دراسة طرق الربط في الضمائر العربية

Abstract

The goal of this research is to study the binding condition of the pronouns in Arabic. The research seeks to reach two goals: The first is to highlight the binding theory as the most important principles in Universal Grammar because the binding theory does not deal with the phenomenon of semantic referential relations between linguistic elements in the S-structure, but also deals with the phenomenon of syntactic movement. The second is to investigate the binding condition of the pronouns. In order to accomplish this goal, I will classify the pronouns into two categories, 1) lexical pronouns such as personal pronouns and suffix pronouns, 2) empty pronouns including anaphoric pronoun (PRO) and small pronoun(pro). As a way to analysis the semantic referential relations between the pronouns and its antecedents, the binding condition of the pronouns will be suggested as follows: All the pronouns must be free in their governing category. This research will check the binding condition of three kinds of the pronouns, that is, suffix pronouns, PRO, and pro, whether the pronouns follow the binding condition mentioned above. This work is considered as a try to identify the universal properties of the binding theory suggested by Chomsky. Also, I will propose the parameters of Arabic pronouns. Especially, there is a difference between PRO in English and PRO in Arabic in that PRO in English is ungoverned, whereas PRO in Arabic is governed. In addition, this study will research the binding condition of small pronoun (pro) which is generated in the place of the subject of the verb. It’s noteworthy to indicate that pro is a common phenomenon in some languages like Arabic, Italian, Spanish in which there is no an apparent subject. As a result, this research will examine how three pronouns observe the binding condition of the pronouns and propose the restrictions to prevent the formulation of ungrammatical structures.