In:The Ziggurat of Grammar: In honor of Ur Shlonsky
Edited by Lena Baunaz, Giuliano Bocci and Andrew Nevins
[Language Faculty and Beyond 20] 2025
► pp. 381–402
Get fulltext
Chapter 18Specificational vs. predicational wh-clefted questions in Arabic. Evidence for
two (strong/weak) PRONs
Identity vs. predication
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Published online: 13 November 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.20.18alj
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.20.18alj
Abstract
This paper extends the well-known predicational/specificational distinction — firmly established
for basic copular constructions and, to a lesser extent, pseudoclefts — to wh-clefted questions in
Syrian Arabic, drawing a parallel between a subtype of wh-clefts and ‘predicational interrogatives’
in Algonquian. This proposal refines the distribution of the copular pronoun known as PRON by identifying two
morphologically distinct forms: strong PRON standing for identity be, obligatory in
equational/specificational sentences; and weak PRON standing for predicational be, surfacing in
negative predicational sentences, as well as predicational wh-clefts. This conclusion brings the
distribution of PRON in Arabic and Hebrew much closer than previously assumed, since, under this proposal, the
occurrence of PRON in predicational copular sentences is no longer limited to Hebrew, but also extends to Arabic.
Article outline
- 1.PRON Wh-clefted questions
- 2.Specificational vs. predicational copular sentences: Three Diagnostics
- 2.1Reversibility
- 2.2Reversibility and the optionality of PRON
- 2.3Connectivity
- 2.4Referentiality
- 3.Razaq (2011)
- 4.The proposal
- 4.1Specificational CQs
- 4.2Predicational CQs
- 4.3Strong vs. weak PRON
- 4.3.1Strong identity PRON
- 4.3.2Weak predicational PRON
- 4.3.3Pseudoclefts in Arabic
- 5.Conclusion and open questions
Acknowledgements Notes References
References (24)
Aljani, Ouras. 2025. Experimental
syntax of interrogatives in Oriental Arabic. Ph.D. dissertation in
preparation, Nantes University & Leiden University.
Aoun, Joseph, Benmamoun, Elabbas & Choueiri, Lina. 2010. The
syntax of Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blain, Eleanor. 1997. WH-constructions
in Nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree). Ph.D.
dissertation, University of British Columbia.
Bloomfield, Leonard. 1946. Algonquian. In Harry Hoijer et al. (eds.), Linguistic
structures of Native
America, 88–129. New York: Viking Fund. (Viking Fund
Publications in Anthropology 6).
Choueiri, Lina. 2016. The
pronominal copula in Arabic. Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and
Linguistics 8(1). 101–135.
Declerck, Renaat. 1988. Studies
on copular sentences, clefts and pseudo-
clefts. Leuven: Leuven University Press / Dordrecht: Foris.
Demirdache, Hamida. 1991. Resumptive
chains in restrictive relatives, appositives, and dislocation
structures. Ph.D.
dissertation, MIT.
den Dikken, Marcel. 2017. Pseudoclefts
and other specificational copular sentences. In Martin Everaert & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), The
Wiley Blackwell Companion to
Syntax, 1–38. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Doron, Edit. 1986. The
pronominal copula as an agreement clitic. In Hagit Borer (ed.), The
syntax of pronominal clitics. Syntax and
Semantics 19, 313–332. New York: Academic Press.
. 1991. Verbless
sentences in Arabic and Hebrew. In Bernard Comrie & Mushira Eid (eds.), Perspectives
on Arabic Linguistics
III, 31–62 Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. 1993. Negation
and predicate heads. In Mushira Eid & Gregory Iverson (eds.), Principles
and prediction: The analysis of natural
language, 135–152. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Higgins, Francis R. 1973. The pseudo-cleft
construction in English. Ph.D.
dissertation, MIT.
Jelinek, Eloise. 1983. Person-subject
marking in AUX in Egyptian Arabic. In Frank Heny & Barry Richards (eds.), Linguistic
categories: Auxiliaries and related
puzzles, 21–46. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Johnson, Meredith & Macaulay, Monica. 2015. A
monoclausal analysis of Menominee wh-questions. International Journal of
American
Linguistics 81(3), 337–377.
McCloskey, James. 1990. Resumptive
pronouns, A′-binding, and levels of representation in
Irish. In Robert Hendrick (ed.), The
syntax of modern Celtic
languages, 65–119. New York: Academic Press.
Ouhalla, Jamal. 1999. Focus
and Arabic clefts. In Georges Rebuschi & Laurie Tuller (eds.), The
grammar of
focus, 335–360. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today
24).
Rapoport, Tova R. 1987. Copular, nominal
and small clauses: A study of Israeli Hebrew. Ph.D.
dissertation, MIT.
Razaq, Issa M. 2011. Who is what and
what is who: The morpho-syntax of Arabic WH. Ph.D.
dissertation, Queen Mary University of London.
Sharvit, Yael. 1999. Connectivity
in specificational sentences. Natural Language
Semantics 7(3). 299–339.