SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is a study of extraposition and pronominal agreement in Semitic languages. By the term 'extraposition' I understand the syntactic construction in which a noun or nominal phrase stands isolated at the front of the clause without any formal connection to the predication. The grammatical relation of the nominal is usually indicated vicariously by means of a co-referential resumptive pronoun, e.g. (Arabic) Zaydun 'abu-hu tajirun "Zayd - his father is a merchant". 'Pronominal agreement' is a construction where a noun or nominal phrase whose grammatical relation is indicated by its case inflection or by an adjoining relational particle is accompanied in the same clause by a co-referential pronoun agreeing with it in number, gender, person, and grammatical relation, e.g. (Syriac) la-malka qatl-eh "The king - he killed him". Each chapter constitutes an independent study of extraposition and pronominal agreement in a separate Semitic language. These languages include Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Akkadian, and Amharic. A single chapter is also devoted to the two Aramaic dialects Biblical Aramaic and Syriac. Both the structure and the function of the constructions are examined. The study of the structure consists of a taxonomy of the various structural types which are attested in the language. The f-unction of the constructions is elucidated by examining their role within the discourse in which they occur. These independent studies axe followed by a concluding synthesis which explores the possibilities of Semitic comparative syntax.