morphological and syntactic aspects of the soqotri

MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC ASPECTS OF THE SOQOTRI DIALECT OF GALANSIYAH

By

KHALED A \V ADH OMER BIN MAKHASHEN

Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA September 2009

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my profound thanks to my supervisors for their

mentorship. I am very much honoured and lucky to be one of their students. My main

supervisor, AP .Dr. Munir Shuib, constantly gave me professional and insightful

comments and advice throughout the preparation of this thesis. Without him, I would

never have been able to complete this work. My co-supervisor AP.Dr. Salasiah Che Lah

provided me with continuous encouragement and constructive comments and advice.

I would like also to express my gratitude to Hadhramout University of Science

and Technology for granting me a scholarship, financing my fieldwork and for providing

me with everything that facilitated my study at the USM.

My largest debt of gratitude goes to all the Soqotri native speakers who

contributed a lot to this thesis. Without their knowledge and assistance, I would never

have been able to carry out this research. Among those who patiently and vigorously

attempted to teach me their language and who answered my endless questions with

patience and insight are Tanuf Salem Noah Mashi, Salem Ahrned Baljahar, Orner

Ahmad Gasraer, Noah Abdullah AI-AIimi, Soliman Mohammad AI-Gaisi, Esa Abdullah

Salem, Shihab Hamood, Fahed Saleem AL-Shirazy. Saeed Mohammad Saleef and Saad

Ahmad.

I am grateful for Professor Matt Shibatani, Professor John McCarthy, Dr. Aaron

Rubin and Vladimir Agafonov for their constructive comments and help during the

different stages of the data analysis.

II

My deep and most heart-felt thanks are for my father, my mother, my brother,

my wife, sisters. son and daughters. Without their love, patience and endless sacrifices

and encouragement, I would never have been able to finish this thesis.

III

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgements II

Table of Contents IV

List of Tables XVI

List of Figures XVIII

List of Symbols XX

List of Abbreviations XXI

List of Publications and Seminars XXIV

Abstrak XXV

Abstract XXVII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

l.0 Introduction 1

l.1 Background of the Study 1

l.1.1 Genetic Affiliation of Soqotri and the other MSAL 1

l.1.l.1 Semitic Languages 2

1.1.2 History and Geographical Position of Soqotri and Other MSAL 7

1.1.3 Overview ofMSAL 9

1.1.3.1 Mehri 9

1.1.3.2 Jibbali 10

1.1.3.3 Bathari 11

1.1.3.4 Harsusi 11

1.1.3.5 Hobjot 12

1.1.3.6 Soqotri 12

1.1.3.6.1 Soqotri Dialects 13

1.2 Statement of the Problem 16

IV

1.3 Objectives of the Study 22

1.4 Research Questions 22

1.5 Significance of the Study 23

1.6 Limitation of the Study 25

1.7 Definition of Terms 25

1.8 Summary 27

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction 28

2.1 Overview of Descriptive Linguistic Theories 28

2.2 Morphological Theories and Models 29

22.1 Structural Approaches to Morphological Description 29

2.2.1.1 Hockett's Item and Arrangement Model 30

2.2.1.2 Item and Process Model 30

2.2.1.3 Word and Paradigm Model 31

2.2.2 Generative Approaches to Morphological Description 31

2.2.2.1 Morphology in the Standard Theory 32

2.22.2 Halle's (1973) Model 32

2.2.3 Non-linear Morphological Approaches 33

2.2.3.1 McCarthy's Nonconcatenative Theory 33

2.3 Development of Current Syntax and Grammar Theories 35

2.3.1 Harris's (1946) Bottom Up, Morpheme to Utterance Analysis 36

2.3.2 Wells's (1947) Top Down, Immediate Constituent Analysis 37

2.3.3 Gazder's (19705) Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar 37

2.3.4 Perlmutter's and Postall (1970s) Relational Grammar. 38

2.3.5 Chomsky's (1981) Government and Binding Theory 39

2.3.6 Bersnan's (1982) Lexical Functional Grammar 40

2.3.7 M.A.K.Halliday's Systemic Grammar 41

2.3.8 Functional Typology 41

2.3.9 Roles and Reference Grammar 43

v

2.3.10 Dixon's Basic Linguistic Theory 43

2.3.10.1 Studies Related to the Basic Linguistic Theory 46

2.4 Related Research on Soqotri 47

2.4.1 Studies Related to Phonology 47

2.4.2 Studies Related to Text Collection 51

2.4.3 Studies Related to Lexicon 52

2.4.4 Studies Related to Morphology 55

2.4.5 Studies Related to Syntax 60

2.5 Conceptual Framework of the Current Study 63

2.6 Summary 68

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGHN

3.0 Introduction 69

3.1 Research Design 69

3.2 Data Sources 74

3.3 Sampling and Samples selection 75

3.4 Data Collection Methods 80

3.5 Instrumentation of Data Collection 81

3.5.1 Elicitation 82

3.5.1.1 Questionnaire 82

3.5.1.2 Translation 85

3.5.1.3 Stimulus Prompt 86

3.5.1.4 Data Manipulation 86

3.5.1.5 Controlled Tasks 86

3.5.1.6 Native Speaker Judgments 87

3.5.1.7 Interviews 87

3.5.1.8 Procedures of Data Elicitation 89

3.5.2 Participant Observation 90

3.5.2.l Procedures of Participant Observation 92

3.5.3 Oral Text Collection 93

VI

3.5.3.1 Procedures of Oral Text Collection 94

3.6 Sound Recording Technique 94

3.7 Research Ethics 95

3.8 Research Validity 95

3.9 Research Reliability 97

3.10 Procedures of Data Analysis 99

3.10.1 Transcription, Translation and Gloss 99

3.10.2 Familiarity with Data 100

3.10.3 Data Coding 100

3.10.4 Morpheme- Level Analysis 100

3.10.5 Stem -Level Analysis 101

3.10.6 Word-Level Analysis 101

3.10.7 Phrase-Level Analysis 101

3.10.8 Clause-Level Analysis 101

3.10.9 Sentence-Level Analysis 102

3.11 Summary 102

CHAPTER 4: ASPECTS OF THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE SDG

4.0 Introduction 104

4.1 Types and Functions of Morpheme in the SDG 105

4.1.1 Templatic Morphemes 106

4.1.1.1 The Root Morphemes 106

4.1.1.2 Pattern Morphemes 107

4.1.1.3 Vocalic Melody Morphemes 108

4.1.2 Affixational Morphemes 111

4.1.2.1 Inflectional Prefix Morphemes 111

4.1.2.2 Derivational Prefix Morphemes 111

4.1.2.3 Derivational Infix Morphemes 112

4.1.2.4 Inflectional Suffix Morphemes 112

4.1.2.5 Derivational Suffix Morphemes 113

VII

4.1.3 Non-Templatic Word-Stem Morphemes 113

4.1.3.1 Independent Personal Pronouns 114

4.1.3.2 Dependent (Suffixed) Personal Pronouns 116

4.1.3.3 Possessive Pronouns 118

4.1.3.4 Reflexive Pronouns 119

4.1.3.5 Reciprocal Pronouns 121

4.1.3.6 Demonstrative Pronouns 122

4.1.3.7 Relative Pronouns 123

4.1.3.8 Interrogative 124

4.2 Inflectional and Derivational Morphology of the SDG 125

4.3 Inflectional Morphology of the Nouns 126

4.3.1 Singular Nouns 126

4.3.2 Dual Nouns 127

4.3.3 Internal Plural of Nouns 128

4.3.4 External Plural of Nouns 135

4.3.5 Gender of Nouns 136

4.4 Derivational Morphology of Nouns 138

4.4.1 Verb to Noun Derivation (Nominalization) 138

4.4.1.1 Action Nominalization 139

4.4.1.2 Agent Nominalization 140

4.4.1.3 Patient Nominalization 141

4.4.1.4 Instrument Nominalization 142

4.4.1.5 Location Nominalization 143

4.4.2 Adjective to Noun Derivation 144

4.4.3 Derivation of Diminutive Forms of Nouns 145

4.4.4 Compound Nouns 148

4.5 Inflectional Morphology of Adjectives 149

4.5.1 Singular Adjectives 149

4.5.2 Dual Adjectives 150

4.5.3 Plural Adjectives 151

VIII

4.5.4 Gender of Adjectives 153

4.6 Inflectional Morphology of the Verb 155

4.6.1 Perfect and Imperfect verbal Forms 156

4.6.2 Subjunctive Verbal Form 162

4.6.3 Passive Forms 163

4.7 Derivational Morphology of the Verb 165

4.7.1 The First Derived Verb 166

4.7.2 The Second Derived Verb 167

4.7.3 The Third Derived Verb 168

4.7.4 Derivation of Verbs from Adjectives 169

4.7.5 Verbs Derived by Reduplication 170

4.8 Adverbs in the SDG 171

4.9 Summary 172

CHAPTERS: THE PHRASE IN THE SDG

5.0

5.1

Introduction 182

182

182

183

183

185

185

186

187

Noun Phrase in the SDG

5.1.1 Types of Noun Phrase

5.1.1.1 Simple Noun Phrase

5.1.1.2 Cojoined Noun Phrase

5.1.1.3 Complex Noun Phrase

5.1.1.4 Elliptic Noun Phrase

5.1.2 Noun Phrase Structure

5.1.2.1 Head of the Noun Phrase

5.1.2.1.1 Proper Nouns as NP Heads 187

5.1.2.1.2 Common Noun as NP Heads 187

5.1.2.1.3 Personal Pronouns as NP Heads 188

5.1.2.1.4 Possessive Pronoun as NP heads 189

5.1.2.1.5 Demonstrative Pronouns as NP Heads 189

5.1.2.1.6 Numerals as NP heads 190

IX

5.1.2.1.7 Adjectives as NP Heads 190

5.1.2.2 Modifiers of the Noun Phrase 191

5.1.2.2.1 Determiners as NP Modifiers 191

5.1.2.2.1.1 Articles 191

5.1.2.2.1.2 Possessive Pronouns 193

5.1.2.2.1.3 Demonstratives 194

5.1.2.2.1.4. Cardinal Numerals 196

5.1.2.2.1.5 Ordinal Numerals 199

5.1.2.2.1.6 Quantifiers 200

5.1.2.2.2 Interrogatives as NP Modifiers 202

5.1.2.2.3 Nouns as NP Modifiers 203

5.1.2.2.4 Adjectives as NP Modifiers 207

5.1.2.2.4.1 Combination of Adjectives 208

5.1.2.2.5 Adverbs as NP Modifiers 209

5.1.2.2.6 Prepositional Phrases as NP Modifies 210

5.1.2.2.7 Participle Clauses as NP Modifiers 210

5.1.2.2.8 Subjunctive Clauses as NP Modifiers 211

5.1.2.2.9 Relative clauses as NP Modifiers 211

5.1.2.2.10 Restrictors as NP Modifiers 212

5.1.2.3 Constituents Order within the NP 212

5.1.2.3.1 Order of Premodifiers 212

5.1.2.3.2 Order of Post Modifiers 214

5.1.3 Unification of the Noun Phrase 216

5.1.4 The Function of the Noun Phrase 217

5.2 Verb Phrase in the SnG 218

5.2.1 Verb Phrases with Main Verbs 219

5.2.2 Verb Phrases with Main Verbs and Auxiliaries 220

5.2.3 Tense and Aspect 221

5.2.3.1 Function of the Perfect Verbal Form 222

5.2.3.2 Function of the Imperfect Verbal Form 225

5.2.3.3 Aspectual Temporal Adverbs 227

x

5.2.4

5.2.3.4

5.2.3.5

Aspectual Auxiliaries

Idiomatic Auxiliary Verbs

Passive Verb Phrases

5.2.4.1 Basic Morphological Passive

5.2.4.2 Periphrastic Passive

5.3 Prepositional Phrase in the SDG

5.3.1 Prepositional Phrase Structure

5.3.2 Prepositional Phrase Function

5.4 Adjective Phrase in the SDG

5.4.1 Adjective Phrase Structure

5.4.2 Adjective Phrase Function

5.5 Adverb Phrase in the SDG

5.5.1 Adverb Phrase Structure

5.5.2 Adverb Phrase Function

5.6 Summary

CHAPTER 6: THE CLAUSE IN THE SDG

229

234

239

239

242

243

243

247

249

249

250

251

251

252

253


6.1 Main Clauses in the SDG 260

6.1.1 Nominal Clause in the SDG 260

6.1.1.1 Structure of the Nominal Clause 261

6.1.1.2 Types of Nominal Clause 264

6.1.1.2.1 Main Nominal Clauses with Nominal Predicate 265

6.1.1.2.2 Main Nominal Clauses with Adjectival Predicate 265

6.1.1.2.3 Main Nominal Clauses with Locative Predicates 266

6.1.1.2.4 Existential Clauses 266

6.1.1.2.5 Minor Nominal Clause with Genitive Predicate 268

6.1.1.2.6 Minor Nominal Clause with Benefactive Predicate 269

6.1.1.2.7 Minor Nominal Clauses indicating Origin 269

6.1.1.2.8 Minor Nominal Clause with Associative Predicate 269

XI

6.1.1.2.9 Minor Nominal Clause with Referential Predicate 270

6.1.1.3 Temporal Aspect of the Nominal Clauses 270

6.1.1.4 Nominal Clauses with Pro-Copula 271

6.1.1.5 Agreement in Nominal Clauses 272

6.1.1.6 Nominal Clause Function 273

6.1.2 Verbal Clauses in the SnG 274

6.1.2.1 Verbal Clause Structure 274

6.1.2.2 Types of Verbal Clause 278

6.1.2.2.1 Intransitive Verbal Clauses 279

6.1.2.2.2 Transitive Verbal Clauses 280

6.1.2.2.3 Extended Transitive Clauses 283

6.1.2.2.4 Zero-Transitive (Ambient) Clauses 285

6.1.2.2.5 Copula Clauses 287

6.1.2.3 Syntactic Pivot 290

6.1.2.4 Grammatical Relations within the Verbal Clause 290

6.1.2.5 Verbal Clause Function 293

6.2 Subordinate Clauses in the SDG 293

6.2.1 Complement Clauses 294

6.2.1.1 Indicative Complement Clauses 295

6.2.1.1.1 Interrogative Complement Clause 295

6.2.1.1.1.1 Wheather / if Clause 295

6.2.1.1.1.2 Wh-Complement Clause 296

6.2.1.1.2 That- Clause 297

6.2.1.2 Subjunctive Complement Clause 299

6.2.1.3 Nominalized Complement Clause 301

6.2.1.4 Participle Complement Clause 302

6.2.1.5 Equi-deletion in the Complement Clauses 303

6.2.1.6 Sequence of Tense in Complement Clauses 304

6.2.1.7 Negative Rising in the Complement Clauses 305

XII

6.2.2 Adverbial Clauses in the SDO

6.2.2.1 Clause of Time

6.2.2.2 Clause of Place

6.2.2.3 Clause of Manner

6.2.2.4 Clause of Purpose

6.2.2 . .4.1 Finite Clause of Purpose

6.2.2.4.2 Subjunctive Clause of Purpose

6.2.2.5 Clause of Reason

6.2.2.6 Conditional Clause

6.2.2.6.1 Real Conditional Clauses

6.2.2.6.2 Unreal Conditional Clauses

6.2.2.6.3 Negative Conditional Clauses

6.2.2.6.4 Concessive Conditional Clauses

6.2.2.7 Clause of Concession

6.2.2.8 Substitutive Clauses

6.2.2.9 Absolutive Clauses

6.2.3 Relative Clauses in the SDO

6.2.3.1 Attributive Relative Clause

6.2.3.2 Non-attributive Relative Clause

6.2.3.3 Restrictive and Nonrestrictive relative clauses

6.3 Summary

CHAPTER 7: THE SENTENCE IN THE SDG

7.0 Introduction

7.1 Sentence Structure in the SDO

305

306

310

311

313

313

314

315

316

316

317

318

319

320

320

322

322

323

326

328

328

333

333

7.1.1 Simple Sentence 334

7.1.2 Compound Sentence 335

7.1.2.1 Notions Encoded within Compound Sentence Structures 336

7.1.2.2 Coordination Reduction

7.1.2.3 Directionality Constraint of Reduction

XIII

337

339

7.1.3 Complex Sentence

7.1.4 Compound Complex Sentence

340

341

7.2 Sentence Function in the SDO 342

7.2.1 Basic Types of Sentences 343

7.2.1.1 Declarative Sentences 343

7.2.1.2 Imperative Sentences 345

7.2.1.2.1 Basic Second Person Imperative Sentences 346

7.2.1.2.2 Subtypes of the Imperative Sentences 347

7.2.1.2.2.1 Prohibitive Sentences 347

7.2.1.2.2.2 Hortative Sentences 349

7.2.1.3 Interrogative Sentences 356

7.2.1.3.1 Polar Question 357

7.2.1.3.1.1 Affirmative Polar Questions 358

7.2.1.3.1.2 Negative Polar Questions 359

7.2.1.3.1.3 Tag Questions 360

7.2.1.3.2 Alternative Questions

7.2.1.3.3 Content Questions

7.2.2 Minor Types of Sentences

7.2.2.1 Exclamatory Sentences

7.2.2.2 Imprecatives

7.2.2.3 Opatives

7.3 Basic Word Orders in the SDO

7.4 Summary

CHAPTER 8: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

361

362

367

367

369

370

371

374


8.1 Overview of Purpose, Design, Infonnants, Research Questions and Data Collection 377

XN

8.2 Summary

8.3 Conclusion

8.3.1 Types and Functions of the Morpheme in the SDG

8.3.2 Inflectional and Derivational Operations of Stem

8.3.3 Types, Structures and Functions of the Phrase in the SDO

8.3.4 Types, Structures and Functions of the Clause in the SDO

8.3.5 Types, Structures, Functions and Word order of the Sentence in the SDG

8.4 Contributions of the Study

8.5 Typological and Pedagogical Implications and Recommendations

8.6 Suggestions for Further Researches

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

Appendix A: Swadesh List

Appendix B: Questionnaire of Morphology

Appendix C: Verb Phrase Questionnaire

Appendix D: Noun Phrase Questionnaires

Appendix E: Sentence Type Questionnaire

Appendix F: Text about Soqotri Marriage Tradition

Appendix 0: Soqotri Poem

xv

378

384

384

386

389

391

393

396

398

400

401

422

425

428

433

437

438

439

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1 Pulmonary Consonants in Soqotri 49

Table 2.2 Non Pulmonary Ejective Consonants in Soqotri 49

Table 2.3 Soqotri Vowels 50

Table 3.1 Informants Numbers and Ages 78

Table 4.1 Independent Personal Pronouns in SDO 115

Table 4.2 Dependent Suffix Personal Pronouns in the SDO 117

Table 4.3 Independent Possessive Pronouns in the SDO 118

Table 4.4 Dependent Possessive Pronouns in SDO 119

Table 4.5 Reflexive Pronouns in SDO 120

Table 4.6 Reciprocal Pronouns in the SDO 121

Table 4.7 Demonstratives of Proximity in the SDO 122

Table 4.8 Demonstratives of Distance in the SDO 122

Table 4.9 Relative Pronouns ill the SDO 123

Table 4.10 Patterns of the Singular Nouns in the SDO 127

Table 4.11 External Dual Nouns in SDO - 127

Table 4.12 Internal Dual Nouns with Affixation in SDO 128

Table 4.13 Noun Internal Plural Patterns SDG 130

Table 4.14 Internal Plural Patterns with the Olides I j ,w land Parasite! hi in SDO 130

Table 4.15 Prefixed Internal Plural Patterns in SDO 131

Table 4.16 Suppletive Plural Forms of Nouns in SDO 133

Table 4.17 Subtractive Plural Forms of Noun in SDG 134

Table 4.18 Replacive plural Forms of Noun in the SDO 134

Table 4.19 External Plural of Noun in SDO 136

Table 4.20 Feminine Nouns with Feminine Suffixes in SDO 137

Table 4.21 Internally-marked Feminine Nouns in SDO 137

Table 4.22 Unmarked Feminine Nouns in SDO 138

Table 4.23 Internal Diminutive Patterns in SDO 146

Table 4.24 Diminutive Forms with Affixation in SDO 147

XVI

Table 4.25 Pattern of Singular Adjectives in SDG 149

Table 4.26 Internal Dual Adjectives with Affixation in SDG 150

Table 4.27 Patterns of Masculine Adjectival Internal Plural with Affixation in SDG 152

Table 4.28 Feminine Adjectives with Feminine Suffixes 153

Table 4.29 Internally-Marked Fel1"inine Adjectives in SDG 154

Table 4.30 Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Perfective Verb 156 Haro: b 'understood' Type A in SDG

Table 4.31: Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Perfective Verb 157 he : ra k' stole' in the SDG

Table 4.32 Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Imperfective Verb 157 jat'~ :her 'he goes' Type A. in the SDG

Table 4.33 Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Imperfective Verb 158 ja-ha:re k' 'he steals' Type B

Table 4.34 Inflection of the Subjunctive Form of the Verb jat'~: her' he goes' 162

Table 4.35 Paradigms of the Imperfective, Perfective and SubjJnctive Passive 164 Forms of the verb 1a: taH 'killed' in the SDG

Table 4.36 Reduplicative Verbs in SDG 170

Table 5.1 Inflectional Perfect Paradigm of ~ad and bEr in the SDG 232

XVII

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1.1 Afro-Asiatic Language Family 2

Figure 1.2 Semitic Language Family 5

Figure 1.3 Map of Semitic languages 6

Figure 1.4 Map of Modem South Arabian Languages 16

Figure 2.1 Multi-Linear Representation of the Fonn 1a: te~ 'killed' 35

Figure 2.2 I CAnalysis 37

Figure 2.3 Relational Structure of the Clause 39

Figure 2.4 Conceptual Framework of the Study 67

Figure 3.1 Research Design 73

Figure 3.2 Method of Data Collection without Interpreter 80

Figure 3.3 Method of Data Collection with Interpreter 81

Figure 3.4: Instrument of Data Collection 81

Figure 4.1 Types of the Morpheme in the SDG 105

Figure 4.2 Nonlinear Representation of Morphemes in the Verb Stem 110 he;m:;)fl 'heard'

Figure 4.3 Internal Plural Pattern of Nouns with Tri-consonantal Root 129

Figure 4.4 Nonlinear Representation of Action Nominalization in SOO 140

Figure.4.5 Nonlinear Representation of Agent Nominalization in SDG 140

Figure 4.6 Non-linear Representation of prefIxed and non- prefIxed Patient 142 Nominalization in SDG.

Figure 4.7 Nonlinear Representation of Instrument nominalization in SDG 143

Figure 4.8 Nonlinear Representation of Location Nominalization in SOO 144

XVIII

Figure 4.9 Nonlinear Representation of the Diminutive Noun Form in SDG 146

Figure 4.10 Nonlinear Representation of Adjective internal Plural in SDG 152

Figure 4.11 Nonlinear Representation of Adjective Feminine Gender in SDG 154

Figure 4.12 Nonlinear Representation of Imperfective Passive Verb ku: t £ b 'is 165 written'

Figure 4.13 Nonlinear Representation of Perfective Passive of the Verb 165 ki: t£ b 'was written'.

Figure 4.14 Nonlinear Representation of InfIxation in SDG 167

Figure 6.1 Types of Nominal Clause in the SDG 265

Figure 6.2 Types of Verbal Clause in the SDG 278

Figure 6.3 Nominative I Accusative System in the SDG 291

Figure 6.4 Types of Subordinate Clause in the SDG 294

Figure 7.1 Structural ClassifIcation of the Sentence in the SDG 334

Figure 7.2 Functional ClassifIcation of the Sentence in the SDG 343

XIX

LIST OF SYMBOLS

1 first person

2 second person

3 third person

[] phrase, clause or sentences Boundary

( ) optional constituent

, , translation from Soqotri into English

morpheme boundary within a word

...J root morpheme

<> infix morpheme boundary

-+- becomes, change to

0 null, zero

{} Series of equal constituents

\ formed internally

> sequence of constituents

t rising tone

stress

X Stem

~ morpheme tier

xx

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A transitive verb subject

ACC accusative

ADJ adjective

ADV adverb

ADV.CL adverbial clause

AUX. auxiliary

BLT Basic Linguistic Theory

C complement

CC copula complement

CCL copula clause

CL clause

COM complementizer

COMP.CL complement clause

COP copula verb

CS copula subject

DEM demonstrative

DIM diminutive

DU dual

E extended argument (indirect objet)

ESAL Epigraphic South Arabian Languages

EV extended verb (ditransitive)

F feminine

GBT Government and Binding Theory

GEN genitive

GG Generative Grammar

GPSG Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar

H head of a phrase

HN head noun in the noun phrase

IA Item and Arrangement model

XXI

IC immediate constituents

IMP imperfect

IND indicative

INTER. interrogative

INTERJ interjection

INT.V intransitive verb

IP Item and Process Model

IPA International Phonetic Alphabets

IPMPs Initial phrase markers

LP logical form

LPG lexical functional grammar

M masculine

MCL main clause

MO modifier

MSAL Modem South Arabian Languages

N noun

NC nominal clause complement

NCL nominal clause

NP noun phrase

NS nominal clause subject

NUM numeral / Number

NZR nominalization marker

0 object

OSAL Old South Arabian Languages

PAR particle

PAR.CL participle clause

PASS passive

PBUH peace be upon him

PER perfect / person

PP phonetic form

PL plural

XXII

POSS possessive

PP Prepositional phrase

PRE preposition

PRED predicate

PRO pronoun

QUAN quantifier

REC.PRO reciprocal pronoun

REF . reflexive

REL. relative

RCL relative clause

RLG Relational Grammar

RRG Role and Reference Grammar

S intransitive verb subject

SC subject complement

SCL subordinate clause

SE sentence

SDG Soqotri Dialect of Galansiyah

SG Singular

SP Subject particle

SUB SUbjunctive

SUB.CL subjunctive clause

SUF suffix

TG Transformational Grammar

TNS tense

TRA.V transitive verb

V verb

VCL verbal clause

VP verb phrase

WFRS word formation roles

WP Word and Paradigm model

XXIII

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Makhashen, K.A, Shuib, M. &Che Lab, S., 2008. Tense and aspects in Soqotri.ln GLOSSA, 3(2), pp.511-527

Makhashen, K.A, Shuib, M. &Che Lab, S. 2008. Non-concatenative morphol~al Operations in the Soqotri Dialect of Galansiyah. Paper presented at the International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (ICOSSH'08), 18-20 June 2008.Penang, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Makhashen, K. A, Shuib, M. & Che Lah, S., 2008. The noun phrase structure in Soqotri. Paper presented at the International Conference on Moribund Languages and Cultures, 14-16 October 2008. Kuala Lumpur, University of Malaya

Shibatani, M., Makhashen, K., Shuib,_M. & Che Lah, S. In press. Nominalization in Soqotri, a South Arabian Language in Yemen. In: W. Leo Wetzels, ed. The linguistics of endangered languages: contributions to morphology and morpho-Syntax. Leiden: Brill, pp.9-31

XXIV

ASPEK MORFOLOGI DAN SINTAK11S DIALEK SOQOTRI

DI GALANSIYAH.

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini memerihalkan secara sinkronik (synchronically) fitur / ciri (feature)

utama morfologi dan sintaktik yang terdapat dalam dialek Soqotri Galansiyah (.Soqotri

Dialect of Galansiyah, SDG) di Pulau Soqotra, Yemen. SDG merupakan satu daripada

rumpun bahasa Soqotri yang terkandung dalam Bahasa Arab Utara Modem (Modem

South Arabian Languages, MSAL). Kumpulan ini merupakan rumpun bahasa Semitik,

yang termasuk dalam enam (6) bahasa sebelum Islam yang tidak tersurat (unwritten

language), yang masih dipertuturkan dalam kalangan negara di utara Arab terutamanya

Yemen dan Oman. Walaupun Soqotri begitu berpengaruh dalam kalangan orang Arab,

namun ia masih belum dipeIjelaskan atau didokumenkan sebaiknya Kajian deskriptif ini

memberi tumpuan khusus pada SpG, yang berbeza dengan dialek Soqotri lain kerana ia

masih mengekalkan kebanyakan fitur linguistik asalnya. Kajian ini bertujuan

memerihalkan jenis morfem yang terdapat dalam dialek ini dan cara ia digabungkan

tanpa perangkaian (combine nonconcatenatively) untuk membentu.l( dasar (stem), fleksi

dalam (internal inflectional) dan fleksi luar (external inflectional) serta operasi terbitan

(derivational operation) daripada kata nama adjektif, jenis, struktur dan fungsi daripada

frasa dialek, klausa dan ayat sebagai tambahan kepada urutan kata dasar (basic word

order).

Reka bentuk penyelidikan kualitatif etnografi digunakan dalam kajian ini, dan

sepuluh penutur asH dipilih sebagai informan (pilihan dibuat secara tentu bukannya

rawak). Pelbagai instrumen pengumpulan data digunakan, contohnya beberapa jenis

pencungkilan (elicitation) data [teIjemahan langsung, temu duga, soal selidik, keputusan

penutur asli, dU], pemerhatian peserta dan koleksi teks (sastera lisan). Secara teori,

kajian ini berdasarkan Teori Linguistik Dasar Dixon (Dixon's Basic Linguistic Theory,

BLT) dan tipologi fungsian. Teori tanpa perangkaian, model paradigma kata (WP) dan

Model unsur terdekat (Ie) juga digunakan sebagai suplemen BLT.

:xxv

Kajian menunjukkan bahawa SDO mempunyai tiga jenis morfologi iaitu morfem

tempI at, morfem imbuhan (affixional morpheme) dan (non-temolatic word stem)

Morfem templat merupakan morfem terbahagi abstrak (abstract discontinuous

morpheme) yang bergabung secara tidak linear untuk membentuk dasar. Proses fleksi

dan terbitan kata nama, kata keIja, adjektif dan beberapa kata ganti diperoleh 8&-na ada

secara luaran (linear) dengan menambah morfen imbuhan pada dasar, atau secara

dalaman (tidak linear) melalui mengubah suai vokal dasar. Dalam sesetengah kes, proses

ini melibatkan kedua-duanya sekali gus. Kajian menunjukkan bahawa operasi ini yang

dikenali sebagai akar (root) dan morfologi pola telah digunakan secara meluas dalam

SDO. Secara sintaktik, kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa terdapat struktur dan fungsi

daripada jenis frasa kata nama, frasa kata keIja, frasa adjektif, frasa adverba dan frasa

kata depan yang berbeza, di dalam dialek ini. Kajian ini juga menunjukkan bahawa

SDO mempunyai dua klausa utama iaitu klaus a namaan (nominal clause) dan klausa

karyaan (verbal clause), dan tiga klausa subordinat iaitu klausa pelengkap (complement

clause), klausa relatif dan klausa adverbaan (adverbial clause). Kajian memerihalkan

SDO dalam struk.'tur ayat selapis (simple), ayat majmuk (compound), ayat kompleks dan

ayat kompleks majmuk (compound complex). Diperihalkanjuga fungsinya sebagai ayat ..

penyata (declarative), ayaCperintah / imperatif, ayat tanya (interrogative), ayat seru

(exclamatory), ayat optatif dan ayat imprekatif. Sebagai kesimpulan, kajian 1m

menunjukkan bahawa SDG mempunyai dua urutan kata asas iaitu Sf AVO dan

VS/AO.

XXVI

Morphological and Syntactic Aspects of the Soqotri Dialect of Galansiyah

ABSTRACT

This study describes synchronically the major morphological and syntactic

features of the Soqotri Dialect of Galansiyah (henceforth, SDG) in Soqotra Island,

Yemen. The SDG is a variety of Soqotri which belongs to the Modem South Arabian

Languages (henceforth, MSAL).This group which descends from the south branch of the

western Semitic languages includes six pre-Islamic unwritten languages still spoken in

South Arabia particularly in Yemen and Oman. Though Soqotri has become an

endangered language due to the great influence of Arabic, it has not yet been described

or documented properly. This descriptive study concentrates on the SDG which unlike

the other Soqotri varieties, still possesses most of its original linguistic features. The

study aims at describing the types and functions of the morpheme in the SDG, the way

these morphemes combine nonconcatenatively to form stems and the inflectional and

derivational operations the stems of its nouns, verbs and adjectives may undergo

internally or externally. It also aims at describing the types, structures and functions of

the phrase, clause and sentence in this dialect in addition to its basic word orders.

An ethnographic qualitative field research design was employed for this study in

which 10 native speakers were chosen as informants according to the non- probability

judgment sampling. Various data collection instruments were employed such as the

different types of elicitation (direct translation, interviews questionnaires, native

speaker's judgment, etc.), participant observation and collection of oral texts (oral

literature).Theoretically, the study is based on Dixon's Basic Linguistic Theory

XXVII

(hencefo~ BLT) and functional typology. The nonconcatenative Theory, Word and

Paradigm Model (WP) and the Immediate Constituent Model (Ie) were also used to

supplement the BLT.

The study reveals that the SDG has three types of morphemes: templatic

morphemes, affixional morphemes and non-templatic word-stem morphemes. The

templatic morphemes, which are abstract discontinuous morphemes, combine together

nonlinearly to form stems. The inflectional and derivational processes of nouns, verbs

and adjectives are achieved either externally (linearly) through adding an affixational

morpheme to the stem or internally (nonlinearly) through modifying the vowels of that

stem and in some cases this nonlinear process involves both vocalic modification and the

addition of an affix. The study indicates that this operation which is called root and

pattern morphology is widely employed in the SDG. Syntactically, the study shows the

structures and functions of the different types of noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective

phrases, adverb phrases and prepositional phrases in this dialect. The structural and

functional description of the clause in this dialect, the SDG, reveals that it has two main

clauses and three subordinate clauses. The main clauses are the nominal clause and

verbal clause and the subordinate clauses are the complement clause, the relative clause

and the adverbial- clause. The study describes the sentence in the SDG structurally as

simple, compound, complex or compound complex and it describes it functionally as

declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory, optative or imprecative. Finally, the

study reveals that the SDG has two basic word orders: VS / SV and V AO / AVO.

XXVIII

1.0 Introduction

CHAPTERl

INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter provides the background to the current study. The

background introduces the topic of the study and gives infonnation about the genetic

affiliation of Soqotri and the other five Modem South Arabian languages, their history,

geographical positions, discovery, current state, speakers and dialects. This chapter sets

out the research problem and the associated research questions the thesis seeks to

address. It also provides the research objectives, significance and limitation.

1.1 Background of the Study

The current study aims at describing synchronically the major morphological

and syntactic features of one of the varieties of the Soqotri language particularly the

Soqotri dialect of Galansiyah SDG. Soqotri is an old unwritten pre-Islamic language

spoken in the Yemeni archipelago of Soqotra which is situated in the Arabian Sea 300

Kilometres south of the Arabian Peninsula. This under-documented language has

become an endangered language due to the great influence of Arabic on its speakers.

1.1.1 Genetic Affiliation of Soqotri and the other MSAL

Soqotri belongs to a language group called Modem South Arabian Languages

MSAL.In addition to Soqotri, this group includes the Mehri language, the Jibbali

language, the Bathari language, the Harsusi language and the Hobyot language. Modem

South Arabian Languages are affiliated to a larger language family called Semitic which

itself is a part of the wider Afro-Asiatic family that includes ancient Egyptian, Coptic,

I .

Cushitic, Berber languages Chadic languages, Bja languages and Omotic language as

shown in the following figure:

Mro-Asiatic Language Family

Berber Chadic Ancient Egyptian Semitic Coptic Cushitic Bja Omotic

Figure 1.1 Afro-Asiatic Language Family.

1.1.1.1 Semitic Languages

The Semitic languages fonn a separate family within the Afro-Asiatic language

group. They are usually classified into East Semitic and West Semitic (Versteegh, 1997;

Gray, 2006).

East Semitic is represented by Akkadian, which is also called Assyrian,

Babylonian or Assyro-Babylonian. This group has a rich inscriptional literature from the

first half of the 3rd millennium to the closing centuries BC. It departed from the Proto-

Semitic homeland and made its pennanent home among non-Semitic Sumerians,

consequently it underwent changes which made it by no means the most representative

of the Proto-Semitic speech despite its antiquity (ibid).Bromiley (1995) states that this

language group which is spoken only by the Semitic population of Mesopotamia is

subdivided into Old Akkadian (2500-1950 BC), Old Babylonian (1950-1530 Be),

Middle Babylonian (1530-1000 BC) and Nco-Babylonian (1000-625 BC).

The West Semitic is subdivided into North-West Semitic and South-West

Semitic. North-West Semitic is usually represented by Canaanite and Aramaic. The

Canaanite group includes Old Canaanite, Phoenician, Moabite and Hebrew which is the

2

most important language in this group and the only one that has survived as a spoken

language up to now. Old Hebrew was vernacular from the 2nd Millennium BC until

about the 4th century Be. Old Hebrew did not die entirely but it survived in the form of

Talmudic Hebrew till the 7th century AD when it became a learned religious language

(Mediaeval Hebrew) and recently it has been revived as Modem Hebrew (Gray, 2006).

Aramaic is divided into Western Aramaic and Eastern Aramaic. The Western Aramaic

comprises Old Aramaic or Hama and Zingirli ( 8th century BC), Nabataean (from the Ist

century BC. to Ist century AD), Palmyrene (from the 1st century BC. to 3rd century AD),

Sinaitic (from the 1st to 4th century A.D), Biblical Aramaic or the so called Chaldaean,

Christian Palestinian Aramaic ( from the 5th to 6th century AD) and Samaritan (3rd to

4th century AD). The Eastern Aramaic includes Judaeo-Aramaic ( from the 4th to the

6th century A.D), Mandaean (from the 7th to the 9th century), Syriac which spread

from Edessa up to Persia (from the 3rd to the 14th century) and fmally Harranian

spoken in Mesopotammia (Musel) and in the Persian area of Urmi (ibid).

South-West Semitic includes North Arabic, South Arabic and Ethiopic. The chief

member of North Arabic is the Arabic language, the language of the Holy Quran and the

vehicle of one of the greatest literature of all the Orient. In some references Arabic and

Aramaic are classified as South-West Central Semitic (Watson, 2002). South Arabic is

represented by Old South Arabian Languages OSAL and Modem South Arabian

Languages MASL. Old South Arabia Languages or Epigraphic South Arabian

Languages ESAL include Minaean, Sabean, Qatabanian Hadramitic. They ranged from

the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD.(Gray, 2006}.Regarding the mainland of these

languages, Kogan and Korotyev (1997) state that Sabean mainland was Mareb; the

3

Minaean mainland was Wadi Madhab; the Qatabanian mainland was the area of Wadi

Bayhan and Hareeb at the edge of the inner Sayhad Desert and the Hadramitic mainland

was Wadi Hadhramout. All these areas are in Yemen. These languages are now dead.

The Modem South Arabian Languages include Soqotri, Mehri, Jibbali, Bathari,

Hursusi and Hobyot. Though all these six languages are still Spoken in parts of Yemen

and Oman, they are considered as endangered languages. More information about this

particular group will be given in the coming sections.

The Etbiopic group represents the last Semitic immigration which took place

some centuries before the Christian era. The Ethiopic Semitic languages have a close

affinity to MSAL. They are divided into Ethiopic Proper (Ge'es), Tigrina, Tigre,

Amharic, Gatat, Argobba, Harari and Gurage (porkhomovsky, 1997; Gray, 2006).

These two branches of the Semitic Language Family and the different Semitic

languages that descend from them in addition to their areas are shown in the figuresl.2

and 1.3.

4

I East ~emitic

Proto- Semitic Language I

I West Semitic

Akkadian (Babylonian)

Old Akkadian North-West Semitic South-West Semitic Old Babylonian Middle Babylonian Neo-Babylonian

I Canaanite North Arabic South Arabic Ethiopic

I Arabic I I

Old Canaanite West. Aramaic Eastern Aramaic OSAL MSAL Phoenician I I I I Moabite Old Aramaic ludaeo-Aramaic Sabaean Soqotri Hebrew Biblical Aramaic Mandaean Qatabanian Mehri

ChIi .. Palestinian Harranian Minaean Jibbali Nabataeatl Syriac Hadramitic Bathari Palmyrene Harsusi Sinaitic Hobyot Samaritan

Figure 1.2: Semitic Language Family

5

Tigrina Tigre

Gafat Harari Gurage Ge'es

Argobba Amharic

Figure 1.3 Map of Semitic languages Source: Hetzron (1997, p.XIV).

6

1.1.2 History and Geographical Position of Soqotri and Other MSAL

Modem South Arabian Languages MSAL are the remnant of a pre-Arabic

linguistic substrate that once expanded from Oman in the east to the high lands of

Yemen in the west that included the already dead Old South Arabian Languages OSAL:

Sabaean, Minaean, Gatabanian and Hadramic. These south Semitic languages extended

across the Read Sea to the highlands and costal area of East Africa creating the

Ethiosemitic languages such as Ge'es, Amharic and Tigrina (Leibhaber, 2007).

The famous classical Arab geographers and historians such as Al-Hamadani, Ibn

Battuta and Al-Idrisi were aware of the existence of pre-Arabic languages spoken east of

Hadhramout and in Soqotra Island but they had no interest in collecting any philological

or lexical data on them. They either ignored these languages in their books or referred to

them briefly as non-Arabic dialects. For example, Al-Hamadani (1983) states that the

inhabitants of AI- sher, an old name of the area of MSAL, are unable to speak Arabic

regarding them as (ajam) non-Arabic speakers. Ibn Battuta (1971) never mentioned

these languages in his famous book. Al-Idrisi (1970) points out that people in this area

speak old Yemeni languages no longer intelligible to the contemporary Arabs.

The first Soqotri lexical data was collected in 1835 by Lieutenant James Renold

Wellsted, a British army officer, who surveyed the island from the 10th of January to the

7th of March 1834. During this period he collected a list containing 195 Soqotri words

and expressions and published them in March 1835. That list was enlarged to include

236 Soqotri word and then published in May 1835 in the Journal of the Asiatic Society

of Bengal and the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London (Wellsted,

7

1835a, b).These words were written in Arabic alphabets and Latin transliteration with

both Arabic an English translation. He later published 37 words ofMehri. The linguistic

infonnation provided by Wellsted is regarded as preliminary infonnation of a non

linguist. Despite all that, this infonnation introduced this unknown language group, the

MSAL , to the world (Simeone-Senelle, 2003·; Liebhaber 2007).

Fulgence Fresnel, the the French consul in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, discovered the

third MSAL, Jibbali in 1838. He recorded some basic grammatical infonnation about

this language including infonnation about the inventory of sibilants and their allophones

(Liebhaber, 2007). In 1898 the Viennese Imperial Academy in Austria sent the

Sudarabische Expedition to study the MSAL. Among the linguists of this expedition is

David-Heinrich Muller, who recorded some Soqotri texts (Simeone-Senelle, 2003).

Bathari and Harsusi were discovered much later when they were announced to the world

by Thomas in 1939 in his "Four Strange Tongues from South Arabia" in which he

regards Bathari, Harsusi and Mehri as one group and regards Jibbali as belonging to

another group (ibid). The last discovered language in this group is Hobyot. Johnstone

was the fIrst who referred to this language in 1981 but he regarded it as a mixed dialect

of Mehri and Jibbali. Hobyot was shown as a separate language not a dialect of Mehri

only in 1985 when the French Mission under Antoine Lonnet and Marie-Claude

Simeone-Senelle collected enough data proving that Hobjot is an independent language

(ibid).

The South Semitic language branch to which Soqotri and the other MSAL

belong is the only Semitic sub-group that has a naturally defined territory . The Empty

Quarter, a very vast sand desert separating Saudi Arabia from Yemen and Oman, and the

8

high mountains and the plateaus along the north eastern and north western rims of this

language group territory hindered the advance of Arabic. Jabal AI-Gamar and Jabal AI

Garah', two mountain chains in the Omani district Dhofar protected its eastern borders

against any Arabic linguistic infiltration. The good agricultural land in this area helped

agriculturalists to be socially and linguistically independent from their northerly

neighbours in the Arabian area Hijaz. The Red Sea also helped the Ethiosemitic

languages to develop in the East African highland with out any worth mentioning

influence from the other Semitic language. The southern borders of this language group

are protected by the Arabian Sea. 300 Kilometres away from the Arabian main land, the

indigenous language spoken in Soqotra Island has evolved in a complete isolation. The

so many efforts of the mainland to colonize or corporate the island lasted only for short

times and were limited to the coasts (Simeone-Senelle, 1997; Liebhaber, 2007). So these

naturally defmed and protected borders of the South Semitic languages are what enabled

Soqotri and the other MSAL to evolve and survive though Arabic surrounds them from

three directions (ibid).

1.1.3 Overview of MSAL

This overview provides more information about the geographical areas, speakers,

dialects and the current endangered state of MSAL in general and Soqotri in particular.

1.1.3.1 Mehri

Mehri is considered to be the most widespread MSAL. It is the language of the

tribes of AL-Mahrah Governorate, south-east of Yemen, whose population is estimated

to be 100 000. It is also spoken by an Omani tribe called Bet Kathir in the mountain of

Dhofar in Oman (Simeone-Senelle, 1997). Mehri has two dialects. The first dialect is

9

called mehrij at and it is spoken west of Ras- Fartak Cape. The second dialect is

spoken in the eastern area of Al-Mahrah including the Mehri of Dhofar in Oman. This

dialect is called mehrijot. The Mehri speakers both who live in the coasts and desert

of Yemen and those who live in the mountains of Oman are semi-nomads breeding

camels, cows and goats. Some Mehris especially men like emigrating to the neighboring

rich Arab Gulf States such as The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia searching for

work but they never settle there for ever as they return home after spending a year or so

in these countries (ibid). Mehri is considered as an endangered language due to the

increasing influence of Arabic (Siemone-Senelle, 1997; Alfadly, 2007).

1.1.2.2 Jibbali

During his fieldwork, Johnstone (1981) noticed that the speakers of this language

use many names for it such as Jeblet , Sheret, ?ehkili ,and k'arawi. He chose

Jibbali as he thought that it is not pejorative for all its speakers. Johnstone (1975)

estimated the number of the Jibbali speakers to be 5000, but Simeone-Senelle (1997)

states that their number varies from 30000 to 50000.The Jibbali speakers live in the

mountains of Dhofar in Oman. They are semi-nomadic pastoralists breeding camel,

cows and goats. Some of them collect frankincense. Along the coast they also fish. Like

Hobyot, Jibbali is not a language of a specific community or tribal confederation. It is a

language of a geographical area (Morris, 2007). Jibbali has three dialect groups; the

dialect of the Hallaniyyat Islands, the central dialect and the western dialect (Johnston,

1981). In 1981 Johnstone published a dictionary of the central dialect entitled 'Jibbali

Lexicon". Two books were also written about the Jibbali poetry, one by Johnston in

10

1972 and the other one by Morris in 1985. Hofstede wrote a Ph.D. thesis on the syntax

of Jibbali in1998.

1.1.3.3 Bathari

This language is spoken by the bat' a: hreh tribe who live in Dhofar in Oman

along a strip of coast opposite the al-Hallaniyah islands (where Jibbali is spoken).

Bathari is also known as bat'harjah by its speakers who are called bat'a:hreh

( Dimmendaal & Voeltz, 2007). It is closely-related to the Mehri language and according

to Morris (1983, 2007) it has only 300 speakers left and not all of them speak Bathari,

some of them speak Mehri. They are principally cave-dweller fishermen. Researches on

this language are still very limited. Morris wrote some articles about Bathari poetry and

Johnstone included some Bathari words in his Mehri Lexicon and Jibbali Lexicon.

Morris (2007) expressed her pessimism regarding Bathari future, saying that it could be

said to be dead.

1.1.3.4 Harsusi

Harsusi which is called Harsiyyat by its speakers is the language of the Harasis

tribe. Members of that tribe live in an area named after them in central Oman called

Jiddat Al-Harasis. It has 700 speakers left in 1970 (Johnstone, 1977). Simeone-Senelle

(1997) attributed this small number of Harsusi speakers to the fact that when Johnstone

was there in the field, young Harsusi speakers left the area to work in oil wells which

started working in Oman at that time. Like Bathari, Harsusi is closely related to Mehri

and its speakers are semi-nomadic rearing camels and goats though nowadays some of

them are wage-earners and many are employed in the oil industry (Morris, 2007).

11

Johnstone (1977) compiled a dictionary of Harsusi entitled "Harsusi Lexicon and

English-Harsusi. Morris (2007) states that Harsusi has become a moribund language.

1.1.3.5 Hobjot

Hobjot is spoken by a few hundred people living in the mountains on the borders

between Yemen and Oman. It is also called kala:m rifi (Dimmendaal &Voeltz,

2007). It is spoken by people of different origins in both sides of the Yemeni and Omani

borders. According to Simeone-Senelle (1997). Hobjot is related to Mehri, and it has

less than 100 speakers. They live in border areas such as Jathib, Hoof and Habrul They

spend the rainy seasons in caves up the mountains and then go down to their houses

which are covered with palm dates branches. Despite its few speakers, Hobjot combines

elements of both Mehri and Jibbali, thus it stands in a class of its own (Arnold, 1993;

Morris, 2007).

1.1.3.6 Soqotri

Soqotri is called sak' at' ari or sak' at' arij ah by its speakers and it is written

either as Soqotri or Socotri. It is spoken only in the islands of Soqotra archipelago in

Yemen and by the Soqotri immigrants in the Arabian Gulf States mainly in Ajman in

the United Arab Emirates. Soqotra archipelago consists of Soqotra, the main and largest

island, the island of Abd al-Kuri, Samha Island and Darsa Island. Soqotra archipelago is

located in the Arabian Sea around 300 kilometres south of the Arabian Peninsula and

240 kilometres from the coasts of Africa. It is between the latitudes 12, 8 -12, 42 north

of the equator and the longitudes 53, 19 -54, 33 east of Greenwich (Zorman, 2006).The

three small islands are located towards the west of the largest island, Soqotra. Soqotra

12

Island is 3650 square kilometres. It has about 500 kilometres of coastal line. It is 130

kilometres long from east to west and 40 kilometres from north to south. The largest

town and the capital of Soqotra Island is Hadibo. It is in the mid of the northern coast of

the island. The second largest town in the island is Galansiyah which is situated in the

far western coast of the island. Abdal Kuri is 125 square kilometres and Samha Island is

50 square Kilometres (ibid). The islanders are fishennen and pastoralists who raise

sheep, goats, camels and cows. In some places of the island they cultivate date palms

(Morris, 2007). The population of the Soqotrans in the main island, Soqotra, is estimated

to be 50000 (Naumkin, 1993; Simeone-Senelle, 1997).Under 400 inhabitants live in the

small island of Abd al-Kuri and 150 inhabitants live in the other small island Samha.

The fourth small island, Darsa, is not inhabited. The inhabitants of Samha island speak

the dialect of the western coast of Soqotra island and the Soqotrans in Abd al-Kuri used

to speak a Soqotri variety not understood by many Soqotrans but now they mainly

speak the Arabic dialect spoken in the opposite Yemeni coast particularly the dialect of

Gosajar in Hadhramout. (Morris, 2007).

1.1.3.6.1 Soqotri Dialects

The diversity of the Soqotri language is very high when compared with the

number of the speakers and the surface of the island which is (3650 square kilometres ).

Simeone-Senelle (2003) surveyed the different Soqotri dialects and finds out that there

are six dialects. The dialect of Hadibo, the dialect of the northern coast villages, the

dialect of Haghier, rural dialect of the eastern region in Momi, the dialect of the

Western Coast in Galansiyah and the southern dialect of Noged.

13

I-The Urban Dialect of the Capital Hadibo:

The speakers of this dialect have an increasing contact with people whose mother

tongue is Arabic such as the Arabs from Hadhramout and the other governorates of

Yemen and Arabs from Oman and Saudi Arabia. Arabic in this town is the language of

trading and to some extent the language of communication. Villagers from the coastal

area and Bedouins from Haghier mountainous area come to Hadibo regularly selling

their cattle, aloe, etc. This dialect is not stable due to the continuous contact between the

speakers of the different Soqotri dialects and Arabic (Simeone-Senelle, 2003).

2- The Dialect of the Villages Scattered along the Northern Plain

The inhabitants of these villages are either fishermen as in Holaf or palm date

farmers as in Gadhub and Elha. The dialect of Gadhub has many lexical archaisms, and

old people there still recite some pieces of traditional and ancient literature (ibid).

3- The Dialect of Haghier:

It is spoken in Haghier, the mountainous area of the island. People there are

Bedouins living in villages and caves but they always move from place to another within

the same area searching for water and pastures for their camels, cows, goats and sheep.

The effect of Arabic upon this dialect is still relatively little due to its isolated

geographical position (ibid).

4- The Rural Dialect of the Eastern Region in Momi:

The speakers of this dialect live on date palms and they breed some cattle, and

some of them produce lime. The linguistic features of this dialect are still partially

known since no detailed studies have been conducted on it (ibid).

14

5-The Dialect of the Western Coast in Galansiyah:

This dialect is spoken In Galansiyah town and the rural western area. Simeone

Senelle (1997) conducted a research on this dialect focusing only on its phonological

system and recommended conducting further researches on its morphology and syntax.

The current study describes the main morphological and syntactic features of this dialect.

It has been chosen since the influence of Arabic on it is still weak if compared with that

Arabic has on the other Soqotri dialects. This may be attributed to its far isolated

geographic position. Galansiya is situated in the isolated western part of the island far

from Hadibo, the capital and commercial centre where there are a lot of non-Soqotri

speakers. This dialect may be regarded as the Soqotri norm because it still possesses

some Proto-Semitic linguistic features that have already disappeared from the other

dialects of Soqotri such as having the voiceless and voiced uvular fricatives IX I and IHI

which are no longer used in the other dialects (Simeone-Senelle, 1997, 2003).

The dialect spoken in Samha Island is linguistically similar to that of the western

coast dialect. The dialect spoken in the island of Abd-al-Kuri used to be different from

all the other Soqotri dialects. It was not understood by all the speakers of the other

dialects. Unfortunately, it has already been replaced by an Arabic dialect as mentioned

earlier (Muller, 1907; Naumkin, 1988).

6- The Southern Dialects ofNoged:

This dialect is spoken in the isolated villages of the southern barren plain of the

island especially in Noged. Most of its speakers are fishermen. Simeone-Senelle (2003)

states that the few linguistic data collected from this dialect indicate that it differs from

15

the other Soqotri dialects in many features. The following map shows the distribution

and geographical positions of Soqotri and the other five MSAL.

Figure 1.4: Map of Modern South Arabian Languages Source: Simeone-Senelle (1997, p.381)

1.2 The Statement of the Problem

There are 6,000 languages in the world today. Half of them may be lost within

this century. From the remaining 3,000 languages only 600 have a good chance of

survival. These frightening numbers and facts given by Krauss (1992) indicate clearly

that languages are dying at an alarming rate all over the world. Crowley (2007, p.IX)

expresses similar views:

A huge number of the world languages remain poorly described, or even completely undescribed.Many may have disappeared altogether by the end of the twenty- first century and only a small number of people are doing any thing about this. Even among linguists - who we might expect to be among the most concerned - there are surprisingly many who are doing surprisingly little.

16

A lot of conferences were held in America and in Europe and a number of

publications have appeared to tackle this problem, for example in1992 linguists from all

over the world held an international linguistic congress in Quebec. The permanent

committee of that congress put language endangerment on the top of agenda and its

General Assembly issued the following resolution cited in Crystal (2000, p.Vll ) and in

Janse (2003, p.XIV).

As the disappearance of anyone language constitutes an irretrievable loss to mankind, it is for UNESCO a task of great urgency to respond to this situation by promoting and if possible sponsoring programs of linguistic organizations for the description in the form of grammar, dictionaries and texts including the recording of oral literatures, of these unstudied or inadequately documented endangered and dying languages.

A year later in 1993 the UNESCO responded when the General Assembly adopted

the " Endangered languages Project" and issued a report revealing the organization great

concern :

It is certain that the extinction of languages is progressing rapidly in many parts of the world, and it is of the highest importance that the linguistic profession realize that it has to step up descriptive efforts.

