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Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXX: Papers from the annual symposia on Arabic Linguistics, Stony Brook, New York, 2016 and Norman, Oklahoma, 2017
Edited by Amel Khalfaoui and Matthew A. Tucker
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 7] 2019
► pp. 113–132

Huwwa

A focus operator in Iraqi Arabic

| Philadelphia University, Jordan
This paper is an account of the function and interpretation of the pronominal huwwa found in a variety of clausal constructions in Iraqi Arabic. This element has received various analyses in studies on clause structure in a number of Arabic varieties. It has been considered an appositive pronominal, a copulative pronoun, a copula with pronominal features, and a Q operator. The distribution of this element in Iraqi Arabic is observed, not only in verbless equational sentences with focused elements, but also in one type of wh-questions and in yes/no questions. In all of these contexts, it is associated with a focus reading. This motivates analyzing it as an overt realization of a focus operator, with φ features valued in agreement with the focused element. As such, it should be located in the head position of the Focus Phrase, one of the functional projections constituting the discourse-functional layer of clausal architecture.
Keywords: Iraqi Arabic, huwwa, focus operator, equational sentences, bi-clausal wh-questions, functional projections
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Iraqi Arabic constructions with huwwa
    • Wh-questions
    • Verbless equational clauses
  • 3.The syntactic status of PRON huwwa
  • 4. huwwa as a focus operator
  • 5.Yes/no questions
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.7.07bak
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2023. The structure of wh-exclamatives in Jordanian Arabic and beyond. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 55:2 ► pp. 216 ff. DOI logo

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