On interaction between external and internal markers in expressing aspect in Arabic dialect varieties

Themes, preverbs and particles partake in expressing aspectual notions. In this paper we will study the distribution of these markers and their grammatical and semantic compatibilities (when it is possible to retrace their etymology) with the two aspects inherent to the themes upon which the Arabic verbal system rests: the perfective and the imperfective. To what extent does the analysis of the affinities and incompatibilities between these external markers and the perfective and imperfective contribute to the definition of these very same notions? How to distinguish between constraints linked to verbal semantics (lexical aspect) and those which fall under one or the other of these two notions? This paper will also explore, from a crossdialectal and typological angle, which notions are encoded specifically and which belong to broader categories, so as to extrapolate the aspectual system dynamics in the dialects under study.