( cited in Crystal ,2000, p. VII).

The year 1995 witnessed the establishment of three organizations that aim at

protecting endangered languages; the International Clearing House for Endangered

Languages at Tokyo University, the Endangered Languages Fund in the USA and the

Foundation for Endangered Languages in the UK. The second newsletter of the

Foundation for Endangered Languages gives an estimation of the problem:

There is agreement among linguists who have consider the situation that half of the world's languages are moribund, i.e. not effectively being passed on to the next generation. We and our children, then, are living at the point in human history where within perhaps two generation most languages in the world will die out. (ibid, p.VIII).

17

Newman (2003) refers to this problem and states that the disappearance of a language

without being documented is a huge scientific loss because the whole linguistic

enterprise depends on language multiplicity and diversity so he urges PhD students from

Africa and Asia to write descriptive dissertations on these endangered languages. Dixon

(1997, p.l44) goes further in his views regarding language endangerment and death

problem when he states that:

The most important task in linguistics today, indeed, the only really important task- is to get out in the field and describe languages while this still can be done. Self- admiration in the looking glass of the formalist theory can wait; that will be possible. Linguistic description must be undertaken now.

Soqotri and the other MSAL are really endangered languages. This fact has been

referred to and confirmed by a lot of linguists and researchers such as Lonnet (1996), Al

-Aidaroos (1999), Hofstede (1998a,b), Naumkin (1998), Simeone-Senelle (2003), Al-

Fadly (2007), Liebhaber (2007) and Morris (1983, 1985 & 2007). All those linguists and

researchers confirmed the endangerment of these languages and the urgent need for

describing and documenting them before it becomes too late to do so.

The Soqotri culture as well as the Soqotri language is under a huge influence of

the dominant Arabic culture and language which infiltrate in everything in the

archipelago of Soqotra, while Soqotri, the indigenous language of that archipelago has

actually started its decline journey. The archipelago of Soqotra has been subjected to

demographic and political submersion. Large numbers of Yemenis whose mother tongue

is Arabic have been brought to Soqotra Island and they have settled there permanently

especially in the capital Radibo. The numbers of these new comers are frighteningly

18

increasing. With the development of transportation means, the remote and isolated

geographical position of Soqotra which protected Soqotri and helped it to survive for

centuries ceased to be so. The Yemeni Airliner, Al-Yamaniyh, has two flights a week to

the island making it easy for the Arabic-speaking Yemenis to reach this island in less

than one hour. In addition to this factor, there are other factors that have caused the

exodus of the Arabic-speaking Yemenis to the island such as the beautiful nature of the

island and the fact that the island is still virgin. It is easy for anyone who comes to it to

start any work or investment there either in tourism, animals and bees breeding, medical

herbs, etc.

For certain military and commercial reasons, new roads have been established

recently to connect the different towns and villages of the island together. It is quite easy

now for Arab traders, teachers, etc. to reach any remote Soqotri village and to be in

contact with the native speakers. This contact has its effects which are_ always not in

favour of Soqotri. Arabic has become the official language in the island and the medium

of instruction in schools. It is taught to the Soqotri students who are not allowed to learn

or to use their native language while they are in schools. Most of the teachers in these

schools are non-Soqotrans. Arabic has become a must for Soqotrans who want to go to

school or to have a job. The Arabic-language Yemeni TV plays a vital role in spreading

Arabic at the cost of Soqotri. The impact of that TV is evident on the Soqotri children

who spend hours watching and listening to children cartoon films in Arabic especially in

the big towns of the island where there is electricity. Nowadays a lot of Soqotrans have

satellite dishes that allow them to watch and listen to many Arabic-language satellite

channels.

19

Soqotri has experienced the first stage of what Crystal (2000) called cultural

submersion that leads to language endangennent and death. It is the stage in which the

aboriginal Soqotrans are put under huge economic and governmental pressure to speak

Arabic, the dominant culture language. Soqotri has been under this pressure since the

independence of South Yemen in 1967. Soqotri has also entered the second stage of the

cultural submission, which witnesses the appearance of bilingualism (ibid). Nowadays,

anyone who visits the island hardly meets a monolingual Soqotran who never speaks

Arabic especially in the main towns. Even in the villages, the young Soqotrans who

attend school are fluent in Arabic. The number of monolingual Soqotrans, usually old

men and women living in the mountains and remote areas, is decreasing.

Naumkin (1998, p.229) makes it clear that:

Whatever the present degree of the Socotrans' competence in Arabic is, two things are obvious. Firstly, the progress of Arabic in the island is irreversible and gaining momentum. Secondly, Arabic is as fully integrated into the Soqotri- socio-cultural situation.

Similarly, Simeone-Senelle (2003, pi) states that:

Even though Soqotri people still speak Soqotri to each other, the language is affected by contact with Arabic. Only some of their women and old men in remote settlements, keep the use of their original dialectal variety. Because this process speeded up during the last ten years, Soqotri must be considered as an endangered language. It is a matter of urgency to go on collecting more linguistic data concerning Soqotri in order to save a part of the human patrimony in Southern Arabia.

Soqotri has already entered the third stage of cultural submersion which Crystal

(2000) describes as a stage in which the young generation becomes increasingly

proficient in their new language and start learning the grammar of their old language

wrongly. They start feeling that their first language is no longer relevant to their new

20

needs. Simeone-Senelle (2003) states that the Soqotri young generation started using the

syntax of their mother tongue wrongly, borrowing from Arabic and code switch with it,

they cannot even count from one to ten in Soqotri. So the Soqotri language is not

effectively passed on to the next generation. It is entering a very serious stage described

by Lonnet (1996, p.297) as dangerous:

This language is in danger of dying out unless an effort to think about its future is made by the community, supported by the scientific arguments and understood by the authorities.

The worse thing is that some Soqoni speakers have reached a state in which they

start preferring Arabic to their language and start feeling that their language is no longer

suitable for their needs and religion.

Some Soqotrans, including a few of the poets whose poetry is more influenced by Arabic, feel that the Soqotri language and culture are embarrassingly primitive and backward. Worse, they believe both to be un-Islamic. They think that it is important for Soqotrans to strive to join the wider, modem Arab and their Muslim community, and that all Soqotrans should be glad to turn back on their dubious past (Morris, 2007 ,p.ll).

So the endangerment of Soqotri is caused by socioeconomic and sociopolitical

factors as explained above (Swadesh,1948). This endangerment will undoubtedly lead

to the eventual extinction and disappearance of the Soqotri language (Wurm ,2003). In

addition to this the MSAL including Soqotri have not been studied in details. So many

linguistic features of these languages are still unknown. Lonnet (1996, p.297) states that

"Soqotri was discovered about 160 years ago, but a few studies have been devoted to it

so far". Rubin (2004, p.16) states that " Modem South Arabian Languages including

Soqotri are the least well-understood branch of Semitic". Up to now no detailed

synchronic study has ever been made on the Soqotri language. The current study will

21

be the first PhD thesis on Soqotri. The previous studies are brief diachronic comparative

studies (Shlomo, 2002). They have failed to study the morphology and syntax of the

Soqotri systematically and comprehensively. They just tackled a few morphological and

syntactic aspects briefly ignoring major morphological and syntactic features as it will

be shown in the literature review. So the problem in this study is the endangerment of

Soqotri and all its dialects including the SDG and the lack of synchronic morphological

and syntactic studies on that threatened endangered language.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The purpose of this study is to describe the major morphological and syntactic

features of the SDG. Specifically, the study aims at achieving the following objectives:

I-To describe the types and functions of the morpheme in SDG and the way they

combine nonconcatenatively to form stems.

2- To describe the inflectional and derivational operations that the stem in SDG may

undergo.

3- To describe the types, structures and functions of the phrase in the SDG.

4-To describe the types, structures and functions of the clause in the SDG.

5- To describe the types, structures, functions and basic word orders of the sentence in

theSDG.

1.4 Research Questions

The data collection process of this study was guided by the following research

questions:

I-What are the types and functions of the morpheme in the SDG and how are they

combined nonconcatenatively to form stems?

22

2 -What inflectional and derivational operations the stem in SDG may undergo?

3- What are the types, structures and functions of the phrase in the SDG?

4- What are the types, structures and functions of the clause in the SDG?

5- What are the types, structures, functions and basic word orders of the sentence in the

SDG?

1.5 Significance of the Study

The significance of this study arises from the fact that it describes one of the six

endangered unwritten pre-Islanric languages which still possesses some proto-Semitic

linguistic features that have already disappeared from some other Semitic languages.

This fact was confirmed by Morris (2007, p.14) who states that:

From a rather more, academic point of view, this group oflanguages is of great interest. They are important for the study of the Semitic language: phonetically and phonologically, in syntax mOlphology and lexicon, they have preserved elements which have disappeared from other Semitic languages. Further research will contribute to a better understa."1ding of the relation between the South Semitic languages and the historical development of the Semitic languages.

The previous studies on Soqotri are philological comparative brief studies done

by authors some of whom did not ever visit Soqotra or meet a Soqotran and were

published in some journals here and there. This study, which is based on authentic data

collected from the field, is the first detailed and systematic study on this threatened

unwritten language which is considered to be a reservoir of linguistic and cultural

heritage of South Arabia

The significance of this study can be summed up as follows:

23

1- Soqotri is an endangered unwritten language and perhaps after two generations it

may become totally dead. This study will contribute a lot to the efforts aiming at

documenting and preserving this language, therefore, it will contribute to the

preservation of the world's linguistic and cultural diversity. Every language expresses

thoughts and ideas both grammatically and semantically in unique and particular ways,

therefore, studying endangered languages is very important for Universal Grammar

which aims at understanding all the possibilities of the formal and semantic expression

of human thought (Janse, 2003). Describing these languages protect them from oblivion,

after the last speakers die, so this description is useful not only for future linguists but

also for the descendants of the last speakers to learn their ancestral language (ibid).

Every language is considered to be the protector of its speakers' history and culture and

its death means the irretrievable loss of a part of our humanity (Campbell, 1994 cited in

Janse, 2003). Describing and preserving endangered languages facilitates better

understanding for human verbal art and oral literature.

2- The study may also serve as an introductory reference for those who want to

write text books for teaching Soqotri. Such text books will be an effective factor in

preserving and protecting this endangered language. Up to now no Soqotri text book has

been written yet, despite the fact that it is sorely needed by the young Soqotrans.

3- This study is the fIrst synchronic descriptive morphological and syntactic study

on Soqotri, thus its fIndings are hoped to contribute to the existing knowledge of MSAL

in general and Soqotri in particular. It is hoped to provide enormous recent authentic

data for further research in this area (MSAL).

24

4- This study is hoped to provide rich and new data from one of the least studied

Semitic languages to those interested in Semitic linguistics and linguistic typology.

5- It is hoped that the current study will describe unknown morphological and syntactic

features of the SDG.

1.6 Limitation of the Study

The current study will be limited to one variety of Soqotri, the Soqotrl Dialect of

Galansiyah SDG. The other Soqotri dialects could be subjects for further researches. All

the informants of the current study are men.The social traditions in the Bedouin Soqotri

society make it impossible to have female informants. The study will be limited to the

major morphological and syntactic features of SDG. Morphologically, it will focus on

the types and functions of morphemes, inflections of nouns, adjectives and verbs and on

some derivations of the noun and the verb. Syntactically, it will focus on the types,

structures and functions of the phrase, the clause the sentence and word order. However,

this study is not intended to be an exhaustive study of the morphology and syntax of the

SDG. It is just an introductory work that may serve as a base for further researches.

1.7 Definition of Terms

This section gives the defmitions and explanations of some terms used in this

study.

Afro-Asiatic languages:

A large language family occupying most of the northern and eastern Africa and most of

the Middle East. It has at least five major branches; Egyptian, Semitic, Berber, Chadic

and Cushitic (Trask, 2000).

25

Dead language:

A language used to be spoken as a mother tongue but has now ceased to be so. Such

language has no living descendants since its last speakers abandoned it either in

favoure of a different language or because all its speakers died. ( ibid).

Dialect:

"A distinctive variety of a language used by speakers in a particular geographical

region or in aparticular social class."(ibid,1993, p82) ..

Endangered language:

"A term used in linguistics for a language which is at risk of becoming extinct within the

foreseeable future" (Crystal, 2003, p.161).

Epigraphic South Arabian (Sayhadic) Languages:

It is group of four extinct languages recorded in South Arabia between the beginning of

the first millennium BC and the sixth century AD. This group is sometimes called Old

South Arabian languages (OSAL). It includes Minaean, Sabean, Qatabanian and

Hadramitic (Trask, 2000).

Galansiyah:

The second largest town in Soqotra Island, it is located in the western part of the island.

:Modern South Arabian Languages:

A group of six pre-Islam Semitic languages spoken in parts of Yemen and Oman, this

group includes Soqotri, Mehri, Jibbali, Bathari, Hobjot and Harsusi (Simeone-Senelle,

1997).

Moribund language:

A term usually employed to describe any language that is not being effectively passed

on to the young generation (Wurm,1998; Crystal,2003).

26

Morphology:

"A branch of grammar dealing with the analysis of word structure" (Trask, 1993,p. 176).

Syntax:

The study of the rules which govern the way words are combined for forming sentences

in a particular language (Crystal,2003).

Semitic language Family:

It is a big language family in the Middle East and Northern and Eastern Africa It

contains about 20 languages, but some of them are extinct. It fonns one branch of the

Afro-Asiatic family' (Trask, 2000).

1.8 Summary

This chapter provides the background of the study which introduces the topic to be

researched that is the major mOIphological and syntactic aspects of the SDO. The

background also provides infonnation related to the genetic affiliation of the SDO and

the other MSAL, their history and geographical positions and finally it gives a· brief

overview for each one of these languages showing its present state, speakers and dialects.

This chapter also provides the statement of the problem, research questions, objectives,

significance and limitation of the study. It also defines some of the terms used in the

current study. It is hoped that this chapter can assist in giving a clear picture of the SDO

with respect of its genetic affiliation, geographical position, history and current

endangered state. It is also hoped that this chapter will shed light on the nature of this

research such as its significance for the Semitic linguistics in general and Soqotri in

particular, the objectives it aims at achieving, and linguistic aspects it will attempt

describing.

27

2.0 Introduction

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 1 provides the study background which introduces the main topic of

the study and gives information related to the genetic affiliation of Soqotri, its history

geographical position and dialects. Chapter 1 also provides the statement of the

problem, research objectives, research questions, significance and limitation of the

study. This chapter provides a theoretical and empirical framework for the current

study. It focuses on reviewing the literature pertaining to the theory and research on

descriptive linguistics and on the literature related to the Soqotri language. Thus this

chapter consists of two parts. The first part discusses the main morphological and

syntactic theories and models used in descriptive linguistics including the theory that

will be adopted as a theoretical framework for this study and the second part review'S

the empirical studies conducted on Soqotri.

2.1 Overview of Descriptive Linguistic Theories

Dryer (2006) states that, apart from the development in the formal theory and the

functionalist theory during the last thirty years, there has been a growing development in

descriptive linguistics. There is a variation in the descriptive tools and approaches used in

writing the grammar of the period 1965-1975. Some authors of these grammars assumed

traditional grammar and some of them employed the American structural theoretical

models that predated the Generative Era. Some other authors employed tagmemics, a neo

structuralist theoretical framework associated with Kenneth Pike and the descriptive works

of the members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Transformational Generative

28

Grammar was also adopted by some of these writers and finally a group of grammar

authors used a combination of these theoretical frameworks.

. Dryer (ibid) points out that variations in the descriptive theoretical frameworks

declined in the period that followed the year 1975 attributing this decline to many reasons

such as the decline in the use of Generative Grammar in describing the whole language due

to the replacement of the transformational model by another new model in which rules

have lesser role. Another reason for the decline in the variety of approaches to describing

language in that period is the fact that structuralist approaches became out of fashion.

There is a third important reason for this decline which is the significant increase in the

linguistic typology works. Linguistic typology became an alternative to Generative

Grammar. Descriptive linguists found typology works useful and able to help them to

understand languages they are describing. This led to a tremendous impact of typology on

descriptive works (ibid).

2.2 Morphological Theories and Models

2.2.1 Structuralist Approaches to Morphological Description

The structuralist theories developed the concept of the morpheme and regarded the

word formation as the arrangement of the morphemes in the word. This led to the

domination of word analysis not word formation over the structuralist morphology and led

to the appearance of theories that provided techniques for decomposing words into their

component constituents (morphemes) such as Item and Arrangement Model (IA), Item and

Process Model IP and Word and Paradigm Model WP (Spencer, 1991).

29

2.2.1.1 Hockett's Item and Arrangement Model (IA)

It is a morpheme-based model in which the word forms are analyzed as arrangement

of morphemes. For example, the word (in-depend-en-tly) is analyzed as having the

morphemes (in-, - depend - ent, and -ly ). The root is depend and the other morphemes

are derivational morphemes. Word forms are analyzed as if they were made from

morphemes put one after the other as the beads on the string. While an analysis of the word

according to this approach is possible in many languages, it is unable to account for some

data in other languages such as the so-called portmanteau morph or cumulation and the

zero morpheme which has a distinctive meaning but cannot be attributed to a separate

morph as it is the case in the plural morpheme in (sheep) which has no separate shape,

therefore, it is piled up on the single morpho In addition to this some languages have other

problematic morphems such as the subtractive and replacive morphemes which can not be

analyzed through the use of this model (Anderson, 1992; Bauer, 2003).

2.2.1.2 Item and Process Model (lP)

Blevins (2006) states that Item and Process Model IP was used as alternative to the

zero morphs, replacive morphs, subtractive morphs and the expedient units. Instead of

analyzing the word form as a set of morphemes put in a sequence, this lexeme- based

model regards a word form as the result of applying rules which change a word form or a

stem to another new one. An inflectional rule takes a stem, alters it and outputs a word

form a derivational rule does the same. The structural constituents of complex words are

not regarded as listed morphemes but regarded as operations on the form of the words, so a

word like dogs is not represented through concatenating the morphemes /dDg/ and / -z /

30

but rather through having / dog / undergo a rule, the change of which consists of /dog /

and /-z/ as follows:

/ X / ~ / X z /. (Anderson, 1992).

2.2.13 Word and Paradigm Model (WP)

This approach, which was provided by Hockett in 1954, highlights the word and puts

it in the centre. Katamba (1993) states that WP was articulated by Robins in 1959 and

widely revised by Matthews 1972 and elaborated by S. R. Anderson in 1988. It regards the

paradigm as the central notion. Instead of giving rules to combine morphemes into word

forms or to derive word-forms from stems, this word-based model provides generalization

about the word-forms from the inflectional and derivational paradigms. According to

Bauer (2003) the WP approach is a reaction to IP model. In the WP morphology the word

form is regarded as the basic unit of syntax. The word form is derived through a number of

processes that are applied to the lexeme. These processes can be deduced through the

consideration of the entire paradigm the lexeme appears in and through contrasting the

word-forms which appear in that paradigm.

2.2.2 Generative Approaches to Morphological Description

Morphology was almost ignored in the early stages of Generative Grammar since the

allomorphic variation was regarded as consequences of the phonological rules operations

and the other aspects of word formation including compounding were dealt with by

syntactic rules (Spencer, 1991). However, at later stages, Generative Grammar had some

morphological models such as those of Halle and Aronoff.

31

2.2.2.1 Morphology in the Standard Theory

In the Standard Theory Model sentences are generated through three stages. In the

base component a set of phrase structure rules generate initial phrase markers IPMs of the

deep structures. These IPMs are modified by syntactic transformational rules. These rules

are different from the phrase structures rules since they operate on ready-made structures.

The first transformation is a set of lexical insertion transfoffilations that insert item from

the lexicon into syntactically appropriate terminal nodes in the IPMs. These lexical

insertions produce the syntactic surface structure (ibid).

2.2.2.2 Halle's (1973) Model

Halle inquired how the grammar of a language can encode the inventory of its

existing words, the morphemes order in these words and the idiosyncratic features of

individual words. He provided a model that gives answers to all these three inquiries. In

that model the lexicon consists of a list of morphemes that are concatenated or arranged by

the word formation rules WFRs. The model has a dictionary containing all occurring word-

forms and it has a filter that adds idiosyncratic semantic information to the words and adds

diacritic morphophonemic features to block the phonological rules and to mark gaps with

the features.(ibid).In this model the word formation component precedes syntax , so to

state phonologically defined constrains on the surface forms, phonology must be allowed

to send words back again to the word formation component (Bochner, 1993). A morpheme

like drive will have a morph- syntactic feature such as [+EN] indicating its past participle.

When the WFRs are implemented on bound stems, they give the syntactic category of the

output word form:

[STEM + ant] ADJ: (vacant, pregnant. applicant) [STEM + ity] N: (probity, identity.)

32

2.2.3 Nonlinear Morphological Approaches

2.2.3.1 McCarthy's Nonconcatenative Theory (Autosegmental Morphology)

In 1976 John Goldsmith proposed an important theory of Autosegmental

Phonology for some African languages. This non-linear phonology extended to

morphology leading to the non-linear or auto segmental morphology (Spencer, 1991;

Bauer, 2003). McCarthy (1979) applied the principles of autosegmental phonology to the

Semitic root and pattern morphology producing the nonconcatenative theory of

morphology. This theory is based on what is known as root and pattern system which is

considered to be the hallmark of the Semitic languages and their most distinctive features

(Bateson, 2003). This theory is considered to be the most common and effective approach

employed in describing the Semitic morphology (Goldenberg, 1994; Prunet, et al., 2000).

Katamba (1993), Spencer (1991) and Bauer (2003) attribute the reasons that led to

the appearance of this nonconcatenative theory to the fact that traditional morpheme

theory is ideal for describing word formation processes whereby morphemes are arranged

or concatenated, but it is not suitable for describing nonconcatenative morphological

processes such as infixing or the internal modification of the stem as it is the case in all

the Semitic languages including Soqotri.

The root in the Semitic language is considered to be a skeleton to which flesh is

added through word formation, but there was no theory for describing this way of word

formation till McCarthy provided the world with his nonconcatenative theory in 1979

(ibid). This theory assumes that most of the words in the Semitic languages are composed

of three interwoven morphemes or tiers. The first morpheme is usually a trilateral

33

consonantal root morpheme which carries semantic information about the word. For

example the Soqotri root ...J 1 tH represents the lexeme "kill" which is realized by a

variety of words. These different word-forms realize different grammatical words

depending on the other consonants and vowels introduced by the word formation rules at

different strata of the lexicon (Katamba, 1993).

The second morpheme is called a vocalic melody morpheme or vocalic tier. It is the

sequence of the vowels as specified by the word pattern. It caries syntactic information .

According to Katamba (ibid) this tier provides information analogous to the information

carried in English by inflectional and derivational affixes.

The third morpheme is called pattern or prosodic template morpheme (skeleton tier).

It is an overall abstract pattern of consonants and vowels providing a canonical shape

associated with a particular meaning or grammatical function for example the template

CVCVC carries the grammatical meaning of 'active' another template carries the

grammatical function of 'accusative' and so on . Rowan (2006) regards this morpheme as

one of the fundamental characteristic of Semitic morphology, similarly, McCarthy (1982)

states that it enables us to extract from each derivational and inflectional class of words

the characteristic pattern assumed by the root and vowel melodies and this is the basic

generalization underlying Semitic morphological system. These three morphemes are

interwoven to form the stem in Semitic languages. This multi-linear process is illustrated

in Figure 2.1 by using the Soqotri verb stem la: taH 'killed'.It is composed of the

consonantal root ...JltH, the vocalic melody { a:- a } and the CV-skeleton or pattern

{CVCVC}.

34

Root tier 1 t < killed >

Pattern C v C v C < perfective>

Vocalic tier a: a <active>

Figure 2.1: Multi-Linear Representation of the Stem 1a: taH 'killed' Adapted from (Boudelaa &Wilson, 2004, p.274).

2.3 Development of Current Syntax and Grammar Theories

Empiricism spread allover the United States from 1930s to 19608. The most

important principle of empiricisms is that any non-analytic knowledge is no more than an

experience. The origin of this empiricism, which actually caused the appearance of

structural linguistics, goes back to the eighteenth century British philosophers John Locke

and David Hume. Bloomfield was the first American linguist who incorporates

empiricism into linguistics in his famous book "Language" (Newmeyer, 1980).The term

'Structural linguistics' refers to the different approaches to languages which shared

Saussure's linguistic views. Structural linguists in America, Prague, Paris or Copenhagen

described languages through the so called segmentation and classifications (ibid).

In syntax, structuralists employed different procedures for assigning elements to

syntactic categories such as Harris's (1946) Bottom Up or Morpheme-to Utterance

Approach and Wells's (1947) Top-Down or Immediate Constituent Analysis. When

Chomsky published "syntactic Structures" in 1957, structuralism started losing ground

Then he published "Aspect of the theory of syntax "in 1965 and at that time there was an

agreement among tr~fonnational-generative grammarians in almost every thing.

35

Towards the end of 1965, generative theoreticians were no longer united. Differences such

as whether to keep or to get rid of deep structure started dividing them. These differences

led to the appearance of generative semantics. Then Chomsky and his students developed

a model of grammar in the "Extended Standard Theory" as a reaction against generative

semantics (ibid). In the late 1960s Charles Fillmore developed an alternative model of

grammar called 'Case Grammar' in which the sentence consists of a verb and unarranged

series of semantic cases (ibid).

Besides the development of the formal theories, the last century also witnessed the

development of the functional theories when the Prague School leaders such as Jakobson

and Trubetzkoy provided the essential concepts of the London School of Firth which led

to the appearance of Halliday's Systemic Grammar (Young, 1990). During the 1980s and

1990s, the Fillmorean ideas were developed and elaborated into Role and Reference

Grammar, a functionalist-structuralist theory by Robert Van Valin and William Foley,

students of Fillmore (ibid). Below is a brief description of some of these formal,

functional and functionalist-structuralist models and theories:

2.3.1 Harris's (1946) Bottom up, Morpheme to Utterance Analysis

This approach starts analysis from the smallest functional unit, the mOIpheme, and

proceeds to combine these units to form larger units till it reaches to the utterance. Harris

classified individual morphemes into syntactic categories according to their distribution.

For example any morpheme that occurs before the plural morpheme is classified as a noun

(Newmeyer, 1999). Harris establishes substitution classes of single morphemes; he next

establishes sequence classes by examining sequences of morpheme classes and decides

first which of these sequence classes can be substitutable for a single morpheme

36

substitution class and which sequences can be substitutable for other sequences. The

repetition of this process produces a system of substitution and sequence classes or a

regular set of symbols, formula and reduction rules (Fought, 2001).

2.3.2 Wells's (1947) Top Down, Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC)

In 1947 Wells developed the syntactic remarks of Bloomfield to create the

Immediate Constituents Model IC which paved the way for Chomsky'sl956 Phrase

Structure Model (Blevins 2006). Percival (1976) regards the IC analysis as a modem

version of the traditional syntactic analysis. Lyons (1968) also indicates that there is a

similarity between the IC analysis and the traditional parsing of sentences into subject and

predicate. According to this approach the analysis begins with the utterance or the

sentence and it continues till irreducible units or morphemes are reached.

Her father brought a shotgun to

Figure 2.2: I C Analysis Source:Yule (2006,p. 80)

the we.dding

2.3.3 Gazder's (19708) Generalized Phrase structure Grammar (GPSG)

Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) is a theory of syntax with semantic

interpretation. It was developed during the late 1970s by Gerald Gazder and others. It is

considered as a radical return to the earlier ideas since it is a kind of deVelopment for the

Phrase Structure Grammar, a framework already rejected in the 1950s by its first

developer, Chomsky, who regards it as an inadequate model for natural languages syntax.

So this theory belongs to the Generative Grammar, but it has its own distinctive features

37

such as its concern with explicit fonnalism and its possession of semantic interpretation. It

also characterizes syntax and semantics by using only one level of structure (Bennett,

1995).

The basic idea in the GPSG is to use phrase structure grammar and to allow more

powerful meta-rules that define additional rules rather than syntactic constituents. This

allows the specification of complex syntactic rules such as matching a sentence in the

active voice to its corresponding passive sentence without transfonnational grammar

(Sanders, 2005). Transfonnations are not used in this theory because of the growing

doubts among linguists and other transfonnationless linguists about the descriptive

suitability of certain transfonnations. However, recent claims indicate that GPSG itself is

also insufficient in principle of natural languages syntax.

2.3.4 Perlmutter and Postal (1970s) Relational Grammar (RLG)

Relational Grammar is a theory of grammar developed by David Perlmutter and

Paul Postal in the early 1970s. This theory is regarded as a direct descendent of

Transfonnational Grammar TG. It aims at correcting the weakness of the TG in which the

logical component of the sentence such as the subject are defined directly in tenns of the

sentence structure and this does not provide a general characterization of relationship such

as that between active and passive voice. But what distinguishes RLG from TG is its

cross-language generality. Unlike the TG which is primarily applied to the syntax of

English, RLG is applied to the syntax of so many languages .The RLG views the syntactic

structure as a hierarchy of relations that are taken to be unsustained primitives. The

subject represents levell, the direct object is level 2 and the indirect object is level 3.

Clausal structures in this theory are represented by hierarchical diagrams which are called

38

stratal diagrams (Blake, 1990; Sanders, 2005).The relational structure of a clause like the

crocodile ate the woman may have a stratal diagram representation as show below:

eat W'oman

lie

Figure 2.3: Relational Structure of the Clause Source: Blake (1990, p.2)

2.3.5 Chomsky's (1981) Government and Binding Theory (GB)

It is a model of grammar that may be regarded as a decedent of Chomsky 'Extended

Standard Theory and of the classical Transformational Grammar. According to this theory

each sentence has three main levels of structures: deep structure, surface structure and

logical form. The surface structure is derived from the deep structure and logical form

from the surface structure, all this is done through a single transformation, move Alpha or

move any thing anywhere (Crystal, 2003). Some other sub- theories are added to interact

with this theory so as to generate the right structure. The main sub - theories are

government theory, control theory , bounding theory , binding theory, case theory, theta

theory and the x-bar theory. The theory assumes that the same principles of syntax are

universal though they may take different forms in different languages; therefore GB is

always described as the Principles and Parameters approach (ibid).

Within the principles and parameters framework, the grammar provides structural

description of expressions that correlates the sound and the meaning of each expression. It

39

also gives structural description or partial structural description for deviant expressions

such as strings and words which violate the principles of grammar. The structural

description of an expression involves four level of representation. These levels are deep

structure, surface structure, phonetic fonn and logical fonn (Boeckx, 2006). The s

structure or surface structure is related to the d-surface or deep structure via the

application of movement transfonnations (substitution and adjunction). The s-structure

also interfaces between the level of phonetic fonn PF and the logical form LF (Freidin,

1996). In the minimalist program of the 1990s and early 2000s Chomsky points out that

derivation and representation confonn to an economy criterion. This criterion demands

such derivation and representation to be minimal in a sense determined by the language

faculty that means no extra step in derivation and no extra symbols in representation

(Lasnik & Otero, 2005).

2.3.6 Bersnan's (1982) Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG)

The tenn lexical functional grammar (LFG) first appeared in a book entitled The

mental Representation of Grammatical Relations which was edited by Joan Bersnan and

published in 1982. Unlike transfotmational grammar and relational grammars, the LFG

assumes a single level of syntactic structure. It also rejects movement of constituents as a

mechanism to determine the surface realization of arguments and it does not allow the

alteration of grammatical relation within the syntax. In this linguistic theory the role of the

lexicon is central and the grammatical functions are considered to be primitive. The

syntactic structure of the sentence consists of a constituent structure (c- structure) and a

functional structure (f-structure) that represents the superficial grammatical relation .The

lexical component in this approach is given the role that is usually given to the syntactic

40

component in transformational grammar. This theory integrates the structural information

and lexical information within the functional structure which has some well-formedness

conditions that are also found in other frames such as coherence, completeness and

consistency (Inchaurrald, 2005).

2.3.7 M.A.K. Halliday's Systemic Grammar

In his Functional or Systemic Grammar, Halliday concentrates exclusively on the

functional part of the grammar or the interpretation of the grammatical patterns in terms of

configuration of functions which are relevant to the analysis of the spoken and written

texts. Functional Grammar is considered as natural grammar since every thing in it can be

explained by reference to how language is used (Halliday, 1985). Systemic Grammar,

which follows the traditions of London School especially the works of Firth, is based on

the distinction between three meta-functions of language: the ideational function

(expression of content and the experience of the speaker in the real world), the

interpersonal function (establishing and maintaining social relations) and finally the

textual function ( the formation of texts and the relations established within them). These

meta-functions occur simultaneously in a language and applied to two axes; systemic

(paradigmatic) and structural (syntagmatic) axes (Inchaurralde, 2005).

2.3.8 Functional Typology

There are three linguistic definitions tor typology. Each definition refers to a type of

typology. Firstly, typology is defined as the classification oflanguages on the base of their

shared formal or structural characteristics (Croft, 2003; Whaley, 2005). This definition

refers to a type of typology called typological classification. An example of this type is the

morphological typology of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Secondly, typology is

41

defmed as the study of patterns that occur systematically across languages. This defmition

refers to the typological generalizations or language universals. Typology in this sense

began with Joseph H .Greenberg's discovery of implicational universals of morphology

and word order (Croft, 2003).The third and final linguistic definition of typology is that

typology is an approach or theoretical framework to the study of language. It is an

approach that contrasts other approaches such as the American structuralism and

generative grammar. According to this definition typology is a methodology of linguistic

analysis that led to the occurrence of many linguistic theories. This view of typology is

occasionally called Greenbergian as opposed to Chomskian approach to linguistic theory.

This view of typology is allied to functionalism, or the explanation of the linguistic

structures according to the function they perform. Typology of this kind is called

functional typology. The functional typological approach became recognized in the

1970s.The important figures of this approach are Givon, Haiman, Comrie, Hopper and

Thompson (ibid).

Functional typology is one of the schools of functional linguistics which also

includes cognitive linguistics of R. Langacker and the systemic functional grammar of

Halliday. This school differs from the formal school in both philosophical background and

methodology. While the functional school is based on empiricism inductive analysis and

large samples and seeks functional constraints on grammar or the principles that govern

the form-function correlation, the formal school is based on rationalism deductive method

and fewer language samples and seeks formalization of analysis in terms of formal

(mathematically precise) representation of structures and rule (ibid). Functional typology

is widely used as a conceptual framework in so many descriptive studies.

42

2.3.9 Role and Reference Grammar (RRG)

Role and Reference Grammar is a structuralist-functionalist theory developed by

Foley and Van Valin (1984) and Van Valin (1993). It grew out of an attempt to answer

two main questions: what would linguistic theory look like if it were based on the analysis

of any other language, rather than on the analysis of English? and how can the interaction

of syntax, semantics and pragmatics in different grammatical system be described ? RRG

takes language to be a system of communicative social action and accordingly analyzing

the communicative functions of the grammatical structures. It is a monosratal theory

assuming only one level of syntactic representation, the actual form of the sentence (Van

Valin, 2005).

Van Valin (ibid) states that the first step in the exploration of syntax semantics and

pragmatics interface in the grammatical system of human languages is to characterize the

nature of the syntactic structure, which includes the structures of the clause, adpositional

phrase and noun phrase. According to Valin (ibid) there are two aspects of clause

structure that every theory must deal with. They are relational and non- relational.

Relational structure is concerned with the relation between the predicate and its argument.

The non-relational structure is concerned with the hierarchical organization of phrases,

clauses and sentences.

2.3.10 Dixon's Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT)

The Basic .Linguistic Theory (BLT) is a typological and functional framework of

linguistics in terms of which most grammars are cast. It is a fundamental theoretical

apparatus that underlines all works in describing languages and formulating universals

about the nature of human languages (Dixon, 1994; Aikhenvald, 2004). Similarly, Dyer

43

(2001) states that the BLT is a theoretical framework widely employed in language

description especially grammatical description of the whole language. It is also the

framework employed in most works of linguistic typology. Some researchers who adopt

the BLT as a framework describe their works incorrectly as theory-neutral or

theoretically-eclectic (ibid).

Unlike the other theoretical frameworks in linguistics which are ephemeral and

forgotten quickly, the BLT is a cumulative framework that developed slowly over the past

century as descriptive linguists learned to describe languages effectively. Dixon (1997)

gives this cumulative theory of linguistics the name "Basic Linguistic Theory" so as to

distinguish it from those ever-shifting formal theories. The formal theories impose a

straitjacket on a language. They state that every language has X feature. They force the

descriptivist to search for and fmd that X feature, whether it really exists in that particular

language or not On the contrary, the BLT seeks to describe each language in its own

terms within a general typological framework. Language is not neat and symmetrical, so

one should not insist that every thing should be accounted for at every level (Dixon,

2005).The BLT differs from the contemporary theoretical frameworks in what Dryer

(2006) describes as its conservativeness. While many theoretical frameworks assume a

few previous ideas and assume freely many new novel concepts, the BLT takes as much

as possible from the early traditions and only as much as necessary from the new

traditions. BLT can be roughly described as a traditional grammar purified from its bad

feature and enriched with the necessary modem concepts. The bad feature of the

traditional grammar, which BLT avoided, is the tendency to describe every language in

terms of concepts motivated for European languages. BLT differs from traditional

44

grammar most strikingly in its tendency to describe each language in its own tenns. This

tendency reflects the major contribution of Structuralism to the BLT (ibid). The BLT

supplements the traditional grammar with a variety of other new ideas and concepts from

Structuralism, Generative Grammar and typology (ibid).

BLT has been influenced by the early Generative Grammar (00) especially by the

models that appeared before 1970. Early Generative Grammar described so many

syntactic issues in English. The insights of that research influenced the BLT methods in

describing the syntax of the other languages. For example topicalizations, cleft

constructions, reflexive constructions and so many other syntactic constructions in so

many languages were described by (BLT) in a way similar to that of the early Generative

Grammar. The recent models of Generative Grammar such as Government and Binding

Theory GBT have no effect on the Basic Linguistic Theory (Dryer 2001,2006).

During the last thirty years the linguistic typology influenced greatly the BaSic

linguistic theory. Many of the substantive cross-linguistic concepts in the typological

literature such as split intransitivity, anti-passive, internally-headed relative clauses, head

marking and ergativity have been incorporated by the BLT.

The BLT also differs from traditional grammar and recent theoretical frameworks in

choosing structural analytic techniques and in using terminology employed in describing

similar phenomena in other languages. But the BLT includes semantic considerations

and this makes it contrast sharply the pure structuralist traditions (ibid.). The BLT has its

own descriptive and analytical tools (Dixon, 1997).These descriptive tools are the

concepts that are presented in the two widely-used works of Payne's (1997) Describing

45

Morphosyntax : A Guide for Field Linguistics and in Shopen's (2007) Language

Typology and Syntactic Description (Haspelmath, 2008). In these two invaluable and

indispensable references for linguists and fieldworkers, the two authors provide

functional-structural tolls used in analyzing lexical and syntactic data from a large

number of languages. The range of morpho-syntactic phenomena they explain and analyze

is very wide. It includes the analysis of morpheme types, inflection, derivation, constituent

order typology, grammatical relations, noun phrases, verb phrase, tense aspect, mood,

caluses sentences,etc.

2.3.10.1 Studies Related to the Basic Linguistic Theory

The Basic Linguistic theory has been adopted as a theoretical framework in many

studies that describe languages from allover the world. Kruspe (2004) describes the

grammar of Semelai an Aslian language spoken by some 4000 people in Peninsular

Malaysia. In this book which is a revision for a doctoral dissertation submitted 10 the

University of Melbourne in 1999, Kruspe (ibid) provides a lucid and accessible

description for the grammatical structures of Semelai depending on the Basic Linguistic

Theory. Kruspe(ibid) treats equally all the aspects of that language grammar giving

generous number of examples and texts thus creating a reference work that will be useful

for descriptivist and topologists alike.

In his PhD thesis Kawachi (2007) describes the grammatical structures of Sidaama a

Highland East Cushitic language spoken in the south-central part of Ethiopia depending

on Dixon Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT). In his description for the phonology of that

language, Kawachi (ibid) focuses on the phonemes and the supra-segmentals such as the

stress pitch and intonation. He also describes the word formation focusing on the

46

morphology of the verb. With respect to syntax, Kawachi (ibid) describes the grammatical

relations, the word order, the different possessive structures and fmally the structure of the

relative clause.

Graves (2007) describes the main grammatical structures of Rile Sherpa a dialect

spoken in the southeastern part of the Solukhumbu District of Nepal. The Basic Linguistic

Theory was adopted as a theoretical framework in this study which focuses on describing

the verbal morphology, nouns, clitics, the various components of the noun phrase and

finally, the clause and sentence structures in this dialect.

2.4 Related Research on Soqotri

The previous studies on Soqotri will be reviewed according to their topics. They

will be divided into studies related to the Phonology, texts, lexicon, morphology and to

syntax.

2.4.1 Studies Related to Phonology

Most of the studies conducted on Soqotri and actually the most detailed ones are those

related to its phonology. The reason for this interest in the Soqotri phonology may be

attributed to the fact that the Soqotri dialects especially the SDG still possess Proto

Semitic sounds that have already disappeared from most of the Semitic languages such as

the lateral fricative alveolar consonants / i / and / ~ /, and the non pulmonary ejective

consonants / t' / , / s' / and / k' /. Another important feature in the Phonology of the SOG

is that it has retained the velars / k / and / g / the pharyngeal / h / and / ~ I and the

uvulars I X land / H / while in most other Semitic languages such as in Hebrew these

sounds have emerged into each other.

47

The phonemic system of Soqotri has been described by Leslau (1938), Johnstone

(1968, 1970a, 1975a, b), Fox (1975), Nakano (1986), Simeone-Senelle (1996, 1997)

Simeone-Senelle & Lonnet (1997) and Al-Aidaroos (1996, 1999). According to these

studies the Soqotri consonant system involves 27 phonemes with five places of

articulation for the stops ( bilabial ,alveolar, palatal , velar and glottal ), two for nasals

( bilabial and alveolar) , six for fricatives (labiodenal, alveolar , post alveolar , uvular ,

pharyngeal and glottal ) and two for approximants ( bilabial and palatal ) . Soqotri has

preserved the three Semitic glotalized ejectives; the dental alveolar ejective It' I, the

dental alveolar fricative ejective Is' I and the velar plosive ejective lk'I.There is also a

trill and three laterals, all of them are alveolar. The only Proto-Semitic consonants that

Soqotri has lost are the interdentals I 8 land / 0 I. The Following two tables show the

Soqotri consonants as described in those studies:

48

Plosive

Nasal

Trill

Tap or Flap

Fricative

Latm1 fricativt

Approximant

Latm1 approximant

Table 2.1: Pulmonary Consonants in Soqotri (Nakano, 1986, p.vii; Simeone-senelle, 1997, p.385)

BillbW Labiodental Dental I ~olar rostalveoW Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular

b t d j k 9 m 11

r

f "JS ZJJ X K i ~

W ,

J 1

Plwyngeal

I

h <}

Table 2.2: Non pulmonary Ejective Consonants in Soqotri (ibid)

t' Dental alveolar ejective

s' Dental alveolar fricative ejective

k' Velarplosive ejective

Glottal

1/

h

Regarding the vowel system in Soqotri, Leslau (1938) Johnstone (1968, 1975), Nakano

(1986) and Simeone-Senelle (1996) state that it distinguishes three degrees of height

(high, middle and low) for the front central and back positions as shown in the following

table:

49

Table 2.3: Soqotri Vowels (ibid)

Front Central Back

High 1/ i: u /u:

Middle 8/8: 0/0:

e

Low a:

Simeone-Senelle (1996) states that Soqotri has hardly any diphthongs. She (ibid)

mentions only one Soqotri diphthong / el / regarding its occurrence as rare. Similarly,

Leslau (1938) confinns the existence of diphthongs in Soqotri but he points out that these

diphthongs are always reduced. Regarding the position of the stress in Soqotri, Leslau

(ibid) states that it is normally placed on the antepenultimate -syllable and sometimes on

the last syllable but according to Fox (1975) and Simeone-Senelle (1997) Soqotri stress

falls normally on the penultimate syllable though there are some random cases where the

stress may fall on the antepenultimate syllable as shown in these two

examples:. I t'1:f8r 'nail', t'8:f8 I r8:t8n 'nails'

Leslau (1938) focuses on comparing Soqotri sound with the sounds in the

other MSAL and with sounds in some Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and

Aramaic but he does not mention some important sounds in this language such as the

ejective consonants. The description of the Soqotri sounds by Johnstone (1968, 1975a,b)

is considered to be the best up to now. It is the first description that refers to the existence

50

of ejective sounds in Soqotri and it describes clearly the place and manner of articulation

of all the Soqotri sounds including the lateral fricative ones. Simeone-Senelle (1996, 1997)

also provides a comprehensive description of the Soqotri sounds but it depends heavily on

that of Johnstone. Al-Aidaroos (1996, 1999) focuses mainly on Mehri sounds and refers

briefly to the Soqotri sounds. He rejects Johnstone and Simeone-Senelle's views that

lateral fricatives are MSAL phonemes that do not exist in Arabic. He argues that these

sounds are allophones of Arabic phonemes. Leslau (1937 a) expresses similar view when

he points out that Arabic Hebrew and Epigraphic South Arabian Languages have sounds

similar to the lateral fricative sound 3: in the MSAL. The description of the Soqotri sound

by Nakano (1986) is preliminary as he himself states.

2.4.2 Studies related to Text Collection

The early linguistic studies conducted on Soqptri are those which were a kind of

text collection. In 1898 Muller collected some texts from Soqotri, Mehri and Jibbali,

translated them in German and published them later in three volumes. These texts were

the main data source for most of the studies conducted on Soqotri up to now. Using

phonetic symbols, Muller (1902) records some Soqotri texts with the help of a Soqotri

informant who stayed on the board of his ship for two weeks. In this volume Muller

translates some excerpts of the Bible into Soqotri, Mehri, Arabic and German. The Soqotri

texts recorded in this volume were collected from the eastern part of Soqotra, the area of

his informant. Muller (1905) records some Soqotri poems, proverbs and stories from the

western part of Soqotra Island, the area of the SDG. It also includes some geographical

information written in Soqotri. Surprisingly, a chapter written by Ladder about the Soqotri

51

music was added to this volume. Muller (1907) records texts from Mehri, Jibbali and

Soqotri and translates them into colloquial Arabic and German. Muller (ibid) refers to

certain Soqotri dialectal variations but he never refers to their geographical places except

the dialect of Abd-al-Kuri which he regards as phonologically and morphologically

different from the other Soqotri dialects.

Despite the many mistakes they include, Muller's Soqotri texts are valuable

linguistic data that documents some of the Soqotri culture, tradition and rich oral literature.

They may be also used as an important source for future studies that may compare the

Soqotri language at that time with its current states to show the lexical and syntactic

changes Soqotri has undergone within this period from 1898 up to now.

2.4.3 Studies Related to Lexicon

Some previous studies focused on the Lexicon of Soqotri. Wellsted (l835a)

introduced Soqotri to the world when he collected and publishes a list of 263 Soqotri

words. This list includes toponyms or place-names, their origins, meanings, use and

topology. It also includes tribe names, plant names figures, etc. Wellsted (1935b) adds

other similar words to that list. These words were written in Arabic alphabets and Latin

transliteration with Arabic and English translation. From a linguistic point of view, these

lists of words have a little value, but it should be known that Wellsted was not a linguist at

all, he was a British army officer who for military rather than linguistic reasons happened

to be on Soqotra Island. The importance of these lists lies in the fact that they are the first

documents ever written about Soqotri.

52

Leslau (1938) compiled a Soqotri-French dictionary entitled Soqotri Lexicon with

entomological Comparison and Explanation. This etymological comparative dictionary

begins with a brief introduction about Soqotri followed by a table comparing the sounds

of Soqotri with those of Mehri , Jibbali , Arabic, Epigraphic languages, Hebrew and

Aramaic. In this dictionary Leslau (ibid) provided etymological information and gave

meanings for some Soqotri words and in a few cases he tried to show how certain words

are derived but his main objective was to compare the Soqotri words with words in the

other languages such as the other MSAL, Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic. Leslau did not go

to the field to compile his dictionary. He depended entirely on Muller's Soqotri texts

published in 1902 and 1905. Generally speaking this dictionary is a preliminary

comparative and etymological. Instead of giving information about the different current

uses of Soqotri words, and their derivatives, it focuses on the etymological and

comparative aspects of the very limited number of words it included. Leslau (1943)

collected some common and similar words from the Ethiopian language Amharic, the

OSAL and the MSAL in Yemen and tried drawing a semantic comparison between them.

Nakano (1986) collected 2000 words from Mehri, Jibbali and Soqotri and arranged

them according to certain semantic fields. So this book is a kind of dictionary of Soqotri,

Mehri, Jibbali and English in which the meaning of each Mehri, Jibbali and Soqotri word

was given in English. Some of these words were used in sentences. Like Leslau, Nakano

did not go to Soqotra to collect his data. He remained in Aden the capital of South Yemen

where he was given a Soqotri speaker to get his data from. Unfortunately, that Soqotran

was from Hadibo the capital of the Island where the influence of Arabic on Soqotri is so

53

great. The influence of Arabic on Nakano's infonnant's vocabulary was reflected clearly

in this book. Many of the words listed in that book as Soqotri words are in fact Arabic.

Rendsburg (1987) studied etymologically ten words from Ugaritic, an old Semitic

dead language used to be spoken in Syria. He (ibid) tried to frod their roots in the lexicon

of the MSAL. He stated that the meaning and connotation of these ten words was clear

from the context but they lacked plausible etymologies. Depending on Johnston's Mehri

Lexicon and Jibbali Lexicon and Leslau's Soqotri Lexique, Rendsburg (ibid) found

etymologies for these words in the lexicon of Mehri, Jibbali and Soqotri. This made him

conclude that U garitic, Mehri, Jibbali and Soqotri are cognate languages whose close

kinship cannot be prevented by space or time.

Simeone-Senelle and Lonnet (1985) described the lexicon of the parts of the body

in MSAL but they depended totally on Leslau (1938) and Johnstone (1981, 1987).

Simeone-Senelle and Lonnet (1992) also described the Soqotri Lexicon focusing on the

nouns that denote the parts of the body. In this article they also depended entirely on

Leslau (1938). In another article Simeone-Senelle (1995) listed some of the Soqotri words

that are used in magic and medicine and described the mingling of magic and medicine in

that island.This paper objective is cultural rather than linguistic.

The Russian researcher Naumkin conducted some studies on the Soqotri lexicon

focusing on the anthropological and social aspects of that lexicon. Naumkin (1993) listed

certain Soqotri words used in the kinship system and colours of animals. Naumkin (1999)

studied some Soqotri insect names and what they stand for in the Soqotri culture and

mythology. He compared these Soqotri insect names with the same insect names in Arabic,

54

Biblical Hebrew and some Ethiopic Semitic languages. He argued that such insect names

foon a specific part of the folk taxonomy in Soqotri as well as in other Semitic languages.

In his comparative study Al-Mashani (1999) discussed the lexical similarity

between MSAL including Soqotri and Standard Arabic He concluded that Mehri is the

language from which all the other MSAL descended confirming that MSAL are sources

for so many words and utterances in Standard Arabic. Al-Mashani (ibid) focused on the

lexicon of Mehri and Jibbali and ignored that of Soqotri due to his humble knowledge of

this languge. What he ststed about Soqotri was confined to the geographical area of

Soqotri and the close genetic relation between the Soqotri tribes and the Mehri tribes.

Like Al-Mashani, Al-Aidaroos (2000) studied the lexical similarities between

Standard Arabic and MSAL . Al-Aidaroos (ibid) found that many words in MSAL agree

in the root with the same words in Standard Arabic. This made him come to the

conclusion that historically these two language groups, Standard Arabic and MSAL, meet

in a common trunk before the intersection into Northern and Southern Arabic. Almost all

the words used in this comparison are from Mehri.

2.4.4 Studies Related to Morphology

Regarding the morphological studies made on Soqotri, Muller (1905) provided a

brief description of the dependent, independent and demonstrative pronouns used in the

Soqotri dialects spoken in the eastern area of the island. Muller (ibid) described briefly the

conjugations of the Soqotri verb kDn 'be'.

55

Bittner (1913) described briefly some morphological issues in Soqotri such as the

addition of the suffix - t to the feminine nouns, possessive expressions, and kinship

nouns in addition to dependent and independent pronouns. Bittner (1917) tried to describe

aspects of passive formation in Soqotri and then he compared the passive formation in

Soqotri with that in Amharic. Bittner (1918) attempted writing some morphological roles

about Soqotri but instead of focusing on Soqotri, he kept comparing it with Mehri and the

other MSAL. It is evident that all these studies of Bittner on the Soqotri morphology are

brief, and comparative. The lack of depth in these studies is attributed to the fact that

Bittner depended entirely on Muller's texts. He did not go to Soqotra nor did he ever meet

a Soqotran. This is what Matthews (1969, p.23) confirms:

Bittner, who produced studies ofMehri and Soqotri, never saw South Arabia, he apparently was never in contact with a native speaker of any of the MSA Mehri, Soqotri and Shahri. He depended entirely on the Shahri texts that were edited by Muller.

Leslau (1934) described the Soqotri verbs that begin with the preflX n- and concluded

that such verbs are derived from nouns indicating that this prefix is Dot used for forming

the passive. Leslau (1935) tried to find out how certain Soqotri prepositions such as Se ,

h~ and k~ meaning 'with', are derived. Leslau (1937 b) tried to trace etymologically

the derivation of the Soqotri word de ~mi:d~h 'bedouin'. Leslau (1938) provided a

brief description for the personal pronoun in Soqotri, and for some inflections of the

noun and verb and states that the suffixes - en / (ehen) are used to derive diminutive

forms for nouns in Soqotri. Leslau (1945) explained the derivation of the nouns that

denote the parts of the body in Mehri, Bathari, Hursusi, Jibbali and Soqotri then he

compared these words with similar words in other Semitic languages. In this study

56

Leslau (ibid) comes to the conclusion that MSAL form an independent Semitic group

because they have nouns denoting the parts of the body which cannot be found in the

other Semitic languages. The data Leslau analyzes in all these studies are from Muller's

texts.

In his study on Modem South Arabian Languages, Matthews (1969) argued that

the prefix m- is a common performative employed in the Semitic languages for the

derivation of nouns of place and instruments , therefore, it should be found in the

MSAL.However, Matthews(ibid) does not states whether this preix is employed in

Soqotri or not

Johnstone published some articles on the morphology of MSAL but most of his

studies such as Johnstone (1972, 1977, 1980, 1981&1987) focused on the MSAL spoken

in Oman and on Mehri. With reference to Soqotri morphology, Johnstone (1968)

discussed the non-occurrence of the prefix t- in some Soqotri verbs. He stated that the

prefix t- is usually added to the Soqotri imperfect verbal form of the second person

singular , dual and plural and it is also added to the third person singular ,dual and

plural feminine. Johnstone (ibid) pointd out that this prefiX is not added to certain

Soqotri verbs particularly causative verbs, simple quadrilateral verbs, simple hollow

verbs and certain intensive verbs. Most of the examples he used to illustrate this Soqotri

feature were quoted from Muller's texts collected in 1898. Johnstone (1980) confirmed

the existence of this morphological feature, the non-occurrence of the t - prefix in

certain verbs, in another MSAL, Jibbali, thus confirming a close relationship between

these languages. This Soqotri feature was also confirmed by Testen (1992).

57

Johnstone (1970 a) tried to explain the lack of definite article in Soqotri. He (ibid)

stated that Soqotri words with initial / w , 1 and j / have an affix, a mimetic prosthetic

vowel, which corresponds to the Mehri and Harsusi he-, he - or :;) - prefixes which

function as definite articles in these languages. He (ibid) stated that this Soqotri affix

had lost the semantic function that Mehri and Harsusi affixes still preserve. All the

Soqotri exanlples Johnstone gave to support this claim are also from the texts collected

by Muller in 1998 and from Leslau's Lexique Soqotri which was also compiled from

these texts. Johnstone (ibid) did not show which linguistic means is used now in Soqotri

to express definitness and indefinitness instead of the unused archaic affix he described.

