This paper seeks to characterize the syntactic nature and position of object clitics in Berber (a chamito-semitic surface VSO language) within the Minimalist framework. There are two aspects which make Berber clitics interesting to current theory: (1) the exclusion of lexical DPs and (2) the position of these morphemes. I assume that these two aspects are not independent, but I grant that to some extent they may be made so. Property (1) is identical to agreement as found in subject agreement in Standard Arabic and in most Celtic systems. This similarity suggests that indeed these elements should be identified as agreement markers, i.e., as heads of AGRo. Being rich AGR, they license pro-objects, while also allowing full pronouns under emphatic circumstances, but resist full lexical DPs for the same reason as in the case of AGRs in the aforementioned languages. An examination of word order phenomena reveals that this licensing is a matter of LF, in terms of Spec-head relationship: the object position remains the argument position, but the object is moved at LF to [Spec, AGRo]. Property (2) is related to property (1). The surface patterns of object clitics lead us to think that they hold different positions. In simple cases, where they occur as enclitics on V, their position results from V-raising to an F-category outside VP, minimally AGRo, where it left-adjoins at the object clitic, after which it may raise further. Following this line of argumentation, each occurrence of an object clitic to the left of V would indicate that V has not so raised. In cases involving heads other than V, it seems that the clitic does not raise independently because it never left-adjoins to these heads. I assume that these cases involve pure adjacency, rather than movement.

    In this paper, I discuss the nature of an apparent V2 phenomenon in Arabic. In this language, whenever a wh-constituent is extracted to the clause-initial position, it must be left-adjacent to the inflected verbal element. This is reminiscent of V2 languages, where the linear adjacency is the result of I-to-C movement. The paper contends, however, that the linear order wh-element-verb in Arabic does not result from I-to-C movement. The paper is organized as follows. Section one briefly reviews the standard analysis of verb second phenomenon in full V2 languages. Section two deals with the construction-specific nature of V2 in residual V2 languages, and section three discusses the nature of V2 in Arabic wh-structures. The analysis presented here is conducted within the standard Principles and Parameters theory, as outlined in Chomsky (1991), Chomsky and Lasnik (1991), Rizzi (1990, 1991) and references cited therein.

    This paper is based on a supplement to my paper presented at the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Abeba in 1984 when I spoke about Cushitic independent pronouns concentrating on isoglosses combining and dividing Cushitic languages. Since that time some new data have been published so that some additions and revisions are possible although, generally speaking, the progress in describing hitherto unknown languages and dialects has been much slower than it could be expected. As far as pronouns are concerned I have to mention one thing which may both irritate and please feminists: in the frame of the very important Survey of Little Known Languages of Ethiopia most of the published word-lists omit "she" altogether i.e. the questionnaires did not include the item which, consequently, has not been elicited although gender distinction does occur in most Cushitic languages in the third person singular.

    In this paper, I shall focus on these problems and make some assumptions. Most of our approach is based on Systemics (Functional Sentence Perspective). Part of it is based on traditional grammatical and rhetorical analysis of Arabic language.

    See the Arabic abstract below :

لوقف وإحداث مقولات تركيبية و صرفية
مبارك حنون
ملخص

    ينطلق هذا المقال من نظرية حاولنا البرهنة على صحتها في عمل سابق (1997) وتقضي باعتبار الوقف، من زاوية نظر فونولوجية، مكونا إيقاعيا يلعب دورا تنظيميا للتركيب، ومن ثمة فهو يوفر فرصة ثمينة للفونولوجيا لمعالجة الوقف معالجة مستقلة. وضمن هذا المنظور، حاولنا، في هذا المقال، أن نعزز هذا الرأي بحجج تفيد أن جملة من المصطلحات التركيبية والصرفية في اللغة الواصفة العربية وغير العربية يعود أمر إحداثها إلى ظاهرة الوقف: أي لولا وقوع الوقف لما تمت صناعة مثل هذه المصطلحات. بل إن تحديد هاته المفاهيم يقوم في جزء كبير منه على الوقف. ومن الواضح أن لهذا القول بعدا آخر يتمثل في ما سماه النحاة العرب القدماء بالمخالفة الإعرابية بما يعنيه ذلك من أن للوقف دورا في تفسير بعض القضايا التركيبية إلى جانب البناء المصطلحي الذي يبدو لنا أمر إعادة النظر فيه قد بات ملحا.