The notion of agreement has received much attention in most recent analyses conducted within the framework of Chomsky's (1993) Minimalist Program. The main reason for the focus on this syntactic process is that it has proved to play a key role in accounting for word order variation across languages. It has also been illustrated on the basis of a variety of natural languages that agreement is not limited to the traditional features of person, number gender and Case. Rather, it may also involve other features such as definiteness and wh-ness. Of special interest to this paper is the latter feature which will be discussed in the light of some Wh-questions in Standard Arabic. It will be argued that the structures under consideration require overt raising of wh-phrases to the relevant [Spec, CP].Movement of such wh-operators is triggered by the need to check the strong feature of the head C(omp) under Spec-head relation. This operation, which involves agreement in wh-ness, is regulated by the Shortest Move Condition and the principle of Greed.

    This article illustrates the role of Arabic in the revival of Modern Hebrew. The latter is shown to have borrowed extensively from the former on the levels of syntax, morphology and especially Lexis. Empirical evidence for this influence is provided from various sources, particularly from Modern Hebrew. Such heavy borrowings from Arabic are due to the fact that the two languages are so closely related in their essence, character and spirit that they share almost the same linguistic repertoire. The question that remains open is whether the phenomenon of borrowing will be complete in the future if Arabic affects Modern Hebrew with regard to the pronunciation of the gutturals in general.

    This paper deals with the identification of the major areas of usage in which kiswahili has borrowed extensively from Arabic , a language whose influence has a long history. This sociolinguistic phenomenon which has been motivated by various factors such as trade, culture and religion , is exemplified and discussed in some detail. The focus is placed on lexical borrowing in different contexts.

    The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the linguistic situation in the Sultanate of Oman is more complex than it first appears. This has led the Omani authorities to initiate a language policy or programme of rapid "nation building", where teaching materials are actively promoted and carefully designed in such a way that they satisfy the needs of the whole speech community.

    This article deals with the issue of Arabisation and its impact on education in Morocco. It concludes that the Arabisation policy has been only partially successful because it has not been implemented in higher education and in the private sector. The author points out that this is partly due to the contradictory attitudes held by the governing elites since independence.

    This article is a book-review by Fouƒd Saƒ, of Mohamed Elmedlaoui's new publication Principes d'orthographe berbٹre. It reveals the positive sides of the book and pinpoints some of its shortcomings.