Regarding dual forms in MSAL Johnstone (1970 b) argued that Soqotri is not the

only MSAL that has dual forms, he pointed out that Mehri and Harsusi do have dual

terminations that can be easily related to dual terminations of the old inscription

languages or the Epigraphic South Arabian languages.

Johnstone (1973) discussed the diminutive forms in the MSAL but he focused on

those languages spoken in Oman giving only a few examples from Soqotri. Johnstone

(1975) provided a good description for the verb morphology in all the MSAL. Johnstone

(ibid) classified the verbs in these languages according to certain semantic and

morphological criteria into two basic verbs; active verbs (type A) with the phonemic

pattern(CeC:> ~ C) and middle verbs or state verbs (type B) with the phonemic pattern

(CeCeC). He also stated that verbs are derived in these languages through vocalic

modification, infixation with - t- and prefixation with 1- and J-. It is evident that

Johnstone's morphological studies on Soqotri are a few and limited in their subjects, if

58

compared with those conducted on Jibbali or Mehri. This may be attributed to the fact

that due to his British nationality , he was not allowed to visit Soqotra except one time

and just for a few days.

In her description of the Soqotri morphology, Simeone-Senelle (1996, 1997)

repeated what Johnston's (1968, 1975) had already stated regarding the classification of

the verb in Soqotri into active verbs type A (CaC::>: C) and middle verbs B (Ce: CaC).

She also repeated Johnston's description of the verb derivation in Soqotri either through

the vocalic modification, infixation with - t- or prefixation with 1- and S-. Simeone

Senelle (1997) stated that the Soqotri nouns have two genders masculine and feminine

marked with -h in singular nouns and with -t- in dual nouns. Simeone-Senelle (ibid)

adds that nouns are marked for gender by the suffixes - h, -i, -t or through vocalic

opposition. She (ibid) stated that Soqotri has external plural, formed by adding a suffix,

and internal plural achieved through vowel modification. Simeone-Senelle (ibid)

indicated that the suffixes -hEn, - hon and -a: t are used to form the external plural in

Soqotri. Unfortunately, she did not elaborate these features and she was very economical

in her illustration of these morphological features. Regarding adjective gender Simeone

Senelle (ibid) stated that it can be external or internal. She described all these features of

all the six MSAL in just one paragraph.

Naumkin (1998) studied the personal pronouns used in the every day speech of

the Soqotrans who live in the eastern part of the island and compares them with the

personal pronouns used in the traditional old folktales and stories. He found out that there

are difference between the personal pronouns used in every day spontaneous speech and

59

those used in traditional folktales and stories. The fonner pronouns have short fonns while

the later have full fonns. Naumkin (2000) collected some Soqotri particles and tried

classifying them into nominal particles and verbal particles according to the words these

particles added to or used with. Nominal particle are either affixed to nouns or used with

them, and verbal particles are either affixed to verbs or used with them. Nawnkin (ibid)

further subdivided the nominal particle into polysyllabic and monosyllabic. The

monosyllabic particles do not fonn words in their own right as they are affixed to words

as proclitics or enclitics and form single accentual units.

Up to now no MA or PhD. thesis has been written on the morphology of Soqotri.

Alfadly (2007) conducted a Ph.D. thesis on the morphology of Mehri focusing on

Qishen Dialect. Adopting the Nonconcatenative Theory as a theoretical framework for

his study, Alfadly (ibid) described the Mehri morphemes, their phonemic shapes and the

ways these morphemes are fonned and distributed internally and externally.

2.4.5 Studies Related to Syntax

All the previous studies on Soqotri are limited to the phonology and to some extent

to the lexicon and morphology. These studies ignored the syntax of this language.

Simeon-Senelle (1997) is the only researcher who made brief preliminary references to

some Soqotri syntactic issues. With reference to the word order in Soqotri, Simeon

Senelle (ibid) stated that the word order in the nominal clause is Subject+ Predicate while

in the verbal clause it is Verb+ subject or Subject + verb. She also indicated that both the

direct and indirect objects in Soqotri must always follow the verb immediately adding that

the pronoun direct object is always preceded by the particle t-. Simeone-Senelle (ibid)

60

argued that Soqotri is the only MSAL in which the order of possessive constructions is

Possessor+ Possessed. Simeone-Senelle (ibid) mentioned one of the predicates that can

be used in nominal clauses without copula verbs. Simeone-Senelle (ibid) argued that the

copula Iron 'be'; can be used to express existence but it is never used with other verbs as

a temporal auxiliary.

Regarding agreement in Soqotri Simeone-Senelle (ibid) pointed out that the subject

agrees in number and gender with its nominal and adjectival predicates but she never

refers to the agreement between the subject and the verbal predicate.

As far as the Soqotri clause is concerned, Simeone-Senelle (ibid) stated that the

relative clause always follows the noun it modifies adding that it ends with an independent

anaphoric pronoun. She (ibid) indicated that these clauses in Soqotri are marked with a

relative marker dE which is also used as a possessive marker but she does not indicate

whether this marker agrees in number and gender with the noun it modify or not.

Regarding the adverbial clause, Simeone-Senelle (ibid) pointed out that the clause of time

always begins with a subordinate conjunction and some of these conjunctions are

followed by the subjunctive form of the verb such as it is the case with the conjunction

t a when it means 'till'. However, some of these statements are not correct.

No MA or Ph.D. thesis has ever been written on the syntax. of Soqotri. However,

Hofstede (1998a) conducted a PhD thesis on the syntax. of another Modem South Arabian

language, the Jibbali language, which is spoken in Oman. Depending mainly on

unpublished texts collected by the late Professor T.M. Johnstone around 1970 and

additional fieldwork, Hofstede (ibid) described some syntactic structures in Jibbali such as

61

the noun phrase, prepositional phrase, adverbial phrase, simple verbal clause, simple noun

or verbless clause, subordinate clauses, tense and aspect. The presentation of the data in

that thesis is descriptive with functional approach.

From the above review of the literature related to Soqotri, the following conclusions

may be drawn:

1 - Most of these studies are based on Muller's texts as the main source of data. Stroomer

(1996) confIrms that these texts which were collected in1889 include a lot of mistakes.

The current study fIlls this gap since it relies on new authentic data collected from the

fIeld.

2-Most of these studies focused on the Phonological aspect of Soqotri and neglect or

refers briefly and inadequately to the other aspects particularly the morphological and

syntactic aspects.

3- Some of these studies are more anthropological and cultural than linguistic due to the

fact that most of the researchers who had the chance to be in Soqotra such as Naumkin

and Simeone-Senelle are actually more anthropologists than linguists.

4-Most of these studies are comparative, philological and etymological (Shlomo, 2002).

They either keep comparing a few linguistic aspects of Soqotri with the same aspects in

the other MSAL and in some Semitic languages or they trace the etymology of these

Soqotri linguistic aspects to the Semitic languages. The current study will bridge this gap

by describing synchronically the major morphological and syntactic features of the SDG.

62

5- These studies focused on the dialects spoken in Hadibo, the capital, and in the eastern

area of Soqotra as it is the case in the studies of Leslau (1938), Johnstone (1968,1970),

Nakano (1986), Naumkin (1998),etc. The Soqotri dialect of Galansiyah was almost

neglected except for the study of Simeone-Senelle (1997) which partially dealt with the

SDG.

6-These studies have failed to study the morphology and syntax of the SDG

systematically and comprehensively. They just tackled a few morphological and syntactic

aspects briefly. They have ignored major morphological and syntactic features such as the

types of morphemes, the way these morphemes combine to form stems, joint linear and

nonlinear inflectional and derivational operations, the structures, types and functions of

the phrase, clause and sentence, etc. The current study will fill this gap by describing

these aspects and other major morphological and syntactic aspects in the SDG.

7-No descriptive theories or models have been employed in these studies conducted on

Soqotri except those of Hofstede (1998) and Alfadly (2007) which describe Jibbali and

Mehri. The current study will describe the major morphological and syntactic aspects of

the SDG depending on an eclectic conceptual framework incorporating the Basic

Linguistic Theory, functional typology, Ie model, nonconcatenative theory and WP

model.

2.5 Conceptual Framework of the Current Study

Based on the previously reviewed theories,models and studies, an eclectic conceptual

framework has been adopted for this study. Though the current study is descriptive

aiming at describing the major morphological and syntactic features in SDG rather than

63

arguing, supporting or refuting any theoretical issue or framework, this eclectic conceptual

framework will to be used as a descriptive tool as it is thought to be suitable and helpful.

This eclectic conceptual framework consists of the Basic linguistic Theory BLT as

the main theoretical framework supplemented by functional typology, Nonconcatenative

Theory, Immediate Constituents Model IC and Word and Paradigm Model WP. The

researcher has adopted the BLT because of the following three reasons:

1- Choosing a descriptive theory like BLT, whose primary goal is to describe a set of

facts without any particular theoretical implication as a theoretical framework for the

current descriptive study, is vital for making its description effective, economic and

systematic.

2- The BLT has the tendency to describe each language in its own terms rather than

forcing the language into a model based on European languages.

3- The BLT is the most widely employed theoretical framework in language description

(Dryer 2001). Most of the descriptive studies written within the last ten or fifteen years

employed the (BLT) as a theoretical framework (Dryer, 2006).

The traditional linear theories and models of morphology cannot account for the ~

morphemes, stems, inflectional and derivational operations in the SDG. Its morphemes are

discontinuous and combine nonlinearly to form stems. Many of its inflectional and

derivational operations are achieved internally not just by adding affixes. For all these

reasons the nonconcatenative theory has been added to the conceptual framework since it

has the ability to explain and analyze all these Semitic-specific morphological properties.

It will be employed at the morpheme-level analysis and stem-level analysis.

64

The Word and Paradigm Model WP has been included as a descriptive morphological

tool for analyzing some inflectional paradigms at the word-level analysis. It will be used

in the analysis of some verbal inflectional forms which have accumulation of morphemes.

In such forms a single morph realizes two or more distinct morphemes, for example the

suffix -ken is a morph realizes four morphemes. It realizes the 2nd person morpheme,

plural morpheme, masculine morpheme and perfect tense morpheme. These forms can

not be analyzed into sequence of morphemes but the WP Model copes well with such

accumulation of morphemes (Bauer, 2003).

The inclusion of Functional typology in this conceptual framework is attributed to

two main reasons. Firstly, the BLT itself is based mainly on topology and employs many

typological tools and methods. Secondly, Functional typology particularly the functional

typology of Givon provides the researcher with effective functional typological tools for

describing the functions performed by the different syntactic stmctures in the SDG. It will

be employed at the phrase-level analysis, clause-level analysis and sentence-level analysis.

The Immediate Constituents Model IC was included in this conceptual framework as

an analytical structural tool for exploring and analyzing the structures of the SDG's phrase,

clause and sentence into their constituents. The IC analysis helps to understand how a

language works as a system. The descriptive aim of this model is to analyze the

distribution of the forms in a language and to show how small constituents go together to

form larger constituents (Langacker, 1972; Brazil, 1995 & Yule, 2006).The constituent

analysis of the different structures in this study is represented through the use of labeled

bracketing.(Yule, ibid).

65

It is hoped that this eclectic conceptual framework will justify and support the

research design since it provides a comprehensive theoretical base for the main objectives

of this study which are as follows:

I-To describe the types and functions of the morpheme in SDG and the way they

combine nonconcatenatively to form stems.

2- To describe the inflectional and derivational operations that the stem in SDG may

undergo.

3- To describe the types, structures and functions of the phrase in the SDG.

4-To describe the types, structures and functions of the clause in the SDG.

5- To describe the types, structures, functions and basic word orders of the sentence in the

SDG

The figure below shows the diagrammatic representation of the theories and models

which comprise the conceptual framework of this study.

66

McCarthy's Nonconcatenative

Morphology Theory

~ Word and Paradigm

Morpheme Level ~

Model

~

~ Stem Level

...

Dixon's Basic Word Level

Linguistic Theory ... (BLT)

Phrase Level Functional r--Typology

... Immediate-I Clause Level .... Constituents Model

... Sentence Level ...

Figure 2.4: Conceptual Framework of the Study

67

2.6 Summary

The first part of this chapter discusses the different theories and models employed in

describing the language morphology and syntax starting from the structural theories and

models up to the recent ones. The second part of this chapter reviews and discusses

elaborately the various studies related to Soqotri. These previous studies have been

arranged according to their topics into phonological studies, collected texts, lexical studies,

morphological studies and syntactic studies. This chapter shows the gaps in those previous

studies and the ways these gaps will be filled by the current study. Finally this chapter

introduces the eclectic conceptual framework of the current study which incorporates

some of these discussed descriptive theories and models. It gives reasons for the inclusion

of each theory and model in that conceptual framework and indicates at which level of

analysis each theory or model will be employed

68

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN At~D METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

Chapter 1 provides the background to the study, states the problems, gives the

research objectives and questions, and shows the research significance and limitation.

Chapter 2 introduces the theoretical and empirical framework for the current study

through reviewing the literature pertaining to the theory and research on descriptive

linguistics and studies related to the Soqotri language. This Chapter gives an account of

the methodology, instrument and procedures adopted to describe the major

morphological and syntactic features of the SOG on the basis of the following research

questions:

I-What are the types and functions of the morpheme in the SOG and how are they


2 -What inflectional and derivational operations the stem in SOG may undergo?

3- What are the types, structures and functions of the phrase in the SOG?

4- What are the types, structures and functions of the clause in the SOG?


SOG?

3.1 Research Design

The current study employs qualitative research methods. Kibrik (1977) states that

qualitative descriptive research provides a detailed highly-accurate picture of the subject

studied. It does not only aim at locating new data that may contradict past data but also

it document a process or a mechanism. The researchers collects evidence and

69

systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer questions. The analytical

objective of this qualitative research is to describe the major morphological and

syntactic features of the SDG through a flexible style of elicitation and semi-structured

methods such as the participant observation method. The data of this study are textual

obtained through audio-tapes and field notes, and it has a flexible iterative design as its

data collection and its research questions are adjusted according to what is learnt (Mack,

et al., 2005).This flexibility and adjustment of the research design during the stage of

data collection allowed the researcher to discover and describe morphological and

syntactic features not included in the research plan and allowed him to drop the

unproductive areas of the research from that research plan (ibid).

The current study was conducted with a naturalistic ethnographical approach. It is

ethnographic in that it aims at describing the SDG in its natural cultural setting (Hyman

2001). The researcher investigates the linguistic behaviours (holistic) of the Soqotri

community in the city of Galansiyah in the same natural context in which the members

of that community produce them, and then he describes and interprets these behaviours

according to their relationship with the whole system they consist a part of (Dufon

2002). The study data are obtained from natural setting where the participants are not

aware that they are being observed especially during the process of the descriptive

participant observation, therefore, the linguistic behaviour this study describes reflects

the participant's true linguistic behaviour (Mack, et al., 2005).

As the current study employs qUalitative methods and adopts an ethnographic

approach, it is concerned more with description rather than prediction, construction

70

rather than enumeration, induction rather than deduction and it does not aim at

verification of any theory (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993).

As in all the ethnographic researches, this study involved a prolonged fieldwork in

the community being studied. This enabels the researcher to be socialized in the

community and to build trust with the informants and to observe the linguistic aspects

under investigation repeatedly. This also helped the researcher to get sufficient data

regarding the typicality of these linguistic aspects and their range of variation. The

current study also involves triangulated inquiry. The naturalistic data was collected

through a variety oftechniques such as participant observation, interviews questionnaire,

oral text collection and checked with various members of the community, thus

increasing the credibility and validity of the research (Mack, et al., 2005).

So the current study is a qUalitative ethnographic research conducted in natural

real world settings. The researcher in this research is regarded as an instrument through

being a participant observer. The researcher generated rather than tested hypotheses

(Cohen et al., 2000).

Figure 3.1 represents the procedural steps of the research design. It begins with the

main topic of the research (Morphological and Syntactic Aspects of the SDG) then it

goes on describing the type, the purpose and the method of this research.As mentioned

earlier this research is qualitative ethnographic research. Its aim is descriptive. It aims at

describing synchronically the major morphological and syntactic features of the SDG.

The research method chosen for this research is the field research.

71

The design also shows the data source of this study which is the Soqotri

infonnants. It also refers to the type of sampling the researcher used and refers to

Kibrik's methods which are employed in the data collection. The instruments employed

for collecting the data are shown in this research design. As most field researches this

reseach employs participant observation, interviews and collection of oral texts which

have been done over an extended period of time, consequently this research is

longitudinal (Babbie, 2005). Finally, the design shows the data processing stage, the data

analysis stages and the stage of drawing conclusions.The data collection and data

analysis proceed inductively (Fettennan, 1998).

72

Morphological and Syntactic Aspects of the SDG _.

Qualitative, Ethnographic Descriptive Research

• Field Research, Data Collection from

Natural Setting (10 Months)

• Data Source

Informants of SDG Non-probability, judgment Sampling

-y-Kibrik's Methods of Data Collection With and without interpreter in

Arabic y

Istruments of Data Collection

1 Elicitation

Participant Oral Text Observation collection

i - Questionnaires, Interviews, Translation, Data

manipulation, Native speaker judgment, etc . ~

• ~ Morphological & Syntactic Data ~

'I J • Data Processing

Data Transcription, glossing, translation & coding y

Data Analysis Morpheme-level analysis, stem-level analysis, word-level analysis, Phrase-level analysis, clause level analysis and

sentence-level Analysis

... Drawing Conclusions

Fil!Ufe 3.1 Research Desitm

73

3.2 Data Sources

The current study has two sources for data. It has a main source and a secondary

source. The main source of data for this study is the native speakers of Soqotri in the

Soqotri town of Galansiyah. The current study is based on the data collected during the

fieldwork conducted in that small isolated town.

The period of time, this process of data collection took and in which the researcher

was in direct interaction with the Soqotri speakers, lasted for about 10 months from the

first of September 2006 till the 30th of June 2007 . Within this period the researcher

made three field trips to the town of Galansiyah. Each trip lasted for about three months.

After each field trip, during the intervening periods, the researcher returned to his home

city to process and analyze systematically and continuously the data he has

collected . This systematization of the data away from the field served as a useful

foundation for each new round of fieldwork and facilitated the researcher's acquisition

of the Soqotri language.

Though Crowley (2007) states that the fieldwork duration will vary according to

the goals of the linguistic project itself, he confirms that writing a dissertation-length

grammar of a language requires 9-12 months of fieldwork. However, the researcher

stopped the field work when he felt that he had reached the theoretical saturation, a stage

in data collection when new data no longer bring additional new insights to the research

questions (Mack, et al., 2005).

In addition to the main source of data which is the Soqotri speakers, the current

study has a secondary data source. That secondary source of data included all the

74

previous studies conducted on. Soqotri in addition to the Soqotri texts collected in

1898.These articles texts and preliminary dictionaries on Soqotri provided the researcher

with preliminary hints and clues about the target language and gave him a good chance

to check and compare the data he collected with the data in these works No illustrative

Soqotri example used in the current study, was taken from those previous studie..<;. All

the illustrative examples used in the analysis were collected by the researcher from the

field.

3.3 Sampling and samples selection

The term sampling refers to the selection of the portion of the people the

researcher will use as samples for this study. Qualitative inquiries like the current study

typically focus in depth on small samples, even single cases selected purposefully

(patton, 2002).

Similarly, LeCompte and Preissle (1993) point out that in such-qualitative

studies statistical sampling is ruled out for variety of reasons such as the following:

a- It is impossible to find straightforward boundary markers in the group.

b- The researcher cannot have an access to the whole population.

c-Generalizability is not a goal in such researches.

Sampling in qualitative ethnographic studies such as the current one is based on

informational rather than on statistical considerations, its purpose is to maximize

information not to facilitate generalization (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Cohen, et al., 2000).

So the type of sampling used in this study is the non-probability purposive or judgmental

sampling. Neuman (2003) and Lincoln and Guba (1985) assert that ethnographic

naturalistic inquiry relies upon purposeful rather than on representative sampling

75

because purposive sampling enable the full scope of issues to be explored. The

researcher handpicked the cases to be included in the sampling on the basis of his

judgment of their typicality. He chose samples that are satisfactory to his specific needs

and purposes (Cohen, et al., 2000). Another reason for choosing this purposive selective

sampling is the fact that though the population of the target language is too wide to be

represented, it is homogenous in its linguistic features, therefore any sample or a small

subset will be representative (Endacott, 2005).

The samples (informants) of this study were chosen from the inhabitants of the

Soqotri town of Galansiyah whose dialect is still considered to be a Soqotri linguistic

norm. It has preserved some linguistic features which have already been lost in the other

Soqotri dialects. For example, it still has the proto-Semitic consonants / X / and / H /

which are no longer in use in the other Soqotri dialects (Simeone-Senelle,1997). The

Soqotri dialects of the western areas in general and that of Galansiyah in particular have

preserved most of their original linguistic features due to certain geographical and

cultural reasons. Galansiyah is an isolated lonely town situated in the western part of the

island far away from the capital of the island Hadibo in which there are so many non

Soqotri speakers particularly Arabs. This geographical factor along with another cultural

factor which is the conservative nature of the inhabitants of that town protected it to

some extent from the influence of Arabic and contributed to the preservation of that

town dialect, at least till now. Based on the criteria of choosing good informants

provided by Kibrik (1977) and Morse (1994), the researcher chose informants who have

the following features:

76

a- The informants of the current study have a good knowledge of the target language

(Soqotri). Some of them, exactly seven of them, do not speak any language except

Soqotri. The key reference or the main informant who is used as the interpreter and

other two informants master both Soqotri and Arabic the lingua franca.

b- The pronunciation of all the informants is clear and easy to be understood.

c- They have the associate mobility of thought, the ability to generate connected and

grammatically-correct texts. They were able to narrate and generate long texts

describing their culture and daily activities.

d - They showed great patience and endurance. The researcher held so many elicitation

sessions with them each lasted for two hours in which he elicited long inflectional and

derivational paradigms.

e- They all had enough time to be involved in the research and provided access to other

informants.

f-They are honest. They do not have the so called linguistic prestige. Some times the

informant has a trouble in understanding the researcher's question and since he knows

the target language he assumes that he can answer every question about it so he gives

answers which may be wrong. When anyone of these informants was uncertain about a

particular answer of an inquiry or about certain linguistic matter, he asked the researcher

to ask another informant. When the researcher in this study was checking the correctness

of his own use of the target language, the informants were strict in correcting his

mistakes.

Regarding the number of samples that should be used in such non-experimental

ethnographic qualitative research, Pelto Pertti and Pelto Gretel (1978) state that no large

77

sample of informants is required for a working description of the grammatical forms of

any language. Some researchers describe the whole grammar of a language depending

on one informant such as Kawachi (2007) and Graves (2007) or depending on two

informants such as Elias (2005). However, Kibrik (1977) states that working with only

one informant may lead to description of an idiolect not the language as a whole, but he

confirms that investigating as many informants as possible is also unjustified and

unpractical. Kibrik (ibid) recommends having varied texts from different native speakers

and carrying out grammatical discoveries with a limited group of informants and this is

what the researcher did. Dimmendall (2001) points out that the field researcher who

wants his corpus to be representative of the speech community at large and to make a

valid inference about the language of that community he Ishe has to work with not less

than two or three consultants (informants). Dixon (1988) describes the whole grammar

of a languages depending on six informants and so does Kung (2007).

Following Kibrik (1977), Dixon (1988), Dimmendall (2001), Patton (2002) and

Kung (2007) the researcher chose ten informants. The researcher collected the

morphological data, syntactic data and most of the oral texts from those ten informants.

The researcher also collected some other oral texts from other Soqotri speakers from the

same area. The chosen ten informants belong to three age categories as shown below

Table 3.1: Informants Numbers and Ages

Age Gender ar d Number Male Female languages the informants speak

(20-30 years old 3 0 Soqotri and Arabic (30-50 yeas old) 3 0 Soqotri (50-70 years old) 4 0 Soqotri Total 10 0

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The researcher tried to have female samples but he could not due to the fact that

the society in Soqotra is a very conservative male-dominated society. One of these ten

informants was chosen as a reference speaker (the main speaker and the interpreter). The

choice of this reference speaker was based on his social position, personality and

educational level (Bouquiaux & Thomas, 1992). The reference speaker has a respectable

social position in the town, reasonable level of education (BA), sufficient patience and

most important he has an excellent command and mastery of Soqotri and Arabic. He

mediated between the researcher and the occasional speakers or the other nine

informants. This reference speaker was more than a translator, he was one who carried

out parts of the research that are impossible to be carried out by the researcher. Due to

certain social and cultural reasons, some Soqotrans especially the old ones would refuse

to talk with the researcher who is regarded as stranger for them but they did not hesitate

to talk, recite poems and narrate stories in the presence of one of their own.

The other nine informants were interviewed and asked certain questions, their

answers, their comments, the words, phrases, and sentences they uttered were recorded

and transcribed by using the International Phonetic Alphabets system (IPA).

The four old informants (50-70 years old) were of great importance to the study,

since old informants are regarded as the repositories of culture and pure conservative

language. In addition to interviewing and asking them how to say in Soqotri the words

and sentences of the questionnaire, their main contribution was the narration of so many

old poems, stories, legends and proverbs from the rich oral Soqotri literature. As Soqotri

does not have a writing system the researcher recorded these poems ,stories ,legends

and proverbs, transcribed and translated them with the help of the reference

79

speaker. These poems stories, legends and proverbs shed light on so many Soqotri

morphological and syntactic features. But during the elicitation of long paradigms, the

researcher did not depend totally on them because such informants usually get bored

quickly by these paradigmatic elicitation feeling that they are repeating the same word

over and over again and they tire easily thus limit the time the researcher can work with

them in (Crowley, 2007).With the young informants (20-30 years old) and the middle-

aged (30-50 years old) the researcher spent most of the lO-month fieldwork period

eliciting data, transcribing and explaining data and stories making grammaticality

judgments, etc.

3.4 Data Collection Methods

The researcher obtained data from his informants through the use of Kibrik<s (1977)

method of data collection in synchronic descriptive linguistics particularly according to

the experimental method. This method is used when the investigator does not speak the

target language but there is a common language between him and his informants. In such

method, the informants or the native speakers are the generators of the data and the main

investigative tools. The researcher in the current study employed this method with his

bilingual informants who speak Soqotri and Arabic, the researcher's mother tongue.

Model of

fragment of Language

Informant

Figure 3.2: Method of Data collection without Interpreter Source: Kibrik (1977, p.3)

80

Language

(idiolect)

With his monolingual infonnants who speak only Soqotri and do not speak Arabic at

all, the researcher used an interpreter who asked those infonnants to translate whatever

the researcher wanted from Arabic into the target language (SOO).

Model of

fragnlent of Language

Figure 3.3 Method of Data Collection with Interpreter Source: (ibid)

3.5 Instrumentation of Data Collection

Language (idiolect)

There are four basic techniques used by the linguistic fieldworkers for collecting

data. They are direct elicitation, participant observation, text collection and the

previously published materials (Hickerson, 2000) Elicitatation itself may be perfonned

through translation, data manipulation, controlled tasks, stimulus prompt, native speaker

judgment, questionnaire and interview (Bowem, 2008). The researcher employed all

these effective instruments in collecting the morphological and syntactic data of this

study as shown in figure 3.4 below:

Instruments of Data collection

I

Participant Observation Elicitation Oral Text Collection

Questionnaire Interview Data Manipulation Translation Stimulus Prompt Controlled tasks

Native Speaker Judgment

Figure 3.4: Instruments of Data Collection

81

3.5.1 Elicitation

Chelliah (2001, p.152) defines elicitations as "the analysis of native speaker

intuitions or translations of decontextualized utterances from a contact language to the

language being studied." Bowem (2008) states that elicitation is a very useful way of

getting data quickly indicating that some aspects of language are only discoverable

through elicitation. Elicitation is initiated by the researcher or the linguist who asks the

infonnants questions such as "What is the word for sky?, for mountain?", How do you

say," the sea is blue", "How do you count from one to five"?

Bowem (ibid) states that there are seven strategies of elicitation. They are

questionnaire, translation, interviews, data manipulation, controlled tasks, stimulus

prompt and native speaker judgment However, the main strategy of elicitation

employed in the current study for elicitig morphological and syntactic data about the

SnG is the questionnaire.

3.5.1.1 Questionnaire

Most of the data collected through the elicitation in this study were elicited

through oral questionnaires. The researcher elicited data about morphemes, words,

phrases, clauses and sentences through the use of some morphological and syntactic

questionnaires. So the questionnaires were the main instrument of elicitation in this

study. The other types of elicitation such as translation, interviews, prompt stimulus,

native speaker judgement controlled tasks and data manipulation were also employed in

this study to elicit the data required in these questionnaires and to generate additional

data.

82

Bouquiaux and Thomas (1992) state that questionnaires are indispensable

working tools of the field research. They direct the investigation because in the midst of

fieldwork it becomes difficult for even the experienced linguist to tackle a problem or to

explore a linguistic feature from all its angles. Kibrik (1977) also states that

questionnaires are helpful tools which increase the effectiveness of the linguistic

description.

The researcher employed the morphological and syntactic questionnaires of

Bouquiaux and Thomas (1992) which include the questionnaire of morphology, verb

phrase questionnaire, noun phrase questionnaire and sentence type questionnaire. The

researcher also used the Swadesh List. All these questionnaires are placed in the

appendix. The qustionnaires of Bouquiaux and Thomas are especially prepared for

describing unwritten languages. They pay an equal attention to both structures and the

functions that shape these structures. _

Bouquiaux and Thomas' questionnaire of morphology (Appendix B) aims at

exploring the morphemes, and the stems, in addition to the inflectional and derivational

modification and affixation of those stems. Bouquiaux and Thomas' noun phrase

questionnaire ( Appendix D) aims at describing the syntactic structural features of the

noun phrase and the different possible communicative functions it can perform. It also

aims at describing other types of phrases such as the prepositional phrase adjective

phrase and adverb phrase. The verb phrase questionnaire (Appendix C) aims at

describing the verb phrase structures and the possible modalities it may have such as

aspect, tense, etc. It also refers to the different possible ways of expressing passive,

interrogation, agreement, etc. Bouquiaux and Thomas' sentence type questionnaire

83

(Appendix E) aims at exploring the possible structures of simple, compound and

complex sentences, the possible types of predicate, the possible order of the main

constituents in the sentences and clauses and the different subordinate clauses and their

order in the complex sentences.

The validity of these questionnaires has been checked in a large number of

studies and researches conducted on some Afro-Asiatic indigenous languages. For

example, Alfadly (2007) used these questionnaires, particularly the questionnaires of

morphology and noun phrase to describe the morphology of Mehri which is genetically

affiliated to the MSAL group to which Soqotri is genetically affiliated too. These

questionnaires have been also used to describe African languages in an area that starts

from Nigeria to the farther reaches of the Central African Republic and the Sudan

including Cameron and Chad and portion of Congo and Zaire. All these languages

differ from each other both genetically and typologically .They belong to the three main

families: Congo-Kordofanian, the Nilo-Saharan and the Afro-Asiatic (ibid). The

researchers who used these questionnaires in describing the previously mentioned

languages found them easy to use and capable of discovering the linguistic features of

all these languages. As Soqotri belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family, these questionnaires

have been found to be appropriate and effective in revealing its morpho-syntactic

features.

The researcher also used the Swadesh list which provided him with a

preliminary knowledge about the phonemic system and basic vocabulary of the SOG

(Samarin ,1967; Crowley, 2007 & Bowem, 2008).

84

As mentioned earlier the data of the questionnaires were elicited through using

the different elicitation strategies such translation, stimulus prompt, data manipulation,

controlled tasks, native speaker judgement and interviews as it will be shown in the

following sections:

3.5.1.2 Translation

It is a common elicitation method. The researcher in the current study made his

informants translate the words , ph...-ases , clauses and sentences of the questionnairs in

the target language the 'SDG'. The researcher made the monolingual informants

translate what he wanted into the target language by the help of the interpreter who is

reference speaker or main informant of the study. Bi-lingual informants who speak

Arabic and Soqotri translated what the researcher wanted into Soqotri without the help

of the interpreter. The researcher used the Arabic language as an intermediary language

or a lingua franca in translating words, phrases and sentences into the target language.

Arabic is the mother tongue of the researcher. The reference speaker who was used as an

interpreter masters both Arabic and Soqotri .So it is Arabic that enabled the researcher

to speak comfortably with the reference speaker and with the other two bi-lingual

informants and through that language he conducted most of his elicitation.

The researcher overcame the unintentional effect a literal translation may have

on the grammatical form and content of the informant's response by telling his reference

speaker who is highly-educated not to translate literally into Soqotri. He was always

asked to give a free translation and to give the Soqotri equivalent meaning for the

sentences to be translated from Arabic into Soqotri. The reference speaker corrected a

lot of structures that were literally-translated by the other bi-lingual !nformants. The

85

researcher also overcame this problem through collecting natural spontaneous data using

other instruments such as text collection and participant observation. (Hickerson, 2000;

Bowem, 2008).

3.5.1.3 Stimulus Prompt

Following Bowem (ibid) the researcher elicited some lexical data of the

questionnaires at the early stages of the fieldwork using stimuli such as pictures,

gestures, pointing at things,etc. This technique of elicitation was employed for the

monolingual informants in the absence of the main speaker or interpreter.

3.5.1.4 Data Manipulation

To increase the already collected data of the questionnaires quickly, the

researcher employed the data manipulation technique. Informants were asked to change

the already collected statements into questions, the already collected active sentences

into passive ones, the already given sentences with present tense to sentences with past

and future, etc. Employing this strategy in the current study resulted in the generation

and collection of large amounts of data from the nuc1eous data of the qouestionnaires.

3.5.1.5 Controlled Tasks

Following Bowem (ibid) the researcher used short texts and short stories that

highlight certain grammatical constructions or functions then asked the informants to

translate them in their language. For example, when the researcher wanted to know the

different tenses employed in the SDG he used a text in which most of the tenses were

used and would ask the informants to translate it into the target language (ibid). The

narratives in the questionnaires were elicited in this way as shown in appendix C 6. This

86

technique was also used to get more data about the grammatical features which remain

unclear even after eliciting the questionnaire data related to them.

3.5.1.6 Native- speakers Judgments

Crowley (2007) confirms the fieldworker's need for a testing hypotheses

technique at late stages of his or her fieldwork. When the researcher in this study got a

reasonable mastery on the target language, (SDG), particularly after about 8 months of

exposure to the local Soqotri people, the researcher felt being more and more able to live

with them mono lingually resorting to the lingua franca , Arabic, only in a few cases.

This encouraged him to speak the target language with the native speakers, thus he

started employing another data elicitation technique the (introspective method of data

gathering). He formulated certain patterns and sentences in his own mind and in his

own words in the target language and presented them to the reference speaker for his

judgment as whether they are correct or not. The correctness of such judgments was

accepted only when there was corroborative evidence such as the existence of so many

utterances of the same type , and when there were consistent judgments from several

elicitation sessions or informants (ibid).This strategy was employed to generate new

data and to check the correctness of data collected through the questionnaires.

3.5.1.7 Interviews

Interviews were used to elicit the data of the questionnaires and to collect new

data too. Ethnographic naturalistic researches utilize the interview as a suitable data

gathering technique (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Stewart, 1998).The researcher used the

interview as an instrument for eliciting syntactic and morphological data. He employed

both qualitative structured interviews as suggested by Lincoln and Guba (ibid) and also

87

used semi-structured interviews for eliciting data as suggested by Bowem (2008).The

researcher elicited the linguistic data of the questionnaires through the structured

interviews. The researcher asked his infonnants lists of predetennined questions about

carefully-selected issues such as inflection and derivation of verb, nouns, tense,

passive,etc. He elicited infonnation about these inflectional and derivational paradigms

through these structured interviews as shown in appendix B 2.

Using the semi-structured interview the researcher searched for specific

infonnation. This infonnation is compared and contested with infonnation obtained in

the other interviews. The schedule of interviews was updated and revised after each

interview to include new questions and inquiries that arose as a result of the previous

interview.(Dawson 2002). These interviews were also used for eliciting native

interpretation of speech already collected in other situation mostly spontaneous

interaction. In some cases the researcher asked the native speakers to be involved in

lengthy perfonnance to produce poems, stories, etc. During such interviews, the

researcher assumed the role of an active listener and encourager. He asked some

additional questions and listened more than talked. After the interview, the researcher

listened to the recording of the interview, transcribed the interview, analyzed the data

and checked the findings with the infonnants (Duranti, 1997; DeMarrais, 2004).

Dixon (1988) suggests another type of elicitation. It is data elicitation through

checking the few mOIphological and syntactic points reported in the previous works .

The researcher in the current study employed this elicitation too.

Due to the fact that questionnaires cannot cover every thing in the language, the

researcher made use and benefited a lot from the illuminative suggestions, directions and

88

description in Givon's 1990 Syntax: A Functional Typological Introduction, Payne's

1997 Describing Morpho syntax: A Guide for Field Linguists, Payne's 2006. Exploring

language structure: a student guide and Timothy Shopen's 2007 Language Typology

and Syntactic Description vol. 1 , 11 and 111 in addition to the writings of Matthew

Dryer and the books edited by him such as The World Atlas of Language Structurs.

So these questionnaires were supplemented, enriched and modified by the

helpful morpho-syntactic suggestions, ideas and description found in these books which

are really a helpful guide for a linguistic fieldworker who intends to write a description

of the mOIphology and syntax of any under-documented language. They provided the

researcher in this study with the extensive knowledge of the linguistic structures that

exist in the literature. They helped the researcher a lot in exploring so many

morphological and syntactic features of the SDG which the questionnaires adopted

either ignore or treat briefly and inadequately such as the derivation of the causatives,

the derivation of the different agents, the derivations of reflexives and reciprocals, the

way tense aspect and mood are expressed, the different types of predicates, clauses and

sentences, etc.

3.5.1.8 Procedures of Data Elicitation

Data in this study were elicited through three stages. The researcher, along with

his main informant began his initial elicitation with some basic vocabulary (words that

are easily gathered and that involve the least grammatical mastery). In accordance with

Samarin (1967) Crowley (2007) and Bowem (2008), the researcher started with

compiling the SWadesh 200-word list. The aim of this early lexical elicitation is to get

acquainted with the phonemic system, the morphemes and the word boundaries in the

89

target language. This ensures an accurate transcription for the longer utterances (ibid).

After that the researcher started eliciting morphological data using the questionnaire of

morphology. He started with eliciting the pronoun paradigms, inflectional and

derivational paradigms of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. In the third stage of data

elicitation t.1}e researcher embarked on eliciting syntactic data depending on the adopted

syntactic questionnaires which include the NP questionnaire, the VP questionnaire and

the sentence types questionnaire. The researcher began by eliciting data related to the

structures and functions of the noun phrase, the adjective phrase, the adverb phrase, the

prepositional phrase and the verb phrase respectively. Finally, he elicited data about the

different types of clause and sentence in the SDG, their structures, functions, word order,

grammatical relations, agreement, etc.

These morphological and syntactic data of the questionnaires were elicited

- through , interviews, translation, native speaker judgment, data manipulation, stimulus

prompt and controlled tasks. After each elicitation cession, the researcher listened many

times to the recorded data in the presence of the main informant and then he transcribed

these data using the IP A symbols and translate them into English.

3.5.2 Participant Observation

The participant observation is the second basic data collection instrument

employed in this study. Mack, et al (2005)- state that participant observation is a

qualitative method with roots in traditional ethnographic research adding that it always

takes place in community settings, in a location relevant to the research questions . This

technique is important and useful when the linguistic fieldworker gained a reasonable

90

degree of fluency in the target language. It is one of the best ways to get truly natural

speech data (Hickerson, 2000).

Anthropologists distinguish different types of participant observations that vary

from passive participant observation to complete participation (Spradley, 1980; Duranti,

1997 & Crowley, 2007). The passive observation requires the field linguist to be

physically in the community but acting as a bystander to the event thus becoming an

effective overhearer to what happens around him. The researcher made use of this type

of observation but at late stages of the fieldwork the researcher became a participant

when he started talking Soqotri with his informants and with other Soqotri native

speakers. The advantages the researcher had as a result of employing this technique in

his data collection process are as follows:

a- It provided the researcher with data of a very high quality and good samples of every

day speech in the SDG.

b- It helped the researcher discover the social and communicative linguistic norms.

c- The data obtained through participant observation served as a check against the

informants subjective reporting regarding their language.

d- It helped the researcher to understand the physical and cultural context in which the

SDO language is used.

e- Through participant observation the researcher discovered factors important for a

thorough understanding of the research problem which were unknown when the study

was designed, consequently the participant observation helped him not only to

understand the data collected. through the other methods such as elicitation (interviews ,

questionnaire), but also to design questions for those methods. So it provided the

91

researcher with a previously-unknown infonnation which is crucial for research design,

data collection and interpretation ( Milroy, 1987; Mack,et al., 2005). Moreover, this

ethno-linguistic technique gave the researcher an access to speakers of different ages and

social status who provided much reliable and varied data.(Duranti ,1997).

3.5.2.1 Procedures of Participant Observation

The key reference of the current study facilitated the researcher's access to the

Soqotri community in Galansiyah in general and to the infonnants in particular. He also

helped the researcher to understand the cultural environment of the study population.

After this stage, the researcher immersed in the day-to-day activities of his infonnants in

particular and in the activities of some other native speakers in general. The researcher

lived with his infonnants and listened to them while they are talking with their families

or with other Soqotrans at home in the streets in the fields, in the market or in the

pastures. He attended many social celebrations and gathering such as marriage and feasts.

The researcher remained socially unobtrusive in all these different contexts. This

gave the researcher a great exposure to empirical data based on the observed facts. The

researcher spent a lengthy time (10 months) as a participant observer. During this period

he became an instrument that observes all sources of infonnation (Lincoln & Guba,

1985; Neuman, 2003 & Babbie 2005). After spending the first 8 months of the 10-

month fieldwork among the Soqotri native speakers, the researcher obtained a

reasonable mastery over Soqotri. This encouraged him to become a real participant not

just a listener as he used to be during the first eight months. He started talking Soqotri

not only with his infonnants but also with other Soqotrans while they were in different

92

social situations. He became able to work with more monolingual informants in

addition to being able to deal with the collected texts without a translator ( Kibrik ,1977 ;

Crowley ,2007).

3.5.3 Oral Text Collection

This is the third instrument employed for collecting data in this study. The

researcher collected oral texts. Some of these texts are related to the daily life and

culture of the Soqotrans as in appendix (F) and some of them are related to their oral

literature as shown in appendix (G). Dimmendaal (2001) states that any investigation of

a language syntax must include the collection of oral or 'written texts. The American

anthropologists regarded the collection of texts as a source of information on cultural

tradition and also as raw materials for studying languages (Hickerson, 2002). Similarly,

Chelliah (2001, p.152) defines the text collection technique as ''the practice of compiling

and analyzing naturally occurring speech and narratives in the language under study".

Chelliah (ibid) states that linguistic generalizations drawn exclusively from elicitation

tend to be unreliable and at the same time language description based solely on textual

data ends with a patch and incomplete descriptions, therefore, reliable and usable field

data can only be collected when both techniques of elicitation and text collection are

employed. (ibid). Crowley (2007) also confirms the need to reinforce direct elicitation

with an extensive collection of spoken texts since these texts are very important for

understanding the grammar of the target language as well as for understanding the ways

sentences are joined together in a discourse.

Many of the seeming contradictions, which the researcher in' this study came

across during elicitation, were straightened out by supplementary information from these

93

texts. So this method of interweaving elicitation and text collection helped guard against

the collection of aberrant data that usually results from the effect of translation and

challenged both the informants and researcher to look beyond the prescriptive roles and

theoretical models that influenced his understanding for language (Chelliah, 2001).

3.5.3.1 Procedures of Oral Text Collection

After eliciting data about verb conjugations, noun and adjective declensions,

pattern of word order, phrases clauses and simple sentences, the researcher started

collecting oral texts. He started recording some of his informants particularly, the old

ones, while they were narrating their oral literature or while they were talking and

discussing their daily life issues. Folktales, poems, stories, legends and proverbs were

recorded. Then the researcher transcribed these texts with the help of the key reference.

Since these texts were recorded by an MP3 and stored in the computer it was easy to

play back the story, pause it at intervals, ask the informant to repeat the segment slowly

so as to produce an accurate transcription. The next step was to get word for word

translation and free translation for these texts .. During these translation sessions, it was

the key reference that was in control, unlike the early elicitation sessions where the

informants fell in line with the researcher agenda.

3.6 Sound recording technique

Labov (1972) states that the existence of the researcher and his equipment may

disturb the usual and natural speech of the informants. To avoid this, the researcher used

a small modern recording devices the 2G IMP3 (512) which due to its small size, did

not attract the attention of the informants and allowed the researcher to record a high

quality digital audio data and then he stored these recorded data directly in his computer

94

and in computer CD. This sound recording device was used in recording the data

gathered through elicitation, participant observation and oral text collection. During the

fieldwork, about 300 megabyte of recordings were done including interviews,

questionnaires, long lists of paradigms, narrated poems, stories, legends. etc.

3.7 Research Ethics

The research ethics is the interaction between the researcher and the people

involved in the study. The researcher respected and implemented carefully all the

research ethics principles such as the respect for the persons involved and respect for the

community values, traditions and interest. The informed consent is a mechanism

employed for ensuring that people involved in the field research understand what it

means to participate in a particular research or study so as to make them able to decide

in a conscious way whether they want to participate or not ( Mack, et al., 2005 ;

Marczyk, et al., 2005 & Crowley, 2007 ).The informed consent of the current study was

in the form of a paper written by the university of Hadhramout to the community

leaders in Soqotra. It described the nature of the research and its objectives. When those

leaders and informants were convinced that the research will contribute to the

preservation of their language, they facilitated the researcher job.

3.8 Research Validity

Cohen, et al. (2000) indicate that in qualitative data, validity is addressed through

the honesty, depth, richness, scope of the data achieved, the extent of triangulation and

the objectivity of the researcher. The internal validity aims to demonstrate that the

explanation provided by a research for any event, issue or a set of data can be sustained

by the data collected in that research (ibid). To achieve the internal validity for the

95

current study, the researcher implemented the four techniques provided by Lincoln and

Guba (1985) for achieving "credibility" or internal validity in the qualitative

ethnographic naturalistic research. These techniques are prolonged engagement in the

field, persistent observation, triangulation, and negative case analysis.

The researcher spent 10 months in the field. This long engagement in the field

helped the researcher build trust between him and the informants and to get rid of all

kinds of distortion consequently this enabled him to collect enough empirical

morphological and syntactic data from their natural real settings.

The researcher remained in the field till he collected all the data necessary for

answering his research questions despite the so many difficulties he came across such as

traveling to a very far lonely island , living there in very difficult living situations,

fmancial problems and the difficulties of understanding the target language and the

culture of the informants.

The researcher used different instruments for data collection such as the

elicitation through interviews, questionnaires, translation, data manipulation, controlled

tasks stimulus prompt and native speaker texts. He also employed participant

observation and oral text collection. This triangulation of data collection instruments

contributes a lot to the research validity (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Fraenkek & Wallen,

1993). Finally, the researcher employed the negative case analysis; a technique aims at

refming and checking the new findings and interpretation against the archived or

previously-obtained data. Employing this technique consolidates the research intern~

validity (Lincoln & Ouba, ibid).

96

Cohen, et al. (2000) points out that the external validity indicates the degree to

which the result of the research can be generalized to a wider population or situation.

But external validity 'in ethnographic naturalistic researches cannot be achieved through

statistical data as it is the case in some types of research. External validity in

ethnographic research is interpreted as comparability and transferability which is

achieved through the accumulation of empirical data and the provision of sufficient

descriptive data or thick description (Lincoln & Guba 1985).

The present study achieved external validity through the large amount of the

authentic fIrst hand empirical data collected during the fIeldwork and through the very

rich and detailed description it provided for the major aspects of the morphology and

syntax in the SDG.

3.9 Research Reliability

While validity deals with the accuracy of the scientific findings, reliability deals

with the replicability of these scientific findings. Reliability is internal and external

(Cohen, et al., 2000). Internal reliability refers to the degree to which other researchers,

when given a set of previously generated constructs would match them with the data in a

way similar to that done in the original research (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982). For

reducing threats to internal reliability LeCompte and Goetz (ibid) recommend

employing participant researcher, peer examination and mechanically recorded data. The

researcher in this study employed all these strategies to ensure the research internal

reliability.

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During the fieldwork the researcher used the informants not only as source of

data but also as arbiters who reviewed the day's production of field notes, corrected the

researcher misperception and misinteIpretation. Peer examination is the corroboration of

findings by researchers operating in the same field (LeCompte & Goetz, 1982). The

researcher discussed some of the research findings with researchers specialized in

Semitic languages such as professor John McCarthy, an authority in the Semitic

mOIphology and with Dr.Aaron David Rubin, a specialist in the Semitic grammar and

professor Matt Shibatapi an authority in typology, who confirmed the correctness of

these data and their existence in the other Semitic and non-Semitic languages. This

independent confirmation of fmdings supports the reliability of the researcher

observation and the other data collection methods and enhance cross site validity of the

conclusions (ibid). The researcher used a variety of mechanical and digital devices such

as the MP3 and computer for recording and preserving data so the veracity of the

conclusion may be confirmed by other researchers. These devices recorded and

preserved huge data the researcher could forget, thus they enhance the reliability of the

study.

External reliability deals with the issue whether an independent researcher would

discover the same phenomenon or generate the same constructs in the same or similar

settings. The researcher in this study enhanced the external reliability of his data through

creating a good status position for himself in the Soqotri community, through the good

choice of informants whish is based on Kibrik (1977) and Morse (1994) and fmally

through clarity of methods employed in data collection and analysis (LeCompte & Goetz,

1982)

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3.10 Procedures of Data analysis

The current study employs qualitative methods and instruments and it adopts an

ethnographic approach, therefore, its data are multi-layered (Creswell, 1998).The data

were analysed inductively at different stages and levels. The researcher started with

transcribing and glossing the data, then moved to the stage of familiarity with the data

and data coding stage. After this the researcher embarked on morpheme-level-analysis,

stem-level-analysis, word-level-analysis, phrase-level-analysis, clause-level analysis and

sentence-level-analysis.

3.10.1 Transcription, Translation and Gloss

The audio-recorded data of the current study which were collected through

elicitation, participant observation and text collection were transcribed so as to be

systematically analysed (Darlington & Scott, 2002). As Soqotri is unwritten language,

the researcher used the IP A symbols in transcribing all these data. The researcher used

interlinear morpheme-by- morpheme g]oss and free translation. Thus the fonnat of the

transcription, gloss and translation utilizes three lines one on the top of the other as

shown in the following example:

a: I JD~er -k? [The original Soqotri text] not become ill -2SG.M.PERF [Morpheme- to morpheme gloss] 'How are you?' [Free translation]

The words on the first line (original text) are spaced·in such a way as to allow for

one-to one match with the interlinear gloss on the second line. The third line includes the

free translation. According to Duranti (1997) this fonnat is the standard format for most

linguistics journals since it allows readers to follow the translation process more closely.

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Regarding glossing, the researcher employed the Leipzig Glossing Rules which is an

interlinear morpheme-to-morpheme glossing developed jointly in the Department of

Linguistics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Bernard Comrie,

Martin Haspelmath ) and in the Department of Linguistics of the University of Leipzig

by Balthasar Bickel. The researcher used the revised version of September 2004 which

gives information about the meanings and the grammatical properties of individual

words and parts of words.

3.10.2 Familiarity with the Data

After finishing the transcription, the researcher familiarized himself with the data,

through immersing himself in those transcribed data since it is difficult to obtain a good

sense of familiarity with data during the data collection process. Riessman (1993)

regards this step as necessary.

3.10.3 Data Coding

In this stage the researcher embarked on coding the data. He categorized the data

into morphological data and syntactic data according to the research objectives and

questions as suggested by Miles & Huberman (1994), Boyatzis (1998) and Darlington

& Scott (2002). After coding the data, the researcher started his data analysis.

3.10.4 Morpheme-Level Analysis

Following the Nonconcatenative Theory, the researcher started analyzing and

describing the types, and functions of the different morphemes of the SDG. The way

how these morphemes are combined to form stems is also described at this level.

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3.10.5 Stem-Level- Analysis

At this stage the researcher started analysing and describing the inflectional and

derivational processes the stems of nouns, verbs, and adjectives undergo either linearly

through affixation or non nonlinearly through vowel modification. The Non

concatenative Theory has been used in this analysis.

3.10.6 Word-Level-Analysis

At this level, the researcher started analysing words that have a single morph

which realizes two or more distinct morphemes such as the inflectional forms of verbs .

The WP Model was employed in this stage of analysis. After this stage the researcher

embarked on structural and functional analysis of the syntax of the phrase, clause and

sentence in the SnG as shown below:

3.10.7 Phrase - Level Analysis

Depending on the BLT, functional typology and Ie Model of analysis, the

researcher analysed functionally and structurally the noun phrase, the verb phrase, the

adjectival phrase, the prepositional phrase and the adverbial phrase in the SDG.

3.10.8 Clause - Level Analysis

The structural and functional analysis at this stage included the main clauses

(nominal clauses and the verbal clauses) and the dependent or subordinate clauses

(complement clause, adverbial clauses and the relative clauses).This description is

based on BLT, functional typology and Ie Model of analysis.

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3.10.9 Sentence - Level Analysis

At this final stage, the researcher employed BLT, functional typology and IC

Model of analysis to analyse the sentence in the SDG structurally as a simple sentence, a

compound sentence a complex sentence and a compound complex sentence. After that the

researcher analysed the sentence functionally as main sentences (declarative,

interrogative and imperative) and as minor sentences (exclamatory, optatives and

imprecative). The basic word order was also analysed at this stage.

The structural constituents of the phrase, clause and sentence were analysed in

their immediate constituents (IC) .These structures were represented through labeled

bracketing which is a type of diagram that shows how the constituents in the structure of

the phrase, clause and the sentence can be marked off (yule, 2006).

3.11 Summary

This chapter discusses the research methodology and the techniques used in

collecting and analyzing the morphological and syntactic data used in answering the

research questions. It begins with the research design of this qualitative ethnographic

descriptive research then it proceeds to describe the type, purpose and method of this

research. It describes the source of data in this study showing that the Soqotri

informants are the main source of data upon which the whole current study is based. It

also shows that the study has a secondary source of data which is the previous studies on

Soqotri. After describing the data sources, this chapter starts describing the non

probability judgment or purposive sampling empolyed in this study and gives reasons

for choosing this particular type of sampling. Then it embarks on describing the data

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collection method used in this study and the instruments of data collection which

included elicitation, participant observation and oral texts collection. It describes all the

types of elicitation employed such as oral questionnaires, interviews, translation,

stimulus prompt, data manipulation, controlled tasks and native speaker judgment This

chapter also describes the procedures of the data elicitation, participant observations and

oral text collection. Finally, this chapter describes the research ethics, research validity,

research reliability and the procedures of the data analysis.

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CHAPTER 4

ASPECTS OF THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE SDG

4.0 Introduction

Chapter 1 provides the background to the study, research objectives, research

question, the statement of the problems, significance and limitation of the current study.

Chapter 2 reviews the literature related to descriptive linguistics and the literature related

to the Soqotri language. It also provides the conceptual framework of this study. Chapter

3 describes the methodology, techniques, procedures and instruments employed in this

study for collecting and analyzing the data.

This chapter describes the types and functions of the three morphemes in SDG,

particularly the templatic morpheme; the affixational morpheme and the non-templatic

word stem morphemes. It also describes the way the three templatic morphemes, root

morphemes, pattern morpheme and vocalic melody morpheme, interweave with each

other to form the stem. Then it embarks on describing the inflectional and derivational

operations that a stem of the noun, the adjective and the a verb may undergo either

externally through stem affixation, internally through stem vowel modification or

through a simultaneous stem affixation and stem vowel modification. It also describes

the different types of adverbs in the SDG. So this chapter answers the following first two

research questions:




104

4.1 Types and Functions of Morpheme in the SDG

Based on the morpheme-based Nonconcatenative Theory, this section will

answer the first research question: 'What are the types and functions of the morpheme in

the SDG and how are they combined nonconcatenatively to form stems?'

