SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis deals with "The Category of Number" as it functions in my own speech as a typical speaker of 'Manzala' dialect. 'Number' is considered as asproperty of the two-phrase 'typifiable' clause structure in subject-predicate relationship. The study concentrates on the concordial relationship between these two phrases and in most examples each consists, in general, of one word. The thesis is divided into two parts: Part One includes, besides the introduction, six chapters. Chapter One recapitulates the earlier treatments of Number in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic; Chapter Two begins with showing how this category can be set up on 'formal' criteria and ends with presenting the sets of two phrase typifiable clause structures; Chapter Three deals with some considerations of the 'Control' in the choice of number concord; Chapter Four with the implications of 'Definiteness' for number; Chapter Five with 'Basic Nominal Phrase Structures', and Chapter Six with 'Extended Nominal Phrase Structures'. Part Two includes an introductory section and five chapters, 7 to 11. Chapters Seven to Nine deal with seta of two phrase typifiable clause 'structures requiring three terms, two terms and one term in the category of number respectively. Chapter Ten deals with 'Noun Forms and Classes' as, in general, nouns are involved - actually or potentially - in the concordial process of number. Chapter Eleven deals with the concordial relation-ship of clauses involving Construct 'Quantifier + Noun' because of the difficulty in ascertaining in certain examples which of these two elements controls the number concord.