SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis is a description of some aspects of the syntax of present-day spoken Cairene Arabic, using the transformational- generative model of grammar developed by Noam Chomsky. The Introduction reviews briefly work already done on Egyptian Arabic and describes the grammatical model to be used. The first chapter provides the basic phrase structure rules of the grammar, with a brief explanation of the principal categories and formatives they introduce. Subsequent chapters examine in detail some of the transformations required to produce the surface structure of the language, such as nominalisation of verbs, passivisation, and pronominalisation. Particular attention is paid to transformations involving the verb, and problems of aspect, tense and modality are discussed. The Appendix outlines rules of nominal and verbal concord, and a brief lexicon is included.