The findings of this study show that there are three types of morphemes in the

SDG. There are templatic morphemes, affixational morphemes and non-templatic word

stem morphemes. Ryding (2005) and Habash (2007) confmn the existence of these three

morphemes in Semitic languages. The SDG has three templatic morphemes: the root

morpheme, the pattern morpheme and the vocalic melody morpheme. The affixational

morphemes in the SDG are prefIxes, infixes and suffixes. The non-templatic word stem

morphemes are the function words (prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns) and loan

words. Figure 4.1 shows the three types of morphemes and their subtypes in the SDG.

Types of Morphemes in the SDG

I

Tempiatic Morpheme Affixational Morpheme Non-templatic Word Stem Morpheme

Root Morpheme Pattern Morpheme Vocalic Melody Morpheme

I Personal

Prefixes Infixes Suffixes

I Function Words

I I

Pronouns

I P I .,

repOSItIon

Figure 4.1: Types of Morpheme in the SDG

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Loan Words

C .1 .

on junctions

4.1.1 Templatic Morphemes.

The findings of this study show that like all the other Semitic languages, the

SDG has three types of templatic morphemes; root morphemes, pattern morphemes and

vocalic melody morphemes. All these three discontinuous morphemes are equally

needed to create a templatic word stem.

4.1.1.1 Root Morphemes

The root morpheme in all the Semitic languages is considered to be the basic unit

of the morphological analysis in these languages (Goldenberg,1994; Owen, 1997& Bat-

EI, 2003). The fmdings of the current study indicate that the root morpheme in the SDG

is a discontinuous sequence of three, four or five consonants. Its function is the

representation of the abstract meaning shared by all its derivations .. For example, all the

SDG wordsSe~rek 'fished'3SG.M.PER, m-Se~rek 'fisherman' and Se~re :k-eh 'the

act of fishing' share the meaning of the root morpheme'" S ~ rk 'fishing-related'. These

fmdings are in total agreement with Daya (2005), Habash (2005) and Berent, et al. (2007)

who confirm that these are the features of the root morphemes in all the Semitic

languages.

It has been found that the root morpheme in the SDG is usually tri-literal

consisting of three consonants but it may be also quadri-literal consisting of four

consonants or more.

Tri-literal-consonantal Root

CIC2C3 CIC2C3

k'a: ~er ha:ma~

N V

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'house' 'heard

-vdxm Cl C2 C3 da:XEm ADJ 'thin ' -vn~h Cl C2 C3 na3~eh ADV "now'

Quadri-literal roots morpheme

-vfrh m CIC2C3C4 fErhim N 'girl ' -V Smtl Cl C2C3 C4 SEmtEl V "spoke' -vr j hm CIC2C3C4 rEjhem AD] 'tall ' -Yk'rrh Cl C2 C3C4 k'erE: rEh ADV "tomorrow'

Greenberg (1950) and Kenstowicz (1994) state that the combinations of

consonants that make up roots in Semitic languages are restricted. Free co-occurrence of

consonants in the Semitic root does not exist. These restrictions depend upon the

placement of the consonants within the root. For example, a root like -VI tH has

consonants in the placement Cl C2 C3 positions: Cl 1 C2 t C3 H. The adjacency of

the fIrst two positions Cl C2 and the second two positions C2 C3 were found to have the

strongest restrictions on which consonants could occur while the non-adjacent position

Cl C3 has a weak restriction. Rowan (2006) states that it is not preferred to place

together identical consonants or consonants sharing the same place of articulation in the

Semitic root. The root in the SDG also has these consonantal restrictions; the data

collected in this study, confirmed the existence of such restriction. For example, the two

uvular X and H cannot occur together in the position CIC2 in any Soqotri root

morpheme sine they have the same place of articulation.

4.1.1.2 Pattern Morphemes (Skeletal Tier).

The pattern morpheme which is also called prosodic template morpheme or

skeletal tier is an abstract template in which the roots along with the vocalisms (vowels)

are inserted (Habash, et al., 2005). According to Boudelaa and Wilson (2004) this

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morpheme is an abstract unit coding the phonological shape of the word along with its

main syntactic function. It is considered to be the categorical component of the word, .i.e.

it classifies nouns, verbs, and adjectives into semantic and syntactic classes such as

agent, instrument, place, causative, reflexive, etc These patterns mayor may not have an

affix (ibid).The findings of this study agree with all what is stated by Habash, et al.

(2005) and Boudelaa and Wilson (2004). For example, the pattern morphemes

mCeCCeC , mDCCeC, CntQ}C and ?iCCiC in the sno indicate agent nouns,

instrument nouns, reflexive verb and causative verb respectively as shown below:

mCeCCeC m-Se~rek 'fisherman' moCCeC mok'def 'row' CntC~C kotn~h 'returned' ?iCCiC ?iniir 'caused to start'

Not all the patterns in the sno are derivational as the above mentioned ones;

some patterns are inflectional such as patterns of the internal plurals of nouns and

adjectives. For example, the pattern Ce ! C DC is used to form the plural of some nouns

such as t'irb'log' which becomes te: rob 'logs' .A detailed description of the

common inflectional and derivational patterns can be found in the coming section which

describe the nonlinear inflectional and derivational operations the stems of nouns,

adjectives and verbs in the sno undergo.

4.1.1.3 Vocalic Melody Morphemes (Vocalic Tier)

This morpheme specifies which vowel should be used with a pattern (Habash, et

al., 2005).In addition to the primary syntactic information conveyed by the pattern

morpheme, the vocalic melody morpheme conveys further syntactic information. It

indicates whether the form is singular or plural, active or passive, etc (Boudelaa &

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Wilson, 2004; Prunet, et al., 2000). The data collected in this study show that the vocalic

melody morpheme in the SDG perfonns the same functions referred to by Boudelaa and

Wilson (ibid) and Prunet, et al. (ibid). For example, the vocalic melody morphemes,

u: - £ and i: - £ in the Soqotri verb stem ~ 0 : m£ r 'said' indicate imperfect a...,d

perfect passive respectively.

~o:m£r 'said' ~u: m£r 'is / will be said' ~i :m£r 'was said'

Perfect and active Imperfect passive Perfect passive

After describing the types and functions of the three templatic morphemes in the

SDG, now the description will focus on the way these three templatic morphemes

interleave to construct the stem. The three templatic morphemes in the SOO, the root

morpheme, the pattern morpheme and the vocalic melody morpheme are combined non-

concatenatively or nonlinearly to fonn the stem. The templatic morphemes, that form the

stem are discontinuous. The sounds that represent the same morpheme are not

necessarily adj acent to each other. For example, the root morpheme is interrupted by

vowels that belong to the vocalic melody morpheme and vice versa. These findings

about the templatic morphemes in the stem of the SDG are similar to findings found in

other Semitic language by McCarthy & Prince (l990).The following figure shows the

interweaving of these three templatic morphemes in the verbal stem h£m~~ 'heard'

which consists of the root morpheme..J hm~, the pattern morpheme C £CaC and the

vocalic melody morpheme £ - a as shown below:

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Root morpheme h

I <hearing> m

I £

I Pattern morpheme eve

I V c

I <perfective verb>

Vocalic melody morpheme a <Active>

Figure 4.2: Nonlinear Representation of Morphemes in the Verb Stem hem~£ 'heard'

The stem in Semitic languages including the SDG is formed by the combination

of the three templatic morphemes. All these three templatic morphemes are bound. No

one of them can be used in isolation. The stem itself is a free form referring to all the

semantic unit stored in the lexicon and is able to occur independently (Ryder, 1974;

Habash, et al., 2005).The verbal stem is the 3 rd person singular masculine perfect form

and the stem of the noun and the adjective is the singular masculine form of the noun or

adjective (Rubin,2004) This formed stem is subjected to linear and nonlinear

(nonconcatenative) inflectional and derivational processes. For example, noun, adjective

stems in SDG are inflected for number 'singular, plural and, dual' and gender

'masculine or feminine', Verb stems inflect for number, gender person and tense, nouns

may be derived from verbs or adjective stems, etc. The templatic morphemes perform

many derivational functions such as the derivation of diminutive noun forms:

t'irb'log' t'u: reb DIM' little log'

They can also perform some inflectional functions such as the marking of person,

number and gender in noun adjectives and pronouns:

ta:hrar 'male wild goat' ta:hrir 'female wild goat'

llO

'lat 'you '(M) 'lit 'you '( F}.More details will be found in the coming sections.

4.1.2 Mfixational Morphemes

The findings of the current study show that the SDO has three affixational

morphemes. These affixational morphemes are prefixes, infixes and suffixes. They are

added to the stems of nouns, adjectives and verbs to produce inflectional or derivational

nominal, adjectival and verbal forms.

4.1.2.1 Inflectional PrefIX Morphemes

The SDO has some inflectional prefixes such as those which are added to the

verbal stems to produce the imperfect form of the verb. They include the following:

'l~- IS0.lMP n~- IPL.lMP

t~- 2S0.MIF.IMP t~- 2.DU.MIF.lMP

J~- 3S0.M.IMP le- 1 SO. SUB

In addition to indicating the tense these prefixes indicate the subject's person, number

and gender as shown in the following example:

'l~-S emt e 1 S' ~rbi lSG.M.IMP-speak Arabic 'I speak Arabic.'

4.1.2.2 Derivational PrefIX Morphemes

Some other prefixes in the SDO are derivational such as the prefix de- which is

added to the verb to derive agent nouns and the prefix m:;)- which is also added to verbs

to derive agent nouns, nouns of place and nouns of instrument. The prefix 'le- is added

to adjectives to derive nouns and verbs. The prefix 2e / i-is added to the verb stem to

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derive causative verbs. The prefix S - is added to the verb stem to derive causative

reflexive verbs.

4.1.2.3 Derivational Infix Morpheme

The only infix found in the data of the current study is the infix - t - which is

used derivationally to form reflexive verbs in the SDG as shown in the following

examples

h~d:>: 1 'diverted something' h<t>i: dnl 'diverted himself

4.1.2.4 Inflectional SuffIX Morphemes

Some suffix morphemes in the SDG are inflectional such as those added to the

verbal stem in the SDG to form the perfect tense.

-k 1I2SG.M .. PER -ki 112 DU.MIF.PER -~n IPL.PER

-S 2SG.F.PER -ken 2PL.M.PER -kin 2PL.F.PER -eh/et 3SG.F.PER - eh 3DU.M.PER -eh/-teh 3DU.F.PER

These inflectional suffixes represent tense in addition to the subject's person, number

and gender.

?o:z ? Kill- 2SG.F.PER goat

"Did you (t) kill a goat?"

Some inflectional suffix morphemes in the SDG are added to nouns and

adjectives to mark their dual and plural forms and to mark their feminine gender. For

112

example, the suffIxes -i and ti- are used to mark masculine and feminine dual nouns

respectively. The suffixes - hen and - hDn mark masculine plural forms and the

suffixes - e: tin, - he: tin indicate feminine plural forms. Finally, the suffix

morphemes -eh and -et mark the feminine gender for adjectives and nouns too.

4.1.2.5 Derivational SuffIX Morphemes

Not all the suffixes in the SDG are inflectional. Some of them perform

derivational functions. For example, the suffIX -eh is added to verbs to derive nouns

from these verbs and the suffix - (eh)en is used to derive some diminutive nominal

forms. All these inflectional and derivational affIXes will be described in details in the

coming sections which describe the linear inflectional and derivational operations the

stems of nouns, verbs and adjectives undergo.

So in the SDG there is no relation between the morpheme type and the

morpheme function. The templatic morphemes in the SDG can be inflectional or

derivational and the same thing is true for the afflXational morphemes. This fact agrees

with what Habash (2007) states regarding these morphemes in other Semitic languages.

4.1.3 Non-Templatic Word Stem Morphemes.

The data of the current study included some words that can not be reduced or

analysed into root-and-pattern morphemes. These words consist primarily of two sets in

the SDG. They are either function words such as prepositions, conjunctions and

pronouns or loan words. Ryding (2005) and Habash (2007) confinn this fact, that

function words and loan words in Semitic languages cannot be analysed into root and

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pattern-morphology. Ryding (ibid) and Habash (ibid) regard these words as non

templatic word stem morphemes. Katamba (1993) and Yule (2006) also regard function

words such as pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions as free functional morphemes.

So the nontemplatic word stem morphemes in SDG may be a loan word such as

tlafezju:n 'television', radju: 'radio', a preposition such as d- 'to', k-'with' b-

'in', a conjunction such wa 'and' seb 'because' k 'if or a pronoun. The loan words

may be larger than the function words but still like them cannot be reduced to root and

pattern morphology. The prepositions in the SDG are described in Chapter 5 as a part of

the prepositional phrase and the subordinate conjunctions used in the SDG are described

in Chapter 6 as a part of the subordinate clause and the coordinate conjunctions are

described in Chapter 7 as a part of the compound sentence.

Regarding pronouns the finding of the current study show that the SDG has two

sets of personal pronouns. It has independent or free personal pronouns and dependent

or bound personal pronouns in addition to having possessive pronouns, demonstrative

pronoun , reflexive pronouns , reciprocal pronouns , relative pronouns and finally

interrogative pronouns. The types, paradigms and functions of this type of morphemes

will be described in this section in details because understanding these pronoun is very

important for understanding the description of the phrase, clause and sentence in the

coming chapters.

4.1.3.1 Independent Personal Pronouns

The independent or free personal pronouns are those which occur independently

as separate words. They stand on their own as substitute for nouns or noun phrase. They

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refer to persons or entities. They are sometimes referred to as subject pronouns since

they can serve as the subjects of the verbs and they correspond to the set of English

subject pronouns. These pronouns show differences in gender (masculine and feminine),

number (singular, dual and plural) and person (first, second and third).There is no

neutral pronoun in the SDG because there is no neutral gender in this language. Every

thing is referred to either as masculine or as feminine. The following table contains the

independent personal pronouns in the SDG.

Table 4.1: Independent Personal Pronouns in SDG

Person Gender Singular Dual Plural

1st M/F ?Eh, hoh 'I' kih 'we two' hEn 'we'

2nd M 2at 'you' tih "you two' tan 'you' F ?i t 'you' tih 'you two' tEn(hEn) 'you'

3rd M jEh 'he' ji:h'theytwo' jan 'they' _F sEh'she ji:h'theytwo SEn 'they'

-

Regarding the function of the independent personal pronoun, it has been found that

the independent pronoun in the SDG is used in different ways. Sometimes it is used as

an essential part of the clause and sometimes as a nonessential part. Because the verb in

the SDG incorporates the subject into its inflections, the independent personal pronoun

is not necessary to mark the subject of the verb phrase. However, the personal pronoun

can be used along with the verb to fortify or emphasize the subject (Dixon, 2007). In

such use the personal pronoun is not essential. In the following examples the

independent personal pronoun could be dropped and the sentences would still be

grammatically correct but the emphasis on the subject will be reduced.

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1- j eh j~-Semtel wi: He 3SG.M.IMP-speak: a lot 'He speaks a lot.'

2- seh she

s'a:m-eh die-3SG.F.PER

'She died.'

Nominal clauses in the SDG have no verbs but they may show the subject through

use of these pronouns. When used in the nominal clause (verbless clause), the pronoun

becomes an obligatory and essential part of it.

3- 2~t dehD k'a:k'~

you my brother 'You are my brother.'

The data collected included some uncommon examples in which the independent

personal pronoun function as a predicate in the nominal clauses.

4- 2~t jeh you he._

'You are he" -

Finally, the independent personal pronoun in the SDG may function as a -copula

verb clarifying the relationship between the subject and predicate in the nominal

clauses .All these functions of the pronoun are described in details within the description

of the nominal clauses in Chapter five.

5- ~~li j eh dehn Ali he my 'Ali is my friend. '

s'a:heb friend

4.1.3.2 Dependent (Suffixed) Personal Pronouns

These bound morpheme pronouns are suffixed to main verbs, accusative particles

such as t- and ~- which follow the verb, prepositions and in a few cases to nouns. The

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full paradigm of these suffix personal pronouns in the SDG is given in the following

table:

Table 4.2: Dependent Suffix Personal Pronouns in the SDG


1st M/F -i / -hE / ~ 'me' - ki 'us two' -en 'us

2nd M -k 'you' - ki 'you two' - ken 'you'

F -S 'you' -ki 'you two' - k~n 'you' 3rd M - Eh ,-S 'him' -hi 'them two' - h~n ,-S ~n 'them

F -s 'her' -hi 'them two' -s~n 'them'

When these suffix pronouns are added to verbs or to accusative particles (t-S-)

they function as objects as shown in examples 6 ,7 and 8 respectively.

6- KO:JEh Si:n~ -s k~lb woman see\3SG.M.PER 3SG.F.SUF.PRO- her dog SG.M

'The dog saw the woman.'

7-~eh Si:n-ek I see-l SG .M.PER I saw him.

t- Eh ACC.PAR-3SG.M.SUF.PRO

8 - S i : ne ~ - ~n

see.\3SG.M.PAS ACC.P AR-.I.PL.M.SUF.PRO 'He saw us.'

The dependent suffix pronouns are sometimes added to prepositions as illustrated

in the following example:

9- mon mEn-h~n

which of - us IPL.. Which of us ?

Some times these suffix personal pronouns are used to indicate possession when

they are added to nouns but these nouns are restricted to one group; nouns that indicate

kinship relation such as father, mother, uncle, etc.

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10- xe: 1 - k maternal uncle - 2SG.M.SUF.PRO

'Your maternal uncle

Unlike the subject pronouns, these object pronouns are the same in all the

dialects of Soqotri, however. Naumkin (1998) states that the third person plural feminine

suffix pronoun is hin but the data collected by the researcher confIrm that this suffIx

pronoun is sen. hin is used in Arabic not in Soqotri.

4.1.3.3 Possessive Pronouns

There are two types of possessive pronouns in the SDG. The fIrst type includes

pronouns that can be described as independent since they can occur either alone

functioning as subjects and complements or occur before the possessed nouns. These

pronouns are formed linearly by adding the possessive particle de to the independent

personal pronouns as shown in the following table:

Table 4.3: Independent Possessive Pronouns in the SDG


1st M/F dehD deki dben

2nd M d~t deti det~n ,tin F dit deti deten ,tin

3 rd M deh, dhi dehi, dhi dehin,dhn F deseh,dseh,detseh dehi, dhi desen,dsen

In the following examples the independent possessive pronouns function as a

subject and as a complement respectively:

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11- de;hD 0 Jke;: r ISG.POSS.PRO COP good. SG.M 'Mine is good.'

12- de;J DEM.SG.F

k'a:~e;r

houseSG.F 'This house is mine. '

dh~h 0 de;ho here COP ISG.POSS.PRO

In example 13, the possessive pronoun occurs before the possessed noun.

13 - de;ho k'ak'~ J~ d ~h My brother come\3SG.M.PER 'My brother came.'

The second type of possessive pronouns includes pronouns that may be described

as dependent because they never occur alone. They always precede the possessed nouns.

These pronouns are formed also linearly through adding the prefix m- to the dependent

suffixed personal pronouns.

14 - [ m~s mokJ~m ] her child 'Her child is ill.'

jo~~r

ill-SG.M

Table 4.4: Dependent Possessive Pronouns in SDG

Person Gender Singular Dual

1st M/F manhe; mani 2nd M mak maki

F maS maki 3 rd M me;h mihi,

F mas, mihi

4.1.3.4 Reflexive Pronouns

Plural

m:m mik~n

mike;n mih~n

mase;n

The results of the study indicate that the SDG has no distinct reflexive pronouns. It

employs, instead, the preposition b 'with' and the word nbof 'self plus the suffix

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personal pronoun. This finding is totally consistent with Lipinski (2001) and Rubin

(2004) who point out the proto-Semitic language had no distinctive reflexive pronouns

so the Semitic languages developed their own ways for expressing reflexivity through

the use of the noun nhnf meaning 'self. The following table contains the full

paradigm of these reflexives in the SDG.

Table 4.5: Reflexive Pronouns in SDG


1st M/F nhnfi nhnfki nhnf~n

;myself ' ourselves two' ourselves

2nd M nhnfk nhnfki nhnfk~n

'your self' 'yourselves two' 'yourselves F nhnfS nhnfki nhnfkEn

'yourself' 'yourselves two' 'yourselves

3 rd M nhnfS nfnj nhnf~n

'himself' themselves two' 'themselves' - F nhnfs nfnj nhnsEn

'herself' themselves two' themselves

These pronouns are used as objects when the subject and the object of an action are the

same as illustrated in this example:

15- jEh 2Enhe [b- nhnf-eS] he bum 3SG.M.PER with REF.PRO-3SG.M

'He bumt himself.'

Reflexive pronouns in the SDG are not restricted to objective use; they are also

used as intensifiers for subjects or any other pronominal forms as in these examples:

16- 2Eh b- nhnf-i Si :n-ek I PREP-.REF.PRO- lSG. see-lSG.PER , I ,myself, saw him. '

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~Eh

him

17- fa: 'tme:h b- nhnf-s Fatemah PREP-.REF.PRO - 3SG.F 'Fatemah herself came.'

Jadnh-nh came-3SG.F.PER

4.1.3.5 Reciprocal Pronouns

The findings indicate that reciprocal pronouns in SDG are similar to the reflexive

ones both functionally and semantically. They are fonned by adding the dual and plural

suffix personal pronouns of the first, second and third persons to the word t e: : tat'

'each other'. The following table contains the full paradigm of these pronouns in the

soo:

Table 4.6: Reciprocal Pronouns in the SDG

Person Gender Number Reciprocal Pronoun

1 M I F dual te: :tat'ki MI F plural te::tat'an

2 M I F dual te::tat'ki -M I F plural te:: tat'kan

3 M dual te:: tat'hi F dual te::tat'Si M plural t e: : tat 'h~n F plural te: : tat 'se:n

The following examples illustrate the use of the reciprocal pronouns in the SDG.

18- kih Sini-ki [te: :tat'-ki] we. lOU see -IDU.PER REC.PRO-lOU We saw each other

19- ji:h Si :n-nh [ te:tat'-hi] 3.DUM soo-.3DU.M.PER REC.PRO-3.DU.M They( the two) saw each other

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In the previous examples, the two participants (each of whom is both agent and target in

different instances of punching) are coordinated as subject, and the predicate is followed

by each other (Dixon, 2005).

4.1.3.6 Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstratives in the SDG are used with nouns or instead of them to show

either distance from or proximity to the speaker. The SDG has eight demonstrative

pronouns: 'this M I F,' 'these M IF,' 'that M IF,' those M I F' .

Table 4.7: Demonstratives of Proximity in the SDG

Number Masculine Feminine

SG de ... dhah 'this' deS ... dhah 'this' Dual deki. .. dhah 'these' de S i ... dhah 'these two' PI. 1e ... 1hah 'these' 1e ... 1hah 'these'

Table 4.8: Demonstratives of Distance in the SDG

Number Masculine Feminine

SG de .. dbok 'that' deS .. .dbok' 'that' Dual deki ... dbok' 'those two de S i ... dbok' 'those two' PI. 1e ... 1bok 'those 1e ... 1bok 'those'

Demonstratives of proximity and demonstratives of distance in the SDG consist of

two parts; the first part is the demonstrative pronoun de, deki, de S, de S i or 1e and

the second part is the adverb of place dhah 'here', dbo k' 'there', 1hah 'here', or

1bok' 'there'. This type of demonstrative is called double demonstrative. It occurs in

some languages such as French (Dryer, 2007a). A demonstrative can stand by itself, thus

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functioning as a noun substitute. In this case only the second part of the demonstrative

can be dropped:

20- ~i:k dES lSG.IMP-want DEM.SG.F-this 'I want this.'

The demonstrative pronoun may form a syntactic unit with a noun to convey the concept

of particular proximity or distance, thus functioning as a determiner of nouns. In this use

the two parts of the demonstmtives occur:

21- dES HO:JEh dh~h

DEM.SG.F-this woman-SG.F here-SO 'This woman ... '

22- dEki HO:J-i dbDk DEM.DU.M man-DU.M there Those two men .... '

The demonstrative pronoun is also used as a definite article in the SnG; this use is

illustrated in Chapter five.

4.1.3.7 Relative Pronouns

The particle dE performs many functions in SDG .It is used in fomring

demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns and relative pronouns. Relative pronouns

in the SnG inflect for number and gender as shown in the following table:

Table 4.9: Relative Pronouns in the SnG

Masculine Feminine

SG dE. dES Dual dEki dESi PI. IE IE

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The function of the relative pronoun is to relate all element in the subordinate

relative clause to either a noun or a noun phrase in the main clause of the sentence.

23- H~J de j~-ha: rek' hi:b~s

man REL.SG.M-who 3SG.M.IMP-steal jail \ 3SG.M.PER PASS. 'The man who steals was jailed.'

Simeone-Senelle (1997) indicates that the particle de is used as a relative

pronoun in Soqotri but she (ibid) does not refer to the fact that this pronoun agrees in

number and gender with the noun it modifies as shown in the above table.

Keenan (1985, p.149) states that relative pronouns "are typically the same as, or

morphologically related to, the demonstrative pronouns." This statement is consistent

with the findings of the current study which show that the relative pronouns and the

demonstrative pronouns in the SDG are morphologically the same.

4.1.3.8 Interrogative Pronouns

The SDG has different interrogative pronouns. Some of these pronouns are used

to ask about the subject and object such as men 'who' and 2ej 'which'. Some

pronouns are used to ask about the manner of the verb such as ful 'how' and other

pronouns are used to ask about time such as time mi: te / mi: h 'when', place (d)

he : / menD 'where, reason - 10 'why', possession demhon 'whose' and about

quantity kern 'how many/ how much'. More details about these pronouns are in Chapter

7 particularly in the section that describes interrogative sentences in the SDG.

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4.2 Inflectional and Derivational Morphology of the SDG

Based on the Nonconcatenative Theory and WP Model, this section and the

sections that follow it will be devoted to answering the second research question: 'What

are the inflectional and derivational operations the stem in SDG may undergo?' The

findings of the current study indicate clearly that the SDG has two morphological levels.

Level one affects the structure of stem particularly its vocalic melody morpheme or its

consonstal root morpheme and corresponds to the nonconcatenative or internal

morphological operations. Level two does not affect the stem of the word and it works

by adding affixes to the beginning or the end of the word stem. This level corresponds to

the concatenative or external morphological operations. In some cases, level one process

involves both adding a prefix or suffix to the stem and modifying the vocalic melody

morpheme of the stem as well. No previous study on Soqotri has referred to this joint

operation which involves simultaneous vowel modification and affixation. These

findings about the morphological levels in the SDG are totally consistent with Watson

(2002) who confirms the existence of these two morphological levels in many Semitic

languages such as in Arabic.

It has been found that the morphological operations of level one 'the internal

operations' are achieved through apophony, the vowel modification of the stem, or

through reduplication, suppletion, subtraction and replacement which also involve an

internal change affecting the consonantal root morpheme of the stem (Katamba, 1993;

Watson, 2002).The current study described these five nonconcatenative processes in the

SDG and the inflectional and derivational functions they perform. No previous study

has ever described these nonconcatenative processes in Soqotri.

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4.3 Inflectional Morphology of Nouns

The inflectional system of a language is what must be specified in speaking that

language; therefore, it typically indicates tense, aspect and mood on the verb, number,

gender case, etc on the noun. Inflection is the last morphological process applied to a

word (Dixon, 2004 a).The data analysis of this study shows that the noun in the SDG has

a very rich and complex inflectional morphology. It is inflected for number and gender.

There are three numbers, singular, dual, and plural and two genders, masculine and

feminine but it does not inflect for case.

Though Soqotri is a Semitic language and it is presumably descended from a

. parent Semitic language in which nouns were followed by a case ending, its nouns are

not inflected for case. This finding about the noun case in the SDG agrees with what Fox

(1975) states regarding the loss of case marking in Soqotri nouns.

4.3.1 Singular Nouns

Simeone-Senelle (1997) states that the main patterns of singular nouns inSoqotri

and other MSAL are CYC(V)C, CV: C(V)C ,C(V)CYC, C(V)CYC, while the Soqotri

quadrilateral singular nouns have the pattern CVCCYC. The researcher found other

main patterns for nouns whose roots consist of two consonants such as the widely

common pattern CYC and CY: CY and found also other patterns for Soqotri nouns with

tri-consonantal roots such as the pattern CY: CC and the pattern CYCCY: CYC which

is used for nouns that have roots with five consonants. These patterns have not been

referred to before in any previous study. The following table contains the common

patterns of singular nouns in the SDG.

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Table 4.10: Patterns of the Singular Nouns in the SDG

Root Pattern Phonemic Shape Gloss

...Jif Ce;C ie;f hair

...Jrnr Ce; :C rn e;: r abdomen ,ik'r Ca:C k'a:r throat ~td Co:Ci to:di breast ...Jbrk Ce;CC be;rk knee ;/hrz Ca:CC ha:rz amulet v'kmr CaCe;C karner belt

...JHJh Ca:Ce;C Ha:Jeh woman

...JiXf cCnc ixof milk ...J?ns Ca:CC ?ans elbow ...Jknm CnCe;C kDnern louse ...Jtfr CiCe;C t'ifer nail ...Jtrnrh CiCCe;C tirnreh palm tree ...Jrnrk'h CaCCaC rnarkah stick ...Jrn?t'rh Ce;CCi:C 0 C rne;?t 'i: roh back

4.3.2 Dual Nouns

It has been found that the dual forms of nouns in the SDG are marked externally.

The masculine dual noun is marked by adding the masculine dual suffix morpheme -i to

the singular masculine noun form which is the noun stem. The dual feminine noun is

marked by adding the feminine dual suffix morpheme -ti to the noun stem as showm

in the table below:

Table 4.11: External Dual Nouns in SDG

Singular Noun Gloss Dual Noun Gloss

H~J 'man' H~J-i 'two men' bijoh 'mother' bijo-ti two mothers te;~e; 'sheep' te;~e;- ti 'two sheep'

kiblib 'star' kib lib-i 'two stars'

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These fmdings agree with Simeone-Senelle (1997).The data of this study

included some nouns whose dual fonns are marked by adding the dual suffix

morphemes -i or -ti to the noun stem in addition to modifying the vocalic melody

morphemes in those stems. This is the previously discussed joint operation that involves

simultaneous vowel modification of the stem and the addition of an affix. This type of

dual fonns is described in the current study for the first time. No previous study has

referred to it. The common patterns of such dual fonns are listed in the following table:

Table 4.12: Internal Dual Nouns with Affixation in SDG

Singular Noun Gloss Dual Noun Pattern Gloss

b£:b£h 'father' b£b£:h-i C£C£:Ci 'two fathers' fa:~her 'ox' fe~a: r-i CeCa:Ci 'two oxen' fid£hon mountain fido:n-i CiCo:Ci 'two mountains Ha:J£h women Ha:Ji :-ti Ca:Ci:ti 'two women' timr£h palm tree timr£:-ti CiCC£:ti 'two palm trees' bii£:l£h 'snake' biiili-ti CiCiCiti 'two snakes'

4.3.3 Internal Plural of Nouns

The fmdings of the current study reveal that SDG has two types of plural nouns.

The first type is fonned nonconcatenatively and called internal plural or broken plural

and the second type is fonned concatenatively and called external plural or sound plural.

The internal plural is not fonned simply by concatenating affixes and stems

but rather through operations that involve changes taking place internally within the

stem. That internal change is either vocalic as it is the case in apophony or consonantal

128

as it is the case in reduplication, suppletion, subtraction and replacement which involve

changing the consonantal structure of the stem.

According to Katamba (1993, p.lO) the terms apophony, ablaut and introflection

refer to a "change in a root vowel which indicates a change in grammatical function"

Similarly Ryding (2005, p. 46) defines apophony as "a word-internal change that signals

a grammatical change." Examples of apophony in English include man I men, woman I

women, foot/feet and mouse I mice. The change in the previously-mentioned English

words usually involves one vowel but in Semitic languages including the SDO, it can

involve several vowels. A large number of plural nouns in the SDO are marked in this

way as shown in the following figure:

t'irb (SO.) 'log'

t'rb c-c-c

Cc:CnC - e: - n-.

t'ernb

tc: rob (PL.) 'logs'

Root

Pattern

Form 'logs'

Figure 4.3: Internal Plural Pattern of Nouns with Tri consonantal Root

The current study has discovered many common patterns used in producing

internal plurals of nouns in the SDO. The previous studies on Soqotri such as that of

Simeone-Senelle (1997) indicate that Soqotri has broken plurals, formed through

apophony, but neither of these studies recorded or described these patterns. The

following table contains the common broken plural patterns in the SDO:

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Table 4.13: Noun Internal Plural Patterns SDG

Singular Forn Gloss Internal plural Pattern Gloss

t'irb 'log' te:rnb Ce:CnC "logs' fo:lhi 'calC filehn CiCeCo 'calves' t'e :bib 'Spit' te:bnb Ce:CnC spits' miskin ' poorman misknn CiCCnC poor men ma:hber hundred ma:hbnr Ca:CCnC 'hundreds' 2idbeher 'bee' 2idbehDr CiCCVCnC 'bees' rinhem ' sea' rnnhim CoCCiC 'sees' himhnr 'hill ' ho:mihir Co:CVCiC 'hills' ha: s'lib 'island' ha:slu:b Ca:CCu:C 'islands'

firehim 'girl' fe:reham Ce:CVCaC ' girls' Je: rnf 'clift' Jiref CiCVeC 'cliffs' 2es'fe: rh 'bird' 2es'fer 2eCCeC birds

It has been found that the glides j , w and the parasite h are inserted into the

internal plural patterns of a large number of plural nouns in the SDG .The following

table shows the most common patterns with such glides :

Table 4.14: Internal Plural Patterns with the Glidesj, w and Parasite! hi in SDG

Singular forn} Gloss Plural form Internal Plural Pattern Gloss

hu:ri ' boat' hwa:ri Cwa:Ci 'boats' selli:dnh 'vulture' su:wa:~i Cu:wa:CiC 'vultures'

k'ed 'rope' k'ijod CijnC 'ropes'

hE:lnt 'guest' ha:ljat' Ca:CjaC 'guests' ha:dib place' ha:djeb Ca:CjeC 'places' t'a: 1 'tail' tnhDl CohnC 'tails' helm 'dream he:lehem Ce:CehDC 'dreams' ko:nEm 'louse' ki:nehnm Ci:CehnC 'lice' k'a: er 'house' ka: 2ihir Ca:CihiC 'houses' nexrer 'nose' naxrhir CaCChiC 'noses' mEdrem 'heel' midrhem CiCheC ' heels

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Matthews (1969) and Alfadly (2007) confirm the insertion of these glides in

some patterns of internal plural nouns in MSAL such as in Mehri. While Matthews

(1969) regards these glides definitizers, Alfadly (2007) assumes them as parts of Arabic

internal plural patterns. It is evident that these glides are essential parts of the roots in

some Arabic patterns of internal plurals. So due to the icreasing influence of Arabic on

Soqotri and the other MSAL some patterns along with what apparently seem to be

glides have been borrowed from Arabic such as the patterns CU:wa:CiC snd the

pattern CijoC which seem to be common in both Arabic and Soqotri as shown in the

example from the SDG in the above table and in these examples from Arabic.

sa: )j~~h . 'Small ship' swa:)i PL. 'small ships' h~jd 'Mountain' / hijod 'PL. 'mountains'

The data of the current study also included words whose internal plural patterns are

prefixed by the prefix 2 - as shown in the following table:

Table 4.15: Prefixed Internal Plural Patterns in SDG

Singular Form Gloss Plural Form Internal Plural Pattern Gloss

J~:hi 'valley' 2~-Jhrejo 2~CCreCo 'valleys

S'e: r~ 'knife' 2i-s'rh~ 2iCCC~ 'knives'

i~:h~r 'month 2i-ih~: ro 2iCC~:Co 'months'

Similarly this prefix is also found at the beginning of many internal plural

patterns in Arabic such as the pattern 'lCC 0 C which produces plural forms such as

'lnhDr . 'rivers' from the noun n~h~r 'river' .These similar patterns in Arabic and in

the SDG are either Proto-Semitic patterns found in both Arabic and the SDG or totally

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Arabic patterns borrowed by the SDO due to the increasing influence of Arabic on

Soqotri.

The [mdings of the current study show that reduplication can be used

inflectionally in the SDO. Reduplication is the repetition of a part of the stem or even

the whole stem to create a word form Bauer (2003). The internal plural forms of some

nouns in the SDO are created through the use of partial reduplication of the noun stem as

illustrated below:

ha:Jal ha:JclJclnh hu:rcz ha:rizru:z

SO. 'eye brow PL 'eye brows ' SO.DIM. 'little amulet' PL.DIM. 'little amulets'

The use of reduplication to mark plural noun forms seems to be a common

feature in some Semitic languages. Rubino (2004) confirms that it is used in Amharic to

mark plurality in nouns.

It has been found that some nouns in the SDO have internal plurals formed

through suppletion. Suppletion is nonconcatenative mOIphological operation in which

one word is used as the inflected form of another word when both of the two words are

not cognate. It is a state when two forms in a paradigm are not related regularly but still

have idiosyncratic forms for a certain lexeme (Bauer, 2003). Suppletion may be total

when there is absolutely no phonological connection between the two forms as in the

English verb (go - went) or it may be partial when the two forms (allomorphs) have

some phonological similarity as in (think - thought). Spencer (1991) admits that

mOIphologists lack a phonological explanation for suppletion. However, Spencer (ibid)

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attributes suppletion to two factors. Firstly, the two allomorphs may be the consequence

of a certain phonological changes in the language. That change happened a long time

ago and has been followed by more changes. Secondly, the Suppletive plural form may

have been borrowed from another language.

The collected data contain an example which supports the last justification

mentioned by Spencer (ibid).The Suppletive plural form 2enhnr 'days' which is used

as a plural form for Sa: m 'day' in the SDG is the plural form for the Arabic / naha: r /

'day'. So this Suppletive plural form of the SDG must have been borrowed from Arabic.

Full and partial suppletion in the SDG is employed to create the plural forms of some

nouns as illustrated with the first hand examples listed in the following table:

Table 4. 16:Suppletive Plural Forms of Nouns in SOO

Singular word Gloss Suppletive plural form Gloss

?o:z goat 2erhnn goats io:nd animal k'anhe :ten animals tnd/ ma:xlu:k' person 2e:fe people ri: head 2irnS heads

Sa:m, jo:m day 2enhnr days

The results of the current study reveal that the internal plural forms of some

nouns in the SDG are created through subtraction. Spencer (1998, p.140) defines

subtractive morphology as" the derivation of a form from another by deleting materials".

In the SDG subtraction is used to form internal plurals of some nouns as shown in the

following first hand examples:

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Table 4.17: Subtractive Plural Forms of Nouns in SnG

Singular Noun Gloss Subtractive Plural Gloss

mnkSem 'boy' mek'a: Si 'boys' ha:feh 'quarter' ha:f 'quarters' ha:lk'eh 'ring' ha:lnjk' , rings'

ba:nJiJnh 'hole' ba:nJiJ 'holes'

mibrhe 'infant' birhe 'infants

The current study reveals that replacement is also employed in the SDG to form

internal plurals for certain nouns. Spencer (ibid) describes replacive morphology as "the

replacement of a part of a morpheme by another phoneme string". Similarly Bauer {2003,

p.393) defines replacive morpheme as the "replacement of a phoneme or sequence of

phonemes in one word-form with different phoneme or sequence of phonemes to make a

related word-form". The replacement of certain consonants by other consonants is .used

in SnG for noun pluralization as illustrated with these first hand examples listed in the

following table:

Table 4.18: Replacive Plural Forms of Noun in the SDG

Singular Noun Gloss Replacive Plural Gloss

mizeher place for keeping goats mu:k'eher places for keeping goats

de:knh ' stairway' 2edknk stairways

k'a: Swe 'high palm tree' k'a: So:he high palm trees

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Replacement in the SDG is also employed even for certain adverb pluralization

specifically locative adverbs as shown in the following examples:

dhah 'here' SG .. dbDk' 'there' SG ..

Ihah 'there' PL. 1 bDk' 'there' PL.

As shown above the internal plural of nouns in the SDG is formed through

apophony, reduplication, suppletion, subtraction and replacement.

4.3.4 External plural of Nouns

As mentioned earlier, the SDG has two morphological levels; one is

nonconcatenative'internal' and the other is concatenative 'external or affixational'. The

previously-described plural noun forms in the SDG are formed nonconcatenatively or

internally. The SDG has other plural forms that are produced concatenatively (externally)

or through the use of affixation. This type of plural which is purely suffixal is called

external (Khabir, 1997).

According to the fmdings of the current study, the masculine plural suffixes -

hen and - hDn are added to some noun stems to mark their masculine plural forms

and the feminine plural suffixes - e : tin, - he : tin br -0: t ) are added to some noun

stems to mark their feminine plural forms. These facts about the affixational plural

mo~hemes in the SDG agree with what Lipinski (2001) states regarding the feminine

and inasculine plural morphemes in MSAL. The following table includes examples of

this ~e of plural in the SDG.

135

Table 4.19: External Plural of Nouns in SDG

Singular Noun Gloss Plural Noun Gloss

Masculine nouns fedehnn mountain fede-nhen mountains k'a:rn hom k'iri-hDn horns fa:ne face fa:n-hDn 'faces' k'a:k'a brother k'ek'i: -hon brothers

Feminine nouns k'a:ke'b sister k'a:k'-e:tin sisters Ha:Jeh woman Ha:J-e: tin women ?e:d hand ?edeh-e : tin hands t'ifer nail t'e: fer-e: tin nails s'a:hreh sister-in-law s'a:hr-a: t sisters in law sisi:leh chain silsil-a: t chains

Simeone-Senelle (1997) mentioned the masculine plural suffixes - hen and -

hDn and mentioned one feminine plural suffix -0: t but she did not m~ntion the other

feminine plural suffixes such as -c: tin, - he: tin.

4.3.5 Gender of the Nouns

The noun in the SDG exhibits masculine and feminine genders. Gender in the

SDG is semantically arbitrary except when the noun refers to a human being or a living

creature.This rmding agrees with Hachimi (2001) and Tobin (2001) who respectively

confirm the exisistence of this feature in Arabic and Hebrew. Masculine nouns are not

marked for gender. Feminine nouns are marked with the singular feminine suffixes -ch I

-Dh which are added to the stem(singular masculine fonn).The feminine suffixes ti-

and - e : t in marks the feminine gender in dual and plural nouns. So from the point of

136

view of word structure or, morphology, the masculine form is the simplest and most

basic shape, whereas feminine nouns have suffixes that mark their gender. These

findings of the current study agree with Simeone-Senelle (1997).

Table 4.20: Feminine Nouns with Feminine Suffixes in SDG

Masculine Nouns Gloss Feminine Nouns Gloss

H~J man' Ha:J-£h woman ............ h£Jij-£h wall s'a: h£r brother-in-law. s'a:h£r-£h sister -in- law bijn father' bij-oh mother d£:do paternal uncle d£d-oh aunt' m£b'l£l slave man m£b'l£l-oh slave woman

Xd uncle' Xd -oh aunt Ha:J£h woman Ha:J-£: tin women t£2£ 'sheep' t£2£ -ti 'two sheep'

It has been found that some inanimate feminine nouns in the SDG have no

masculine counterparts such as the noun h£ J i j -£h 'wall'.

The current study shows that the SnG has some nouns and pronouns whose

feminine forms are marked internally or nonconcatenatively through apophony or stem

vowel modification. The vocalic morpheme a in the singular masculine noun'stem'

becomes a feminine vocalic morpheme I i lin the feminine noun or pronoun. Simeone-

Senelle (ibid) also refers to this kind of gender marking in nouns.

Table 4.21: Internally-marked Feminine Nouns in SDG

Masculine Noun Gloss Feminine Noun Gloss

ta:hrar male wild goat ta:hrir female wild goat

iaibab oldman iaibib old woman ?at you(M) ?it you (F)

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While noun feminine gender in the SDG is, for the most part, overtly marked, the

current study shows that certain nouns in the SDG have a covert gender and they show

up only in agreement sequences. They require feminine agreement (Corbett, 1991). No

previous study on Soqotri has referred to these nouns. The following table includes some

of these noUI'...s.

Table 4.22: Unmarked Feminine Nouns in SDG

Feminine Noun Gloss

fire:him 'girl' ho:z ' goat ' k'a: ~ir 'house' ia:m ' sun' mi: ' death ' re:nhe:m 'sea'

4.4 Derivational Morphology of Nouns

Dixon (2004) states that derivation is an optional- morphological process that

adds a semantic element to the word such as negation or diminutive or it may cause a

change in the word class. Dixon (ibid) points out that derivation is applied before

inflection indicating that if it is realized by affixation, the derivational affix will come

between the root and the inflectional affix.

4.4.1 Verb-to-Noun Derivation (Nominalization)

Payne (1997) states that each language has its own ways of adjusting the

grammatical category.of a stem. For example, a language employs certain morphological

operations that allow a verb to function as a noun. Such morphological operation is

called nominalization. The current study fmdings reveal for the first time that the SDG

employs different types of nominalization such as action nominalization and participant

138

nominalizations which include agent nominalization, patient nominalization, instrument

nominalization and location nominalization.

4.4.1.1 Action Nominalization

Action nominalization refers to the action expressed by the verb stem. It has been found

that some action nominalizations in the SDG are created with a zero operator or zero

derivation as it is the case in these examples:

lu:taH 01) 3SG.M.PER 'killed ,

lu:taH (N) , the act of killing'

be: Si (V) 3SG.M.PER 'wept' be: Si (N) 'weeping'

Se:~e 01) 3SG.M.PER 'ran ' Se:~e (N) 'running' na:fa~ (V) 3SG.MPER. 'worked' na:fa~ (N) 'work'

In addition to the action nominalization with zero operators, action nominalizations

can be also formed morphologically in the SDG through adding the prefix ~a- and the

suffix -eh to the stem of the verb which is the 3rd person masculine singular perfect

form. (~a-) + stem +-eh .. In Semitic linguistics the third person singular masculine

perfect form of the verb is regarded as the verb stem (Aryan, 200 1). In some

nominalized verbs the prefix ~a- is not used. In addition to adding the prefix ~a and the

suffix -eh to the verb stems, the vocalic melody morphemes of these verbal stems are

modified. The common patterns of this type of nominalization are as follows:

a- CeCCe : C-eh S e~rek (3SG.M.PER) 'fished'

b-~ a-Co: C-eh HO : d I (3SG.M.PER)

c-CeCe : C-eh heder (3SG.M.PER)

'walked'

'built '

Se~re:k-eh (N) 'fishing'

~a-Ho: d-eh (N) 'walking

hede : r-eh (N) 'the act of building ,

139

h d r C-C-C Root

CECE:CEh - E - E: - Eh Pattern

hEdE:rEh Form 'the act of building'

Figure 4.4: Nonlinear Representation of Action Nominalization in SDG

4.4.1.2 Agent Nominalization

Agent nominalization refers to the agent of the nominalized verb. In the SDG, it is

derived by adding the prefixes m- or dE - to the verb stem ( the past form of the third

person singular masculine). The vocalic melody morpheme is also liable to modification

as shown in the following common patterns:

a- m-CECCEC S E~rEk 3SG.M.PER' fished'

b-m-CaCCi S'E : Ii 3SG.M.PER ' prayed'

c- m-aCCE: CaC

m-SE~rEk

m-s'alli

nk' E : na~ 3SG.M.PER ' went mad' m-ankE : na~

d- m-iCECo: CDC

(N) 'fisher man '

(N) 'person who prays ,

(N) 'mad man'

SEk'a:bi t 3SG.M.PER' learnt' e- dE-Ca:CaC

m-i S Ek'o: bot (N) learner

la:taI:S' 3SG.M.PER 'killed' dE-Ia:taI:S' (N) 'killer'

Sk'bt C-C-C-C Root

miCECo:CDC m i-.E- 0: - D - Pattern

mi S Ek' 0 : bot Form 'learner'

Figure 4.5: Nonlinear Representation of Agent Nominalization in SDG.

140

4.4.1.3 Patient Nominalization

This type of nominalization refers to the patient of the nominalized verb. The

patient nominalization in the SOG is the past passive verbal fonn of third person

singular masculine. This fact is totally consistent with Payne (1997) who states that in

some languages, morphological patient nominalizations are actually past participles.

According to the findings of the current study, the common patterns of this type of

nominalization are as follows:

a-Ci:CaC

Ia: taH 3SGM.PER 'killed ' Ii: taH (N) 'the person who was killed '

b-Ci:CeC

ho : bes 3SGM.PER 'jailed' hi: bes (N) 'the person who was jailed '

c- Ci ;Ce

-

2 E: : J E: / 3SGM.PER 'bit' 2 i : J e (N) 'the person who was beaten'

The prefix dE: - can also be added to these patient nominalizations as in these

examples: deIi:taH , dehi:bes, de2i:Je meaning' the person killed , the

person jailed and the person beaten' respectively.

141

A: li:taH

Vocalic Morpheme i: a

Pattern morpheme c V c V c

Root morpheme 1 t

B - deli :taH

Patient morpheme tier

Vocalic morpheme tier i: a

Pattern morpheme tier eve V eve

I Root tire 1 t H

~

Figure 4.6: Non-linear Representation of prefixed and non-prefixed Patient Nominalization in SDG. Adapted from Katamba (1993, p.175)

4.4.1.4 Instrument Nominalization

Payne (1997, p.228) defines the instrument nominalization as" a noun formed

from a verb in which the noun refers to an instrument used for accomplishing the act

represented by that verb". Payne (ibid) states that this type of nominalization is often

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formally identical to the agent nominalization. This is true for SDG where the prefix ( m

- ) is added to the verb stem to form both agent and instrument nominalizations. The

vocalic melody morpheme of the verb stem is also liable to modification as shown in the

following common patterns:

a-m-CeCCeC (for verbs with quadric-consonantal roots)

Sehlef 3SG.M.PER 'sharpened' m-Sehlef (N) 'sharpener'

b- m-DCCeC (for verbs with tri-consonantal roots)

k'ndef 3SGM.PER'rowed lmre f 3SG.M.PER 'took water with a glass'

m-Dk' de: f (N) 'row' m-DHre:f (N) 'big glass

A Instrumentive morpheme m D

Vocalic morpheme e: I

Pattern morpheme C V C C V C I I I

Root t morpheme k' d f

~ ~

Figure 4.7: Nonlinear Representation of Instrument nominalization in SDG. Adapted from Katamba (1993, p.175)

4.4.1.5 Location Nominalization

It refers to the place where the activity described by the verb tends to occur (Payne

1997). The SDG employs the same prefix m- employed in forming the agent and the

instrument nominalization in forming the location nominalization. Similarly, the

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addition of this prefix to the verb stem is accompanied with a vowel modification in that

stem. There are three common patterns for this derivation.

a- m-oCCeC ( for tri-consonantal verb stem) s'o: leb 3SG.M.PER slaughter an animal m-osleb / (N) , place where animals are killed' .

b-m-eCCeC

hofer 3SG.M.PER 'dug' m-ehfer (N) 'a deep hole"

c- m-eCCe : CeC (for quadri- consonantal verb stem) Sate: leh 3SGM.PER 'pastured' m-e Ste : leh / (N) 'pasture'

hfr C-C-C Root

meCCeC m e- - e - Pattern

m e hf er Form 'hole'

Figure 4.8: Nonlinear Representation of Location Nominalization in SDO

-The use of the prefix m- in the SDO to derive nouns of place and instrument agrees

with what Matthews (1969) who states that this prefix m- is a common Semitic

performative employed in these languages for the derivation of nouns of place and

instruments.

4.4.2 Adjective to Noun Derivation

While some nouns in the SDG are derived from verbs by adding the prefix 2 a-

and the suffix -eh to verbal stem, other nouns are also derived by adding the same

prefix and suffix to the adjective stem ,which is the singular masculine adjective.The

vocalic melody morphemes in those adjective stems are also modified. This type of noun

144

derivation has not been mentioned in any of the previous studies on Soqotri. The most

common patterns of this nonconcatenative derivation are as follows:

(2e) + adjective stem + eh a- 2e-CCeCeh

?a:fer ADJ.M 'red ' N 'redness'

b- 2e-CCe: Ceh ~Q:k'er ADJ.M. 'big' ?e-~k'E:: r-E:h N 'bigness'

c- 2e-CCi: Ceh libhon ADJ.M

Je~elhel ADJ.M)

d- CE:CCE:h ~a:t'E:m ADJ.M

he:dE:k ADJ.M

e- CoCCeh da:XE:m ADJ.M Ha:ZE:r ADJ.M

f- CE:Cjeh ~E::5/ ADJ.M

jeg / ADJ.M.

'white' 'round'

'fat' 'dirty ,

'thin' ' deep ,

'-strong ' cold'

2-elbi: n-E:h 2-eJ~i: l-E:h

~e:5j-E:h

jogj-E:h

4.4.3 Derivation of Diminutive Forms of Nouns

N 'whiteness' N 'roundness'

N 'fatness' N 'dirtiness'

N thinness N ' deepness '

N ' strength ' N 'coldness'

According to the findings of the current study, the diminutive forms of some

nouns in the SDO are derived nonconcatenatively through apophony or the vowel

modification of the noun stem. The common patterns of such diminutive forms in the

SDO are recorded in the following table:

145

Table 4.23: Internal Diminutive Patterns in SDG

Noun Gloss Diminutive form Internal Diminutive Gloss

Pattern

trer door tu:rhJr Cu:CheC small door me:r abdomen mu:rh r 1/ little abdomen jcehi valley jhu:h CCu:C small valley t'irb log t'u: reb Cu:CeC little log k'a:hef cub k'u:hef II cub sir belt su:wher Cu:wheC belt Ha:j man He: jej Ce: jeC little man bejt house bu:teh Cu:CeC small house (F; ~o:z goat ~u:zeh /I little goat (F)

k'a: ~er house k'u: ~e: reh Cu:Ce :Ce small house (F t'a:de~ back t'u:wede~ Cu:weCVC little back ha:dek dirt hu:wedek /I little dirt ha:Jel eyebrow hU:jehel CU:CeheC little eye brow

temreh palm date tree tu:me:roh Cu:Ce:CoC little palm tree djo:joh pigeon djU:jDh CCu:Cnc little pigeon (F na:hrir nose nha:reher CCa:CeheC little nose mu:kSem child mke: Shem CCe:CheC little child

~a:freh braid ~efe:rDh CCe:Cnh little braid

The above table shows that the vocalic melody morpheme of nouns is modified

into lu: I in many diminutive patterns, and it also shows the insertion of the glide I w

land the parasite I h I in some of these diminutive patterns.

t-r-b Root

Cu:C eC - u: - e-. Pattern

t'u:reb Form 'small log'

Figure 4.9: Nonlinear Representation of the Diminutive Noun Form in SDG

146

These diminutive forms in SDG are marked for gender and number. The

feminine suffix of nouns - nh is added to the diminutive form to indicate the feminine

gender. The noun dual and plural suffixes are also added to the singular diminutive

forms to create dual and plural diminutive forms.

djo:Jnh dJu:Jnh dJu:Jo:ti '2idJu: Jhe: tin

(SGF) (DIM.SG.F) (DIM.DU.F) (DIM.PL.F)

'pigeon' , small pigeon' 'two small pigeons' 'small pigeons'

It has been found that partial reduplication of the stem is also employed in the

derivation of some diminutive forms of nouns in the SDG as illustrated in this example:

s'abah (SG.N.) 'morning'

s'abahbah SG.DIM. ' a very short morning'

The SDG has some nouns whose diminutive forms are derived through the

addition of the suffixes - en / (ehen), or the feminine suffix - nh to the noun

stem .The vowels of these nouns are also modified as shown in the following table:

Table 4.24: Diminutive Forms with Affixation in SDG

Noun Gloss Diminutive Form Pattern Gloss

H~J man lIDj e: J-en Cnje:Cen little child mo:rk'ah stick mere :k'h-en CeCe:CCen small stick

na:5ef rug n:5a: fh-en CCa:Chen little rug te:bib spit tebib-ehen CeCiCehen small spit :5a:freh braid :5efe: r-nh CeCe:Cnh little braid

Se:rher spark Siro:r-Dh CaiCo:Cnh small spark

:5a:bneh pile :5abe :n-nh Cabe:Cnh small pile mDHref glass mHa: rif-nh CCa:CiCnh small glass

147

Leslau (1938) pointed out that some diminutive forms in Soqotri are derived by

adding the suffixes - 8n / (8h8n) but he did not refer to the vocalic modification which

usually accompany the addition of these suffixes. Though Johnston (1973) described the

diminutive noun forms in MSAL, his description focused only on Mehri and Jibbali and

ignored Soqotri. Regarding the function diminutive forms perform in the SDG, it is, as

Johnstone (ibid) stated, a caritative function. They are used as deprecatives as when one

talks about his property or hospitality.

