Formal Unity and Functional Diversity of PP Adverbials in Modern Standard Arabic

Formal Unity and Functional Diversity of PP Adverbials in Modern Standard Arabic

MULOVIĆ, Amra

This paper discusses adverbials in Modern Standard Arabic. Adverbials as the most diverse group of the clause elements are interpreted according to the functional grammar. Adverbial phrases in Arabic are optional elements primarily expressed by PP, NP and AdjP syntactic categorical varieties. The paper focuses on the semantic functions of PP adverbials (time, place, manner, cause and other) and examines the semantic equivalence between PP and NP structural forms of adverbials or their invariant semantic content. Depending on semantic features of the verb and its governing nature within various syntactic structures, a prepositional phrase embraces syntactic function of obligatory adverbial or adverbial complement. In part, the paper touches upon the thematic status of the prepositional phrases functioning as adjuncts of place and time (sometimes cause) that always occur in initial position of the sentence. Also, the paper distinguishes between the prepositional phrases that function as noun phrase modifiers or attribute and those that function as adverbials by indentifying the structural properties that set them apart.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1691