi-Locus Analysis of Arabic Negation : Micro-Variation in Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic

This volume explores the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of three Arabic varieties: Southern Levantine, Gulf, and Standard Arabic.

Standard Arabic data from a corpus study of negation in the Quran (around 86 thousand words) and Levantine literature (around 86 thousand words). Dialectal data from a Southern Levantine dialect (Jordanian Houran) and a Gulf Arabic dialect (Qatari) shedding light on word order contrasts in negative clauses. New data challenging the standard claim in the Arabic linguistics literature that negation has a fixed position in the clause structure. New data challenging the binary parametric view of cross-linguistic negation studies and supporting a multi-locus analysisThis book studies the micro-variation in the syntax of negation of Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic. By including new and recently published data that support key issues for the syntax of negation, the book challenges the standard parametric view that negation has a fixed parametrized position in syntactic structure. It particularly argues for a multi-locus analysis with syntactic, semantic, morphosyntactic and diachronic implicat