4.4.4 Compound Nouns

The formation of new stems by adjoining two or more stems or compounding is

common in the SDG.While the possessive particle d8 is sometimes inserted between

the two parts of the compound nouns; some other compound nouns have no such

particle. Most of the compound nouns found in the data are endocentric that is they

denote a sub-class of the items denoted by one of their elements. Such a compound is a

hyponym of its head element (Bauer, 2003).

h8 : lob - S'8 :b8r h8 : lob- mok'dDf ra: ~i 28rhon t8h -d8-t8: t8n m8ss:)-d-x.t8 : r H:)B8nh8n d bijnh

'sour, curdled milk' 'cheese' 'goat pasturing' 'sheep meat' , night rain'

'mother's love'

The data included a few examples of exocentric compound noWlS that denote

something which is not a sub-class of any of the compound elements, such compounds

are not hyponyms of any of their elements (ibid).

d bijoh liver POSS.PART mother

'a loved person'

148

The compound nouns in Soqotri have been neglected in all the previous studies.

4.5 Inflectional Morphology of Adjectives

The findings of the current study indicate that the adjective in the SnG inflects for

two morphological categories: number and gender but unlike Arabic and Mehri it does

not inflect for degree. The adjective in the SDG has three numbers: singular, dual and

plural and it has two genders: masculine and feminine.

4.5.1 Singular Adjectives

The current study findings indicate that singular adjectives with two-consonant

roots in the SnG have the patterns: eve, CV: e, and ev: CV. Adjectives with three-

consonants roots have the patterns: ecv: c , ev: evc , cvcve, eeve and finally

adjectives with four- consonants or more roots have the patterns :evceve,

ecv: cve, eevecve, eveev: cvc.

Table 4.25: Pattern of Singular adjectives in SnG

Singular Adjective Patterns Gloss

2e:5 evc strong ha:r cv:e black ti:rn ev:cv wet Ske:r eev:e beautiful da:xem cv:cve thin

rmm:5 CVCVC weak dja~ eeve bad Sn:5hnr evceve green nt'e:~er eev:eve rotten

J£elhel CCVCCVC round ma£re:kah cvecv:eve round

149

4.5.2 Dual Adjectives

It has been found that the same suffixes -i and ti- which mark masculine and

feminne dual nouns respectively, mark masculine and femine dual adjectives when they

are added to adjective stems(singular masculine adjectives).Simeone-Senelle (1997)

points out that Soqotri is the only MSAL that has dual adjectives but she does not show

how these Soqotri adjectives are marked for duality.

da: xam (SG.M) 'fa: fer (SG.M)

da: xe m-i (DU.M) 'fa: fern-ti (DU.F)

'thin' 'red'

Some other dual adjectives are formed through a joint linear and nonlinear

operation which involves both a vocalic modification of the adjective stem and the

addition of the suffix -(t)i. No previous study has ever dealt with this type of dual

marking of adjectives in Soqotri. The common patterns of these dual adjectives are listed

_ in the following table:

Table 4.26: Internal Dual Adjectives with Affixation in SDG

Singular Adjective Dual Adjective Gloss

Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine

'fa: fer 'fe:feroh 'fe: fr-i 'fe: fero-ti red Ce :CC-i ( affixational)

libhon labi:neh Ibe :n-i labe :ni-ti white

CCe:C-i CaCe:Ci-ti ha:r hu:reh he: r-i hu: re :-ti black

Ce :C-i CU:Ce:-ti 'fa:t'em 'fi t'a:meh 'fat'im-i 'fat'imi-ti fat

CaCiC-i CaCiCi-ti k'i :hen k'i: noh k'aja:n-i k'ine: -ti small

C'aCa:C-i CiCe:-ti

150

The SDG has another, though less common, suffix for marking feminine dual

adjectives. It is the suffix - tnh , this suffix has not been referred to before in the

previous studies of Soqotri:

Ske: r-tDh (DU.F) 'beautiful' hela: f-tDh (DU.F) 'sharp'

4.5.3 Plural Adjectives

Plural feminine adjectives in the SDG are marked by adding the feminine plural

suffix - e: t in to the adjective stem as it is the case in forming the external plural of

the feminine nouns. The addition of this suffix mayor may not be accompanied with a

stem vowel modification.

a- CaCeC-E:: tin ~a: fer SG.M

b- Cu:Ce:tin ha:r SG.M

c- CaCaC-e : tin libhnn SG.M k'a:t't-en SGM

d- CaCaCi n-E: : tin

da:xem

~afer-e: tin PL.F

hu: r-e: tin PL.F

labane : tin PL.F k'at 'ane : tin PL.F

daxamine : tin PL.F

'red'

'black'

'white' 'slim'

'thin' .

Some other feminine plural forms of adjectives are marked nonconcatenatively

without adding any affix such as: Sko : rnh(SG.M) 'beautiful' S eke: r (PL.F) CC e : C.

Many masculine adjectival plurals in the SDG are marked by adding the suffix -eh

to the adjective stem and modifying its vowels , thus accumulative plural patterns are

produced. The common patterns of these plural forms are listed in the following table:

151

Table 4.27: Patterns of Masculine Adjectival Internal Plural with Affixation in SDG

Singular Masculine Adjective Plural Masculine Adjective Gloss

£a:f~r £efe :r-eh red CeC~:C-~h

libhnn lba:n-eh white

CCa:C-~h

ha:r he :r-eh black

C~ :C-~h

da:xem dexa:m-eh thin

CeCa:C-~h

The plural fonus of many masculine adjectives are produced internally through

apophony or modifying the vowels of the stem with out adding any affIX to it. The

common patterns of these plurals are as follows:

a- CCo:C b-Ce :C~C

c-CiCnC d-CeCjCe

Ske : r (SG.M) £a:t~'m (SG.M ) k'ihen (SG M ) £i: Ie (SO.M.)

'good, handsome' , fat' ,

'small', 'tall'

Sko:r £~ :t'em k'ihDn 'ieIjh~

(PL.M) ( PL.M.)

(PL.M) (PL.M)

£a: t~'m a: - ~ ~: - ~ £~: t'~m (PL.M.) 'fat'

Root Morpheme £ t' m <fatness>

Pattern Morpheme C v C v C <adjective>

I Vocalic Melody Morphem <plural>

Figure 4.10: Nonlinear Representation of Adjective internal Plural in SDG. Adapted from Boudelaa and Wilson (2004,p.274)

152

These different ways of plurality marking of adjective in the SnG have been

described in this study for the first time .No previous study has ever tackled them at all.

4.5.4 Gender of Adjectives

Much like nouns, the adjective in the SnG has a base or a stem form which is the

singular masculine form and an inflected or marked form for the feminine. So the

adjective in the SDG has two genders: feminine and masculine. The masculine gender is

unmarked. The feminine gender of singular adjective is marked externally by adding the

suffixes -ch or oh to the adjective stem and the feminine gender of the dual and plural

adjectives is marked by the SUffIX - ti and - c : tim .respectively.

Table 4.28: Feminine Adjectives with Feminine Suffixes

Masculine Adjectives Feminine Adjective Gloss

kiri kir-oh short SG.M 2c: da:k' 2c :da:k'-oh heavy SG.F htc:r htc:r-oh angry SG.F k'c: ia~ k'd:.c: ~-oh dry SG.F

tC:Jcr tc: Jr-eh rich SG.F ~c:fcroh ~c: fcro-ti red DU.F

~c: fcreh ~afcrc: -tin red PL.F

Like nouns the feminine gender of some adjectives in the SDG is not marked

externally by these two suffixes. It is marked internally through a nonconcatenative

mOIphological operation particularly apophony or modifying the stem vowels (0 -i, a-

i or c-i ) .This agrees with Simeone-Senelle (1997).

153

Table 4.29: Intemally- Marked Feminine Adjectives in SDG

Masculine Adjective Feminine Adjective Gloss

Je~lhDl Je~lhil round

t'Dd t'ih one

kirkem kirkim yellow

s'E~be:b s'e~bib red

~ebdher ~ebdhir black with white dots

dirke:k dirkhik dappled, red with white dots

2erbeb 2erbib red with white

Root Morpheme k r k m <yellowness>

Pattern Morpheme C V C C V C <adjective>

Vocalic Morpheme i i <feminine>

Figure 4.11: Nonlinear Representation of Adjective Feminine Gender in SDG. Adapted from Boudelaa and Wilson (2004, p.274)

Some adjectives in the SDG are marked for the feminine gender by both the

feminine suffix and also by a vowel stem modification. This type of gender marking has

not been mentioned in any previous study. The common patterns of such feminine

adjectives are as follows:

a- Ce:Ce:: Ce:h Snl3he:r (M) S e::5e: : r-e:h (F) , green'

b- Ce:: Ce:h xa:me: (M) Xe: :m-e:h (F) 'five'

~e:~ (M) ~e: ::5-e:h (F) 'strong'

c- CeCa: Ceh s'a!t'e~ (M) s'et'a:~-eh (F) , hungry'

154

Some Soqotri feminine adjectives are not marked for gender altogether, neither

through affIxation nor thorough vowel modification. An example of such adjectives is :

J9hlil which means 'pregnant '.Some nouns in the SDG have also this feature.

Simeone-Senelle (ibid) states that these adjectives are related only to women. However,

the researcher found similar adjectives related only to women but still have the feminine

marker - e:h as in a: 1 t' ihe: : r-e:h 'not clean due to delivery or period'.

What has been said regarding the gender of adjectives in the SDG can be

summed up in the following points?

a- Masculine adjectives are not marked for gender.

b- The feminine gender in some adjectives is marked externally by the suffix feminine

morphemes -e:h, Dh, ti- or -e:: tin.

e- The feminine gender of some adjectives is marked internally through apophony.

d-The feminine gender of some adjectives is marked by adding the suffixes-e:h, Dh,

ti- or -e:: tin. and vowel modification of the stem.

e-Some feminine adjectives have no feminine marker at all.

4.6 Inflectional Morphology of the Verb

It is evident from the findings of the current study that the verb in the SDG is

inflected for person, number, gender, tense and voice. Like all the other Semitic

languages, the only temporal contrast marked is that between perfective and

imperfective. The perfective marks person number and gender by means of suffixes

while the imperfective and the subjunctive mark the same inflections by prefixes.

155

4.6.1 Perfective and Imperfective Verbal forms

The perfect verbal fonn in Semitic languages including the SDG may be

translated into English by the past or the perfect. It is fonned by adding a suffix to the

verb stem. The imperfective verbal fonn in the SDG may be translated into English by

the present, perfect and future. It is fonned by adding a prefix to the verb stem. The

following tables include the full paradigms of the perfect and imperfect verbal fonn in

theSDG.

Table 4.30: Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Perfective Verbl Haro : bl 'understood' Type A in SDG

Person Number Gender Suffix Verb +Suffix

1 Singular M/F -k Haro:b-k Dual M/F -ki Haro:b-ki

Plural M/F -:m Haro:b-an

2 Singular M -k Haro:b-k F -s Hero :b-S

Dual M -ki Hero:b-ki F -ki Hero:b- ki

Plural M -ken Hero:b-kan F -kin Hero:b-kin

3 Singular M - Haro:b F -eh/et Hare: b-eh let

Dual M - eh Here :b-eh F -eh I-teh Hare :b-teh

Plural M - Haru:b F - Hero:b

156

Table 4.31: Inflection of Person, Number and Gender of the Perfective Verb hE: rak' , stole' Type B in the SDG

Person Number Gender Suffix Verb +Suffix

1 Singular MI F -k hE: rak'-k Dual M/F -ki hE : rak' -ki Plural M/F - an hE: rak'an

2 Singular M -k hE: rak'-k F -S hE: rak'-S

Dual M -ki hE: rak'-ki F -ki hE: rak'-ki

Plural M -kan hE : rak' -kan F -kin hE : rak' -kin

3 Singular M - hE: ra k' F -Eh lEt hErE: k'-Eh

Dual M - Eh hErE :k'-Eh F -Eh l-tEh hErE: k'-tEh

Plural M - haru:k' F - hE: ra k'

Table 4.32: Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Imperfective Verb j~t'~: hEr 'he goes' Type A. in the SDG

Person Number Gender Prefix Prefix + V erb + (suffix)

1 Singular M/F ~a- ~a-t'o :hEr Dual M/F ~a-.... - Eh ~a-t 'ahE: r-Eh Plural M/F na - na-t'o:hEr

2 Singular M ta- ta-t'o:hEr F ta - ta-t'E :hir

Dual M tE-.... - Eh ta-t'EhE: r-Eh F tE-.... - Eh ta-t'EhE: r-Eh

Plural M tE- ta-t'E :hEr F tE- ... En tE-t'o:harEn

3 Singular M ja- ja-t'o :hEr F ta ta-t'o:hEr

Dual M j - - Eh j~-t 'hE: r-Eh F ta .. -Eh ta-t 'hE: r-Eh

Plural M ja- j a-t 'E : hEr F ta- ... En ta-t'o: harEn

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Table 4.33: Inflection of Person, Number, and Gender of the Imperfective Verb j a-ha: re k' 'he steals' Type B

Person Number Gender Prefix Prefix +Verb + (suffix)

1 Singular M/F ~e- ~e-ha: rek' Dual M/F 2a-.... - eh 2a-hare: k'-eh Plural M/F na - ne-ha: re k'

2 Singular M ta te-ha: n: k' F te ta-he: rik'

Dual M te- .... - eh ta-he: rk'-eh F te-.... - eh ta-he : rk'-eh

Plural M tete-he: rek' F te- '" en ta-he: rek' en

3 Singular M ja- je-ha:re k' F te t~-ha: re k'

Dual M j -- eh j~-hre :k'-eh F te tahe: rek'- eh

Plural M je- jahe: re k' F ta- ... en ta-ha: rk'-en

The above paradigms of the perfective and imperfective verbal forms show that

the inflections of person, number, gender and tense are marked on the perfective verbal

forms by suffixation, but in some forms such as those of the third person plural

masculine and feminine these inflections are marked internally through apophony.

The same inflections of person, number, gender and tense are marked on the

imperfective verbal forms by prefixation but in some forms such as those of the dual

forms of all persons and the forms of the third person plural feminine these inflections

are marked by both prefixation and suffixation. In some other imperfective forms these

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inflections are marked through both prefixation and vowel modification as it is the case

in the second person singular feminine form.

Simeone-Senelle(1997) states that the third person masculine dual perfective

verbal form in Soqotri ends with the suffIx - D but this is a feature of one of the Soqotri

dialects, particularly the dialect of Hadibo and should not be generalized as a feature of

Soqotri since this form ends with the suffIx -eh in the SDG. Simeone-Senelle (ibid) also

states that the imperfective verbal forms of the first, second and third persons feminine

and masculine dual end with the suffix - D but again this is true only in the Soqotri

dialect of Hadibo, in the SDG these forms end with the suffIx -eh.The functions of these

two verbal forms with reference to time and aspect will be described in Chapter 5.

The above paradigms show that each inflectional prefix in the imperfect forms

and each inflectional SuffIX in the perfect forms is a portmanteau morph that realizes two

or more morphemes. For examples, the prefix ~ 9- realizes a first person morpheme, a

singular morpheme and an imperfect tense morpheme. Similarly, the suffIx- ki realizes

a first person morpheme, a dual morpheme and a perfect morpheme, the suffix -kin

realizes a second person morpheme, a plural morpheme, a feminine morpheme and a

perfect morpheme. These forms cannot be analyzed into sequence of morphemes. The

WP model described in Chapter 2 will be employed here to describe them.

According to the WP approach to inflection, as demonstrated in Robins (1959),

Matthews (1972), Zwicky (1985) and Anderson (1992), the word's inflectional markings

can be determined by a set of inflectional rules. These rules determine markings which

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may be affixal or nonconcatenative. For example, a rule's applicability to a certain stem

X is usually conditioned by the morpho syntactic properties associated to that stem X

such as the X's phonological form, the X's membership in a particular class ,noun, verb,

adjective, etc, or by a combination of such factors. The inflectional prefixes of the

imperfect verbal forms in the SDG may be described according to these WP rules as

shown below:

Rule 1- V PER.: 1

NUM: SG GEN: MlF TNS: IMP MOOD:INDIC

I X I ---. I (';)- X I

This rule means that any verbal stem which by virtue of its syntax has properties such

as first person; singular, imperfective and indicative should have the prefix (';) added to

it.

Rule 2;

Rule 3;

V PER.: 2

NUM: PL GEN: MlF TNS: IMP

MOOD: INDl I X I ---. I t';)- X I

V PER.: 3 NUM: SG GEN: M TNS: IMP

MOOD: INDIC IXI ---. Ij';)-XI

The inflectional suffixes of the verbal perfect forms can also be described clearly by

these WP rule as shown in these examples:

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Ru1e4-

Ru1e 5-

Rule 6-

Rule 7-

V PER.: 1 NUM: SG GEN: MlF TNS: PER MOOD:INDIG

IXI --+ IX-kl

V PER.: 1 NUM: PL GEN: M/F TNS: PER MOOD: INDI

IXI --+ IX-ani

V PER.: 2 NUM: PL GEN: F TNS: PER MOOD:INDI

IXI --+ IX-kin I

V PER.: 3 NUM: PL GEN: M TNS: PER MOOD: INDI

I X I --+ / X vowel modification u : I

These rules show clearly that the SDG is a fusional or a synthetic language. It

has the tendency to squish together many morphemes in a way which can be difficu1t to

segment.No previous study has ever referred to this feature of the SDG.

The findings of the current study show that certain imperfect verb fonns in the

SDG lack the prefix t- of the second person mascu1ine and feminine as it is the case in

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the verb ~I:k 'want'. This is totally in agreement with what Johnstone (1968) states

regarding this feature in Soqotri.

4.6.2 Subjunctive verbal Form

In addition to these two verbal forms; the perfective and imperfective, the SDG

has another verbal form called subjunctive. The findings show that this subjunctive form

performs functions similar to those performed by the infinitive form in English but it

differs from the English infinitive in that it inflects for person, number and gender as

shown in table 4.34. So the subjunctive form is a special finite verbal form used only

with subordinate clauses.

Table 4.34: Inflection of the Subjunctive Form of the Verb j~t '::>: her' he goes'

Person Number Gender Prefix / Apophony Subjunctive Form

1 Singular M/F 1 e- & apophony 1e-t 'her Dual MlF 1e- & apophony Ie-tat 'e: r-eh

-Plural M/F apophony net 'her

2 Singular M apophony tet 'her F apophony tet'hir

Dual M 1e- & apophony Ie-tat 'he: r-eh F 1e- & apophony Ie-tat 'he: r-eh

Plural M 1e- & apophony (le)tet 'her F apophony tet 'haren

3 Singular M 1e- & apophony 1e-t'her F apophony tet'har

Dual M 1e- & apophony 1 e-t 'he: r-eh F 1e-& apophony 1e-t'he: r-eh

Plural M 1e-& apophony 1et'her F 1e- & apophony tet'haran

The paradigm of the subjunctive form in the above table shows that this verbal form

IS inflected for person, number and gender either through apophony - vowel

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modification- alone or through both apophony and the addition of the prefix 1£- to the

verb stem.

Simeone-Senelle (1997) states that the subjunctive prefix ( 1£- ) is added only to

the subjunctive forms of the first person singular and dual male ,third person singular

and plural masculine but the researcher found out that this prefix can be also added to

other subjunctive forms such as those of the second person dual male, the third person

dual and plural feminine forms as shown in the above table. Further details about this

form will be found in chapter six which describes clauses including the subjunctive

clause. These inflections can also be described according to the WP rules as shown

below:

Rule 1-

Rule 2-

V PER.: 2 NUM: SG GEN: F MOOD: SUB

/ X / ~ / X- vowel modification from £ to i /

V PER.: 1 NUM: SG GEN: MIF MOOD: SUB

/ X / ~ / 1£- X -vowel modification from 0: to £ /

4.6.3 The Passive Forms

It is evident from the result of the current study that the passive of the

imperfective, perfective and subjunctive in SDG is formed nonconcatenatively through

the apophony. The pattern of the imperfective passive is CU: CaC, the pattern of the

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perfective passive is Ci : C aC and the pattern of the subjunctive passive is Ie CCo : C.

These findings are in agreement with Simeone-Senelle (1997) and Leslau (1938).

The findings of this study reveal three important features related to the passive

patterns in the SDG. Firstly, the suffixes of the perfective and imperative active forms

are added to their passive counterparts. Secondly, the suffix -eh in the active forms

becomes - oh in the passive ones. Finally, all the prefixes of the active imperative forms

are dropped. Neither of these features were referred to by Simeone-Senelle (ibid) or

Leslau (ibid).

Table 4.35: Paradigms of the Imperfective, Perfective and Subjunctive Passive Forms of the verb la: taH 'killed' in the SDG

Person Number Gender Imperfective Passive Perfective Passive Subj. Passive

1 singulru M/F lu:taH li:taH-k IE-Ito: H is killed was killed to be killed

Dual MIF lu:taH-oh Ii: taH-ki 1£-1 to: H-Dh Plural M/F lu:taH li:taH le-lto:H

2 Singula M lu:taH Ii :taH-k lelto:H F lu:taH Ii :taH-S leI to: H

Dual M/F lu:taH-oh Ii: taH-ki lelto:H-oh Plural M lu:taH Ii :taH-k~n leI to:H

F lu: taH-en Ii :taH-kin le-l to: H-en

3 SingulaJ M lu:taH li:taH le-lto:H F lu:taH Ii :taH-nh le-lto:H

Dual M lu:taH-oh Ii :taH-nh le-l to: H-nh F lu:taH-oh li:taH-tnh Ie-Ito: H-toh

Plural M lu:taH li:taH le-lto:H F lu:taH-en li:taH le-l to: Hen

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Root Morpheme k t b <writing>

Pattern Morpheme C v C v C <imperfective>

Vocalic Melody Morpheme u: <Passive>'

Figure 4.12: Nonlinear Representation of Imperfective Passive Verb ku: tEb 'is written'

Root Morpheme k t b <writing>

Pattern Morpheme C V C V C < perfective verb >

Vocalic Morpheme i: <Passive>

Figure 4.13: Nonlinear Representation of Perfective Passive-of the Verb ki: tE b 'was written'

4.7 Derivational Morphology of the Verb

The SDG has two simple verbs. Simple verb type A with the patterns CaCo: /a: C

Haro : b 'understood' and simple verb type B with the pattern CE : CaC hE: rag

'stole' (Leslau, 1938; Johnstone, 1975 & Simeone-Senelle, 1997). From these two

simple verbs three verbs are derived through a nonconcatenative operation that involves

not only vocalic modification but also affixation. These derivative verbs are reflexive,

causative and reflexive causative. These findings of the current study confirm what

Johnstone (1975) states regarding verb derivation in MSAL.

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4.7.1 The First Derived Verb

This verb is derived through infixation and the vowel modification of the stem.

Infixation is defined as a segmentally distinct entity occurs between two strings that

form a meaningful unit when joined but they do not themselves exist as meaningful

parts (Hawkins & Cutler 1988: Yu, 2006). Infixation in the SDG is employed to derive

reflexive verbs by inserting the infix -t- into the simple verb 'A' and modifying its

vocalic melody morpheme. This is in agreement with what Katamba (1993) states

regarding the typicality of infixation in Semitic languages. The findings of this study

show that this derived verb has the following patterns:

a- CDtCeC Simple verb:

b-CDtCeC

k' e: nah 'fed'. Derived verb; k'D<t>neh 'ate'

Simple verb: kan~ : n 'returned something. Derived Verb: kD<t>nen 'returned

c- Ce :tCeC -

Simple verb: Ja£o: r 'made some one ill' Derived verb: Je: <t>~er 'fell ill'

d- Cti : CDC nad~: 1 'diverted something' n<t>i: dol 'diverted himself

e-CetCDC Simple verb: rano::5 'washed some thing'. Derived verb: re<t>hD:5 'had a bath'

This derived verb has also other patterns but without correspondent simple verb:

f- CtiCiC ftirir 'yawn' g- ?DtiCeC ?Dtik'et' 'woke up ,

h- ?iCteC ?intef ' fell ' 1- Co:Ce lo:te ' combine oneself

Simeone-Senelle(l997) states that in Soqotri this verb is derived from the Simple

Verb ( type A ) CaC~: C but the researcher found that it can also be derived from the

simple verb (type B) Cc ! CaC as shown above.

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t-morpheme tier t

Vocalic morpheme tier

Pattern morpheme tier c

Root tier

Tier conflation

and metathesis

c eve V c I I I I I I

t k n n a h

c

k

n a

V c V C

n h

cvccvc I I I I I I kn tnah

Figure 4.14: Nonlinear Representation of Infixation of the verb kDtnah'retumed' in

sno .Adapted from Katamba (1993, p.174)

As shown in the above figure the infix - t - represents a separate morpheme and

appears in its own tier. It is independent of the root and vocalic melody morphemes.

4.7.2 The Second Derived Verb

It is a causative verb usually derived by adding the productive prefix ( 2 e / i -)

to the simple verb (type B).The vocalic morpheme of the simple verb is also modified.

The results of the study show that this derived verb has so many patterns in the SOO

such as the following:

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a-2iCCiC Simple verb: ne:1::lr 'started'. Derived verb: 2in1ir 'caused to start" b-2eCCeC

Simple verb: ne:h::lr 'passed '. Derived verb: 2e:nher 'caused to pass '

c-2eCCe: Simple verb: be:Se: 'wept' Derived verb: 2e:bS e: 'caused to weep' d-2e:CCaC Simple verb: de::hak 'laughed'. Derived verb: 2e:dhak caused to laugh' e-2eCCnC Simple verb : k' e : s' e:m 'had breakfast'. Derived verb: 12e:k's'Dm I 'gave breakfast'

The same causative verb can also be derived from some simple verbs (type B) and from

di-consonant verbs as in these exanlples:

-2iCeC Simple verb: Z::l j ~ : d 'increased' .Derived verb: 2izje:d 'caused to increase' g- 2e CnCnc Simple verb: H::lj~: f 'lost.'(INT.V) Derived verb 2e:HjDf ' lost ( TRA.V ) h- 2eCCe

Simple verb: f1e 'had lunch'. Derived verb: 2ef1e: 'gave breakfast' i - 2eCe: C Simple verb: Sem 'heard' Derived verb: 2e:Se:m 'caused to hear'

4.7.3 The Third Derived Verb

It is a causative reflexive verb derived by the addition of the prefix ( S -) to the

simple verbs (type A & B ) and some di-consonantal verbs. The vocalic melody

morphemes of these verbs are also modified. The data of this study included the

following patterns of this derived verb:

a-SiCiC Simple verb: 2amt~: 1 'related'.

b - SeCCeC

Derived verb: S imtil 'spoke'

Simple verb: 2e:k'f~: 1 'closed '(TRA.V). Derived verb:S e:k'f'e:l 'closed' (INT .V.) c- SiCCe: Simple verb: Ie:: t '::lh ' lit' TRA.V.). Derived verb S il t 'eh 'lit' (INT.V)

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d- SE :CeC Simple verb: deh 'put' .Derived verb: S E : deh 'lay'

The SDG has another derived intensive verb but it has no correspondent simple

verb form. Simeone-Senelle (1997) states that this verb can be transitive or intransitive.

An important feature of some of these derived verbs is the addition of the particle (-En)

to their imperfect third person singular feminine and masculine forms:

jk'E: bi tEn I (he learns). Itk'E: bi tEn I (she learns)

a-Ca:CiC k'a:bit ' learnt' b-2E:CiC 2E:rir 'lighted ' C-20:CEC 2o:mEd 'appreciated ' d-2o:CiC 2o:kil 'entrusted ' e - C EC hEl 'went around f- Co:Ci ~o:li 'honored '

4.7.4 Derivation of Verbs from Adjectives

-Some verbs in the SDG are derived from some adjectives especially adjective of

colour by adding the prefIxes ?En- or ?E- to the adjective and modifying its vocalic

melody morpheme. All the previous studies on Soqotri failed to refer to this type of

derivation.The common patterns of this derivations are as follows:

a-?E-CCi C i C ~a: fEr 'red'. Derived verb: ?E~fi ri r 'became red'

b- ?EnCi CCiC

Simple verb: k~rk~m 'yellow'. Derived verb: ?Enki rki m ~a: fEr 'red' Derived verb: ?En~ifri r

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'became yellow' . became red'

4.7.5 Verbs Derived by Reduplication

The findings of currant study show that some verbs in the SDG are derived

through a whole reduplication of certain verbs as shown in the following table: I

Table 4.36: Reduplicative Verbs in SDG

Basic Gloss Reduplicated Gloss Form

dek knocked dekdek knocked repeatedly (repeated action) def hit defdef hit repeatedly za~ pushed za~za~ pushed repeatedly k'as cut k'as' k'as' cut in pieces (plurality of object) saH put oil saHsaH put much oil in the hair

l?;a: ~~ told l?;a:l?;a:~ informed in details raj shook raJraJ shook violently (violent action)

xal?; stirred xal?;xal?; stirred water violently bel?; glimmered bel?;bel?; glimmered for long time( habitual action)

Ser poured SerS~r making sound as that of falling water hal moved halhal made a movement to stand bek' boiled bek'bek' ?lade sound as that of boiling water l!aID munnured l! aIDl! aID munnured a lot

The examples in the above table show that reduplicated verbs in the SDG are

derived from bi-consonantal roots verbs.This is totally consistant with McCarthy and

Broselow (1984) who confirm that most Semitic languages employ reduplication of bi-

consonantal verbal roots. These reduplicated verbs in the SDG indicate plurality of the

object, repetitive actions, intensified actions, habitual sound or colour and violent

actions.This is also consistant with Frajzyngier (1979) and Rose (2003) who state that

this reduplication of verbs performs the same functions in many Afro-Asiatic and

Semitic languages. This type of verbal derivation in the SnG has been ignored in all the

previous studies.

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Some verbs in SDG are derived from nouns through a whole or partial

reduplication of certain bi-consonantal nouns. for example hu: ha (V) 'speak in favour

of is derived from he 'mouth' and S e be b ( V ) 'to have a rest 'is derived from

S eb (N) 'rest' .. No previous study has mentioned this derivation.

4.8 Adverbs in SDG

Semitic languages are generally poor in their adverbs. In such languages a few

words are adverbs in and of themselves (Ryding, 2005). This is also true for the SDG in

which many words that function as adverbs are adjectives or nouns. The data collected

indicate that most of these adverbs do not undergo inflectional or derivation processes.

It has been found that in the SDG adverbs which describe the manner and the

place of the action denoted by the verb occur usually after the verb they modify. They

include: swa 'well', wi: 'much '_, a lot forcefully', hah ' here' ,bDk' , there',

~ i : Ii 'high up' and dJQ: meh 'down stairs '

The SDG has also some adverbs of frequency and degree. These adverbs occur

post-verbally. They include: dreher 'always', masi: r sa~a~ah 'sometimes',

~imtod 'ever', wi: 'very', be: nh 'very'. Adverbs that modify the whole

sentence seem to be a few. The data collected included only these examples: t'a~leh

, surely' ,and ~aIhamd ~aIIah 'luckily, fortunately'.

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The sna has relatively many adverbs that indicate the time of the action denoted

by the verb. The following list includes adverbs of time and words performing the

function of adverbs of time:

na: ~eh 'now' fo: neh 'long ago' k'ere: reh 'tomorrow' :t3nd 'then, after that' he: r ' today' 2emS en ' yesterday tSa:ni jnm 'after tomorrow ' mahle 'early' sa~i t 'late' demed, ~ i : nnh , teHa: rim' next year ' berhen ' last year ' Xte: h 'night' s'ebeh 'morning' medJhem 'this morning' bIeIhe 'at night' fek'eh Ielhe 'at mid night' S<Bme 'Saturday So:de / Sunday' jnm tri 'Monday Selteh 'Tuesday' reb:~eh'Wednesdays 'xemSeh 'Thursday' ~eJzeh 'Friday'/

All these adverbs occur after the verb except f 0 : neh which may occur before or after

the verb.

4.9 Summary

Based on the Nonconcaten~tive Theory, the first part of this chapter answers the

first research question: "what are the types and functions of the morpheme in the SnG

and how are they combined nonconcatenatively to form stems? Answering this research

question provides a first hand data and the first systematic description of the different

types of morphemes and the functions each one of them performs in the SDG.

Answering this research question also provides a detailed and clear explanation for the

Semitic mechanism employed in forming the stem nonconcatenatively in the SDG.

'The findings of the current study show that like all the Semitic languages, the SDG has

three types of morphemes. It has Templatic morphemes, affixational morphemes and

nontemplatic word stem morphemes.

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The templatic morphemes in the SDG as well as in all the Semitic languages play

an important role in the formation of the stem and in the internal inflectional and

derivational operations the stem undergoes. There are three templatic morphemes; the

root morpheme, the pattern morpheme and the vocalic melody morpheme. The root

morpheme usually consists of three discontinuous consonants but it may also consist of

four or even five consonants. It represents the whole meaning of all its derivatives. The

pattern morpheme is an abstract template in which the roots along with the vowels are

inserted. It codes the phonological shape of the word along with its main syntactic

function. It is considered to be the categorical component of the word, .i.e. it classifies

nouns, verbs, and adjectives into semantic and syntactic classes. The vocalic melody

morpheme is the sequence of vowels in the pattern. It performs additional syntactic

function such as indicating tense, number and gender.

The most salient feature of the morphology of the SDG is the special manner

with which these three morphemes combine to form the stem. The root morpheme, the

pattern morpheme and vocalic melody morpheme are not appended one after the other in

a linear way as it is the case in languages with concatenative morphology. The

consonants of the root are interwinded with the vowels in the pattern. The time this stem

is formed from these three discontinuous morphemes, it becomes liable to inflectional

and derivational operations.

The templatic morphemes usually perform derivational functions. For example,

they are used in verb to noun derivation, adjective to verb derivation, the derivation of

diminutive noun, etc. Templatic morphemes can perform inflectional functions too. For

example they mark gender and number in some nouns and adjectives of the SDG. The

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inflectional and derivational operations performed by the vocalic melody morphemes are

called apophony while those performed by the root morpheme are called reduplication,

replacement, suppletion and subtraction

The second type of morphemes in the SDG is the affixational morpheme. The

SDG has three affixational morphemes. It has prefix morphemes, infix morphemes and

suffix morphemes. The prefixes in the SDG are usually inflectional. They are added to

the imperfect forms of the verb to realize person, number, gender and tense. Prefixes can

also be derivational in the SDG. For example, the prefix 2 e / i-is added to the verb

stem to derive causative verbs and the prefix morpheme S - is added to the verb stem to

derive causative reflexive verbs.

Infixes are derivational morphemes in the SDG. The infix -t- is employed to

derive reflexive verbs _ in the SDG. The suffix morphemes in the SDO are used

inflectionally and derivationally. For example, the suffixes -J , -k , -ki , etc, realize the

inflections of the perfect verb fonn, the suffixes -i and t i-mark masculine and

feminine duality in nouns and adjectives, the suffixes - hen, - hnn, e: tin and -

he: tin mark masculine and feminine plurality in nouns and adjectives. Some

suffixes perform derivational functions. For example the suffix -eh is added to verbs to

derive nouns from these verbs and the suffix - (eh)en is used to derive some

diminutive nominal forms. The affixational morphemes especially the prefix and suffix

ones are added to the stem linearly to perform certain inflectional and derivational

functions. Some other inflectional and derivational operations in the SDG are achieved

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through a simultaneous addition of an affixational morpheme to the stem and a vowel

modification of that stem.

The SDG has a type of morpheme called non-templatic word-stem morpheme.

Such morphemes are actually words that cannot be reduced or analyzed in the root and

pattern morphology. They include loan words and functional words such as preposions,

conjunctions and pronouns.

Like old Semitic languages, the SDG has a very rich and complex pronominal

system composed of three numbers (singular, dual, plural), three persons (first person,

second person and third person) and two genders (masculine and feminine).The SnG

has two sets of personal pronouns. The SnG has independent or free pronouns and

dependent suffix personal pronouns in addition to having possessive pronouns,

demonstrative pronoun, reflexive pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, relative pronouns and

finally interrogative pronouns. Like Arabic and all the other Semitic language, the SDG

has independent personal pronouns employed as compulsory subjects in the nominal

clauses and as optional subjects in the verbal clauses to fortify and emphasize the subject

in theses clauses. They are optional because the verbs in these clauses incorporate the

subject's person, number and gender. It has also dependent personal used as objects and

in a few cases used as possessive pronouns. Unlike Arabic which has no independent

possessive pronouns , the SnG has independent possessive pronouns occurring either

alone without possessed nouns or before those nouns, and dependent possessive

pronouns always occurring before the possessed nouns. It also employs the suffix

personal pronouns as possessive pronouns but only with nouns denoting kinship relation.

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Like all the Semitic languages, the SnG has no distinct reflexive pronouns; therefore, it

employs the word nhDf which means 'self plus the dependent suffix pronouns. These

reflexive pronouns are used as objects and as modifiers for other pronouns. The SDG

also has no distinctive reciprocal pronouns but it employs the word te: tat' and the

dependent suffix pronouns. It also has interrogative pronouns usually occurring at the

beginning of the interrogative clauses. The particle de is used as a relative pronoun in

the snG. It inflects for number and gender. This particle is also used in possessive

structures and in nominalization. The SnG has double demonstrative pronouns. This

feature provides typological inlplication since; this feature is also found in other non

Semitic languages such as French.

This is the first description for the pronouns in the snG since all the previous

studies on Soqotrl such as Leslau(1938), Nakano (1986) Naumkin (1998) and Simeone

Senelle (1997) focused on the pronouns of the dialect of Hadibo and the pronouns used

in the dialects of the eastern areas of the island. Reciprocal pronouns have not been

described before in any dialect of Soqotri.

Based on Nonconcatenative Theory and the WP Model, the second part of this

chapter answers the second research question: "what inflectional and derivational

operations the stem in SDG may undergo? So this part of this chapter provides a

description for most of the major inflectional and derivational operations the stem in the

sno undergoes. This task has never been carried out in any previous study on Soqotri.

This part of the chapter adds important infonnation about the inadequately-described

morphological operations such as apophony. It also describes some morphological

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operations in the SDO for the fIrst time. These operations have never been referred to in

any previous study. They include operations that involve vocalic modifIcation and

affixation, compounding, replacement, reduplication, suppletion, subtraction, etc.

The stem is an independent form containing meaning and to which inflectional

and derivational morphemes are added. The inflectional and derivational operations the

stem undergoes in the SDO and in Semitic languages in general are of two types or

levels. They may be either internal operations or external operations. Internal operations

affect either the vocalic structure of the stem or its consonantal structure. The internal

operation that affects the vocalic structure of the stem is called apophony. The internal

operations that affect the consonantal structure of the stem are called reduplication,

suppletion, subtraction and replacement. Internal operations may also involve both

internal modifIcations of the vocalic melody morpheme of the stem and the addition of

an affixational morpheme such as a prefix or a suffix to that stem. External operations

do not affect the structure of the stem. They just add to it a prefix, an infix or a suffix.

Regarding the inflectional morphology of the noun in the SDO, it has been found

that the noun is inflected for number (singular, dual and plural) and it also inflects for

gender (masculine and feminine), but it does not inflect for case.

The singular noun in the SDO has many patterns such as CYC(V)C ,

CY:C(V)C, C(V)CYC, C(V)CYC, eyeCye, Cye, CV:CY, CV:CC and

CYCCY: eyc. Dual nouns are marked externally and internally. Externally, the dual

suffix morpheme - i is used to mark the dual masculine nouns. The same suffix -i,

preceded by the feminine morpheme t- is used to mark dual feminine nouns. Dual nouns

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are also marked internally through adding the same dual suffix morpheme - (t) i to the

noun stem and modifying the vocalic melody morpheme of that stem.

Like all the Semitic languages, the SDG has internal plural and external plural.

The internal plural is marked through many nonlinear morphological operations such as

apophony, reduplication, suppletion, subtraction and replacement. External plural forms

are marked by the affixational plural masculine suffixes - hEn or - bon and the

feminine plural suffixes E: tin, - hE: tin or -a: t.

Regarding gender of the noun in the SDG , it has been found that the SDG is

similar to Hebrew, Arabic and other Semitic languages in that its gender categories are

arbitrary except when they refers to human being or living creatures. For example,

Jaa:hi 'valley' is masculine while k'a:~er 'house' and renhem 'sea' are feminine. The

masculine gender of nouns in the SDG is not marked. Only the feminine gender of noun

is marked. The feminine gender of the singular nouns is marked externally ·by the

feminine suffix morphemes -eh or -Dh and the feminine gender of the dual and plural

nouns is marked by the suffixes-t i and -E : t in. The feminine gender of some nouns in

the SDG is marked internally through apophony. Some other feminine nouns in the SDG

are not marked for feminine gender at all but still they have feminine agreement.

Verb to noun derivation or nominalization is very common in the SOO. It has

action nominalization, agent nominalization, patient nominalization, instrument

nominalization and location nominalization. All these types of nouns are derived from

verbs through a simultaneous vowel modification of the verb stem and the addition of

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an affixational morpheme to that verbal stem. Some other nouns are derived from

adjectives also through a simultaneous modification of the vowel in the verb stem and

the addition of an affixational morpheme. Most of diminutive noun forms are derived

internally through apophony but some of them are derived externally. Compound nouns

in the SDG are formed from two nouns with or without the possessive particles. Most of

the compounds in the data are endocentric and some of them are exocentric.

Regarding the morphology of the adjective in the SDG, it has been found that the

adjective resembles the noun in that it has almost the same inflections of nouns. The

inflectional markers of number and gender in nouns are also used to mark number and

gender in adjectives. This similarity between the inflectional forms of the adjective and

the inflectional forms of the noun is not unique to the SDG. It is also common in Semitic

languages such as in Arabic in which it is impossible to distinguish nouns from

_ adjectives if examined h'1 isolation. The singular adjective in the SDG has many patterns.

Its common patterns are eve ,ev : e, ev: ev , eev: e , ev: eve , eveve ,

eeve, eveeve ,eev: eve, eeveeve and eveev: eve. Simeone-Senelle

(1997) mentions only one pattern. She mentions the pattern ev: ev.

Exactly like nouns, the dual masculine adjectives in the SDG are marked by the

suffix -i and the dual feminine adjectives are marked by the feminine marker t- followed

by the suffix -i. Some dual adjectives are marked by both apophony, modifying the

vocalic melody of the stem, and the suffix (t)i-. Some other dual adjectives are marked

by the suffix -toh. No previous study has ever referred to this suffix. Also like the noun,

the adjective has internal plural and external plural. Some feminine plural adjectives are

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marked with the suffix -e: tin as it is the case in nouns. Some other plural feminine

adjectives are marked by both the suffix -e: tin and a vowel modification of the

adjective stem. Some plural feminine adjectives are marked internally thorough

apophony alone. While some plural masculine adjectives are formed internally through

apophony alone, other plural masculine adjectives are formed by both apophony and the

addition of the suffix -eh.

Like nouns, only the feminine adjectives are marked for gender. Singular

feminine adjectives are marked with the suffixes -eh, -Dh , or with the -ti and E : tin

which also mark the feminine gender of dual and plural adjectives. While some

adjectives are marked for feminine gender with apophony alone, some other adjective

are marked for that gender by both apophony and the suffixes -eh, -Dh , or - t. Finally,

some feminine adjectives have no feminine markers at all.

As far as the morphology of the verb in the SDG is concerned, it has been found

that the verb inflects for person, number, gender and tense. All these inflectional

categories are marked by suffixation on the perfect verbal forms and by prefixation on

the imperfect verbal forms. A few inflectional categories of some persons are marked

internally through apophony alone or apophony and affixation. It has been found that

each one of these affixes which mark the inflectional categories on verbs can realize two,

three or more morphemes. For example, the suffix -J can realize the 2 nd person

morpheme, the singular morpheme, the feminine morpheme and the past tense

morpheme.This indicates a very important feature of the SDG. The SDG is a fusional or

synthetic language in which there is no one-to-one correspondence between morphs and

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morphemes. In addition to the perfect and imperfect fonns of the verb in the SDG, it has

also another fonn called the subjunctive fonn. It is always used in the subordinate clause

and perfonns the same functions perfonned by the infinitive fonn in English. This fonn

is inflected for person, number and genders either through apophony alone or through

both apophony and the addition of the prefix 1c- to the verb stem. Passive forms in the

SDG are fonned internally through apophony.

The SDG has two simple verbs: simple verb type A with the pattern CaCo : la: C

and simple verb type B with the pattern Cc : CaC. Three verbs are derived from these

two simple verbs. The first derived verb is a reflexive verb derived by inserting the infix

- t - in the stem of the simple verb A and modifying its vowels. The second derived verb

is causative derived by adding the prefix ?e/i - to the stem of the simple verb type B and

modifying its vowels. The third derived verb is causative reflexive derived through

adding the prefix S - to the stem of the simple verbs A and B and modifying their vocalic

melody morphemes. Some verbs are derived from adjective of colures through adding

the prefix len - I ?e- to the stem of the adjective and modifying its vocalic melody

morpheme. Some verbs are derived from nouns through partial or full reduplication of

these nouns. Finally, some verbs that indicate plurality of objects, repetitive or violent

actions are derived through reduplicating certain bi-consonantal verbs.Like all the

Semitic languages, the SDG is poor in its adverbs. Many of the words used as adverbs

are usually nouns or adjectives. It has been found that the SDG has some adverbs of time,

manner, place andfrequeny but most of them do not inflect.

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CHAPTERS

THE PHRASE IN THE SDG

5.0 Introduction

Chapter 4 describes the major morphological features in the SDG such as the

types of morphemes in addition to the inflectional and derivational operations, thus it

paves the way for this chapter to describe the syntax of the phrase because Semitic

languages demonstrate strong interaction between morphology and syntax.This fact was

confirmed by many Semitc linguists such as Tsarfaty (2006).

Based on the BLT, functional typology and IC model, this chapter provides a

synchronic syntactic description for the different phrases in the SDG. It describes in

details the structures and functions of the noun phrase NP, verb phrase VP, prepositional

phrase PP adjective phrase ADJP and adverb phrase ADVP. Thus this chapter answers

the third research question "what are the types, structures and functions of the phrase in

the SDG?"

5.1 Noun Phrase in the SDG

The fmdings of this study reveal that there are different types of noun phrases in

the SDG with different structures and functions.The types ofNP, their structures and the

functions they perfonn will be described in details.

5.1.1 Types of Noun Phrase

Bennett (1998, p.17) defines the phrase in the Semitic languages as "a unit made

up of one or more words, having a head (nonnally a noun or a pronoun) and modifiers."

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In the Basic Linguistic Theory, the NP is divided into four main types; a simple noun

phrase, a conjoined noun phrase, a complex noun phrase and a headless or elliptic noun

phrase (Dryer, 2007 a).The findings of the current study reveal that the SDG has all

these types of noun phrase.

5.1.1.1 Simple Noun Phrases

It has been found that the simple noun phrase consists of just a single word

which is either a noun or a pronoun. It may also have one simple modifier such as

articles, adjectives, or demonstratives (ibid).

I-NP[Hs~h] 0 NP[HHa:J~h [ModJk~:r-~h]] She COP woman beautiful-SG.F 'She is a beautiful woman.'

5.1.1.2 Conjoined Noun Phrases

. The SDG has noun phrases fonned by conjoining or coordinating two nouns

with particles such as w 'and', ID .... .1D , je ..... je 'either ... or' , a: 1... w a: 1 ...

'neither ... nor'. Dryer (ibid) state that all languages allow noun phrases that are formed

by conjoining two nouns or noun phrases as in the English 'The man and the woman'

The current study shows that relative order of these conjoined NPs in the SDG is similar

to the hierarchies of conjoined noun phrases provided by Copper and Ross (1975) which

are as follows:

a - Near> far

k'a:~~r dheh w d~S k'a:~~rH dbok] DEM SG.F. house SG.F here SG and DEM SG.F. house there SG

'This house and that house ... '

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b - Old> Young

3- NP [10 HeJ 10 either man SG.M or 'Either a man or a boy ... '

mek'Sem] boy\SG.M

c- Male> female

4-NP[a:l HijDJ no man \PL.M

w a: 1 H9J8: - tin] and not woman - PL.F

'Neither men nor women .... '

d-Singular> Plural

5-NP [HHa:JEh w bErhn] woman SG.F and child \ PL.M

'A woman and children ... '

e-Animate> Inanimate

6-NP [HeJ manSG.M

w fEdhEn] and mountain SG.M

'The man and the mountain ... '

f- Agent> Patient

we ze£idhEn] 7 -NP [k'erbEJ catSG.M and mouse SG.M , A cat and a mouse ... '

g- Positive> Negative

8 - NP [je hej-Eh ja either life-SG.F or 'Either life or death.;.'

mi: j-Eh] death-SG.F

These frozen ordering hierarchies reflect culturally-stable and human universal

ranking and degree of topic-worthiness (Givon, 1990).These orders are not random.

They are based on the traditional and cultural heritage of the Soqotri people. For

example, the man in the Soqotri society has a greater respect than that of the woman.

The old are respected more than the young. These values and traditions are reflected in

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the language. For example, when these nouns are grouped in a noun phrase the word that

indicates the man will occur before that which indicates the woman and the word that

refers to the old person will come before that which refers to the young person.

5.1.1.3 Complex Noun phrase

The complex noun phrase is that which includes more complex modifiers such as

genitive or possessive modifiers and relative clauses . The phrase that has multiple

modifications is also regarded as complex ( Dryer, 2007a).

9- NP [Hsk'o:treh [Mo de j-ze:\'em [MO b sak'atri]]] Soqotrans who 3PL.M.lMP-live in Soqotra

'Soqotrians who live in Soqotra ... '

lONP [H be:beh [ModehD de be:beh [Modej-ze:\'em [MO b-sak'at'ri father my his father who live in Soqotra

[MO deiaBe: reh]]]]] green-SG.F

'My grand father who lives in the green Island of Soqotra ... '

5.1.1.4 Elliptic Noun phrase

The findings of the study show that the SnG has structures that do not have

nouns or pronouns to modify. It has noun phrases without heads. According to Dryer

(ibid) these structures are still regarded as noun phrases or elliptical noun phrases

because of their grammatical similarity to the typical noun phrases such as the

occurrence of these structures in the subject and object positions. There are two types of

these phrases. They are either adjectives without head nouns or headless relative clauses

(ibid). It has been found that the SnG has both of these types.

Firstly, the SDO allows the use of these elliptic noun phrases that have only an

adjective with out a head to modify as in these examples:

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The adjective in this example occurs in the subject position:

ll-NP[Hdeho!r] Jedeh black.3SG.M came \ 3SG.M.PER

'The black (man) came."

In the following example the adjective occurs in the object position

12 - bo: ~d NP [ H d -Jke: reh ] marry\.3SG.M.PER beautiful 3 SG.F 'He married the beautiful (girl).' .

This use of the adjective in the SDG is different from the English structure that

consists of the definite article and the adjective as in 'the poor'. In the English structure,

only certain class of adjectives can be used while in the SDG, there is no such restriction,

and the adjective in the English structure has a plural meaning while in the SDG the

adjective used can be singular, plural or even dual.

Secondly, the SDG has an elliptical noun phrase which is a kind of headless

relative clause. Headless relative clauses are those which do not modify nouns or

pronouns.

13 - 1eh 0:1 )i:k NP [ de I not lSG.M.IMP-want REL.SG.M

'I do not want what you bought.'

5.1.2 Noun Phrase Structure in the SDG

te :Jer-k ] buy-2SG.M.PER

This section will focus on the different constituents in the NP structure such as

the head and the different grammatical categories that may occur in this slot, the various

modifiers, their agreement with their head and their order.

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5.1.2.1 Head of the Noun Phrase

The current study shows that the head of the NP in the SnG can be a common

noun, proper noun, a personal pronoun, a possessive pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun,

a numeral and an adjective:

5.1.2.1.1 Proper Nouns as NP Heads

The proper nouns occur as head of a simple noun phrases in the SnG as shown

in the following example:

14 -Jadah NP [H mu:hcemmad ] Come\PER 3.SG.M. Mohammad 'Mohammad came.'

In the conjoined noun phrase two proper nouns are joined together with a conjunction

such / w / 'and' /10 .. .10 I etc.as in:

15- NP[ \'ali Ali

w and

?ahmad ] t' a: har-ki Ahmed go-3DU.PER

'Ali and Ahmed went.'

The Proper noun is also a common head for the complex noun phrase .It is usually

followed by a relative clause.

16- NP [ H \'ali [MO de j-~: E"ed hie ]] Ali who 3SG.M.IMP-walk alone

Ali who walks alone ... '

5.1.2.1.2 Common Nouns as NP Heads

The common nouns whether singular, dual or plural are also widely used as

heads for the simple NP in the snG:

17 - s' a: m -eh die-3SG.F.PER 'A woman died.'

NP [ H ga:J-eh ] woman-SG.F

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In the coordinate NP two or more common nouns are joined together;

'lO:Z 10 ?lhe] either goat or cow

'Either a goat or a cow .... '

Common nouns are widely used as heads for the complex noun phrase in the SDG as

shown in the following example:

19- NP[ H bejoh [MO deho de be: beh]] mother my his father

'The mother of my father

5.1.2.1.3 Personal Pronouns as NP Heads

One of the most common simple noun phrases in SDG is that whose head is a personal

pronoun.

20 - NP [H'l~h] HO: d - ek I walk - Isa .M.PER.

, 1 walked.'

In the conjoined noun phrase two coordinated pronouns can be used as heads of the

noun phrase. hI such phrases the following orders are noticed to be preferable:

a-The first person pronouns take the first position as in this example:

21-NP ['l~h

1 w 'let] and youSG.M

'I and you ... '

b-The second person pronouns precede third person pronouns:

22 - NP [10 'let either you SG.M

'Either you or she ... '

10 or

seh ] she

The conjoined noun phrase may consist of coordinated nouns and pronouns in this case

the pronoun precede the noun as in the following example:

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23 - NP [ s€h w ds€h b€joh] she and her mother

'She and her mother ... ' The complex NP in the SDO may also have Personal Pronoun as a head which is usually

followed by a relative clause, a noun in a position or a relative clause.

24- NP [ Hj€h [MO d- a: 1 j-fa: z€\' ]] he who - not 3SG.M.lMP-tear

'He who does not fear ... '

25- NP [H hen [MO sak'a: t'r€h [ d€ n-so: fer]]] we Soqotrans REL.SG.M 1 PL.IMP-travel

, We the Soqotrians who travel. .. '

5.1.2.1.4 Possessive Pronouns as NP Heads

Possessive pronouns in the sno can be used as heads of simple noun phrases

functioning as subjects:

26 - NP[ H d€ho] Jk€:r DEM. SG.F mine good 'Mine is good.'

