Huwwa
A focus operator in Iraqi Arabic
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.
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
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