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In:The Diachrony of Word Class Peripheries
Edited by Tanja Ackermann and Christian Zimmer
[Studies in Language Companion Series 238] 2025
► pp. 157–183

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Chapter 7
The rise of the pseudo-verb category in Arabic

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Published online: 7 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.238.07cam
Abstract
Across Arabic (and Semitic at large) exists a finite set of items that have grammaticalised a number of lexical and functional verbal roles and whose original sources include nouns and prepositions. Synchronically, these form a peripheral category referred to as pseudo-verbs (or verboids) in the literature. This class is peripheral on the basis of two important criteria, namely, the fact that there exist only a few items that sit under some verbal projection in the syntax that belong to this class, and the fact that the synchronic morphosyntax that characterises these pseudo-verbs’ development has resulted in a non-canonical means of subj realization and is itself the result of a peripheral path of change. Three case studies will be presented through data from Arabic dialectal varieties. Through them, the process that led to the varied emergence of such peripheral verbal forms will be illustrated in detail.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The core categories and their morphosyntax
  • 3.be-to-have development
  • 4.The development of pseudo-verbal raising predicates
  • 5.The grammaticalisation of existential predicates
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

von Mengden, Ferdinand
2025. Peripheral members of a peripheral class. In The Diachrony of Word Class Peripheries [Studies in Language Companion Series, 238], ► pp. 126 ff. DOI logo

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