In conjoined noun phrases the use of two possessive pronouns is also possible:

27 -NP [d€ho w mine and

'Mine and hers ... '

ds€h hers

When the possessive pronoun is used as a head for a complex noun phrase it is followed

be a clause particularly a relative clause:

28- NP [H d€ho [MO d€ b k'a: \'€r]] mine REL.SG.M in house

'Mine which is at home ... '

5.1.2.1.5 Demonstrative Pronouns as NP Heads

The demonstrative pronouns in the SDO can be used as heads for the simple

noun phrases and these heads function as subjects or objects.

189

deho bijoh DEM.SG.F. COP my mother

'This (woman) is my mother.'

In the conjoined noun phrases two demonstrative pronouns can be joined together as a

head for that phrase:

30- NP [deS DEM.SG.F

'This and this .. .'

w deh] and DEM.SG.M

The demonstrative Pronoun can also be a head for a complex noun phrase. The pronoun

is usually postmodified by a relative clause:

31 - NP [H deh [MO d - a: I je-te]] je-s'em this .SG.M REL.- not 3SG.M.IMP-eat. 3SG.M.lMP-die

'This rrhat (one) who does not eat dies'

5.1.2.1.6 Numerals as NP Heads

Some simple noun phrases in the SDG may have cardinal numbers as heads.

J~doh-et

come-3SG.F.PER 'One (woman) came'

The cardinal numeral can be a head for a complex noun phrase when a relative clause is

added to it as a modifier.

33 -NP [Ht'od [MO de jr-o: )e ?erhon]] one SG.M REL.SG.M 3SG.M.lMP-pasture goat \ PL.F

'One (man) who pastures goats ... '

5.1.2.1.7 Adjectives as NP Heads

This head occurs only in one type of noun phrase in the SDG which is called

elliptic noun phrase as in this example:

34 - NP [HIke: r-eh] Jedoh-et beautiful-SO.F come-3SG.F.PER

'A beautiful (woman) came.

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5.1.2.2 Modifiers of the Noun Phrase

The findings of the current study reveal that the head noun of the NP in the SDO

can be modified in many ways. It can be modified by a determiner, an adjective, a noun,

an adverb, a prepositional phrase and by a relative or subjunctive clause.

5.1.2.2.1 Determiners as NP Modifiers

Crystal (2003, p.134) defines detenniners as "a class of items whose main role is

to co-occur with nouns to express a wide range of semantic contrasts such as quantity or

number". This class includes articles, demonstratives, possessive pronouns, quantifiers

and numerals. It has been found that all these detenniners are used as modifiers in the

SDO.In the BLT, detenniners are grouped among the modifiers (Dryer, 2007a).

5.1.2.2.1.1 1\J1icles

This study shows that the SDO has no distinct definite and indefinite articles.

This feature has been referred to by Johnstone (1970a) who states that some Soqotri

words that begin with 1 <]1,1 w 1 and Ij 1 have an inseparable affix (a mimetic prosthetic

vowel) which corresponds to the affixes functioning as articles in other MSAL, such as

Mehri, but the Soqotri affix had lost its semantic function while the Mehri affix still has

this function. However, Johnstone (ibid) does not refer to the means used now to

perform the functions of definiteness and indefiniteness in Soqotri.

Soqotri is not the only Semitic language that has no articles. According to Rubin

(2004) the Proto-East Semitic, Akkadian and Classical Ethiopic also have no definite

articles. However, Rijkhoff (2002) and Dryer (2005a, b; 2007a) point out that

definiteness and indefiniteness in languages are expressed in different ways. For

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example, some languages do not have special (in) definiteness markers, consequently

these languages resort to the distal demonstrative pronouns and the numeral (one) to

express the notions of definiteness and indefiniteness respectively. This is true for sno

in which the demonstratives de S 'this' F, de 'this' M or Ie 'these' M / F are used as

definite articles. They are put· before nouns which have become definite as a result of

being mentioned for the second time.

35--to:jer-k ~o:z NP[[MO de-S] H2o:z] Ske:reh buy - lSG.M.PER goat this DEM -.3.SG.F goat good ADJ. SG.F. 'I bought a goat the goat is good'.

If the noun is known to the listener it is usually preceded by the demonstrative even if it

is mentioned for the first time.

36- NP[[MO de] Hfedhen] ~o:k'er

.DEM.SG.M mountain. SG.M big .SG.M 'The mountain is big. '

The word fedhen 'mountain' is definite for both the speaker and the listener

and as a result of that it has been preceded by the demonstrative de which performs the

function of the definite article 'the'. If the noun is not known to the listener nor to the

speaker and mentioned for the first time, it will be either used alone or with the numeral

'one'. The numerals t'Dd, t' e h 'one' of the SDO are used in contexts in which other

languages such as English would use indefinite articles:

37-fo:na NP[[Mt'od] HlSajl ba:~el NP[[Mt'eh] HlSa:jeh] long ago one3SG.M man marry 3SG.M.PER one 3SG.F woman 'Long ago a man married a woman ... '

In the above example the numerals t'Dd 'one' (M) and t 'eh 'one' (F) have

been used as indefmite articles. Rubin (2004) and Dryer (2005) confirm that this

development of the word (one) into an indefinite article is a common feature in so many

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Semitic and non-Semitic languages such as Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic and

Amharic.

5.1.2.2.1.2 Possessive Pronouns

Both the dependent and independent possessive pronouns described in Chapter 4,

premodify the head of the NP in the SDG as illustrated in the following examples:

1 PL.POSS.PRO 'Our house'.

house SG.FEM.

39 ~p [[MO m-ak ] H fee na ] 2SG.M.POSS.ADJ face .SG

'Your face.'

As mentioned earlier in Chapter 4, the dependent suffix personal pronouns are

sometimes used as possessive pronouns when they are added to some few words

denoting kinship relationship such as 2e;ha. 'brother' 2e;he;t 'sister', hel maternal

uncle, £ibri nephew or niece' and ha:m 'soninlaw'

brother- ISG .. POSS.SUF.PRO 'my brother,'

41 - NP [H 2eh [MO -ak]] brother- 2SG.M.POSS.SUF.PRO

'Your brother' ,

These possessive constructions are rare in SDG and may be regarded as direct

results of the increasing influence of Arabic on the syntax of Soqotri because possessive

pronouns in Arabic are suffixed to the head of the NP. In Arabic they do not occur as

independent words as it is the case in the SDG.

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5.1.2.2.1.3. Demonstratives

The current study reveals that the SDO has double demonstrative, one comes

before the head of the NP and the other comes after it. This double demonstrative in the

SDO is somewhat analogous to English 'this book here' or 'that book there' but it is the

normal way of expressing demonstratives in SDG. This finding is in total agreement

with Dixon (2004 b) and Dryer (200Sc, 2007a) who point out that double demonstratives

in some languages involves a demonstrative word or an affix preceding the head noun

and with a simultaneous occurrence of another demonstrative word or an affix following

that noun as in French. No previous study on Soqotri has ever referred to the double

demonstrative in Soqotri.

In the SDO these double demonstratives are of two types. One type is for

proximity [ d£(S) + noun + dhah] and the other one for distance [d£(S) + noun +

dbDg ] They have singular, dual and plural forms. The singUlar and dual forms

furthermore have feminine and masculine forms. The plural forms of these

demonstratives have a common gender, they can be used with both masculine and

feminine nouns. The full paradigm of these demonstratives has already been given in

Chapter Four.

42 - NP [[MO d£ S] H 10: Z [ MO dhah ]] DEM.-SG.F. goat. SG.F. here.SG

'Thi t' sgoa ...

DEM - SG.F. goat.SG.F 'That goat .... '

thereSG.

44 - NP [ [ MO d£-S i] H 10 : Z -t i [ MO dbDk' ]] DEM -DU.F. goat - DU.F. there SG.

, Those ( two) goats •..•

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45 - NP [ [MO Ie ] H 2erhon [MO Iheh]] DEM -PL.. goat \.PL.F herepL.

'These goats ... '.

46- NP [ [MO Ie ] H 2erhon [ Mo lbok' ]] DEM-PL. goat. \PLF there PL.C.

'Those goats ... '

47 - [[Mode] H HeJ [MO dheh]] DEM-SG.M. man.SG.M here SG.

'This man' ...

48 -NP [[MO de ] H HeJ [MO dbo k' ]] DEM. SG.M. man.SG.M there SG.

'That man ..... '

49 -NP [[MO de - ki(h)] H HaJ - i DEM - DU.M man - DU.M

'These (two) men ..... .'

[MO dhah]] hereSG.

50- NP [[Mode - ki ] H HeJ - i [Modbok]] DEM - DU.M. man - DU.M there SG.

'Those (two) men ..... .'

H HijoJ [MO Iheh]] DEM-.PL. man \ PL.M. here.PL

'These men ... '

52- NP [[MO le] HHijoJ [Mo lbok']] DEM -PL man \ PL.M. there.pL.

'Those men ... '

The above examples show that the first word of the demonstratives agrees with

the head noun of the NP in number and gender and the second word of the

demonstratives agrees with the head noun only in number .In fact this second word has

only a singular and a plural forms but it does not have a dual form, so its singular form is

used for dual head nouns. The gender of this word is common. Regarding the order of

the double demonstrative in the NP, the second word always occurs after the head noun

195

and the first word usually comes prenominally (before the head noun of the NP) but it

sometimes occurs postnominally (after the noun) and becomes adjacent to the second

demonstrative word when the head noun is premodified by a possessive pronoun such

as dehn 'my' deh' his' or by another noun (genitive construction)

53 - NP [[MO d-eh] 3SG.M.POSS.PRO

'This chief of his ' 54-NP [HmnkSem [Mode

chiefSG.M this.SG.M - here SG.

child of woman this SG.F there SG. 'That woman's child'

5.1.2.2.1.4 Cardinal Numerals

There are two kinds of numerals that are used as modifiers of the NP. The first

kind is called cardinal numerals such as one, two etc, which indicate the number of the

referents the NP denotes. The second kind of numerals is called ordinal numerals such as

the first, the second. They indicate the order of the referent denoted by the NP with

respect to other referents. All these two types of numerals are used as NP modifiers in

theSDG.

The findings of this study show that the syntax of the cardinal numerals in the

SDG is different and more complex than that of the ordinal numerals. Dryer (2oo7a)

confirms the existence of this fact in the syntax of many languages. The cardinal

numerals in the SDG usually precede the head noun of the noun phrase. They are

premodifiers.

55- NP [[Mot'nd] HH9J] Jedeh one .SG.M man.SG.M come 3SG.M.PER

'One man came'.

196

Some times these cardinals occur postnominally when there is another modifier.

56 - [ [IE] HmHE: rif [ lEIEh]] DEM.PL glass \ PI. M. three F. 'These three glasses .... '

The cardinal numerals in snG inflect for masculine and feminine gender and in

some cases for number. They have a special agreement system with the nouns they

modify. The masculine forms of the cardinal numerals from 3 to lOin SnG are used

with plural feminine nouns.

57 - NP [[MO lilEh] H H9J - E: tin] Three-M. woman - PL.F

'Three women' ...

58 rlP [[Mo2E: rb9~] HH9J - E: tin] four.M. woman - PL.F.

'Four women '

The feminine forms of the cardinal numerals from 3-10 in SnG modify plural masculine

nouns as exemplified below:

59 - NP[[ ~1O 10 : H9t-Eh] H HijoJ ] three -F man \ PL.M.

Three men

60-[[2E:rb9~-oh] HijoJ]] Four-.F. man \ PL.M

'Four men'

This peculiar agreement, in which the cardinal takes a feminine form when the

head noun is masculine and a masculine form when the head noun is feminine, is called

Polarization in Semitic linguistics. It is common in some Semitic languages especially

Arabic (Kremers, 2003). Regarding the numeral cardinals that consist of two numbers

especially those from 11-19, they are formed according to this formula:

197

[ ~a S e: n::h • ten' + W 'and' + t 'nd 'one', treh 'two' .. , etc.] The fust

numeral / ~ a S e : n::hI 'ten' always has a feminine gender regardless of the head noun

gender but the second numeral (t '00 'one' , treh 'two' ... etc.) agrees with the head

noun in gender.

61 - NP [[ MO~a S e: r-eh w t '00] H HijDJ] ten- F. and one- M. man \ PL.M

'Eleven men'

62- NP [[~aSe:reh

tenF. 'Eleven women ... '

w t'-eh]HHaJ-e:tin] and one- F . woman - PLU.FEM.

The nouns that follow the numerals 13 and above can be either singular or plural.

63 - NP [[~aS e: r-eh w 2e :rba~] H HaJ] Ten- F. and fourM. manSG.M

'Fourteen men'

64-NP[[~aSe: r-eh w 2e :rba~] HijDJ] ten- F. and fourM. man) PL.M.

'Fourteen men'

The nouns modified by the cardinal numerals 12, 22, 32 etc, can be either dual or plural:

65 -NP [[MO ~a S e: r-eh w t'r-eh] H HaJ - i ti] ten -F. and twO-F .. woman -DU.F

'Twelve women'

66 --"NP [[MO ~ a S e : r-eh w t'r-eh] H HaJ - e : tin] ten -F. and two-F. woman- PL.F

'Twelve women'

The cardinal numerals (30, 40, 50 ..... 90) are formed by using the masculine

fonns of the cardinals( trnh 'two' , i.e: leh 'three' , 2erbe~ 'four' , ... etc) plus the

plural masculine form of the cardinal (lO).They modify either feminine or masculine

plural nouns.

198

67 - NP [[MO i.e: leh £aSa: r - hen] HHijDJ] three -M ten- PL.M. man\PL.M

, Thirty'men.'

68 -NP[[MO ~erbe£ £aSa: r - hen] HHaJ -e: tin] fourM. ten-PL.M woman-PL.F

'Forty men'

5.1.2.2.1.5 Ordinal Numerals

The ordinal numerals follow the head nouns and agree with them in number and

gender. They are treated as adjectives because of two reasons. First, they occur in the

same position of adjectives. Secondly, like adjectives, they are sometimes preceded by

relative pronouns:

69 - NP [[H ia : her monthSG.M

'The first month ... '

[MO de REL.SG.M

ne:Ser]] first\ SG.M

ma:sef]] month SG.M REL.SG.M second \ SG.M

'The second month ... '

When both cardinal and ordinal numerals occur simultaneously in the same noun

phrase, they follow this order:

Cardinal Number + Head Noun + Ordinal Number

71 - NP[[ h:\'teh ] H {eb\'er three \ F camel \ PL.M

'The first three camels ... '

[Ie mene:Jreh]] REL.PL first M.PL

72 -NP [[cerb\'-eh] H {eb\'er [Ie dsa: f]] second M.PL four - F camel \ PL.M REL.PL

'The second four camels.'

199

5.1.2.2.1.6 Quantifiers

The NP in the SDG is modified by some quantifiers such as J E : S E b 'half ,

'all' , fak'ah 'some', kDl 'both' 'each' ~aJ· 'any' hi " ,e:: :

another ,dE: lEk' much, many and Xa: rEn a few, a little. The previous studies

on Soqotri ignored totally quantifiers and their functions. The quantifier J E : S E b 'half'

appears post nominally. It does not agree with its head noun.

73 - NP [[ MO J E : S E b ] [MO dEhn] H ~ E r bon ] half ISG.POSS goat \PLU.

'Half of my goats

The SDG has two quantifiers meaning 'all' : fo: Hareh and kDl, each of them

occurs prenominally. fo: HarEh does not agrees with its head

74 - NP [[ MO fo: HarEh] [MO IE ] H~ElhE: - tin [MO Ihah] ] all DEM.PL cow - PL.F here PL.

'All these cows'

1ml agrees with the head noun in number. Actually it has a plural form for the plUral

head noun and a dual form for the dual head

75 - NP [[MO kDl] H ~ElhE: - tin [MO dE all -PL cow - PL.F of

'All Ali's cows'

~li]]

Ali

76 - NP [[ MO kil- E: ti] [ModEhn] H ~ElE: - til both - DU.F lSG.poss cow - DU.F

'Both my two cows'

/ knl I is also used as quantifier meaning' each' it also occurs before the singular head

noun.

77 -NP[[MO kDl] H ~o:z]

each goat SG.F , Each goat'

200

The quantifier 2aj 'any' occurs prenominally before the singular head noun. It does

not agree with that noun in number or gender.

78- NP [[MO 2aj] HHaj] any man.'

'Any man' ...

79- NP [[MO 2aj] H HQ :j-e:tin] any woman-PL.F

Any women ... '

The quantifier hie: 'another' occurs post-nominally and agrees with the head nouns in

number and gender.

80 - NP [H IDDXfDf [MO de k'Dt'Dn [MO da- hie: ]]] sarong SG.M of cotton REL.SG.M another SG.M

'Another cotton sarong'

81-NP [H HijDJ [MO 1e- hie-:hen]] man \ PLU.M REL.PL. other -M.PL.

'Other men'

The quantifier de: lek' 'much, many' occurs prenominally and postnominally but it

does not agree in number or gender with the head noun.

82 - NP [H ixo: f [MO de: lek']] milk much 'Much milk'

many people 'Many people'

The quantifier xa: ren 'a few, a little' occurs postnominally and agrees with the head

noun in number and gender.

84 -NP [H xe:m -eh [MO deS-oil-SG.F REL.SG.F

, A little oil'

[MO xarrin-eh] ] ] little -SG.F

201

85-NP[H2E;IJiJ [MolE;- [MOxarranE;: -tin]]] hen \ PL REL..PL few - PL.F

'These few hens'

86 -'[HHijnJ [M IE; [xarri-hE;n]]] men REL.PL few - .PL.M

, A few men'

The qualifier fak'ah 'some' appears prenominally but it does not agree with the

head noun. It has one form used for uncountable nouns and for plural nouns. It is not

used with the singular countable nouns.

87 -NP[[MO fak'ah] [MO dE;] H ri:ho:] some DEM.SG.M water

'Some of this water'

88-.NP[[ MO fak'ah] [MO dat ] some .poss.PRo-2SG.M

'Some of your speech'

H mE;ttal] speech

5.1.2.2.2 Interrogatives as NP Modifiers

The current study shows that most of the interrogative modifiers in the snG

consist of one word but some of them are multi-words such as ( dE; mhnn). It also

shows that interrogatives in the SDG usually occur prenominally but some of them such

as (dE; mhnn) can occur prenominally and postnominally. Dryer (200Sd, 2007a)

confirms the existence of such orderings of interrogatives in the noun phrases of many

languages

89 - NP [[MO 2E;nim] H mE;ttal ?] what speech

'What speech?'

90 - NP HMO dE; mhnn] H bijnh ] whose mother SG.

'Whose mother died~'

s'a:m-E;h ? die - 3SG.F.PER

202

This interrogative modifier can also occur after the head noun as a postmodifier.

91 - NP [H bijoh [MO dE:- mhon]] s'a: m -E:h ? mother whose die - 3SG.F.PER 'Whose mother died?,

92 - NP [[MO ~aj ] which

'Which goat?'

H~O:Z?]

goat SO.F.

The interrogative modifier mon 'who, which' can be followed by the preposition mE:n

'from, of.

93 -NP[[MO mon mE:n] H ~E:rhon] Si:n - a k ? which from goat \ PLU. see-2SG.M.PER

'Which of the goats did you see?'

The head noun that follows the preposition can be replaced by the suffix object pronoun

as mentioned earlier in Chapter 4:

94 - NP[[MO mon]·· _ [MO mE:n] H -s:m] S i: n - a k ? which of - them3PL.F. see - 2SG.M.PER

'Which of them did you see?'

5.1.2.2.3 Nouns as NP Modifiers (Genitive Constructions)

The genitival relationship between nouns in the Proto-Semitic language and in

most of the other languages that descended from it is expressed by juxtaposing the two

nouns without the use of any particle. This is called 'construct phrase'. (Rubin, 2004&

Williams, 2007). But the construct phrase is used only in those languages which have

retained case such as Arabic and Akkadian. The other Semitic languages that have lost

case such as Soqotri developed a particular genitive exponent (Rubin, 2004). In the SDG

203

the particle dE is used as a genitive exponent, it intervenes between the possessed noun

and the possessor.

NP [possessee] + dE + NP [possessor]

ox SG.M

'The ox of Ali' POSS.

5:1i]] Ali

This particle is also used in the SDG as a relative pronoun. When it is used in the

relative clause, it is inflected for person, number and gender, but when it is used in

possessive construction, it does not inflect. The use of the particle dE in the possessive

structure of the SDG has an important typological implication. Dryer (2007a) states that

Mandarin Chinese has the same intervening word dE in its genetive construction

regarding it as a 'link' rather than apposition since it can also be found in the relative

clauses. Amh¢c, a Semitic Ethiopian language which descends from the same family

branch of Soqotri, has genitive constructions similar to those of the SDG. While the

particle (dE) is used in the possessive noun phrases and relative clause in the SDG, the

particle ja: is used in the same structures in Amharic. Fulass (1972) states that the

possessive noun phrases in Amharic have hidden relative clauses in their representations.

Mullen (1986) has a different view regarding the function and the nature of the particle

j a: in these two different constructions in Amharic. He regards the function of that

particle in the possessive noun phrases as equivalent to the function of the English

preposition "of" while in relative clauses it is a relative marker.

204

The current study shows that the ranges of meanings and relationships a genitive

construction in the SDO can express are as follows:

I-Possession

96- NP[Hktreb [MO de ~eli ]] book poss. Ali

'Ali's book'

2- Kinship relations

97 - [H bijDh [de mother POSS.

'Boy's mother'

3- Part-whole relation

mDkSem ]] boy

k'erbeJ]] Paw poss. cat

'Cat's paw'

4- Abstract relations

99- [H2e: fe [de sek'et'ri]] People poss. Soqotra 'Soqotra people'

100 - [Hmk'eddem [de chief poss.

Set'erhir]] tribe

'Tribe's chief

The genitive constructions in the SDO can also express some partitive

relationship such as partition in respect of quantity and partition in respect of measuring.

1 - Partition in Respect of Quantity

a- Uncountable Nouns

lOI-NP [Hnesr -eh [Mode teh]] bite -SG.F poss. meat .UNC.M , A bite of meat '

205

102-2ant'f::f-f:h df: drop -SG.F POSS.

'A drop of blood'

b- Countable Nouns

da:r] blood UC.M

103 -NP [H lahs [ MO df: 2a S'f:: r- f:h]] Piece SO. poss. bread - SO.F

'A piece of bread'

104- NP [H2asb8~ [ d8 S8rhon]] branch SG.M. poss. tree SG.F

'A branch of tree'

2- Partition in respect of measuring

a-Length

105 --m> [2a: m-ah [MO df: nak'f]] ann's length -SG.F

'Arm's length cloth'

b- Weight

106 - NP [ H kahf [df:

POSS.PAR cloth

2f:rhiz]] measuring bowl POSS. rice

'A measuring bowl of rice'

107 - [H rna: 1 [d8- 2 id full POSS hand

'A handful of rice'

[ df: - 28rhiz ]]] POSS. nce

All the above examples show that the SOO has genitive constructions with the

noun modifier (possessor) occurring after the head noun (possessed). In some genitive

structures, the possessive pronoun is inserted between the possessed and the possessor as

in these examples

108-NP [H~arf::b - f:h [MO dhf:n bistam]]] wall - SG.F POSS.PRO-IPL.M POSS. garden

'The wall of our garden'

206

109-NP [H 20:z goat SG.F POSS.PRO.3SG.F POSS.PAR father

'Her father's goat'

5.1.2.2.4 Adjectives as NP Modifiers

The study of the system of adjectival modification is important in its own right

and it is also important for clarifying the way the internal structure of the noun phrase is

articulated (Fassi Fehri, 1999). Adjectives in the SDG share characteristics with nouns.

Like nouns, they inflect for number and gender. They occur in postnominal positions

where they agree in number and gender with the head noun they modify. They mayor

may not be preceded by a relative pronoun when they modify nouns. This relative

pronoun also agrees with the head noun in number and gender. They have hierarchical

prominence restrictions on serialized ordering.

1l0-NP[HHeJ [Mo(de) [MO libhDn]]] man SG.M REL. SG.M white SG.M

'A white man'

111- NP [HeJ - i man- DU.M

Two white men

[(de-kih) Ibe:n - i]]] REL - DU.M white - DU.M

112 - NP [HijDJ [ (Ie) [ leba: neh]]] man \ PLU.M REL. PL. white \ PL.M.

'White men'

[ (de-S) lebi : n -ch]]] woman- SG.FEM. REL.- SG.F white - SG.FEM

'A white woman'

114-NP [HeJi-ti [(dc-Si) [lebe:ni-ti]]] woman - DU.F. REL. - DU.F white - DU.F

'Two white woman'

115-NP lHeJe:-tin [ (lc) woman - PL.F. REL. PL

'White women'

lebenc : - tin]]] white-PL.F

207

5.1.2.2.4.1 Combination of Adjectives

When two or more adjectives occur in the same NP, they show a particular order

preference. For example, the preferred order of adjectives in English is:

General description> size> shape> age> colour> origin> material. (Holmes &

Moulton, 2001). The findings of the current study show that the preferred order of

adjectives in the NP of the SDG can be summed up as follows:

a-Adjective of nationality come before adjective of quality as shown in the following

examples:

116-Ha:j-eh sak'at'rij-eh Ske:r-eh woman -SG.F Soqotri - SG.F beautiful - SG.F.

, A beautiful Soqotri woman'

b-Adjectives of age come before adjective of quality:

117 - Haj (de-) Sibnb Ske:r man REL.SG.M; old SG.M REL.SG.M good SG.M

, A good old man'

c-Adjective denoting size, colour and material also come before adjectives of quality: .

118 -Ha:j-eh (deS) ~i: I-nh woman -SG.F REL.SG.F one.-SG.FEM

, A beautiful tall woman'

(d-) Ske:r-eh REL beautiful - SO.F.

119 - Ha: j -eh (de-S) Iabi:n-eh (d-) Ske:r-eh] woman SG.F REL-SG.F white -SG.F REL - beautiful-sG.F 'A beautiful white woman.'

120- sa:hen (de-) ma~den (de) Ske: r dish SG.M REL.M metal SG.M REL.M. good SG.M

, A good metal dish'

d-Adjectives of shape occur before adjective of size and after adjectives of age and

colour:

208

121- dbe: b-eh di: fun rne4fre: k'-eh d4fek'a: r-eh drum SG.F old SG,F round -SG.F big -SG,F 'A big round old drum'

122 - ',?::l: ben h nr-eh rne4fre: k' -eh stone SG.F black-SG.F round -SG,F 'a round black stone' .

When all these types of adjectives occur together in the NP of the SDG they have the

following preferred order:

Age> Nationality> Colour> Shape> Size> Quality

Adjective denoting age come before the adjectives of nationality which are followed by

the adjectives of colour, size and quality respectively.

123-Ha:J-eh d-Sibib sek'etrij-eh deS lebi:n-eh deS 4fi:l-nh woman SG.F old \ F Soqotri-SG.F white -SG.F long -SG.F

d-Ske : r -eh beautiful- SG.F

'A tall old white beautiful Soqotri woman' .

Though this order is not followed strictly, it is common. The data collected included

some examples that deviate from this order for example, the adjectives of nationality

sometimes precede the adjectives of age as in:

124-HSJ d-snk'et'ri d-Se :bnb man SG.M Soqotri. SG.M. oldSG.M

'An old Soqotri man'

5.1.2.2.5 Adverbs as NP Modifiers

It has been found that some types of adverbs in the SDG can modify the head

noun in the NP. For example, the locative demonstratives that function as adverbial

such as ' here' and ' there ' can post modify the head noun.

209

125 - NP [H mk'a: S i [MO Ihah ]] boy \ PL.M here PL.

The boys here ... '

Taren (2005) subcategorizes the adverbs of time into when- adverbs such as

Monday, today, yesterday, now last night, adverb of duration such as for a week, since

Monday and adverbs of frequency such as always often ,sometimes, etc. In the SDG, the

when-adverbs are widely used as postmodifiers for the head noun of the NP.

126 -NP [II ~azu:m-ah [MO Ie: h:n]] feast -SG. last night.

, Last night feast' .

[MO k'efe :reh]] marriage ceremony-SG.F tomorrow 'Tomorrow marriage ceremony'

128- NP [H ~ azu : m-ah [MO i~: d]] feast -SG. Saturday

'Saturday feast'

5.1.2.2.6 Prepositional Phrases as NP Modifier

The PP consists mostly of a preposition followed by a noun. It postmodifies the

head noun in the NP. (Biber & Leech, 2002).

129- NP[H dra:hem [MO b- Sant'ah ]] money in bag

'The money in the bag ... ' .

130-NP[H HijnJ [MO b fedhnn ]] man \ PL.M in mountain SG.M

'The men in the mountain ... ' .

5.1.2.2.7 Participle Clauses as NP Modifiers

Present and past participle clauses are used as postmodifiers in the NP of the

SDG. A detailed description of these clauses can be found in Chapter Six.

210

131 - NP [H mokS em [MO j -ha: me~ dEh bijoh]] biSE child SG.M 3.sG.IMP-hear his mother weep3 SG.M.PER

'The child hearing his mother wept'

132- NP(H firEhim [MO 2EJi:joh . wi: ]] a:1 teh girl SG.M beat\ 3SG.F.PER. PASS a lot not eat 3.SG.F.PER

'The girl, beaten a lot, did not eat' .

5.1.2.2.8 Subjunctive clauses as NP Modifiers

Functionally speaking, the subjunctive clause in the SDO is similar to the

infmitive clause in English. It performs almost all the functions performed by the

English infInitive clause. But morphologically the subjunctive clause is different because

it inflects for person, number and gender as described in Chapter Six. This clause

postrnodifies the head noun of the NP in the SDO:

133 - jEh S-eh NP hI mEtte1 [MO 1E-SEmt1E1]] he have- 3SG.M speech 3SG M.SUB -say

'He has some thing to say'

134-jan SE:-hEn NP[H na:fe~ [Mo1E-nfe~ ]] they M haVe-3PL.M work 3 PLU.M,SUB-do

'They have a work to do'.

5.1.2.2.9 Relative Clauses as NP Modifier

Relative clauses in the SDO are used as modifiers for the head nouns of the NP.

They occur postnorninally.

Si:ne t~k ]] man SG.M REL.3SG.M see 3SG.M.PER. 2SG.M.SUF.PRO

'The man who saw you.'

ba:fe:1-k -tES ]]

woman REL.SG.F marry-lSG.PER 3SG.F.SUF.PRO 'The woman I married ... '

211

5.1.2.2.10 Restrictors as NP Modifiers

Givon (1990) points out that restrictive modifiers are words that limit or restrict

the domain of the head noun in the noun phrase, thus they have the potential of being

contrastive. The SDG have some restrictors such as h~b 'even' and bas 'only'.

h~ b occurs prenominally and bas occurs postnominally. Neither of these restrictors

agrees with the head noun in number or gender. These restrictors do have the potential

of being contrastive as Givon (ibid) said. The following examples illustrate their use in

theSDG:

137 - NP [[MO h~b] H HaJ~: - tin] even woman - PL..F Even woman'

138 - NP [H wijoJ [ MO bas]] man \ PL.M only 'Only men'

5.1.2.3 Constituents Order within the NP

Though there are no absolute rules, the researcher noticed that there are a few

general tendencies which govern the order of words in the pre-modification and post-

modification sequences of the SDG.

5.1.2.3.1 Order of Premoditiers

There are preferred orders of the modifiers that occur prenominally in the NP of

the SDG, for example, when a quantifier is combined with a possessive pronoun or a

demonstrative, the quantifier comes first:

QUAN. + POSS.PRO. + H N

212

139 -NP[[MO kilE: -ti] [MO dEbD] both - DU.F POSS.PRO

'Both my two cows' QUAN. + DEM. + H N

H 2EIE:-ti] cow - DU.F

140- NP [[MOJE: SEb] half

[MO Ie] H 2ErbDn ]] DEM.PL. goat \ PL.F

'Half of those goats'

When a possessive pronoun or a demonstrative is combined with a cardinal

numeral, the possessive pronoun and the demonstrative precede the numeral.

POSS.PRO + NUM. + H N

141- NP[[MO dEbD] [MotEman-Eb] H mak'a: Si] POSS.PRO eight - F boy \ PL.M

'My eight boys'

DEM.+NUM.+HN

142 - [[MO IE] [MO tEmo :ni] HHa: JE: - tin [MO Ihab] ] DEM.PL. eight. M woman - PL.F here PL.

'These eight women' .

The interrogative modifiers usually but not always precede the head noun:

INTER+HN

143 - [[MO kam] how many

H HijDJ] man \PL.M

'How many men'

The above mentioned favoured orders of the premodifiers can be summed up as follows:

a QUAN. + {poss} + HN

b-

c.

DEM.

{poss} + NUM. + H N

OEM.

INTER.+ HN

213

5.1.2.3.2 Order of Postmodifiers

Similarly, when more than one Postmodifier occur in the NP of the SDG, one

can notice two main preferred orders. First: the head noun is followed by a postmodifier

noun which mayor may not be followed by an adjective modifier then a quantifier, a

demonstrative, an adverb or a prepositional phrase occurs.

a- HN+N + (ADJ) QUAN DEM PP ADV INTER

Secondly, post modifiers such as (possessive pronouns, numerals or quantifiers)

can follow the head noun immediately and precede the postmodifier noun which may

or may not be followed by an adjective as in this role:

POSS.PRO

b. HN + NUM. + N+(ADJ.)

QUAN.:

The following examples illustrate the possibilities of the first preferred ordering:

1-HN+N+ADl+QUAN.

144 [HmDl{rif [MO d~[MO iX:::>: f [MO~:::>: k'ar [(d) xarrarh~n]]]]] bowl SG.M poss milk big SG.M QUAN-.another SG. 'Another big milk bowl'

HN+N+ADJ+DEM

145 - [HmDl{rif [MO d~-l{a: J-~h [MO (d)-Sk~: r-~h [MO d~ S d bog]]]] bowl poss woman-SG .FREL- beautiful- SG.F DEM.SG.F there 'The bowl of that beautiful woman'

HN+N+ADJ+ADV

146 - [H mDl{rif [MO (d~-) l{a: -~h [MO (d) Sk~: r- ~h [MO hah]]]] bowl SG,M poss woman-SG.F REL.SG.F .beautiful-SG.F here

'The bowl of a beautiful woman here'

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HN+N+Adj + PP

147-[H mn~Tif[MO de-Ha:J-eh [Mod- Ske:r-eh [MOmen hah]]]] bowl SG.M of woman -SG.F REL.F beautiful-SG.F. from here

'The bowl of a beautiful woman from here.'

Some interrogative pronouns can occur postnominally as in this example

HN+INTER

148- [H be :beh [modemenhnn]] father SG.M whose

'Whose father ... ?'

The following examples illustrate the different possibilities of the second orderings:

H + POSS.PRO + N + AD]

149 - [H~are: b-eh [Modhan [MO bistren [MO ~ak'E: r-eh]]]] wall - SG.F POSS garden .SG.M big.-SG.F 'Our big garden wall'

H +NUM.+N+ADJ

150- [Hmm~rif [MO ~o:rbe~ [rvIOHa:Je:-tin [MO Sko:r]]]] bowl SG.M four.M. woman -PL.F \>eautiful. \ PL.F. 'The four beautiful women's bowl'

HN+QUAN.+N+ADJ

151-[HmnHrif [Mofo:Hareh [Mode Ha:Je:-tin [MO Skoe:r]]]] bowl SG.M all POSS woman - PL.F beautiful \ PL.F.

'All the beautiful women's bowl'

Finally the adverbs and the other clause modifiers follow the head noun as shown in the

following role

c- HN +

ADV PP REL.CL SUB.CL PAR.CL

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HN+ADV

152 - NP[ H~O: Z [MO dbDk' ]] goat SG.F there SG. 'The goat there ....

HN+PP

153- NP [H dra:hcffi [MO b-k'a~cr]] money \ PL.M in house

'Money at home ... .'

HN+REL. CL.

154- NP(HHaJ [Modc SCffitcl-k ~ch]]

man SG.M REL.SG.M Speak-3SG.M.PER him 'The man whom you talked with' .

HN+SUB.CL.

155 - NP [H ga: J-ch [MO lc-b£cl]] Woman 3.SG.M.SUB -marry. 'A woman to marry.'

HN+PART.CL

l56-NP[Hbi~cr

camel SG.M [MO j-Si :na ~ch]] j - cJcdhcn

3SG.M.IMP - see him 3SG.M.IMP - come 'Seeing him, the camel comes.'

5.1.3 Unification of the Noun Phrase

Givon (1990) states that one of the most common ways used in binding multi-

element noun phrases is the unifying morphology, the modifiers agree with various

categories inherited in the head noun of the NP such as number and gender. This

morphological binding or grammatical agreement within the NP which is considered to

be an expression of the unity of the NP is employed in the SDG. The number and gender

of the head noun in the SDG spread to almost all modifiers such as the nouns, numerals,

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adjectives, demonstratives, relative pronouns and possessive adjectives as shown clearly

in the previous examples.

5.1.4 The Functions of the Noun Phrase

The current study reveals that the NP in the sno perfonns a lot of functions in

the clause and sentence. It can function as a subject of verbal or nonverbal clauses, an

object of the verb, a subject complement, an object complement and as appositive.

a- Subject of verbal clause

157 - [d£:-s£:h HaJ] Jdah POSS.PRO-3SG.F man come.3SG.M.PER Her husband came

b- Subject of Nominal clause 158 - [d£: -s£:h HaJ]

POSS.POR-3SG.F man Her Husband (is) ill

J~: ~ar

ill.3.SG.M

c -Object of Verb

159 - j£:h 1a: taH he kill.3.SG.M.PER.

[ ka1ab dog

'He killed the chiefs dog.'

d- Subject Complement

160 - l£:h NP [ mS £:~r£:k] I fisher man SO.M 'I am a fishennan. '

e-Object Complement

d£: mk' addam ] POSS chief

161 - ~embe ~allah s'e:h NP [ Sa:m] cal1.3SG.M.PER Allah light day 'Allah called the light day. '

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f- Appositive (a noun phrase that explains or identifies another noun)

162 - mnkS am NP [ mnkS am dE makaddam ] JO: 'lEr boy SG.M boy SG.M poss chiefSG.M ill SG.M

'.The boy, L'1e chief's boy, is ill.'

5.2 The Verb Phrase in the SDG

There is disagreement over the extent of the verb phrase (VP). While some

linguists see that the VP should include only the words that are verbs, other linguists

think that the VP includes the verb and all the predicate (Declerck, et al., 2006).

Following Dixon (2005) the VP in the SDG will be described here as consisting of just a

verb or a string of verbs with a main verb as a head and an optional auxiliary as a

modifier. The object and the adverbials that follow the verb will not be regarded as a

part of the VP since these elements will be described as a part of the verbal clause

predicate in Chapter 6. Describing the VP as a structure consisting just of the different

verbs will help avoid repetition and overlapping between the description of the VP and

that of the verbal clause in the SDG.

The findings of the current study indicate that the SDG has two tense forms: the

perfect form (for past tense) and the imperfect form for (present and future). The perfect

and imperfect forms are inflected for tense, person number and gender. These findings

also indicate that the SDG has main verbs and auxiliaries. The structure of the VP varies

according to these verbs, thus there are verb phrases with just main verbs and verb

phrases with both main verbs and auxiliaries.

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5.2.1 Verb Phrases with Main verbs

The main verb in the SDG is either intransitive, transitive, extended transitive

(di-transitive) or copula; consequently, there are VPs with intransitive verbs as in

example 1, VPs with transitive verbs as in example 2, and VPs with extended transitive

verbs as in example 3 and VPs with copula verbs as in example 4. Full paradigms that

show the perfect and imperfect verbal inflections of the time, person, number, and

gender can be found in Chapter 4.

a- VP -+ INT.V

1 - 2as'fe: -r-eh vp [ t- efrer ] bird-SG.F 3SG.F.IMP.- fly

'The bird flies. '

b- VP -+ Mono / ditransitive verb

2- vp[ ksa: -ak] I:m :J-eh find - I.SG.M.PER. woman- SG.F 'I found a woman. '

3_ vp[2enda:k'-eh] mebrhe give -3;SG.F.PER. child SG.M. 'She gave the child milk.'

c- VP -+COP

4 - vp [kDn - k ] be - lSG.M.PER

'I was a teacher'

mu:darres teacher SG.M

ixo:f milk

The SDG has some copula verbs such as ron ,ber, ~ed, and 2e :rem. These

copula verbs are also used as auxiliaries as it will be shown in the next section. The

copula ron has an imperfect form used for the future tense and a perfect form used for

the past tense, but it is not used in the present tense. The copula verbs ber and ~ ed

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also do not have imperfect fonns. They have only perfect (past) fonns, nevertheless,

they express present perfect tenses.

5-j£h yp[j~-kDn] mS£~f£k

he 3SG.M.IMP-be fishennan 'He will be a fishennan.'

6 - f£fh£m Vp [ b£f-£h ] !fa :J£h girl 3SG.F.PER-COP already woman 'The girl has already been a woman'

7 - j £h yp [ ~~d] he 3SG.M.PER-COP not yet ill 'He is still ill. '

More details about the use of copula verbs can be found in the section that describes

copula clauses in Chaptef 6

5.2.2 Verb Phrases with Main Verbs and Auxiliaries

The VP in the SDO may consist of a main verb functioning as a head for the

whole phrase and an auxiliary that adds meaning of the action or state denoted by the

main verb. Simeone-Senelle (1997) mentioned only two Soqotri auxiliaries: ~ ad which

indicates incompletion of an action and b£r which indicates completion of an action

but the researcher found some other auxiliaries which have not been referred to before

such as kDn, 2£: f£m which are equivalent to the English verb 'to be', ma~ad and

2 £ : m£n which denote that an action was about to happen, etc,

d-VP ~AUX+V 8 - yp[[ Mo~ad -£h] a: H t'ah£: r - £h]

AUX-3SG.F.PER not go - 3SG.F.PER 'She has not gone yet'

9-yp[[MO kDn-k] H?a-Se~rek]

AUX -180M,PER IsG.IMP-fish 'I was fishing

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e- VP --. AUX.+ COP

10 -VP [[MO ~:)d]

3SG.M.PER-AUX 3SG.M.lMP-COP be 'He will be ill again."

The structures along with the temporal and aspectual functions of these VPs will be

described in detail in the following section which deals with the tense and aspects in the

SDG.

5.2.3 Tense and Aspect

Classical Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are relatively poor in

their verbal forms. They have only two forms one for the perfect actions or events and

the other is for the imperfect actions or events. The limited verbal forms in these

languages do not give expression to aspects though they can be used with aspectual

implications in certain contexts. Moreover, one verbal form may be used for different

moods and time frames (Haywood & Nahmad, 1965; Gray, 1971& Joosten, 2002).

Cantarino (1974) goes further to argue that tenses in Semitic languages are not a

projection of the action to a definite time. They are a kind of a subjective approach to the

action that started by the perfect and described in the imperfect.

Tense in the SDO has not been tackled by any previous study. The findings of

this study indicate that the SDO is not exceptional to its sisters, the other Semitic

languages .It has only two verbal fonns, the perfect and the imperfect. As it has already

been shown in chapter four these two forms conjugate for person, number, gender and

time. The perfective is formed by suffixation and the imperfective is fonned by

prefixation but the imperfect and the perfect of certain persons and numbers are formed

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by a joint operation of affixation and vowel stem modification. So like the other Semitic

languages the SDG's morphologically-marked two tenses (perfect and imperfect) can

express verbal ideas in any of the three temporal stages: future, present and past. This

feature of the SDG can be easily attributed to the limited number of verbal forms.

Aspect in the SDG is not morphologically marked. It is marked with adverbs or

auxiliaries. So the SDG is famous for polyfunctionality of its tense and aspect forms, a

feature considered to be common among all the Semitic languages (Fassi Fehri, 2003).

5.2.3.1. The Functions of the Perfect Verbal Form

It has been found that the perfect form of the verb in the SDG expresses the

following tenses:

1- Simple Past

The perfect form of the verb in the SDG is used to express actions happened and

completed in the past, so it is the natural tense for narration in the SDG._

11 - (sch) halc:b - ch 20:z she milk - 3SG.F.PER goat SG.F 'She milked a goat.'

12 - 2amScn ta:har-k hadi:bn w- to:Jar-k crhcz wa yesterday gO-ISG .M.PER Hadibu and buy -ISG.M.PER. rice and

Jadah-k -tc:s~n k'a!~cr mnh dchn2c!Jch w-~o:mar-k hcs bring-lSG.PER -them.F home to my wife and tell-lSG.M.PER her

'Yesterday, I went to Hadibu (the island capital) and I bought rice and brought it home to my wife and told her .... '

2- Present Perfect

The perfect fonn of the verb is used to express actions that started in the past and

perhaps completed but still lasting in their results or consequences. This tense which is

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called resultative is actually an equivalent to the present perfect in English. The

following example illustrate this use of this tense in the SDG:

13-sfa:r travel \3SG.M.PER.

, He has traveled'

3 - Past Perfect

The perfect form of the verb is used to express actions whose tense is past perfect.

For example, when two actions happened in the past, the perfect form is used to

describe the action that took place first and the subjunctive form of the verb is used for

the event or action that happened later.

14- k'e:r-ak k'nra:n bal read-lSG.M.PER. Holy Quran before I had read the Holy Quran before I slept

le-dma l.SG.M.SUB -sleep

When the conjunction ba£ed 'after' is used, it is followed by the action

happened first which is expressed in the perfect and then in the other clause comes the

action that happened later which is also expressed in the perfect form of the verb.

Surprisingly, the perfect form in the after-clause is preceded by the negative particle

a: 1, though, the whole sentence is affirmative. So this negation particle in such

sentences emphasizes the completion of the first action before the starting of the second

rather than negate the clause. It is similar to the Arabic negative particle rna which is

also used in similar contexts to emphasize the completion of the action rather than to

negate it

15-ba~ed a:1 k'e:ra xat' biSe after not read \3SG.M.PER letter weep \ 3SG.M.PER 'After he had read the letter, he wept.'

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4- Simple Present

The perfect forms of certain verbs in the SDG are used to express present actions

and activities. These verbs may be classified as verbs denoting mental activities or

desires, verbs of oaths and verbs of appeal.:

a-Verbs denoting activities of mind and desires:

16 - (2Eh) HO: n::b-k (I) understand - 1 SG .M.PER. I understand.

17- ~aJE:b-Eh t'at'hEr want- 3SG.F.PER. go \3SG.F.SUB. 'She wants to go.'

b-Verbs of oaths:

18 -rak'an- k tEk ZkE: Sacrifice-lSG.M.PER. you charity 'I sacrifice you. '

c-Verbs of appeal and prayers:

19 - mati: n-ak- tEk 2a11ah knn t-ano:dak' - -~n mEssa Ask-lSG.M. PER. you Allah to 2SG.M.IMP- give us rain 'I appeal to you, Allah, to give us rain'.

20 -lE: tEf ~ak 2a1ah 2Erhnn dE: 1ak' give 3SG.M.PER you Allah goat \ PL.F a lot of 'May Allah give you a lot of goats?

5- Simple Future or Present

The perfect form of the verb in the SDG is also used to express present or future actions

in ordinary conditional clauses and in requests expressed through swearing.

21-k- t'o:har-k ~a-to:hEr

if go - 2.SG.M.PER. ISG.M.IMP- go 'If you go,1 will go.'

22 - bhi dEt <lid k-a:1 2az<lo:m-k by your life if not stay -2.SG.M.PER 'I swear by your life to stay.'

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The above examples show that the perfect fonns of the verb in the SOG are used to

express simple past tense, simple present tense, present perfect, past perfect and future.

5.2.3.2 The Function of the Imperfect Verbal Form

The findings of the current study shows that like the perfect form, the imperfect

form of the verb in the SOG expresses actions or events in the present, past and future as

follows:

I - Simple Present (habits and facts)

The imperfect of the SOG can refer to a present habitual aspect action i.e. actions

that occur habitually. The use of adverbs of frequency in this aspect is a must.

23 - (seh) t -edme mahIe; da:her she 3SG.F.IMP-get up early every day 'She sleeps early every day.'

The imperfect is also used to express general aspects such as general states,

processes or actions which are not generally limited by.a time frame, that is to say they

have permanent validity.

a- General State

24 - f edhDn 0

mountain SG.M COP

'The mountain is high. '

~e:Ii

highSG.M

Nouns, adjectives, and adverbs in the SDG are put after the sentence subject with

out any linking verb to 'be', especially when the sentence tense is present as shown in

the above example.

b -General Process

25-ri:h~: vp[j -Jo:med ] water SG.M 3SG.M.IMP- freeze 'Water freezes'

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c- General Actions

26-fa:t'ima t-ak'o:der swa Fatima SG.F .3SG.FEM.PRE - cook well 'Fatima cooks well'

27-hihe a:1 ja-k'o:der person not 3SG.M.IMP- can.

1e-rl3e 2e: fe fo: Hreh 3SG SUB.M- Please People all

'A person cannot please all people'

2- Simple Past

The imperfect in the SDG is used to express past actions when it is subordinated

to the perfect verbal form to express durative or repeated actions happening

simultaneously with the action expressed in the perfect.

28 - mnkS am fe : red w- jeh j-do:hek child flee.3SG.M.PER. and he 3SG.M.IMP-Iaugh. 'The child fled laughing'

29 - Si :na-k £eh see -1 SG.M.PER him 'I saw him fishing'

ja - S£e: rek 3SG.M.IMP- fish

The imperfect in the SDG is also used to express an action that occurred in the past but

later than the action denoted by the perfect.

30 - 2az~am-k 2a-k'0: re sit - lSG.M.PER ISG.M.IMP - read 'I sat reading the Holy Quran. '

31 - t'a:her j-ho: r j go 3SG.M.PER. 3SG.M.IMP - search. 'He went searching for his goats. '

3- Simple and Perfect Future

k'nra:n HolyQuran

deh his

men from

2erhnn goat \PL.F

As the SDG does not have verbal conjugations for expressing the future tense,

the main way of expressing futurity in this dialect is through the use of the impe1fect

plus an obligatory temporal adverb.

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32 - ja -bo: 2e:1 ~i :nnh t - aHa: re:m 3SG.M.IMP. marry year 3SG.F.lMP - come

'He will marry next year'

33 - 2a-Sra:k'ah sak'a:t'rj k'are::re:h lSG.M.IMP-go Soqotra tomorrow

'I will go to Soqotra tomorrow. '

The perfect future in the SnG is also expressed in the same way that is through the use

of the imperfect plus an obligatory adverb indicating the future time in which an action

will be accomplished.

34 - k'e:re:: re:h de: Jahmah 2a-te::te: b- na: fa~ tomorrow poss. afternoon lSG.M.IMP - complete. with wok

'By tomorrow afternoon I will have finished the work.'

The previously mentioned examples show that the imperfect form of the verb in

the snG is used to express actions and events in the simple present tense, past -simple

tense, simple future and finally perfect future. When taken in isolation, both the perfect

and imperfect forms can be interpreted as referring to the past and present respectively

but each one of them can be interpreted as referring to present, past or future when the

context makes it clear that the reference is to the present, past or the future .In addition

to the previously described tenses and aspects expressed through the use of the perfect

and imperfect verbal forms, the SnG has other types of tenses and aspects. But due to

the limited verbal forms in the snG (perfect & imperfect) it employs other words such

as some temporal adverbs and auxiliaries to express these various tenses and aspects.

5.2.3.3 Aspectual Temporal Adverbs:

It has been found that temporal adverbs are used to modify the temporal

character of the verb ,they give additional parameters and information about the tense

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of the event or state expressed by the verb, and they are also used to modify the

temporal structure (aspect) of the events denoted by the verb (Bhat, 1999).The

temporal adverbs in the SDG do not inflect for person number or gender so each one of

them has one form used for all persons, numbers and genders. The common and widely

used temporal adverbs in the SDG are nre~eh 'now', k£rh£n nre~eh 'just now' and

(fo: n£h, ~ino: t£h t 'a~i: n 0 h) which all mean 'long ago'

a- nre~ ah 'now'

This adverb is used with the imperfect to express the progressive present aspect.

35 - (s£h) ta - k'o: ra nre~ah

she 3SG.F.IMP - read. now 'She is reading now.'

I k£rh£n nre~ ah I 'just now'

This compound temporal adverb is used with the perfect to express the immediate past

which is quite similar to the English present perfect when used with with the adverb just.

The following example illustrates this use:

36 - j£h k£rh£n nre~ah t'a:h£r he just now go \3SG.M.PER 'He has just gone'.

The adverb k£ r h£n can be used alone usually with the perfect passive as in this

example:

37 - ~£rhon hi:lob goats recently - milk \3SG.M.PER.PAS

'Goats have been recently milked."

b- fo:n£h , ~ino:teh and t'e~i:noh 'long ago/manyyears ago'

These adverbs are used with the perfect form of the verb to express the far past.

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38-fo:neh [na:fa~a-k] b- hadi:bu: long ago work -lSG.M.PRE in Hadibu

'Long ago I had worked in Hadibu'

39- [sfo:r] ~ino:teh

Immigrate\3sG .. PER so many year ago 'He immigrated so many years ago.'

40 - [t'e: 1ak'] deh Ha:Jeh t'a~i:nDh

divorce/3.SG .M.PER. his wife long ago 'He divorced his wife a long time ago.'

5.2.3.4 Aspectual Auxiliaries

Badawi, et al. (2003) point out that in Semitic languages in general and in Arabic

ill particular there are certain verbal collocations corresponding approximately to

impersonal modal and auxiliary verbs in English. They (ibid) add that many meanings

which are conveyed in English by adverbs are expressed in auxiliary verbs in Semitic

languages. This description of the Arabic auxiliaries suits well the auxiliaries in the SDG.

The auxiliary ~ad in the SDG means 'not yet, still' and such meanings are expressed

in English by the adverbs 'yet, still'. Similarly the SDG auxiliary bar expresses a

meaning equivalent to that expressed by the English adverb (already).

These auxiliaries in the SDG form a part of a compound tense with the main verb

because they have always preserved a degree of independence in both position and

agreement. They always precede the main verb they modify and agree in number, person

and gender with the subject. What distinguishes them from the main verbs is that they

do not have imperfect forms (except knn) , they have only perfect forms that can be

used to express actions or event in any tense .These perfect forms of the auxiliaries are

usually followed by the perfect form of the main verb and some times by the imperfect

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fonn of that verb. This refutes Simeone-Senelle (1997) claim that auxiliaries in Soqotri

are not used with other verbs as temporal auxiliaries. So together with fonns of the main

verbs, the auxiliaries in the SOG constitute what may be called a new semantic unit

(Siewierska, 1984). The most common aspectual auxiliaries in the SOG are ~ ad ,

'ber ,kDn and le: rem. Simeone-Senelle (ibid) mentions only two of these auxiliaries

particularly ~ad, ber and kDn. Each one of these auxiliaries will be described

separately below:

a- ~ ad 'not yet, still'

This auxiliary has a perfect fonn which is added to the imperfect fonn of the

main verb to denote futurity in the SOG [~ad + IMP. V]. This feature is not confmed to

the SOG. According to Rubin (2004) the Proto-Semitic language has no discrete means

for expressing the future tense but its decedent Semitic languages developed an explicit

means through an auxiliary verb. The structure fonned from the auxiliary ~ ad and the

imperfect fonn of the main verb allows more than one interpretation. First, it denotes

that an action wills occur in future (simple future). Secondly, it implies that the action

happened some time in the past and it will also happen again in future.

41 -VP [[MO ~ ad] Will-3SG.M.PER AUX. 3SG.M.IMP- marry

'He will marry'. or' he will marry again'

~ ad along with the imperfect fonn of the main verb is also employed to indicate that

an action is still happening at the moment of speech (present progressive aspect).

42 - ~ad -£h ta -ho: l£b] 2£rhDn Still-3SG.F.PER AUX 3SG.F.IMP- milk. goat \ PL.F 'She is still milking the goats' or 'she will milk goats (again) '.

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The auxiliary £ ad is also used with the perfect form of the main verb to express a

present perfect tense similar to that of English in which the adverb (yet) is used .The

negative particle a: ( 1) is placed before the main verb to emphasis the incompletion

of the action.

£ad + NEG.PAR. + PER. V 'have not yet'

43 - £ad-eh a: Jado:h-eh yet-.3SG.F.AUX not come - 3SG.F.PER

'She has not come yet.'

b- ber 'already'

This auxiliary has only a perfect form. It is used with the perfect form of the main verb

to express the present perfect tense in the SDG. It is equivalent to the English present

perfect in which the adverb (already) is used.

ber + PER. V 'have already'

44-vp[[ MO be-SJ H t'a:har-SJ? already -2SG.F.PER.AUX. go 2SG.F.PER

'Have you already gone?'

45 - be-ki ta:her-ki Already-lDU.M.PERAUX gO-lDU.M.PER

'We (the two) have already gone'

Since these two auxiliaries "£ad and ber"are common and frequently used, the full

paradigm of their perfect forms has been given in the following table:

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Table 5.1 Inflectional Perfect Paradigm of £ad'still' and ber'already' in the SDG

Person / Number Gender £ad ber

1 st Singular. M . £ak bek F. £ak bek

Dual M. £aki beki F. £aki beki

Plural. M. £aden biren F £aden biren

2 nd Singular M £ak bek F £as beS

Dual M £aki beki F £aki beki

Plural M £ akin bakin F £akin bakin

3 rd Singular M £ad ber F. £adEh birEh

Dual M £i:doh bi:rDh F £i:detDh bi:rtDh

Plural M £ad ber F £ad bir

c- mn 'Be'

In the SDG this verb can be used as a main verb a (copula) connecting the

subject with its complement as it has been shown earlier and it can also be used as an

auxiliary. As an auxiliary, it is used in conjunction with the perfect and imperfect forms

of the main verb to express certain aspects. When this auxiliary is used with the

imperfect form of the verb it denotes past frequentative (past progressive) or habitual

aspects and when it is used with the perfect form of the main verb it denotes a simple

past perfect. This auxiliary expresses the same aspects in other Semitic languages such

as in Syriac and many other Aramaic dialects (Rubin, 2004).These facts about the

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auxiliary mn contradict Simeone-Senelle's 1997 claim that this verb cannot be used in

Soqotri with other main verbs as a temporal auxiliary.

Past Frequentative (Progressive)

46 - VP[[MO mnEh ] be-3SG.F.PER AUX.

'She was working hard'.

Past Habitual

H ta-na: fE~ ] 3SG.FIMP-work

wi:

hard

An adverb of frequency is added to indicate this habitual past.

47 - kDn-Eh ta-na:fE~

Be-3SG.F.PER AUX 3SG.FIMP-work 'She was always working hard.

Simple Perfect

48-kDn-Eh na:fa~- Eh

WI: da:her hard always

wi: Be-3SG.F.PER. AUX work-3SG.F.PER hard

'She (had) worked hard.'

d- 2E: rEm 'Be'

Like ~ad and bEr the auxiliary 2E: rEm has only a perfect form which

is inflected for person, number and gender. It is used with the imperfect form of the

main verb to denote a past frequentative (past progressive) or habitual aspects and it is

used with the perfect form of the main verb to express a simple or perfect past.

2E : rEm + IMP.V 'Past continuous or habitual tense'

Past frequentative aspect:

49- yp[[M02E:rEID-k] H 2a-na:fa~] b-du:baj be.-lSG.M.PER AUX lSG.M.IMP- work in Dubai

'I was working in Dubai.'

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With the habitual past aspect a suitable adverb of time, particularly an adverb of

frequency such as every day, every morning, sometimes, etc. is usually added.

Past Habitual:

50 - 2E: n:m mehle da:hEr used to- 3SG.M.PER. AUX. .3SG.M.IMP- wake up early ever day 'He used to get up early every day.' (Past habitual)

Simple Perfect.

51-jeh 2E!rEm ta:bel t'E:rnb he be-3PL.F.PER. AUX. collect \ 3PL.M.PER wood \ PL.M 'He (had) collected wood.'

2 E : r Em plus the imperfect is also used to express the (past future tense. The

auxiliary in this use can be replaced by the Jedehk

52 -li: lEn ~ E: rEm-k 2E-dnm last night will-ISG.M.PER. AUX. ISG.IMP- sleep Hel w -a: 1 dE :m-ek man and not sleep-ISG.M.PER

mehle la:kEn Jedeh t~ early but came me

, I would sleep early last night but a man came to me and I did no sleep.'

5.2.3.5 Idiomatic Auxiliary Verbs

Holes (2004) states that some aspectual distinctions in Semitic languages have

been lexicalized and idiomaticised through the use of some idioms. These idioms

consist of [verb + verb] strings in which both of the two verbs are inflected in the

normal way and cover certain aspects or tenses. The findings of this study confirm the

existence of some of these idiomatic auxiliaries in the SDG such as, jedeh, hEk'em ,

se!ber , me~ed , je~SiS and jebo:lek'. For example, hEk'em 'which

originally means 'to stay up late' is used with another verb to express the durative

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aspect' remain' . se: ber 'began' is used with another verb to express inceptive

aspect' to start ,start doing some thing', Jadah-k 'came' is used with another verb

to express the past future. a: 1 j a~ S e S not get up' and a: 1 j abn: lek' 'not

cease' are used with other verbs to express future progressives .These idiomatic

auxiliary verbs are used in their perfect forms and the verbs used with them are in the

imperfect form The following examples illustrate the uses of this type of auxiliaries

along with the tenses and aspects they express in the SDG:

a -hek'am 'stayed up' [hek'am + IMP.V) 'Durative aspect

'The perfect form of this idiomatic auxiliary verb is used with the imperfect form of

another verb to express what is called durative aspect. Dowty (1972) and Cook (1979)

state that the durative aspect is formed by the predicate (remain) and it denotes the

duration or a continuation of a state, a process or an action. It is used with durative

adverbials:

53 - VP [[MO hek'am-k] H 2a- bn: Si] hte:r ~af

remain-1SG.MPER .1SG.M.IMP - weep at night till 'I remained weeping all night till the morning.'

s'abah morning

54 - hek'am j -ta:be sa:heb deh be:b eh ~af s'a:ma remain-3M.PER 3SG.M.IMP - visit friend his father till die 3SG.M.PER

, He continued visiting his father's friend till he died'

b- se : ber 'Started'[se: ber + IMP.V] 'Inceptive aspect'

se : ber is used with the imperfect form of another verb to express the inceptive

aspect. Inceptive aspect denotes the beginning of an action or a process and it is

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semantically represented by the predicate "begin" (Postal, 1974; Newmeyer, 1975).The

action, expressed, began in the past and perhaps continues up to the moment of speech.

55-vp[[MOse:ber] H ja-k'o:re] k'Dra:n w ~ad k'i:hen begin 3SG.M.PER 3SG.M.IMP-read Holy Quran and sti1l3SG.M.PER small 'He has started reading the Holy Quran sine he was still young'

56-se:ber-ak ?a-k'Dz temhir ~amSen

Begin-1SG.M.PER ISG.M.IMP - cut palm date yesterday 'I began / have begun cutting palm date fruits (yesterday)'.

c- ma~edne:men 'beaboutto' [ma~ed /~e:men +IMP.] 'Prospective aspect

The perfect forms of these two idiomatic auxiliary verbs are used with the

imperfect forms of other verbs to express the prospective aspect which indicates the

seemingly imminent occurrence of an event. Some times this aspect is called 'ingressive

'(to be in the point of .... ). Such events are believed to be imminent but they are not

certain. The tense of actions expressed in such sentences can be present or past

depending on the context.

57- Moma~ad ~ali Hj-la:tag srelim be- 3SG.M.PER AUX. Ali 3SG.M.IMP - kill Salem

'Ali is / was about to kill Salem.'

58-jeh vp[[MO~e:men] H ja-gte:rek'] he be-3SG.M.PER AUX. 3SG.M.IMP -drown 'He is / was in the point of drowning.'

d- jadah 'Came'[jadah +IMP.vl (past future)

The perfect form of this idiomatic auxiliary verb is used with the imperfect form

of another verb to denote a meaning equivalent to that expressed by the English 'would'

when used to express the past future.

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59 --vI> [[MOJ adah-k ] H ~a -no:dEk'] -ak dra:hEm Will-lSG.M.PER. AUX lSG.M.lMP -give you money

'I would give you money (at certain point oftime in the past)'.

e-ja~SES, jabo:1Ek' Futnreprogressive

[ja~SES / jabo: 1Ek' + IMP.V]

Unlike the other idiomatic auxiliary verbs, these two verbs j a~ S E S 'wake up'

and j abo: 1Ek' 'cease' are used in their imperfect forms .Theyare also followed by

the imperfect forms of other verbs to express the future progressive. They are always

negated to indicate that the described action which is usually a kind of insisting

behaviour will continue for ever.

60 - ~a: 1 VP [[MO ~a -bo: 1Ek' ] H ~a - Sk' E: bEt En] not cease-lSG.M.IMP. AUX lSG.M.IMP - learn. , 1 will continue / not stop learning the Soqotrl language.'

sak'at'rijah Soqotrl

61- 1a:1 j-a~SES ja- S~E:rEn ~af 1esme not stop-3SG.M.lMP.AUX. 3SG.M.lMP- fish. till die \ 3SG.M SUB.

'He will be fishing till he dies'

The SDO has other auxiliaries such as waksa, kal, JESE: r, 1a: k' and

t'E~lEh which collocate with other verbs and perform certain functions such as

probability, ability and obligations as illustrated in the following examples:

a- Probability

Probability in the SDO is expressed by using waksa 'may' which does not

inflect for person, number, gender or tense. It is used with the imperfect form of the

main verb to denote probability.

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62- vP[[MOwekse] t-e1essD] may .3SG.F.lMP- rain

'It may rain.'

b- Ability

The events and actions that have the ability to occur are expressed by kal 'can'

plus the subjunctive form of the main verb. The perfect (past) form of ke1 is used,

but the sentence expresses a present ability.

63 - ke1 - k 1esbex can - ISG.M.PER swim \ ISG.M.SUB 'I can swim.'

Jeser which also means 'can' is used with the subjunctive form of the verb to express

ability in the SDG.

64- se:h Je:se:: r -e:h te:k'de:r she can.-3SG.F.PER, cook \ .3SG.F.SUB. 'She can / could swim.

c - Obligation

Obligations in the SDG are expressed by the use of the 1a: k' which means

'must' .It is followed by an accusative particles h- and the suffix object pronoun which

is followed by the subjunctive form of the verb.

65 - 1a: k' h-e:k must, 2.SGM,SUF.PRO. 'You must come' .

te:Jdeh come \2.SG.M.SUB

The auxiliary t'e:~le:h is another auxiliary used for expressing duty and

obligation in the SDG. It does not inflect for tense, number or gender. t'e:~le:h is

followed by the imperfect form of the main verb.

238

66 - vp[[Mot'c~lch] H tc-dnm] nre~ah

must 2SG.M.IMP .2.SG.M.IMP- sleep now 'You must sleep now' .

5.2.4 Passive Verb Phrases

In the Basic Linguistic Theory the passive is regarded as a part of the verb phrase.

Keenan and Dryer (2007, p.2) state that "the fOlmation of the passives in a language

takes place at the level of verb-phrase syntax'. They (ibid) distinguish between basic

and non-basic passives. The basic passive does not have the agent phrase. Its main verb

is transitive and it expresses an action. Non-basic passive is that which includes the

agent phrase. Passives in the BLT are also subclassified into two main categories

according to the way they are fonned .The passive which is fonned from auxiliaries

along with main verbs is called periphrastic passive and the passive which is fonned

from just the main verbs is called morphological passive.

The findings of the current study indicate that the SDG has basic, nonbasic,

periphrastic and morphological passives. They also indicate that the passive in the SDG

is fonned nonlinearly through apophony. Retso (1989) confirms the existence of this

tendency in some other Semitic languages. The full paradigms of the perfect, imperfect

and subjunctive passive in the SDG have been given in Chapter 4.

5.2.4.1 Basic Morphological Passive

As stated earlier in Chapter 4, the passive in the SDG is formed nonlinearly. For

example, the passive perfect in the SDG shares the prosodic form of the active perfect

but the stem vowel is modified and becomes / i : /. The passive imperfect also shares the

prosodic form of the active imperfect but the stem vowel is modified and becomes / u : /

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and finally the passive subjunctive shares the prosodic fonD. of the active subjunctive but

the stem vowel is modified and becomes I ~: I. So the passive in the SnG is basic and

morphological achieved through the passive morphemes i: , u: , ~: .

Active Imperfect

67 a- j£h j£Ja t-an he beat.3SG.IMP. IPL.M.SUF.PRO

'He beats / will beat us.'

Passive Imperfect

67 b- h£n Vp [ ju: Ja ] we beat \ IPL.M.IMP.PASS

'We are beaten'

Active Perfect

68 a - s'rel£h la: taB srel£m Saleh 3SG.M.PER- kill Salem 'Saleh killed Salem'

Passive Perfect

68 b -srel£m Vp [ Ii: taB] Salem kill \3SG.M.PER.PASS 'Salem was killed:

Active Subjunctive:

69 a- ~i:k l£J£ Want.lSG.M.IMP beat lSG.M.SUB 'I want to beat the child.'

mokSam child

Passive Subjunctive:

69b-~i:k mokSam vp[l~:J£] wanUSG.M.IMP child kill \ 3SG.M.SUB.PASS

'I do not want the child to be beaten' . Though the real object in the active sentence becomes a subject in the passive sentence;

it may also be added at the end of the passive sentence creating this structure:

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[S+ PASS.V. + SUF.PRO]

70-jeh ~i:Je -teh he beat \ 3SG.M. PASS .PER. - him SUF.PRO

'He was beaten. '

In some structures the unreal subject is omitted while the suffix object pronoun is

retained [PASS. V + SUFF.PRO] or it may be placed after the passive verb [PASS.V + S] as

illustrated in these two examples:

71-~i:Je -teh beat \ 3SG.M. PASS .PER. - SUF.PRO , He was beaten. '

72 - t 'u : bak' xat' send\ 3SG.M PASS. IMP. letter A letter will be sent.

Some times both the unreal subject and the suffix object pronouns are omitted.

73 - Ii: teH kill \3SG.M.PER.PASS

, He was killed.'

Though the SDG does not allow the passive phrases to include agent phrases that

represent the real subject, a feature described by Siewierska (1984) as common in

Semitic languages, it allows these phrases to have instrumental and locational agent

phrases. Such kind of passive is regarded as a type of non basic passive (Keenan &

Dryer, 2007).

74 - j eh Ii: taH b - s' e : reh he kill \3SG.M.PASS.PER with knife

, He was killed with a knife.'

75-seh ~i:Ji-jE:h b- ta:de~ she beat 3SG. PASS. PER - F.. on back 'She was beaten on her back. '

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The SnG allows both the recipient and patient in the active extended transitive verb

phrase to be subjects in the passive extended transitive verb phrase as illustrated below::

Active extended transitive verb Phrase:

76 - j eh 2endak' - as 2o:z he give3sG.M.PER 3SG.F.SUF.PRO goat 'He gave her a goat.'

Recipient as subject for the passive verb phrase:

77- 2endi:k'ah -as 2o:z give \ 3SG.F.PASS PER. her 3 SG.F.SUF.PRO goat 'She was given a goat.'

Patient as the subject of the passive verb phrase:

78-2o:z 2endi:k'ah -as goat give \ 3SG.F.PASS PER. her 3SG.F.SUF.PRO 'A goat was given to her.'

5.2.4.2 Periphrastic Passive

The snG has also a periphrastic passive, a passive fonned through the use of an

extra verbal fonn, an auxiliary, and a morphological change of the main verb. The two

auxiliaries Ii ad and ber are used in this passive. The auxiliary Ii ad can be placed

before the imperfect passive verb to emphasize futurity and repetition of action and the

auxiliary ber is placed before the perfect passive to emphasize the completion of the

action.

79 - seh VP [[MO liadeh] H 2u:Ji-jeh] she AUX.3SG.F beat 3SG. PASS. PER - F. 'She will be beaten (again)'

80 - srelem VP [[ MO ber ] H li:tag] Salem AUX .3SG.M kill \ 3SG.M.PASS.PER.

'Salem has already been killed.'

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All these different passive structures in the SDO are described for the first time in this

study. The previous studies focused just on the morphological aspects of the passive

form.

Regarding the function the VP performs, it represents the subject of the clause as

acting when a transitive or a dynamic verb is used and as being in a temporary state or

condition when an intransitive verb or stative verb is used. The VP also denotes tense

and aspect.

5.3 The Prepositional Phrase in the SDG

This section focuses on the different structures a prepositional phrase PP may

have in the SDO and the different functions it may perform.

5.3.1 Prepositional Phrase Structure

. The findings of the current study reveal that the prepositional phrase in the

SDO consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase called the prepositional

complement as shown in this rule: [PP~ P + NP]. This NP is either a noun or a

suffix personal pronoun. Sometimes a temporal adverb follows the preposition instead of

the noun or pronoun: PP ~ P + ADV. The preposition which always precedes the

noun or the adverb is either simple consisting of just one word or compound consisting

of two words.

a- PP with the preposition d 'to, towards'

1- ta:he;r pp( d [ bla:d]] go .3SG.M.PER to city 'He went to the city.

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2 - Sn~a pp [ d- [ ak]] run 3SG.M.PER towards - you 2SG.M .SUF.PRO He ran towards you.

b- PP with the preposition b - 'with, on '

3 - za:}fa t~ pp [b- [?cd]] take 3SG.M.PER 1 SG.M.SUF.PRO. with hand 'He took me with his hand.'

When the noun is preceded by a possessive pronoun, the preposition is placed between

the possessive pronoun and that noun.

PP ~ POSS.PRO. + P + N

4 - n:kcb pp [dchn b-ride 3SG.M.PER. my on 'He rode on my horse.'

c- PP with the preposition k - 'with'

Xc: 1 ] horse

5 -Jadah pp [ k come 3SG.M.PER PRE. with 'He came with people.'

2c:fc] people

Prepositional phrases with such preposition can be used with words denoting time

(adverbs of time or adverbials).

6 - t'ahc: rch pp [ k [-s'ah ]] go.3SG.FEM.PER. in dawn

'She went in the dawn. '

d- PP with the prepositions S - / s-'with'

A masculine suffix pronoun is added to the preposition I S -/ and a feminine suffix

pronoun is added to the preposition I s I.

7-za:}f~ tes pp[ S - [ c:h~n]] take 3SG.M.PER her with them.3PL.M. SUF.PRO 'He took her with them (men)'.

244

8 - za: IS"~ t£ pp( S - £s;:m] take 3SG.M.PER me with them3PL.F.SUF.PRO He took me with them (women).'

e- PP with the preposition 1£- 'on, in ' 'for'

9 -za : IS" t £ pp [ 1 £ t 'ad£ ~ ] take 3SG.M.PER me on back 'He took me on his back.'

10 - d£wa pp [1£ b£rhn] medicine for children

'Medicine for children'

Some times this preposition is used with words that denote periods of the day as in this

example:

11- [1£ s'a: b£h] in morning

'In the morning'

f- PP with the preposition t'a: ra 'on'

12 - za: IS"~ t~ [ta: ra take 3SG.M.PER me on 'He took me on his back.'

t'ad£~ ] back

g- PP with the prepositions m£n Saf 'from to'

13- t£ [m£n ia:d£k' ~af ia:d£k'] eat.3SG.M.PER. from side of mouth up to side of mouth 'He ate a lot.'

h- PP with the preposition ~ an' about'

14-S£mta1-k [ ~an xarf] Speak -ISG.M.PER. about season oh harvest 'I spoke about the season of harvest' .

i- PP with the preposition d£: f£ 'near

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15 - kalb j-£dam pp [ d£: f£ [ ~ari: S ] ] dog 3SG.M,IMP- sleep near hut 'The dog sleeps near the hut.'

j- PP with the preposition frena 'in front'

16-m£brh£ j-o:Ifad [mas frena] child 3SG.M.IMP-- walk her front / face 'The child is walking in front of her.'

k- PP with the preposition s£: r£h 'behind'

17 -mokSam j-o:Ifad child. 3SG.M.IMP - walk

The child walks behind me.'

pp [ s£: r£h behind

1- PP with the preposition mhab£t£ 'round'

t:} ]] me

18 - If£jOJ ~o: m£r pp [ mhab£t£ [ mk' addam]] man \ PL.M gather3pL.M.PER. round chief 'The men gathered round the chief.'

m- PP with the preposition bla 'without'

19-2£rhiz ~[bla rice with out

[ s'Dd£ ]] fish

'Rice with out fish.'

n- PP with the preposition d-fo: na 'towards'

20-So:~a pp[d-fo:na run.3SG.M.PER towards

'He ran towards children.'

[ b£rhD]] child \PL.M

0- PP with the preposition b-~omk' among'

21 - ~aIi 2az~£m pp [b-~omk' [2£: f£] Ali sit.3SG.M.PER. among people 'Ali sat among the people. '

P- PP with the preposition b -Xu: n£h 'under'

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22-me:brhe: de::me: pp[ b-xa:ne:h [Sirom]] child sleep.3SG.M.PER. under tree

'The child slept under the tree. '

Q- PP with the preposition 'labe: reh 'opposite'

23-deh 'lari:S ['labe::reh pp[de: mk'addem] ] his hut opposite 3SG.M.POSS. Chief 'His hut is opposite the chief's.'

5.3.2 Prepositional Phrase Function

This study shows that the prepositional phrase in the SDG performs three

functions. Firstly, it relates the noun to a larger syntactic unit as a peripheral expression

(subcategorized non-core argument).Secondly; it can function as a predicate. Thirdly it

modifies the noun and the adjective. Kruspe (2004) states that in some languages the

prepositional phrase can function as a core argument (indirect object).This function is

also performed by the PP in the SDG.

1- Peripheral Function

Peripheral structures express adjunct to the event: spatial location, source, goal

instrumental and comitative

a-Spatial location

24-ksa: -k lX:): f pp [ b [ find-lSG.M.PER milk In

'I found milk in the bowl.'

b-Source

mDl~rif]]

bowl

25- za: Jf~ riho: pp [men [ Jfebhir]] well take 3SG.M.PER water from

'He took water from the well.'

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c-Goal

26 - t-hE: rE pp [mEn [?ak'nEjah]] 3SG.F.lMP-search for good 'She is searching for food.'

d-Instrumental

27 - Ii : taH~t pp [b [ bEndDk']] kill\3sG.F.PER.PASS with rifle 'She was killed with a rifle'.

e-Comitative

28 - t'a:hEr pp [k [HaJE:tEn]] go \3SG.M.PER with women 'He went with women.'

2- Predicative Functions

The PP in the SDG can function as the main predicator in non-verbal clauses and verbal

clauses with a copula:

29 - dEh~ bE:bEh (3 pp [ b [k'alEr]] my father COP in house

'My father is in house.'

30-SEh ?ErE:mEh pp[b[-k'a:lEr]] she be-3SG.F.PER in house She was at home'.

In addition to these two main functions the PP in the SDG also performs other

functions such as the following

3 -Modifying the Noun

In the SDG the prepositional phrase is used to modify the noun ( appositive).

31-kta:b pp[b-t'a:de~ [ t'a:wleh]] (3 dehn book on table cop mine

'The book, on the table, is mine.'

4- Modifying the Adjective

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The prepositional phrase in the SDG may modify the adjective adverbially.

32-jeh" hte:r pp [ men [-he]] he cop angry SO.M from me 'He is angry with me.'

Finally, the PP in the SDG can function as an extended argument in the form of an

indirect object.

33-to:Jer-k k'a:£er pp[le [dehD be:beh]] buy-3S0.M.PER house for my father

'I bought a house for my father.'

5.4 Adjective Phrase in the SDG

The different structures and functions of the adjective phrase in the SDG will be

described and illustrated in this section.

5.4.1 Adjective Phrase Structure

The findings of this study show that the adjective phrase in the SDG consists of

an adjective as its head and it may have an optional adverb expressing degree of qUality.

Most of these adverbs occur after the adjective but some of them occur before it.

1 - !Saj man SO.M strong .SO.M 'A strong man came'

2 -deS Jfo:j-eh DEM.SO.F woman-SG.F 'This woman was ill.'

jadah come.3S0.M.PER

kDn-eh ADJP [H jD£e:-reh] be-3 SO.F. PER ill-SO.F

The adjective in the adjective phrase may be post modified by an adverb.

3- ADJP [H bo:hal3 patient

'a little patient.'

[MO ~inten]]

a little

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4- geJ ADJP [H \'eB [MO wi: ]] Jedeh man SG.M strong .SG.M very 'A very strong man came'

come.3SG.M.PE

Sometimes the adjective is premodified by an adverb:

5- de na:fe~ dheh f2J a:lADJP[[Mo be:neh] H~ifi ] this work here cop not very difficult 'This work is not very difficult.'

The above examples show the possible three structures an adjective phrase may

have in the SDG which are an adjective without any modifier, and adjective with an

adverb premodifier and an adjective with an adverb postmodifier. These examples also

show that the adjective agrees with the noun it modifies and with its subject in number

and gender.

5.4.2 Adjective phrase Function

The current study indicates that the adjective phrase in the SDG may function as

a postmodifier for the noun phrase, a subject complement, and an object complement as

shown in the following three examples respectively.

6 -S i : ne-k NP[ H ternr-eh see-lSG.M.PER palm dates tree- SG.F 'I saw a big date palm tree.'

7 - ?et ((1 [~efi ] you.2SG.M COP strong.2SG.M, 'You are strong.'

ADJP [MO ~ek'a: r-eh] big-.SG.FEM.

8 - r~: Ifern -k tes ADJ P [ dkij-eh ] considerlSG.M.PER. her clever- .SG.F 'I considered her clever.'

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The adjective in the SDG may also function as a noun substitute, as it is the case in the

elliptical or headless noun phrase.

9 - AD] P [ k'i: n-nh] t~hE: r-Eh short-SG.P' go-3SG.P.PER

'The short (woman) went. '

5.5. The Adverb phrase in the SDG

This section describes the adverb phrase in the SDG focusing on the structures

it may have and the function it may perform.

5.5.1 Adverb Phrase Structure

The findings of the current study reveal that the adverb phrase in the SDG is

composed of an adverb as a head and an optional modifier denoting the degree. The

modifiers of the ADVP are adverbs of degree. So the adverbial phrase in the SDG may

consist just of an adverb with out any modifier or an adverb modified by another adverb

as shown in examples 1 and 2 respectively.

1 - j- e~Se ADVP [ mehle ] 3SG.M.IMP-get up early. 'He gets up early.

2 - jEh j-Ednm ADVP [H mahlE [MO wi: ]] he 3SG.M.IMP.- sleep. early very

'He sleeps very early.'

Like all the other Semitic language, the SDG has a flexible word order for all the

sentence constituents so when the ADVP in the SnG consists of more than one adverb ,

it is possible to have more than one order for these adverbs but there are some common

and preferred orders such as the following ones:

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a-When the adverb phrase consists of an adverb of manner, an adverb of place and an

adverb of time, they are ordered as follows:

Adverb of Manner> Adverb of Place> Adverb of Time

3 - no: fe~ ADVP [wi: bok' h: e;r] work 3SG.M.PER hard there today Today he worked there hard.

b -Adverbs of frequency may come before or after the verb but they precede

adverbs of manner.

Adverb of Frequen,?y > Verb> Adverb of Manner

4 - drehe;r j-~: !fe;d always .3.SG.M.IMP- walk

He always walks slowly.

5.5.2 Adverb Phrase Function

de;ro:feh slowly

The current study indicates that ADVP in the SDG modifies the verb, adjective

and the whole sentence. When used to modify the verb, it usually occurs after it

immediately if it is intransitive or it occurs after the object if the verb is transitive. The

adverb may also occur after the adjective as illustrated below:

5 - j -Se;mte;l sk'otrije;h ADVP [ swa ] 3 SG.M.IMP-Speak. Soqotri well

'He speaks Soqotri well

6 - j-to :her k hedi :bu: ADVP [drehe;r ] 3SG.M.IMP-go to Hadibu always 'He always goes to Hadibu.'

The following example illustrates the use of the ADVP in the SDG as a modifier for the

adjective

7 - se;h ~ i : l-eh ADVP [ wi: ] she tall-SO.F very 'She is very tall.'

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The adverb phrase in the SDG can also modify the whole clause or sentence:

8 - te-J edhen ADVP [ t'e~leh ] 3SG.F.IMP- Come. Surely, she will come.

5.6 Summary

surely

Based on the Basic Linguistic Theory, Functional typology and IC model, this

chapter answers the third research question:"what are the types, structures and functions

of the phrase in the SDG?'. The description of the phrase in this chapter is the first

systematic and in depth description that deals with the phrase in the SOO both

structurally and functionally. The phrase was neglected in all the previous studies of

Soqotri. This description reveals the major syntactic features of the NP, VP, PP, ADJP,

and ADVP in the SDG. It describes elaborately and with detailed illustration the

constituents of each phrase, the order of these constituents, their agreements with their

heads and the different possible functions that can be performed by these phrases. It

really adds a lot to the very little existing knowledge about the syntax of the phrase in

theSDG.

The description of the noun phrase shows that the SDG has simple noun phrases,

conjoined noun phrases, complex noun phrases and elliptical noun phrases. The simple

noun phrase in the SDO consists of a single word, usually noun or pronoun, and it may

also have a simple modifier such as an adjective or a demonstrative.

The conjoined noun phrases in the SDG are formed by conjoining two words

such as nouns, pronouns or other words with particles such as w 'and', 10 .... 10

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•

'either ... or' j~ .... j;) 'either ... or 'and 0:1 w 0:1 'nether nor'. These conjoined words

whether they are nouns, pronouns or adjectives, are arranged in the conjoined noun

phrase according to hierarchies similar to the hierarchies provided by Copper and Ross

(1975). For example, words that refer to near places or objects occur before words that

refer to far places and objects; words which refer to the old will occur before those

which refer to the young; words that have masculine gender will occur before those

which have feminine gender; words that refer to animate things will occur before those

which refer to inanimate things; words that refer to positive objects will occur before

those which refer to negative object and so on. These orderings can be easily traced back

to the traditions and values of the Soqotri society.

The complex noun phrase in the SDG has complex modifiers such as possessive

modifier or relative clause. This phrase is usually heavily modified. The elliptical noun

phrase in the SDG is either an adjective without a noun to modify or a headless relative

clause. The elliptical noun phrase which is composed of just an adjective is to some

extent similar to the English structure in which the definite article 'the' is followed by

certain adjectives such as 'poor, rich, ill, etc. But it differs from it in that the English

structure is restricted to certain type of adjectives but in the elliptical noun phrase there

is no . such restrictions. Another difference is that the English structure refers to plural

subject while the elliptical noun phrase in the SDG may refer to singular, dual or plural.

Structurally speaking, the noun phrase is usually composed of a head and

optional modifiers. The head of the noun phrase in the SDG can be a proper noun, a

common noun a personal pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun, a numeral or an adjective.

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The modifiers of the noun phrase in the SDG can be a determiner such as a possessive

pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun, a quantifier or a numeral. The other modifiers of the

NP in the SDG are interrogatives, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases,

participle clauses, subjunctive clauses and finally relative clauses.

Like the Semitic Akkadian language, the SDG has no article to modify its NP. It

employs the cardinal numeral t'od 'one' as an indefinite article and it employs the

demonstrative pronouns as a definite article. Both dependent and independent possessive

pronouns are used as premodifiers of the ~'P. When the suffix personal pronoun is used

as a possessive pronoun it postmodifies the head noun in the NP. The demonstrative

pronouns modify the NP. The demonstrative pronoun in the SDG is double. It consists

of two words. One of these words, the demonstrative, occurs before the head noun, the

second word ,locative adverb, is placed after the head noun. Demonstratives agree with

the noun they modify in number and gender. Cardinal numerals are used as modifiers of

the NP in the SDG. They usually occur before the head noun and have a strange

agreement system with it. For example, the masculine forms of the cardinal numerals

from 3-7 are used with feminine nouns and the feminine forms of the same numerals are

used with masculine nouns. This strange system of agreement is called polarization. It is

very common not only in the SDG but also in Arabic. Like adjectives, ordinal numerals

postmodify the NP and agree with it. Another feature of the ordinals which makes them

similar to adjectives is that they may be may preceded by the relative pronoun.

While some quantifiers such as JE:teb 'half are used as premodifiers for the NP,

other quantifiers such as hte: 'another' are used as postmodifiers. Some quantifiers such

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as kDI ; each, all' agree with the head noun they modify but other quantifiers such as

f:H"~rEh 'all' do not agree with the head noun they modify.

Both interrogatives and nouns can modify the head of the NP in the SDG. While

interrogatives are used as premodifiers occurring pronominally, nouns are used as

postmodifiers. In Semitic languages which still have their case marking, the two nouns

are juxtaposed without the use of any particle. This is called the Construct Phrase. The

SDG has already lost its case marking, therefore, a possessive particle is placed between

the two nouns, the possessed and the possessor. Modifying an NP with a noun results in

genitive structures. These genitive structures in the SDG express many meanings and

relationships such as possession, kinship, part-whole relation, abstract relations in

addition to expressing partitive relations such as partition in respect to quantity partition

in respect to measurement, etc.

Adjectives postmodify the head noun of the NP in the SDG and agree with it in

number and gender. They may be preceded by the relative pronoun. When there are two

or more adjectives in the NP, these adjectives usually follow this ordering: adjective of

age> nationality> colour> shape >size > quality. Adverbs and adverbials are used as

post modifiers of the head noun especially the locative adverbs and some words that

function as adverbs of time. Finally, the participle clause, the subjunctive clause and the

relative clause are all used as postmodifiers of the head noun of the NP in the SDG.

Regarding the order of the premodifiers in the NP, it has been found that

quantifiers are followed either by possessive pronouns or demonstrative pronouns then

comes the head noun. In another order the possessive pronouns or the demonstrative

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pronouns are followed by numerals and then comes the head noun. With reference to the

order of postmodifiers, it is noticed that the head noun is followed by a noun which may

be followed by an adjective then occurs a quantifier, a demonstrative pronoun, a PP or

an adverb. In another order the head noun is followed either by a possessive pronoun, a

numeral or a quantifier then a noun may occur followed by an adjective.

The VP in the SOG may be a VP with a main verb or a VP with both a main verb

and an auxiliary. The main verb is intransitive, transitive, or extended transitive. The

SOG is quite similar to all the other Semitie languages in that it has only two tensed

verbal forms, the perfect form and the imperfect form. The limited numbers of these

verbal forms made them polyfunctional. Each one of these forms can be used to express

the three tenses, present past and future. For example the perfect verbal form expresses

simple past, present perfect, past perfect, simple present and simple future. The

imperfect verbal form is used to express simple present, simple past, simple and perfect

future. Because of the lack of enough verbal forms, some tenses and aspects in the SOG

are expressed through the use of aspectual adverbs, aspectual auxiliaries and idiomatic

auxiliaries. For example, the present progressive is expressed through the use of the

adverb nres.'~h 'now' and the immediate and far past tenses are expressed through the

use of the adverb kerhen nres.'~h and the adverb f;):neh respectively. The aspectual

auxiliary s.':)d is used to express present perfect and simple future. The aspectual

auxiliary ber is employed to express present perfect. The auxiliaries kon and 'le:rem

express past progressive, past perfect and future.

257

Idiomatic auxiliaries are also used to express certain aspects in the SOO. For

example, hek'Dm expresses durative aspect, se:ber expresses inceptive aspect, 0:1

j:;)b::>:lek' expresses future progressive finally ma~Ed and ~E :men express

prospective aspect. The SOO has other auxiliaries that collocate with other verbs and

perform other functions such as probability, ability and obligations. Regarding the

passive verb phrase, it is either morphological passive phrase consisting of just the main

verb or periphrastic consisting of both the main verb and an auxiliary. Functionally, the

VP represents the subject as acting or in a temporary state.

The PP in the SOO consists of a preposition followed by an NP. This NP is either

a noun or a suffix personal pronoun. Functionally, the PP in the SOO relates the noun to

a larger syntactic unit. It also functions as a predicate and as a modifier for the noun and

the adjective.

The ADJP in the SDO is composed of an adjective functioning as a head of the

phrase and an optional modifier usually an adverb of degree occurring before or after the

head. The ADJP performs many functions in the SDO. It functions as a post modifier for

the NP. It also can function as a subject complement; object complement or a noun

substitute as it is the case in the headless relative clause.

Finally, the ADVP in the SDO consists of an adverb as a head and an optional

modifier usually an adverb of degree. When there are many adverbs in the same phrase,

they follow this preferred order: an adverb of manner > place > time. Adverbs of

frequency may occur before head or before the adverbs of manner. The function of the

ADVP is to modify t the verb, the adjective or the whole sentence.

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CHAPTER 6

THE CLAUSE IN THE SDG

6.0 Introduction

Chapter 4 describes the types and functions of the mOIpheme in the SDG and the

way they fonn the stem. It also describes the inflectional and derivational morphology of

the noun, verb and adjectives. So Chapter 4 paves the way for Chapter 5 to describe the

phrase in the SDG which is a larger linguistic unit than the already described morpheme

and word. Chapter 5 describes the different types, structures and functions of the phrase

in the SDG, thus it paves the way for this chapter to describe a larger linguistic unit that

is the clause in the SDG.

Based on the BLT, functional typology and IC model, this chapter describes

synchronically the types, structures aud functions of the clause in the SDG according to

two different criteria suggested by Dryer (2007b). Firstly, Dryer (ibid) states that the

clause can be described in tenns of their predication or their internal structures,

primarily the different types of predicates the clause may have. So here the distinction is

between verbal and nonverbal predicates "nominal and verbal c1auses. Within the verbal

predicate there is a further distinction based on the argument structure of the verb

including the distinction between intransitive clauses, mono-transitive c1auses and

extended transitive clauses. Secondly Dryer (ibid) suggests describing the clauses in

tenns of subordination. Here the distinction is between nominal and verbal clauses as

main clauses and the different types of subordinate clauses a language may have. So in

this chapter the clauses in the snG are classified into main clauses or clauses that can

259

stand alone and give full meaning such as the nominal clause and the verbal clause and

subordinate clauses or clauses that depend on the main clauses such as the complement

clause, the adverbial clause and the relative clause. This chapter describes all these types

of clauses structurally and functionally. Thus it answers the fourth research

question :"what are the types, structures and functions of the clause in the SDG?"

6.1 Main Clauses in the SDG

The clause is defmed as '"a unit made up of one or more phrases, including a

predication and usually a subject "(Bennett 1998, p.17). The main clause is that which

can stand alone and give a full meaning. Givon (2001) describes these clauses as simple

and main confirming that describing their structures reinforces the language grammatical

description because they are the theme vis-a.-vis which all other clause-types may be

seen as variations. The findings of this study show that SDG has two main clauses the

nominal clause (NCL).and the verbal clause (VCL). These findings are consistent with

Arnold and Choi (2003) who confirm that these two clauses are the basic clauses in all

the Semitic languages. The nominal clauses in the SDG are further subclassified

according to the constituents of their predicates into main nominal clauses and minor

nominal clauses. Similarly, the verbal clauses are subclassified according to the type of

the verb in their predicate into intransitive clauses, transitive clauses, extended transitive

clauses, copula clauses and zero-transitive clauses.

6.1.1 Nominal clauses in the SDG

The findings of the current study indicate that unlike the ordinary clause in

which predication is achieved by means of a finite verb, the nominal clauses (NCL) in

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the SOG represent predication by means of a collocation of nominal elements apart from

a fully-inflected verb. The subject and the predicate are juxtaposed.

l-s[deS ?o:z DEM.SG.F. goat

'This goat is thin.'

dhah] PRED [ "

here COP

da:x;m-ah] thin-SG.F

There IS a lack of agreement among linguists on what to call such predication

without a finite verb. Some linguists prefer calling them nominal clauses, others call

them verbless clauses. Some linguists use the term small clauses; others reject the whole

category (Miller, 1999). Following the terms of the BLT, such clauses in this study are

termed as nominal clauses.

Juxtaposing the subject and predicate of the NCL without using copula verbs is

not only found in the SOG but it is also found in other Semitic languages such as Arabic

and Hebrew. This-is what Rapoport (1985) and Ooron (1986) confirm in their studies of

that clause in these two Semitic languages. Lipinski (2001, p.494) also confirms that

juxtaposition in nominal clauses is a common feature of all Semitic languages:

Nominal clauses signify an existing or a desirable situation or condition. They correspond roughly to English sentences containing ~'is", but they often do not use any copula and express the situation by direct juxtaposetion of subject and predicate.

6.1.1.1 Structure of the Nominal Clause

This study shows that the nominal clause in the SnG has a structure consisting of

clause initial elements, core NPs, predicate and clause final elements.

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I-Clause Initial Elements

These elements include inteIjections and time markers. An inteIjection such as a , j 0 :

'oh' may be placed at the beginning of the clause.

2- [ja] mokSam fiJ JO: ~ar Oh child -SG.M COP ill-SG.M

'Oh the child is ill.'

Some time-markers such as adverbs of time may also occur as clause initial elements in

the nominal clause of the SDG.

3-[na:~ah] ?eh b -k'a:~er now I in house

'Now I am in house'

These inteIjections and the adverbs are in apposition to the rest of the clause (Dixon,

2004 b)

2- Core Arguments

One core ~gument, usually an NP, is in the S (nominal clause subject) function and one

core argument is in NC (the nominal clause complement) function (Dixon, ibid)

[NC mSe~n::k]

fisherman 'He is a fisherman.'

3-Predicate

The predicate of the nominal clause in the SDG is verbless as shown in the above

examples.

4- Clause Final Elements

These elements expand the reference of nominal clause subject and the noun clause

complement. They include adjectives and adverbs of degree or time.

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5 - j e:h mSe: ~re:k [Jke:: r] he fisherman good He is a good fisher man.'

The fmdings indicate that both the subject and its predicative in the nominal

clause of the SDG are obligatory but clause initial and clause final elements are optional.

The frequent use of the nominal clause in the SDG creates a wide concept of noun-

equivalents that can be used as a subject in this clause. Different word categories can be

used as a subject in this clause. For example, the subject can be:

a- Noun

6 - [NS 1e: r-eh] 0 Ske: r-eh Moon- SG.F COP beautiful-.SG.F

'The moon is beautiful. '

7 -[Nss'a:leh] 0 Jke:r Saleh cOP good SG.M

'Saleh is good.'

b- Personal pronoun:

8 - [Nsjeh] 0 mSe~rek

he COP fisher man.SG.M 'He is a fisher man.'

c- Demonstrative pronoun

9- [NsdeS] 0

DEM .. SG.M COP 'This is your house. '

d- Interrogative pronoun:

dat your

10- [ NS ?enem ] 0 mak S e: m ? what COP your name?

'What is your name?'

k'a:~er

house SG.F

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e-Complete sentence or a clause (relative clause)

11- [NsdE 0:1 j-s'E:li] REL.SG.M. not 3SG.M.lMP- pray

'Whoever does not pray is an unbeliever.'

o ke:fEr COP unbeliever

The predicate of the nominal clause does not contain verbs. It may be a noun an

adjective an adverb or a prepositional phrase. It plays a decisive role in the sub-

classification of the nominal clause into main and minor nominal clauses as will be

shown below.

6.1.1.2 Types of the Nominal Clause

Dryer (2007 b) states that nominal clauses which have nominal predicates,

adjectival predicates or locative predicates including the existential clause are called

main nominal clauses while those which have genitive predicates, benefactive

·predicates or predicates indicating origin, accompaniment or referential expression are

called minor nominal clauses. The findings of the current study confirm that the SDG

has all these nominal main and minor clauses in which no copula verbs are used to

connect their subjects with their predicates. The subject and the predicate are juxtaposed

especially when the clause tense is the present. Some nominal clauses in the SDG have a

nonverbal pronominal copula .These clauses are called nominal pro-copula clauses. The

following figure shows the classification of the NCLs in the SDG.

264

Nominal Clause

I I I

I Main Nominal Clause Nominal Clauses with Pro- Copula Minor Nominal Clause

Clauses with Nominal predicate Clauses with Adjectival predicate Clauses with Locative predicate

Clauses with Genitive predicate Clauses with Benefactive predicate Clauses with Associative predicate Clauses with Referential predicate Clauses with Predicate of Origin

Figure 6.1: Types of Nominal Clause in the SDG

6.1.1.2.1 Main Nominal Clauses with Nominal Predicates

These clauses consist of a subject S and the subject predicate PRED which is a

noun. An adjective can be placed after that noun. The subject and the predicate

(complement) are juxtaposed with out the use of a copula. The noun agrees with the

- subject in person, number and gender.

Pattern 1: NS + PRED [N+ (ADJ)]

12 - [NCL[NS ~ali] [PRED 0

Ali COP

mk'as's'ed Ske: r]] poet -SG.M good \ SG.M

'Ali is a (good) poet.'

13 -[NCL [Nsj eh] [PRED 0 ~~li]]

he COP Ali 'He is Ali

6.1.1.2.2 Main Nominal Clause with Adjectival Predicates

This type of clause consists of subject and an adjective functioning as a subject

predicate or complement which may be followed by an adverb. The adjective and the

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subject are not connected with a copula but there is an agreement between them in

person, number and gender.

Pattern 2: NS + PRED [AD] + (ADV)]

14 - [NCL [Nsjeh] [PRED 0 )0: t 'em]] he COP fat SG.M

'He is fat'

15-[NcdNsfat'imah] [PRED 0

Fatemah COP 'Fatemah is (very) tall.'

~ i : 1 - eh wi:]] tall- SG.F very

61.1.2.3 Main Nominal Clauses with Locative Predicates

The subject in this clause is followed by either an adverb or a PP functioning as

subject predicates denoting location. It is possible for both the PP and the adverb to

occur together. No copula verbs are used in this clause.

Pattern 3: NS + PRED [PP IADV]

16 - [NCL [NS kto : b] [PRED 0 laxo: neh lmrsi]] book COP under chair

'The book is under the chair.'

17- [NCL [NS ~ ali ] [ PRED 0 dbok' ]] Ali COP there

'Ali is there.'

18 - [NCL [NS jeh] [PRED 0 dbok' deh b - k'o: )er]] he COP there his in hose

'He is there in his house.'

6.1.1.2.4 Existential Clauses

Some existential clauses in the SDG are structurally similar to nominal clauses

with locative predicates. Dryer (2007b) indicates that there is a kind of overlapping

266

between nominal clauses with locative predicates and the existential clauses. The clauses

in the following examples perform both locative and existential functions:

19 -[NCL [NS lErhDn] PRED [" b-goat \ PL. COP in

'There are goats in the valley'

Jo:hi]] valley

20- -[NCL [NS le : fe de: lek'] [ PRED"

people many COP 'There are so many people in the city'

b- bla:d]] In city

There is another kind of existential clauses in the SDG which is formed by the use of the

existential line 'there' but again with out any copula.

Pattern 4: line + S + (PP)

21- line dro:hem deh b- lid there money his in hand 'There is money in his hand'

These clauses are not negated by the negative particle 0: 1 which is used to negate

declarative statements but they are negated through the use of biJi 'there is not'.

22 - biJi dro: hem " deh b - lid no money COP his in hand

'There is no money in his hand. '

Some existential clauses in the SDG are formed through the use of ku: se which

literally means 'existed, found' and it is used for all persons, genders and numbers.

23 - ku: se 2erhDn b- JO: hi' found \ 3PL.M goat \ PL In valley

'There are goats in the valley'

Some languages employ locative predicative or existential clauses to express

possessive predicate (Dryer ibid). This is true in the SnG in which this meaning is

267

expressed by the existing ?ine 'there' followed by transitive verb S e 'have' plus a

suffix personal pronoun.

24- 'line Se-S dro:hem there have-you 2S0.F. money 'Do you (f) have money?'

6.1.1.2.5 Minor Nominal Clauses with Genitive Predicates

Partree and Borschev (2001) define the genitive predicate as a possessive

construction like John's teacher, teacher of John. This study shows that the genitive

predicate in the SDO is expressed either by a possessive pronoun, a possessive particle

or by both a possessive pronoun and a possessive particle as illustrated below:

The genitive predicate consists of a possessive pronoun:

Pattern 5: NS + PRED [POSS.PRO]

25 -[NCL [NS diS k'o: ~er dheh] [PRED 0 dehD]] this .SG.F house here COP mine

'This house is mine. '

Pattern 6: NS+ PRED [POSS.PRO I POSS.P AR + N]

26 - [NCL[NS de He J DEM. SG.M man

'This man is her father.'

dheh] [PRED 0 dseh here COP her

be:beh]] father

The following genitive predicate consists of a possessive particle and a possessor.

be~er

DEM .SG.M camel SG.M. 'This is Ali's camel'

dheh [PRED 0 [NC d e here COP POSS

~eli ]] .Ali

The genitive predicate has possessive pronOWl and possessive particle and a possessor.

Pattern 7: NS+ PRED [POSS.PRO. + POSS.PART. +N]

28 - [NS deS k'a: \'er ] [PRED 0

COP This house-SG.F 'This is my father's house.'

dehn de POSS.PRO. POSSPART

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be:beh]] father

6.1.1.2.6 Minor Nominal clauses with Benefactive Predicates

The benefactive predicate is a predicate that indicates an individual for whose

benefit something is done (Trask 1993).The clause pattern 3: NS + PRED (PP) is also

used to form nominal clauses with benefactive predicates in the SDG. The preposition

used as a benefactive morpheme in these clauses is Ie 'for'

29-[NcL[Ns dra:hem hah] [PRED 0 Ie ~ali]]

money here COP. for Ali 'This money is for Ali.'

30 - [NcdNS de i:X~ : f this.SG.M milk

'This milk is for children.'

dhah] [PRED 0

here COP

Ie for

birhe ]] children

6.1.1.2.7 Minor Nominal Clauses with predicates indicating origin

These clauses also have a structure similar to that of the clause pattem 3.The

preposition used in such clauses is men 'from' .

31-[NcL [Nsj:m] [PRED 0 men sak'at'ri]] they M COP from Soqotra Island

'They (M) are from Soqotra Island. '

32 - NCL [NS sen ] [PRED 0

they-F COP 'They (F) are from Aden.'

men from

~adan ]]] Aden

6.1.1.2.8 Minor Nominal clauses with Associative predicates

The clause pattern 3 is also used to form nominal clauses that perform

associative function or accompaniment. The preposition used is S - which is affixed to

the pronominal object suffix.

269

33 - [NCL [NS seh ] [PRED {21 S - eh ]] she COP with -him

'She is with him. '

34 - [NCL [Nsjeh ] [PRED {21 Se - s]] he COP with - her

'He is with her.'

6.1.1.2.9 Minor Nominal clauses with Referential predicates

Clause pattern 3 is also used to form a nominal clause that perform referential

function .The preposition used in these clauses is ~an 'about'

35 - [NcdNS da mettal dhah ] [PRED {21 ~an ma~erher]]

DEM. SG.M speech here COP about devil 'This speech is about the devil. '

6.1.1.3 Temporal Aspects of the Nominal Clauses

Though all the above nominal clauses do not have verbs, their intended tense is

either indefinite timeless present which is usually used for expressing general facts as in

example 36 or an actual present tense usually indicated by the context or some temporal

adverbs as illustrated in example 37.

36 - [NcdNS Sa: m ] [PRED {21

sun COP 'The sun is big.'

\'ak'e: r-eh ]]] big3SG.F

37 - [NCL [NS ?i t ] [PRED 0 dehn k'as'\'ah you .SG.F COP my guest

'You (f) are my guest tonight.'

xte: r]] tonight

The past and future tenses in these nominal clauses are expressed through the use of the

copula verbs.

270

6.1.1.4 Nominal clauses with Pro-Copula

As shown in the previously described types of nominal clause, the predicates are

juxtaposed to the subjects without using any copula verb. This juxtaposition of the

subject and its predicate without the use of a copula is called zero copula encoding

(Stassen, 1997). It occurs in the SDG in combination with full copula encoding in which

the subject is connected with its predicate with a full copula verb. Switching of zero and

full encoding in the SDG is determined by the present tense parameter. The nominal,

adjectival and locational predicatives have obligatory zero copular encoding if the clause

refers to the present tense and they have a full copula encoding if the clause refers to all

the other time reference such as past and future. When the clause has a copula or a full

copula encoding, it is no longer a nominal clause. It becomes verbal clauses with

nonverbal predicate (Dryer, 2007b) .This type of clauses will be described in the section

that deals with verbal clauses in the SDG.

The current study shows that the SDG employs a certain nonverbal copula to

connect the subject of the nominal clause with its predicate. The third person singular

masculine and feminine independent pronouns are used as copulas joining the subject

with its nominal predicate, adjectival predicate, locative predicate and predicate

indicating origin. This syntactic feature of the SDG has not been referred to before in

any previous study. A nominal clause with a pro-copula is a structure of the type ~'David,

he a man'. The following examples illustrate this use in the SDG:

Pattern 8: NS + PRED [PRO. COP +N IADJ I PP]

38 - [NCL[NS de Jfaj dheh ] [PRED jEh dEhn bE: bEh]]] this man here PRO.COP-3SG.M-he my father

'This man is my father.'

271

39 - [NCL[NS deS Ifa :Jeh dhah] [PRED seh J o£ e : reh ]] this woman here PRO.COP-3SG.F-she ill-SG.F

'This woman is ill .'

The use of the third person pronoun as a copula is also confirmed by Naude (2002

who describes this pronoun as a pleonastic or a dummy pronoun. Naude (ibid) argues

that it has the status of a pronominal clitic regarding it as necessary for the semantic

interpretation of the nominal (verbless) clauses. Stassen (1997) states that this

pronominal copula or pro-copula is originated as a resumptive subject pronoun in a

topic-comment structure. It forms a part of the clause nucleus and it is anaphorically

related to the subject, which is put outside the nucleus in the topic position or the

sentence-initial position. The occurrence of the pronominal copulas is highly prominent

in three language area; Afro-Asiatic area, north-central Asia area and in Eastem-

Indonesia and Melanesia. The use of the pro-copula in the Afro-Asiatic languages

especially in the Semitic languages is a common feature. It is attested in Akkadian, the

oldest Semitic language, in Arabic and in Hebrew (ibid).

6.1.1.5 Agreement in the Nominal Clause

The complement of the nominal clause (nominal or adjectival) agrees with the

subject of the clause in both number and gender as shown in these examples:

40 - [NCL[NS de If:)J dh:)h] [PRED 0 deho xe : l~t' ]] DEM- SG.M man \SG.M here COP my guest -SG.M

'This man is my guest.' [Singular masculine subject and Singular masculine nominal complement]

41- [NcdNS de-ki If:)J-i DEM- DU.M man -DU.M

'These two men are my guests.'

dh~h] [PRED 0 deho Xe:l:)t'-i]] here COP my guest-.DU.M

[Dual masculine subject and dual masculine nominal complement]

272

42 -[NCL[NS Ie DEM.PL.M

Hij DJ man\pL.M

lhah] [PRED 13 dehD here COP my guest \ PL.M

'These men are my guests .. ' [Plural masculine subject and plural masculine nominal complement]

43 - [NCL[NS deS HO:J-eh dheh] [PRED 0

DEM-.SG.M woman-.SG.F here COP 'This woman is white.'

labi: n-eh]] white SG.F.

[Singular feminine subject and singular feminine adjectival complement]

HO:J-e-ti DEM .DU.F woman-.DU.F

'These (two) women are white.'

dheh] here

[PRED 0 labe: ni-ti ]] COP white DU.F.

[Dual feminine subject and dual feminine adjectival predicate]

HaJ-e:ti n Iheh] DEM.PL woman-.PL.F here PL

'These women are white.'

laban-e: tin]] white- PL.F.

[Plural feminine subject and Plural feminine adjectival predicate]

Russell (1984) points out that Arabic has a government system similar to thepreviously

described government system of the SDG.

6.1.1.6 Nominal Clause Function

Nominal clauses in the SDG perform many functions such as the function of

identification, description, proper inclusion and equation. When they perform the

function of identification, they indicate the nature and identity of the subject thus

answering questions like "what" and ''who''. When these clauses perform the function of

description, they denote the quality of the subject, thus answering questions like: "what

is the subject like?, (Arnold & Choi, 2003).

46 - [NCL~S ~ali] (PRED 0

Ali COP 'Ali is a shepherd. '

re~hE ]] shepherd

[Identification clause]

47-[NcdNs~alil (PRso0 ~a:t'em]] Ali COP fat 'Ali is fat.' [Description clause]

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Proper inclusion means that a specific thing or entity is confirmed to be among

the class of items indicated in the nominal predicate (payne, 1997; Dixon, 2004b).

48 - [NcdNsjeh ] [PRED {(} mderres]] he COP teacher 'He is a teacher.'

This example might be paraphrased as 'he is a member ofthe class designated by the

noun 'teacher'. The subject is usually specific and the nominal predicate is non-specific.

Equative clauses confirm that a particular thing (the subject) is to some extent

identical to the thing specified in the nominal predicate such as in.

49 - [NcdNsjeh ] [PRED {(} deho be: beh ]] he COP my father

'He is my father'.

In the SDO there are no grammatical or structural distinctions between proper inclusion

clauses and equative clauses.

6.1.2 Verbal clauses in the SDG

The verbal clauses are those whose predicates begin with verbs. Dryer (2007b)

states that verbal clauses are more frequent than nominal clauses in all the world

languages pointing out that the basic distinction among verbal clauses is that between

verbal clauses with intransitive predicates and verbal clauses with transitive predicates.

6.1.2.1 Verbal Clause Structure

The fmdings of this study indicate that the structure of the main verbal clause in

the SDO can include initial elements, core NPs and the predicate as shown below:

I-Clause-initial Elements

The clause initial elements may be inteIjections, or adverbs of time or both.

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l-[j~ be:rhe:n] beSo: H~J-e::tin

Oh last night weep\ 3PL.MFPER woman-PL 'Oh women wept. Last night'

2- CoreNPs

One core argument is either in the S (intransitive verb subject) function, the A

(transitive verb subject) function or in the CS (copula clause subject) function. The other

one or two core NPs are in the 0 (object of transitive verb) function and in the E

(extended transitive verb object) function or in the CC (copula clause complement)

function (Dixon, 2004 a)

2- beSe weep\ 3SG.MPER

'The child wept.'

[s mokSem] child

3 - [A se:h] ?~nde : k' -e:h [E me brhe:] [0 t Xo : f] She give-3SG.F.PER child milk

'She gave the child milk. '"

4 - ks ?e:h] ?e: : rem-k I COP-ISG.M.PER

'I was ill.'

3- Predicate

[cc Jo:~~r] ill

The predicate includes obligatory reference to the core NPs or arguments S, A, 0

and CS. This predicate is either a main verb or a copula as shown in the above

examples, and it is the only obligatory element in the clause in addition to the CC.

4- Clause-Final Elements:

These elements include the different types of adverb and prepositional phrase.

5-jEh ~o:k'~l dra:hEm [dEh b-ki:s ] he put\3SG.M.PER money his in bag 'He put the mOtl!y.in his bag.'

275

The subject (S or A) of the verbal clauses in the SDG may take different fonus

for example it may be a personal pronoun as in example (6), a noun as in example (7),

an adjective as in example (8), or a relative clause as in example (9) .

6 - [A hEn] a: 1 ne-te ?erhez we not IPL.M.IMP- eat rice 'We do not eat rice.'

7 - dnhak [s mnkS am ] laugh\ 3SG.M.PER child 'The child laughed.'

8 - [Amk'e: ne<t] za: He mad. SG.M take\3SG.M.PER 'The mad (man) took a knife.'

s'e: reh knife

9-[Ade je-Si:ne <teh] a:l je-Ho:reb teh Who 3SG.M.IMP- see him not 3SG.M.IMP- recognize him 'Who sees him will not recognize him.'

The subjects (A, S, and CS) are optional in all the verbal clauses of the SDG as

illustrated in examples 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

10 - [ keta:b -eh] x;et'H write- 3SG.F.PER letter

'She wrote a letter.'

11- s'a:m-Eh die-3SG.F.PER 'She died.'

12 - knnE-S Jehlil COP-2SG.F.PER pregnant

'You (woman) were pregnant.'

In the above examples, there is an implied personal pronoun in the verbal fonus.

Abdul-Raof (1998) describes such clauses in Semitic languages as having covert or

bound subject affixes cliticized in the verbs. These clauses are regarded as having empty

subject because their subject slots that may be occupied by the subject pronouns are not

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filled with any overt sUbjects. Languages that allow empty subjects such as the SDG,

Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian,etc. are called ' null subject' or 'pro(nominal) drop'

languages, while those languages which do not allow empty subjects such as English are

called ' non null subject' or non pro drop' languages. In the pro drop languages

including the SDG the pronominal subjects are usually not expressed in the finite clause

because the agreement features of the verb are rich enough to enable its content features

to be recovered (Chomsky, 1981; Baptista, 1995; Levy & Vainikka 2003; Neeleman &

Szendroi ,2005 & Ackema,et al.,2006).

The verb inflections in the SDG indicate the subject person, number and gender

either through prefixation as in the imperfect verb fonus or through suffixation as in the

perfect verbs fonus or through stem vowel modification. For example, the suffIx - £h

indicates that the dropped subject is a third person singular feminine, it also indicates the

perfect tense

13-0- JadDh-E:h S 3SG.F.PER come -3SG.F.PER 'She came.'

The prefix 2a - in the following examples reveals that the subject is first person

singular masculine and it also indicates the imperfect tense of the clause

14 - £'} ?a-t:): her S ISG.IMP-go 'I (will) go'.'

The vowel modification of the verb stem from :) : to u: in the following example

indicates that the subject is third person plural masculine and it indicates that the tense is

the perfect.

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15-0 Haru:b tch A understand-3PLU.M.PER him 'They (M) understood him.'

These empty subject verbal clauses are widely common in the SDG. Subject pronouns

are not used unless the speaker wants to emphasize the subject

The SDG has two types of verbs; main verbs and auxiliary verbs. The main verbs

are either intransitive such as s'a:ma 'died', transitive Si:na 'saw' or extended

transitive such as ?Endak' 'gave'. The SDG has some verbs such as kDn 'be',

2c :rcm 'be', ~ad 'still', bcr 'already', which are used both as copula verbs and as

auxiliaries co-occurring with the main verbs to fonn certain tenses and aspects. The use

of these verbs and their full paradigms were described in Chapter 5.

6.1.2.2 Types of Verbal Clause

The data analysis of the current study reveals that the types of verbal clause in

SDG are detennined by the type of the verb used in the clause. So the SDG has

intransitive verbal clause, transitive verbal clause, extended transitive clauses, zero

transitive clauses and copula clauses as shown in the figure below:

Verbal Clause

I

Intransitive CL. Transitive CL. Extended transitive CL Zero Transitive CL Copula CL.

Figure 6.2: Types of Verbal Clause in the SDG.

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6.1.2.2.1 Intransitive Clauses

The intransitive clause has an intransitive predicate and a single core argument

in the S (intransitive subject) function (Dixon, 2006). The intransitive verbal clause in

the SDG is realized in two different structures:

a- Intransitive verb plus a covert subject with a possible optional adverb or a

prepositional phrase as illustrated in the following pattern:

Pattern 1:INT.V + S (covert) + (ADVIPP)

16-[vcdpRED na-t'o:her na:lah]] IPL.IMP-go now

'We go now.'

b- An intransitive verb with an overt subject in the form of personal pronoun or a noun

with a possible optional adverbial as in the following patterns:

Pattern 2: INT.V + S (overt) + (ADV / PP)

17 -[VCdpRED t'ahe: r-eh] go 3SG.F.PER

'The woman went.'

[s Ha:jeh]] woman

Pattern 3: S (overt) +PRED [INT V + (ADVIPP)]

18 -[ VCL[S ka 1 b] [PRED de: mE PP b - bistren ]] dog sleep.3SG.M.PER in garden

'The dog slept in the garden.'

In addition to main verb, intransitive clauses in the SDG may also include an auxiliary

that denotes certain tenses and aspects such as lad, ber, and 1e: rem as in this pattern:

Pattern 4: S+ AUX +INT.V

19 - [vcdsjeh] [PRED ber jadab]] he AUX come\3SG.M.PER

'He has already corne.'

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Some intransitive verbal clauses in the SnG have linking verbs such as SDbeh

'seem', tahEr 'remain' which are followed by the subject predicative. The subject

predicative is an adjectival phrase or a noun phrase that specifies or characterizes the

subject (Biber, etal., 2002). These intransitive verbal clauses have the following patterns:

Pattern 5: S + Link V + ADJP

20- [vcds deS DEM SG.F woman 3SG.F.IMP-seem

nE:h-Eh]] happy-SG.F

'The woman seems happy.'

21 - [vcds riho : ] [PRED tahEr rna: IEh]] water remain\.3SG.M.PER salty

'Water remained salty.'

Pattern 6: S + Link V + NP

22 - [VCL[S jEh] [PRED tahEr he remain\3SG.M.PER

'He remained my friend

6.1.2.2.2 Transitive Clauses

dEhD s'a:heb]] my friend

These clauses have a transitive predicate and two core arguments. One

argument is in A (transitive subject) function occasionally called "agent" and the other is

in 0 "transitive object" functions occasionally called "patient". The argument whose

referent does or at least potentially could initiate or control the activity is in A function.

The argument whose referent is affected by the activity is in 0 function (Dixon, 2004

b). The transitive subject A in the snG can be either covert or overt and the transitive

object 0 is either a pronoun or a noun. An optional adverbial ADV or PP can be added

to the structure of this clause.

The common transitive verbal clause patterns in the SDG are as follows:

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Pattern 7: TRA.V + A (covert) + 0 + (ADVIPP)

23- [VCdPREDs'nleb kill.3SG.M.PERE

'He killed a goat yesterday.'

o ?o : z ~mS en ]] goat (yesterday)

24 - [VCL [PRED ksa: -k dra: hem b S art ']] find-l SG.PER money In street

'I found money (in the street).'

Pattern 8: TRA.V + A (overt) +0 + (ADVIPP)

25- [VCdpRED s'nleb [A lali ] 0 ?o:z PP be Ja:he]] kill.3SG.M.PERE Ali goat in valley)

'Ali killed a goat in a valley.

Pattern 9: A + TRA.V + 0 + (ADVIPP)

26- [VCL [Alali ] [PRED s'nleb 0 ?o: z]] Ali kill. 3SG.M.PERE goat

, Ali killed a goat.

In the above example the transitive objects 0 is nouns; however, it is possible for that

object in the SDG to be also a pronominal object suffix.

27- [vcdAkalb] [pRED~a:lab o tn ?amSen]] dog bit- 3SG.M.PER 1 SG.SUUF.PRO yesterday

'The dog bit me yesterday'

The object pronoun is suffixed to accusative particles. In all her articles Simeone

-Senelle (1997) mentions only one of these particles t- .The researcher found other

accusative particles such as £ - and ?en- which are also added to the suffix object

pronouns. All these pronominal object suffixes have already been described as

dependent or bound pronouns in Chapter 4.

28- [VcdpRED AS i : n * ek see * 180M.PER

'I saw you.'

o t- ek]] ACC.P AR - SUF.PRO 2.SG.M

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29- [VCL[PRED A S i : n::l-ki o \'-eh]] see- mu.M.PER ACC.PAR - SUF.PRO 3.SG.M

'We (the two) saw him.'

Transitive verbal clauses in the SnG have a very flexible and varied word order. In

addition to the already-mentioned patterns, the following patterns are also possible:

Pattern 10: 0 +TRA.V+PRO. + A

30- [VCL [PRED 0 kalb v S i : n -eh PRO -)eh] [A ferhem ] ] dog see -3SG.F.PER - him girl

'The girl saw the dog.'

The snG has lost all its cases and the difference between transitive and

intransitive does not result in transitive subjects with an ergative case or intransitive

subjects with an absolutive case. As shown in the previous examples the subjects of both

the transitive and intransitive verbal clauses in the SnG are structurally the same.

Transitive clauses in the SOG may also include an auxiliary that denotes certain tenses

and aspects such as \'ad, ber, and le: rem as in this pattern:

Pattern 11: A+AUX. +TRA.V+O

31- [VCL[Aseh] [PREDlere:m-eh ta-\'o:mer oJe:he]] She AUX-SG.F 3SG.F.IMP-make tea

'She was making tea.'

Some languages distinguish between intransitive verbal clauses with stative

verbs and intransitive verbal clauses with non stative verbs. However, the SnG has all

these types of clauses (with stative and non stative verbs) but without having any

mOIphological or syntactic difference between them.

Some transitive verbal clauses in the SOG have complex transitive verbs such as

'limbe: 'called', rQk' Qh 'chose, appointed' and raJrom 'consider' which are

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followed by object predicative or complement that takes the form of an adjectival or

noun phrase. The object predicative or the object complement specifies and

characterizes the object (Biber, et aI., 2002). The patterns of such clauses are as follows:

Pattern 12: V + A (overt / covert) + ° + NP

32 - [veL [PRED 'limbE: [A'lIi ] name \3SG.M.PER Ali

, Ali named his baby Salem. '

33- [veL [PRED 'lerk'u:h 0 tEh appoint \3PL.M.PER him

'They (M) appointed him chief

Pattern 13: (A) + V + ° + ADJP

34- [vedA 'leh] [PRED reIrome-k I think-lSG.PER

'I thought Ali clever.'

35 - [veL [PRED reIrome-k 0 tek

o deh mEbrhE his baby

oc mk'eddem ]] chief

o \'eli Ali

oc d1d]] c1everSG.M

think-lSG.PER you SG.M 'I thought you mad

oc mEnk'e: ne\']] madSG.M

6.1.2.2.3 Extended Transitive Clauses

oc sa : ImhEn ]] Salem

This study shows that the SDG has extended transitive or ditransitive verbs such

as 2endek 'gave' and teJo: r 'bought'. In addition to the subject argument A, these

clauses have an object argument 0, and an extended object argument E. According to

Dixon (2004 b ) the "gift' is the transitive object 0 or the direct object and the recipient

is the extended transitive object E or indirect object. The snG represents the 0 and the

E in its extended transitive clauses through the use of two common constructions:

constructions marked with a preposition and constructions not marked with a preposition.

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a-Constructions not marked with Preposition

In such constructions, the extended argument E is not marked by prepositions, it

occurs immediately after the verb before the O. Both 0 and E may take the form of

either a noun or a pronoun. These clauses have various patterns as illustrated below:

Pattern 14: EV + A (covert) + E + 0 + (ADVIPP)

36- [VCL [PRE tend-ak' EmSE~rek o dra: hem ADV Ii : len]] give- 3SG.M.PER fisher man money last night

'He gave the fisherman money (last night).'

Pattern 15: EV + A (overt) + E + 0 + (ADV IPP)

37 - [VCL [PRE Evtend-ak' [A)ali] E mSe~rEk 0 dra:hem b- Sart']] give- 3SG.M.PER Ali fisher man money in street

'Ali gave the fisherman money in the street.'

Pattern 16: A(overt) + EV + E + 0 + (ADVIPP)

38-[vcd A~ali] [PRED ?end-ak' EmSE~rek 0 dra:hem ppde h b- k'a:)Er]] Ali give-3SG.M.PER fisher man money his in house

'Ali gave the fisherman money (in his house). '

The E argument can also be represented by suffix object pronoun:

39- [vcdA ?e:h] [PRED taJo: r-k E teS 0 to: z]] 1 buy -lSG.PER SUF.PRO SG.F goat

'I bought you (F) a goat' .

When (E) and ( 0) are all pronouns , a suffix object pronoun without an accusative

particle is used for the ( E) and a suffix object pronoun with an accusative particle is

used for the (0)

40 - [VCL [PRED ~cndDk' - k E -cs 0 tc: -h::m ]] give -ISO.M.PER. SUF.PRO.3.SG.F ACC.PAR - SUF.PRO.3.PL.M

'I gave them (M,) to her'.

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The researcher found out that it is also possible for the ( 0) argument along with its

accusative particle to precede the ( E ) argument in the SDG, but this order is less

common than the ftrst one.

41- [VCL [PRED ~E:ndnk'k o t E:: -han give - I.SG.M.PER. ACC.PAR - SUF.PRO.3.PL.M

'I gave them (M.) to her.'

b-Constructions Marked with Preposition

E -E:S ]]

SUF.PRO.3.SG.F

In these clauses the (E) argument is marked with a preposition. The same clause

patterns used in the unmarked constructions are also used here.

42- [VCL [PRED ?atbak' [ A ~ali ] dal E deh s'a:beb 0 ~asi:l]]

Send- ISG.M.PER Ali to his friend honey 'Ali sent honey to his friend. '

43-[vcdAdeho be:beh] [PRED Jo:m le- E?efeh o?erhon]J my father sell \3SG.M.PER for-people goats 'My father sold goats for people.'

Like the intransitive and transitive clauses, the extended transitive verbal clause in the

SDG may also include, in addition to the main verb, an auxiliary that denotes certain

tenses and aspects such as ~ad, ber, kDn and ?e: rem as in this pattern:

Pattern 17: A + AUX. +EV+ E+O

44- [vcdA ?E:h] [PRED kDn-k ?a-k~: teb 1 E ~ali 0 Xat ']] 1 AUX.-ISG.M.PER ISG.M.IMP-write for Ali letter

'I was writing a letter for Ali.'

6.1.2.2.4 Zero-intransitive or Ambient Clause

While the intransitive verbal clause has one argument the subject S and the

transitive and extended transitive clauses have two or thee arguments; subject A and

objects 0, E, the findings of this study show that there is a clause that has a zero

argument. This clause is called zero-intransitive or ambient. This clause describes

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environmental conditions especially the weather conditions (Dryer, 2007b). In English

such clause describes the weather conditions through the use of the independent non-

referential pronoun it as in the clause' it is raining' . Dryer (ibid) mentions four strategies

employed by languages to construct clauses with such meaning. The strategy employed

by the SDG is similar to that of English except that instead of the semantically no

referential independent pronoun (it) which is used as a subject in the English sentence,

the SDG employs the non-referential third person singular feminine form of the verb. In

both English and the SDG this clause is similar to the verbal intransitive clause except

that this clause cannot take an independent noun phrase noun or pronoun as a subject.

The third person singular feminine affixes ta - and - eh are added to verbs

related to weather conditions to form such clauses. These affIXes are non referential

when used in this type of verbal clauses, but they are referential with other normal

transitive verbs.

45 - [VCL [PRED t9 -Iss n ]] 3 SG.F.IMP- rain

'It is raining'

46 - [VCL [PRED Snd - eh]] thunder- 3SG.F.PER

'It thundered.'

47 - [VCL [PRED ta- b~: rek']] 3 SG.F.IMP- light

'It is lightening.'

According to Cantarino (1976) Arabic does not have such impersonal subject,

therefore, statements about weather and the like which are usually impersonal in the

SDG, always take personal structures in which the subject is the phenomenon it self or

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that part of nature which is affected by the phenomenon such as the (sky, earth, night,

etc.). Similarly Givon (2001) states that in some languages the noun form that denotes

the weather condition may be used as a dummy subject for the clause. However, the

SDG still have some similar structures such as the following:

48-'ldob 'lefihe: meh enter 3SG,F darkness SG.F

"It became dark.'

6.1.2.2.5 Copula Clauses

The current study shows that the SDG has a copula clause with a copula verb

either in the pa'it or future joining its subject with its predicate. Dryer (2007b) states that

the element that follows the form of the verb be rather than be itself is the real predicate

since the verb 'be' is a function word not a predicate. Dryer (ibid) emphasizes that some

times it is important to distinguish between clauses with nonverbal predicate from

nonverbal or nominal clauses. All the previously- described and illustrated types of

nominal clause have no copula verbs so these clauses are not only clauses with

nonverbal predicate but also they are nominal clauses. But the copula clauses which will

be described in this section have the past or future forms of the Verb be so according to

Dryer (ibid) these clauses involve nonverbal predicates but they are not nonverbal

clauses These clauses are verbal but with nonverbal predicates.

Structurally the copula clause in the SDG has two arguments. It has a copula

subject CS and copula complement CC. Functionally, it marks some or all of the

relations of attribution, identity, equation and naming. These finding are in total

agreement with Dixonts (2004b) description of the structure and function of the copula

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clause. In. the SDG a copula verb in the past or future form can be added to almost all

the main and minor nominal clauses. So these main and minor nominal clauses will have

equivalent copula clauses with nonverbal predicates . Thus SDG has copula clauses with

various nonverbal predicates which may be nominal, adjectival, adverbial, existential,

possessive, benefactive or associative. The patterns of these copula clauses in the SDG

are as follows:

a-Copula clauses with a nominal copula complement.

The copula clause performs the function of identity. It indicates that the referent of the

CS was or will be a member of a certain class (Dixon, ibid). This function is exemplified

in these examples:

Pattern 18: CS + PRED [COP. +. N+ (ADJ)

49 - [eCL [es~ali] [PRED copj~kDn

Ali be-3SG.M .IMP 'Ali will be a good poet. '

cc mk'as's'ed poet -3SG.M

b- Copula clause with an adjectival copula complement

Ske: r ]] good\SG.M

This clause performs the function of attribution. The adjective is stated as an attribute

of the CS (ibid). The following examples illustrate this function:

Pattern 19: (C S) + PRED [COP + ADJ + (ADVP) ]

50 - [eCL [cs2eh] [PREDCOP S'a-kDn cc~i B wi:]] I lSG.M.IMP- be strong SG.M very

'I will be (very) strong'.

c- Copula clause with adverbial copula complement (locative adverbs) as shown below:

Pattern 20: (CS) + PRED [COP + ADV]

51- [eCL [PRED COP kDnk be-lSQ;PBR

'I was there.'

cc hok']] there

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d- Copula clause with locative copula complement as shown below::

Pattern 21: (CS) + PRED [COP + PP]

52 - [eCL [es seh] [PRED COP 2eram - eh cc b - ka: ~er]] she be-3SG.F.PER in house

'She was at home.'

e- Copula clauses with existential copula complement:

Pattern 22: (CS) + PRED [AUX+COP+. PP]

The auxiliary ~ ad can be placed before the imperfect copula in all the

patterns to emphasize futurity on one hand and on the other hand to imply that the

action in the clause has already happened sometime in the past and it will happen again.

53- [ecd cs lfijDJ] [PRED ~ad cOP 2i-ken cc b- S art ']] man \ PL . AUX 3SG.M.IMP-be m street

'There will be men in the street (again).

f- Copula clauses with a possessive copula complement. It follows Pattern 21.

54- [eCL [es diS k'a: ~er dhah] [PRED COP ta -ron this .SG.F house here 3SG.F.IMP-be

'This house will be Ali's house.'

cc de -~ali ]] of Ali

g- Copula clauses with a benefactive copula complement, it follows Pattern 21

55 - [eCL [es diS 20: Z

DEM. SG.F. goat SG.F 'This goat will be for Ali.'

dhah] [PRED ta -mn Ie ~ali ]] here 3SG.F.IMP-be for Ali

h- Copula clauses with an associative copula complement. This clause also follows

Pattern 21.

56 -[eCL ks jeh ] [PRED 2erem S - es ]] he 3SG.M.PER-be with -her

'He was with her.

It is possible for the copula subject to be omitted since the copula verb has inflections

which indicate the subject number and gender as shown in the previous examples.

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6.1.2.3 Syntactic Pivot

A discourse is organized around a 'topic' or a participant that reoccurs in

successive clauses to knit them together. In the Basic Linguistic Theory, this topic is

called "pivot". A pivot argument is recognizable for every clause even if quoted outside

the discourse context (Dixon 2004b).The SDO has a Sf A pivot so in any clause it is the

S argument (if intransitive) or the A argument (if transitive) which can be the discourse

topic or pivot. A second occurrence of an NP in a discourse can be omitted, if it is in the

pivot function in each occurrence as illustrated below:

57 - A £~li Ji: n~ ~~hm~d W s0

Ali see-3SG.M.PER Ahmad and Ali saw Ahmad and ran away. '

fe : red flee\3SG.M.PER

58 - s ~~li J~d~h W A 0

Ali come-3SG.M-PER and Ji : n~ ~~hm~d

see-3SG.M.PER Ahmad 'Ali came and saw Ahmad

In example 57 the omitted S argument from the second clause must be the same

as the A argument from the first clause, i.e. it is Ali who fled. In example 58 the omitted

argument A in the second clause is the same as the argument S in the first clause, i.e. it

is Ali who saw Ahmad. So the SDO has an Sf A pivot .Languages with such pivot are

said to have accusative syntax (Dixon, ibid).

6.1.2.4 Grammatical Relations within the Verbal Clause

The grammatical relations within the verbal clause in the SDG has been analyzed

according to the BLT. The data analysis shows that the SDO treats S (intransitive verb

subject) and A ( transitive verb subject) morpho-syntactically alike and treats the 0 (the

reansitive verb object) differently. This system is referred to as 'Nominative f

Accusative System'. Grouping morpho-syntactically S and A together can be called the

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nominative case, while the distinct morpho-syntactic grouping of the 0 role is the

accusative case (Dixon, 1972, 1979, 1994: Farrell, 2005 ).

The following examples illustrate this system, with the pronominal case fonus.

One form j eh 'he" is used for third-person singular masculine pronouns in both the S

and the A roles, whereas a different form ~eh "him" is used for the third-person

singular masculine pronouns in the 0 role.

59-[sjeh] de:m~

he sleep-3SG.M.PER , He slept.'

60 - [Aj eh] Ji: n~ he see-3SG.M.PER 'He saw him.'

[0 'leh] him

The following figure illustrates this system:

Figure 6.3: Nominative IAccusative System in the SDG from Payne (2006, p. 217)

The extended circle around S and A in this figure indicates that S and A are

treated by the grammar of the SDG as the Same, while the distinct circle round 0

means that it is treated differently. The SDG has a morphological case marking on

pronouns but it does not have such case marking on full noun phrases. So how is A

distinguished from 0 when both are nouns? Actually, the SDG manifests a nominative I

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accusative system on person, number and gender marking on verbs as shown in the following

examples:

61- (a). smDkS~m j~-do :hek boy-SG.M 3SG.M.lMP-laugh

'The boy laughs.'

61-(b). s?eh ~~-do:hek

I lSG.M.lMP-laugh 'I laughed'

61 (c-) AmDkS~m j~Si :n~-

Boy-SG.M 3SG.M.IMP-see 'The boy sees the girl. '

oferhem girl-SG.F

In example 61 a, the third-person singular S of an intransitive verb is referred to

by the Prefix. j~-. In 61 b, the first-person S argument is expressed by the Prefix. ~~-.

Example 61 c- shows that the prefixj~-- is also used for third-person A arguments of

transitive verbs. Hence, A and S are treated morphologically alike by the verbal person,

-number and gender-marking system of the SDG. The 0 argument has no inflectional

effect on the verb at all. So the argument with which the verb agrees in number, person

and gender is either A or S, not O. There is another problem of distinguishing A from 0

in the SDG when both have the same number and gender. In such case the SDG

manifests a nominative / accusative system on word order. The SDG treats S and A alike

in that the S of intransitive verbs and the A of transitive verbs most neutrally occur in

preverbal position or immediately after it. The 0 of transitive verbs, on the other hand, is

treated differently in that it normally occurs in post-verbal position. So if the verb clause

has two arguments, one occurring before the verb and the other one after it, the first one

is the A argument as shown in example 62 a. If the two arguments occur after the verb,

the first one is the A argument too as in example 62b.

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62a- [A mDkS~m ] j~-Semtd-

boy-SG.M 3SG.M.IMP-speak 'The boy speaks with the man.'

[ 0 J{~J]

man-SG.M

62b - j~-Semtd- [A mDkS~m] [0 J{~J]

3SG.M.IMP-speak boy-SG.M man-SG.M 'The boy speaks with the man.'

6.1.2.5 Verbal Clause Function

The verbal clause in the SDG as well as in the other languages represents the

subject of the clause as acting when a transitive or a dynamic verb is used and as being

in a temporary state or condition when an intransitive verb or stative verb is used.

a-Acting subject

63 - jeh he

j-k:>: teb 3SG.M.IMP-write

'He is writing a letter'.

xat' letter

b- Subject in temporal state or condition

64 - jeh ja-So: beh J:>: 'i'er he 3SG.M.IMP-seem ill. SG.M 'He seems ill. '

65 - jeh kDn 10 : 'i'er he COP3SG.M.IMP ill. SG.M 'He was ill. '

6.2 Subordinate Clauses in the SDG

The previous sections describe the main clauses, clauses that can stand alone, in

the SDG. The coming sections focus on describing the subordinate clauses, clauses that

support the main ones but cannot stand alone Three types of subordinate clauses can be

distinguished in l~ges. Clauses that function as noun phrases "complement clauses

COM.CL or nounQta~es"; clauses that function as modifiers of nouns "relative clauses

RCL" and clauses . .;that function as modifiers of verb phrases "adverbial clauses '!J,/,' , ',,>', r<f'~

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ADVCL". The current study shows that SDO has all the three subordinate clauses. The

following figure shows the subordinate clauses and their sub-classifications in the SDO:

Subordinate Clauses in the SDO

COmPlemjt Clause

I I Indicative Subjunctive Nominalized

\\'hether/if clause Wh-clause That-clause

Adverbial Clause

I Participle Time

Place Manner Purpose Reason Condition Concessive Substitutive Absolutive

Figure 6.4: Types of Subordinate Clause in the SDG

6.2.1 Complement Clauses

Relative Clause

Attributive Non-attributive

. Dixon (2006) defines the complement clause (COMP.CL) as a clause that

functions as an argument of a higher clause indicating that a constituent is recognized as

a complement clause when it satisfies four criteria. Firstly, It should have the constituent

structure of a clause (S / A, 0). Secondly, it should function as a core argument of a

higher clause such as being S, A, 0 or E argument of that higher clause. Thirdly, it

should describe a proposition such as fact, activity. Fourthly, it should function as an 0

or E argument for verbs such as, 'see', 'hear', 'know', 'believe' and 'like'(ibid).

Noonan (2007) divides complements into six types: indicative complement, subjunctive

complement, paratactic complement, infinitive complement, nominalization complement

and participle co~letnent clause.

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The findings of the current study show that SnG has almost all these types

except the infinitive and paratactic clauses. The complement clause in the SnG can

occur in the slots of the intransitive subject (S), the transitive subject (A), the transitive

object (0), the extended argument (indirect object) (E) or the nominal verbless clause

subject within the main clause, therefore, it performs the functions of these core

arguments which do not bear any case marking but they inflect for number and gender.

The Soqotri complement clause was totally ignored in all the previous studies.

6.2.1.1 Indicative Complement Clauses

Those complement clauses have forms similar to the forms of the declarative

main clause; this means that they take all the inflectional properties of the main

declarative clause. The indicative complement clauses in the SDG include interrogative

complement clauses (indirect questions) and that-clauses.

6.2.1.1.1 Interrogative Complement Clause

There are two types of these clauses; whether / if complement clauses formed

from yes/no questions and wh- complement clauses formed from information questions

or wh-word questions.

6.2.1.1.1.1 Whether! If -Clause

The complementizers k ' if' / k 0: 1 , 10 0: 1 'whether ... or not' are used

in this type of complement clause in the SDG.

Pattern 1: NS [Whether / If- Clause) + [0] cOP + C

I-Ns[t'a:her k-o:l t' a:her] 0 c bi:1e 0:1 has-ak-s go 3SG.M.PER or- not go\3SG.M.PER COP thing not know-lSG.M.PER- it

'Whether he went or not is a matter I did not know,'

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2 - s [Ii: taB" 10 a: 1 Ii: taB" ] {3 C bi: Ie a: 1 has-ak -s Kil1\3SG.M.PASS or not Kill-3SG.M.PASS COP thing not know-l SG.M.PER- it 'Whether he was killed or not is a matter I do not know.'

The complementizers in the above examples are preceded and followed by the verb of

the subordinate clause which functions as a nominal clause subject (NS).In the following

example the complement if-clause function as a transitive object (0) ..

Pattern 2: A + V + E + 0 [Whether / If- Clause)

3 - Ajeh re: S E tes 0 [cOMP.CL k tahe: r-eh sak'at'ri] he ask-3SG.MPER her if gO-3SG.F.PER Soqotra Island

'He asked her if she went to Soqotra Island.'

6.2.1.1.1.2 Wh- Complement Clause

Indirect questions beginning with wh-question words can also be used in the SDO

as interrogative complement clauses. The word orders of the direct question and the

indirect one are similar to that of the declarative statement. This clause functions as a

nominal clause subject, a transitive object and as an extended transitive object E. The

functional variation of this clause in SDG is consistent with what Dickins & Watson

(1999) and Borsley (1999) state regarding this feature in Arabic and other languages.

Pattern 3: s [Wh-Clause] + [cop] 0 + PRED

In this pattern it functions as a subject

4- NS [men t' a: her w men z e'i'em ] IlJ bi: Ie d- a: 1 ?aH:l: reb -s who g03SG.M.PER and who stay.3SG.M.PER COP matter not knowlSG.M.IMP- it

'Who went and who stayed is a matter which I do not know'

This interrogative complement clause is widely used as a transitive object

(O)when the verb in the matrix clause is transitive and belonging to certain semantic

categories such as vedl~ of saying say ,tell inform and verbs that indicate perception

and cognitive actions such as know, understand, etc.

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Pattern 4: (A) +V + 0 [Wh- Clause]

5- A(?eh 0: 1 heze-k 0 [cOMP.CL men teber break\3SG.M.PER. I not know-lSG.M.PER who

'I did not know who broke the door

6 - te-Ja:me\' 2SG.M.IMP-listen

o [cOMP.CL 1enem what

'Listen to what I say.'

1e-\'0: mer] lSG.M

to: r] door

The Wh- Complement Clause in the SDO can also function as a transitive direct object 0

for verbs such as \':)mer 'said, told', re : J 'asked', etc.

Pattern 5: (A) +V + 0 + E [Wh-Clause]

7 - te\':): mer 0 2enhe E [cOMP.CL mi: te te-Jedhen] tell me when 2.SG.M.IMP- come

'Tell me when you will come?'

8- Aseh re:J-~t 0 teh E[COMP.CL 10 0:1 t'a:her-] she ask-3SG.F.PER him why not gO-3SG .. M.PER

'She asked him why he did not go.'

6.2.1.1.2 ber 'That' - Clause

Dixon (2006) states that certain matrix clause verbs that assert facts or denote

perception or cognitive actions such as see, hear, know, believe, think tell and want take

a that- clause, instead of a noun phrase as a core argument transitive object O. This is

true for SDO in which this type of indicative complement clause is widely used as

transitive obj eet 0 for the verb in the main clause. This clause starts with the

complementizer ber 'that' in the SDO.

Pattern 6: (A) + V+ 0 [that-Clause]

9 - A 1eh hes'e-k o [cOMP.CL ber je-Jedhen] I know-iSO.M.PER COM.-that 3SG.M.IMP-come

'1 knew that he will come'.

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10 - r~ : gem -k 0 [cOMP.CL ber be~el ] think-l SG.M.PER COM that marry3SG.M.PER

'I think that he got married.'

Though the verbs (hes'e-k ,g~: reb-k and r~: gem -k ) are used in their

perfect fonns, they express an imperfect or present meaning as it has been earlier

mentioned in describing the functions of the perfect fonn in chapter five . The

complementizer in ber that-clauses is usually followed by the covert subject which is

indicated by the verb inflections but if the complement clause subject is an NS (nominal

verbless clause subject), it is placed after that complementizer.

11- Ajeh j~-~o:mer

he 3SG,M.IMP-say 'He says that he is ill'

o[ber jeh that he

JD~~r ] ill

Some that- clauses are used without the complementizer ber .

12 - seh t-S~: beh 0 [tse geJ je-Jedhen ke're: reh ] she 3SG.F.IMP-think her man 3SG.M.IMP-come tomorrow 'She thinks that her husband will come tomorrow.'

That -Clause in the sno can also be used as a direct object 0 for transitive verbs:

Pattern 7: (A) + V + 0 + E [that -Clause]

13 - ~eme: r-eh o enhe E [cOMP.CL ber te-Je<ihen] tell-3SG.F.PER me 3SG.F.IMP- come 'She told me that she will come.'

Each indicative complement clause has its own tense and aspect which is totally

independent from that of the main clause. In the following example the tense of the main

or matrix clause is past while that of the complement is imperfect (present or future).

14- ~eme: r-eh B.euhe 0 [ber te-bo: ~el [Se: her de je-Jedhen ] ] say- 3SG.F.PER me that 3SG.F.IMP-marry month which 3SG.M.IMP-come 'She told me tluL~~~mW marry next month.'

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As far as negation is concerned, each clause (main clause or complement clause) can be

negated independently of the other. In the following example it is the main clause that is

negated.

15 - seh 0:1 lame:r-eh enhe [ber ta-b::>:le! ] she not say- 3SG.F.PER me that 3SG.F.IMP-many 'She did not tell me that she will marry'

But in this example the complement clause is negated:

16 - seh lame: r-eh enhe [ber 0:1 ta-b::>:lel ] she say- 3SG.F.PER me COM-that not 3SG.F.IMP-many 'She told me that she will not marry.'

It is worth mentioning that some complementizers in the SDG have other

grammatical functions. For example. the complementizer ber can also be used as an

auxiliary and the complementizer k can also be used as a preposition meaning 'with' as

shown in chapter five. Thus, the SDG provides yet evidence that supports Dixon's (2006)

statement about the homogeneity of complementizers with some other grammatical

forms.

6.2.1.2 Subjunctive Complement Clause in the SDG

Despite the fact that the subjunctive clause in the SDG is functionally similar to

the non- fmite infinitive clause in English, this clause cannot be called an infinitive

clause. The infinitive form is not limited by number, gender or tense. It does not bear

any syntactic relation to its notional subject (Noonan, 2007) .The subjunctive form in the

SDG as well as in the other Semitic languages does not refer to a specific tense but it

does agree with its subject in number, person and gender, so the subjunctive is a finite

verb form that08lUUltrbe used except in subordinate clauses. The subjunctive has a

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distinctive form different from those of the perfect and imperfect as shown in Chapter 4.

There is also a similarity between the subjunctive complement clause in the SDG and

the so called paratactic clause. Both of them have verb phrases that lack overt subject

NPs and both of them can inflect for subject agreement. But they differ in that the

paratactic complement clause is not syntactically subordinate while the subjunctive

clause in the SDG is subordinate (Noonan ibid; Kruspe 2004).The subjunctive clause in

the SDG has no complementizer.

The complement subjW1ctive clause in the SDG can function as a nominal clause subject NS as

illustrated below:

Pattern 8: s [Subjunctive Complement Clause] + cOP [0 ] + NC

17 - NS [ IE-kEn dextEr] 0 NC a: I dEra: fah ISG.M.SU8-be doctor COP not easy

'To be a doctor is not easy for me'

18 - NS [ tEhrEk' ?ErhDn dE ?E: fE] steal \2SG.M.SUB. goats of people

'To steal the people goats is bad for you'

o COP

NC dja~

bad

It is also possible for the noun or adjective in the complement to be fronted thus the

subjunctive clause functions as an extraposed subject.

19 - dja~ bad

[tEhrEk' ?ErhDn dE ?E: fE] steal \2SG.M.SUB of people

It is bad to steal the goats of people. '

The complement subjunctive clause can also function as a transitive verb object 0 as in

the following example:

Pattern 9: (A) + V + o [SubjW1ctive Complement clause]

20 - AjEh jaHO! rb 0 [COMP.CL IE-k'rE ] he 3SG.M.PBR .. know 3SG.M.SUB-read

'He knows how to read.'

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21 - A fEh )~]eb 0 [ le-b)e} ] I want lSG.lMP lSG.M.SUB.-marry 'I want to marry.'

The complement subjunctive clause can function as a direct object for an extended

transitive verb as illustrated below:

Pattern 10: (A) V + 0 + E [Subjunctive clause)

22 - A seh t-)o:Jeb 0 ~;;)li / teh E[COMP.CL le-b)e1 as ] she 3SG.F.lMP-want Ali him 3SG.M.SUB.-marry her 'She wants Ali / him to marry her.'

~;;)li in the above sentence has both the object argument function 0 of the main clause

and the subject argument function A of the subordinate clause. It is true that when ~;;)li

is replaced by a pronoun, the object form of the pronoun teh 'him' is used rather than

the subject form j Eh 'he'. But according to Dixon (2006) this is simply a matter of

surface realization not affecting the fact that ~;;)li / teh has two functions

simultaneously. This feature of the SDG will be further discussed in the under the

subtitle" Equi-deletion in the Complement clause".

6.2.1.3 Nominalized Complement Clause

Nominalized complement clauses are predications that have the internal structure

of the noun phrase. When the predicate is nominalized, it takes a verbal noun form and

functions as head for the noun phrase (Dixon, 2006; Noonan 2007). Nominalized clauses

are known of their typical use as nominal (verbless) clause subject NS, copula clause

subject CS and copula complement CC (Dixon,2004b). The mOlphology of

nominalization in the SOG has already been described in chapter 4. This clause

functions as a subject S / A and as transitive verb object O.

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Pattern 11: s [Nominalized clause] + cOP ["'] + NC

23- S [cOMP.CL ~e-lS"o: d-eh k-s'ah ] NZR- walk-NZR in morning

'Walking in the morning is good.'

'" Jke: r cOP good

The arguments of this type of clauses in the SnG may have associative genitival

relations with the predicate

24- [cOMP.CL be: Side lS"ijoJ ] weep\ NZR of men

'Men's weeping is not good.'

0:1 Jke:r no good

The nominalized clause in the following example functions as transitive verb object O.

Pattern 12: (A) +V + 0 [Nominalized clause]

25 - 10: 1 1e-~0 :Jeb o[ be: Side lS"ijoJ ] not lSG.M-like weep\ NZR of man \PLU 'I do not like men's weeping.'

6.2.1.4 Participle Complement Clause

Noonan (2007) states that the role of participles in complementation is limited

because they are not heads of constructions or core arguments, they only modify the

head nouns. They are used in complements to immediate perception predicates which

contain verbs such as 'see', 'hear', etc. The object 0 of these verbs is a head noun or

argument and the participle clause is only a qualifying clause for that object (ibid).

The structure of the participle form in the SnG is different from that of English .In

English there is only one form of the present participle used with any subject or object

regardless of their person, gender and number but in the SDG the participle form agrees

with the dropped subject or the object in person, number and gender The findings of the

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current study reveal that the complement participle clause in the SDG is used after

verbs of sense such as Si: na / 'see', hema'i' 'hear', etc ..

Pattern 13: (A) + V (sense) + 0 + Participle clause

26- Si :na-k ~~li / 'i'eh seelSG.MPER Ali him

'I saw Ali / him playing foot ball

o [cOMP.CL je-na:heJ 3SG.MIMP- play

karrah] football

27-hi: m:;)~-k na: dj~h I <ies hear-lSG.MPER Nadia her

o [cOMP.CL ta-bo :Si ] 3SG.F.lMP- weep

'I heard Nadia I her weeping

6.2.1.5 Equi-deletion in the Complement Clauses

This study shows that some complement clauses in the SDG such as the

indicative that-clause, wh-clause and if-clause are sentence-like clauses i.e. clauses that,

without their complementizers, have roughly the same syntactic forms as main clauses.

However, some other complement clauses in the SDG are reduced in a way that certain

components usually found in the main clause are absent from them. For example the

subject in the subjunctive complement clause is deleted when it is co-referential with

some arguments in the main clause; this process is called equi-de1etion (Noonan, 2007).

le-ther 28 - 'i'ali Ali 3SG.M.IMP-want 3SG.M.SUB-go

'Ali wants to go"

In the above example the subject of the complement clause has been equi-deleted

under identity with the subject in the main clause. In the SDG, direct objects can also

condition equi-deletion for example the subject of the subjunctive clause is equi-deleted

under identity with the direct object of 'i'~: mer 'tell'

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29- hoh ):J! mer-k )ali le-Jdah I tell-ISG.PER Ali 3SG.M.SUB -come

'I told Ali to come. '

6.2.1.6 Sequence of Tense in the Complement Clauses

Some languages such as English restrict the tenses or require a certain sequence

of tenses in the complement clause. In such languages tense categories are copied onto

the complement clause from the main clause so as to mould the complement clause to

the subjective view point of the speaker (Noonan, ibid).An example of such tense

sequence can be found in the reported speech in English:

a- He says,' I will go." He says that he will go

b- He said,' I will go.' He said that he would go;

The sna has no tense copying in the reported speech. These sentences are

expressed in the tense in which the statement was originally made regardless of the tense

in the main clause as illustrated in these examples and their literal translations.

30 - jeh j-):J:mer ber he 3SG.M.IMP-say that 'He says that he will come.'

31-jeh j-):J:mer ber he 3SG.M.IMP-say that

'He says that he came. '

ja-Jedhen 3SG.M.IMP- come

Jadah 3SG.M.PER- come

32 - j eh ):J : mer ber j a-Jedhen he 3SG.M.PERsay that 3SG.M.IMP- come 'He said that he would come.'

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6.2.1.7 Negative Rising in the Complement Clauses

The negative marker in the SDG usually occurs in the complement clause but it

can also be removed from the complement clause with which it is logically associated

and raised to the position for negative within the main clause. This process is called

negative raising (Noonan, 2007).

33- j eh ~~: mer ber a: I j a-Jedhen he 3SG.M.PER-say that not 3SG.M.IMP- come 'He said that he would not come.'

34- j eh a : I ~ ~ : mer ber j a-Jedhen he not 3SG.M.PER-say that 3SG.M.IMP- come

'He did not say that he would come.'

6.2.2 Adverbial Clauses in the SDG

Thompson, et al. (2007) define the adverbial clause (ADV.CL) as a subordinate

clause that functions as a modifier of the verb phrase or the whole proposition.

Adverbial clauses are subdivided into two types; adverbial clauses substitutable f?r by -

a single word such as clause of time, clause of location, and clause of manner and

adverbial clauses not substitutable for a single word such as clause of purpose, clause of

reason, conditional clause, concessive clause, substitutive clause, and absolutive clause.

This classification of the adverbial clauses into these two types is based on the fact that

languages in general have monomorphemic non-anaphoric adverbs that denote time,

location and manner relations but they do not have similar adverbs to express

purpose ,reason concession ,etc.(ibid).The findings show that the SDG has almost all

these types of adverbial clause. The previous studies refer briefly only to two adverbial

clauses, particularly clause of time and clause of purpose.

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6.2.2.1 Clause of Time

Morphemes indicating temporal sequence relationships between clauses in

languages are of two types, they are either independent morphemes such as those of

English (when, before, after, etc.) or verbal affixes (Thompson, et al.,2007).Like English

the SDG has independent subordinating morphemes that occur at the beginning of the

temporal sequence clauses. Givon (1990) describes these subordinate morphemes or the

temporal links of the adverbial clause of times as links of precedence (before), links of

subsequence (after), links of simultaneity (while), link of point coincidence (as) , links

of terminal boundary (till), links of initial boundary (from) and links of intermediacy

(between .... and).

a- Link of precedence ba( 1) 'Before'

This link occurs at the beginning of the subordinate adverbial clause of time which

follows the main clause. The verb in this subordinate clause is in the subjunctive form.

1- seh t' ahe : r-eh [ADV.CL ba naJdah ] she gO-3SG.F.PER before come\lPL.M.SUB

'She went before we came.'

2- jeh s'a:ma [ADV.CL ba le-b\'el ] he die\3SG.M.PER before 3SG.M.SUB-marry. 'He died before he got married.'

Though this subordinate clause usually does not have an explicit subject, in some cases

it may have such a subject placed at the end of the clause for emphatic reasons.

3 - jeh s'a:ma [ADV.CL

he die\3SG.M.PER 'He died before he got married.'

ba le-b\'el before 3SG.M.SUB-marry.

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jeh he

]

If the subject of the subordinate clause is a noun not co- referential with the subject of

the main clause it must be placed after the subjunctive form of the verb not before it, i.e.

this clause allows only VS word order

4 - ?ah rabah-k [ADV.CL ba le-rbah 'tali ] I bathe-ISG.M.PER before 3SG.M.SUB-bath Ali

'I had bathed before Ali bathed'

b- Link of subsequence ba~ Ed 'after'

This subordinate conjunction introduces the temporal subordinate clause which

usually comes before the main clause. The verb used in this subordinate clause is in the

perfect form. As it has already been mentioned earlier in chapter 5, the verb in this

clause is preceded by the negative particle a: 1 but this particle is for emphasizing the

completion of the action expressed in that subordinate clause rather than for negating it.

5 - ADV.CL [ADV.CL ba~ Ed a: 1 Jadah men fenhem] ba: 'tel after not come\3SG.M.PER. from sea marry \3_SG.M.PER

'After he had come from abroad, he got married.'

6 - [ADV.CL ba~e:d a: 1 nodak'-k tes teh] seh k'ede: r-eh t€-J After not giveISG.M.PER her meat she cook-3SG.F.PER it

'After I had given her meat she cooked it.'

c- Link of terminal boundary 'taf 'till'

The subordinate adverbial clause that begins with the conjunction 'taf 'till' follows

the main clause of the sentence. The verb that follows 'taf is usually in the subjunctive

form:

7 - deh be: beh ja-no: dek' eh dra: hem [ADV.CL 'taf le-b'tel ] his father 3SGM.IMP-give him money till 3SG.M.SUB.-many. 'His father will give him money till he gets married.'

307

8 - seh a: I ta-t':) : her [ADY.CL Ii' af net'her ] she not 3SG.F.IMP.go till go\ IPL.M.SUB. 'She will not go till we go.'

d- The subordinate conjunction ta 'when'

Simeone-Senelle (1997) claims that ta is followed by the subjunctive fonn of

the verb when it means 'till' and it is followed by the indicative fonn of the verb when it

means 'when'. However, the researcher found out that this conjunction is not used with

the meaning of 'till' at all, and found that it is followed by the subjunctive when the

subordinate clause expresses a present or future action and it is followed by the

indicative fonn of the verb when that clause expresses a past action as illustrated in the

following examples:

9 - [ADV.CL ta le-Jdah ] ?a-Jedhen when 3SG.M.SUB.-come lSG.M.IMP-come

'When he comes I will come

10 - seh Si: na li'eh [ADY.CL ta ?entef ] she see \3SG.F.PER him when 3SG.M.PER \fall 'She saw him when he fell.'

Givon (1990) points out that in many languages a general or unmarked

subordinator such as 'when' in English is employed for expressing specific temporal

relation especially when the semantic specificity of the temporal relation is inferred from

the other features that exist in the two clauses. This less-marked strategy of coding is

used in the SnG where the general subordinator ta 'when 'is used to express many

specific temporal relations such as precedence, simultaneity, point coincidence, and

terminal boundary.

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a- Precedence:

11- [ADV.CL ta Jadah-k ] ber t'o: her when come-ISG.M.PER.-come already go\3SG.M.PER

'When 1 came, he had already gone.'

b- Subsequence:

12 - seh tahe: r-eh [ADV.CL ta azs.'em-ki ] she gO-3SG.F.PER when sit-lOU.PER 'She went when we (the two) sat.'

c- Simultaneity

When two actions or events occur simultaneously all languages allow one of

these events to provide the context or background for the other. Two ways are used for

marking backgrounded clause as simultaneous with its main clause. One of these ways

is the use of a marker that signals simultaneity . The other way is through the use of

the imperfective aspect marker (Thompson, et al., 2007).The SDG employs both ways. It

uses ta here meaning 'while' which explicitly denotes simultaneity and at the same time

the main verb in te- clause has an imperfective aspect marker.

13-[ ADV.CL ta 'lerm -k 'la-zo: s.'em b- sak'at'ri] less-oh wi: when AUX-1SG.PER ISG.IMP- stay in Soqotra rain-3SG.F.PER a lot

'While 1 was staying in Soqotra it rained heavily.'

14 - [AOV.CL ta ( 'lerem-k) 'la-no: fas.'] Jadah to s.'ali while AUX -ISG.M.PER lSG.IMP-work come\3SG.M.PER me Ali

'While 1 was working, Ali came to me.'

The SnG has another construction in which only the imperfective marker of

simultaneity is employed.

IS-Si:na s.'eh ja-bo:Si see -lSG.PER him 3SG.M.IMP- weep 'I saw him weeping.'

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D- Point coincidence

16 - [ADV.CL ta 1 Eiob flari :J] tEh 1adbhEr when enter3SG.M.PER hut

'When he entered the hut a bee bit him,' bite 3SG.M.PER him bee

E- Terminal boundary

17- [ADV.CL ta tE: tE-k b - na: fafl] when finish- 2SG.M.PER with work

'When you have finished work, go.'

6.2.2.2 Clause of Place

ta t'~: hEr 2SG.M.IMP-go

The clause of place or locative clauses in the SDG is introduced with the

subordinator monal 'where' which is often abbreviated in conversation to mal as in:

18 - jEh j-~: }fad [ADV.CL mal )i: k] he 3SG.M.IMP-go where 3SG.M.IMP-like 'He goes where he likes.'

19 -flDk'al-ak kEta:b bok' [ADV.CL monal za: }f-a~ tEh] put 1 SG.PER book there where take-l SG,PER it 'I put the book where I took it from.'

20- 1a: I j-azflEm hEhE da: hEr [ADV.CL mal fli: k ] not 3SG.M.IMP-stay person always where 3SG.M.IMP-like

'The person does not always live where he likes to.'

As in some other languages, the locative clause in the SDG may take the shape

of the relative clause by having a head noun meaning 'place' and a postnominal relative

clause. {Thompson et al2007).

21-ta-k~:sD tg [mv.CLb- ?CoIf dE flatEbrE-ki b-Eh 2SG.M.IMP-find me in place which meet-IDU.PER. in it , You will find me in the place in which we met yesterday.'

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1amSEn] yesterday

6.2.2.3 Clause of Manner

Some clauses of manner in the sna are signaled by the subordinate clause

marker or conjunction ta or :Bod which mean 'as, or like' as in the following

examples:

22 - ta-ZQ: Ifa d s' Q: hen [ADV.CL ta )0: m-ak tak] 2SG.M.IMP-carry DEM dish as tell-ISG.M.PER you

'Carry the dish as I told you.)

23 - )o:me r teIl3SG.M.PER

as [ADV.CL :Bod her as

'He told her as he told me.'

)0 :me r tell- 3SG.M.PER

enhe] me

In the elliptical clause of manner the conjunctions ta is used and followed either by the

subject personal pronoun or by the object suffixed personal pronoun as illustrated below:

24- biJi j-aIfo: reb - es [ADV.CL ta l£h] no one 3SG .M.IMP .know - her as I 'No one knows her like me' .

25 - biJi j-aIfo: reb - eJ [ADV.CL ta ta ] no one 3SG.M.IMP-know - him as me 'No one knows him as me' .

The sna does not have a subordinate conjunction equivalent to the English (as

if) , therefore, it employs the use of the coordinate conjunction wa 'and' an ordinary

verb such as jo: Ifed 'walk', plus the verb Jobe 'resemble' to which the object pronoun

of the person or object compared with is suffixed.

26- j-o : Ked [ADV.CL w ja-Sob -3SG.M.IMP-walk and 3SG.M.IMP - resemble

'He walks as if he was the king.'

eh him

s'at'han] king

The suffix object pronoun -eh 'him' refers to 'he' the subject of the main clause. , . ~ ,

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27- fat'imah t-o: !fed [ADV.CL w ta-Sob Fatemah 3SG.F.IMP-walk and 3SG.M.F.IMP - resemble

'Fatemah walks as if she was the queen.'

-es her

s'at'o: neh] queen

The object suffix pronoun -es in the above example refers to the to Fatemah.

Elliptical adverbial clauses of manner (comparison) in the SDO have no verbs.

They have only the subordinate conjunction / \'an / 'than 'and the subject of the

elliptical adverbial clause which is either a noun or a suffix personal pronoun affixed to

that conjunction. It is worth mentioning that the SDO has no comparative or superlative

adjectival or adverbial fonns. The positive fonn of the adjective and that of the adverb

are always used in these comparative clauses. This feature of the SDO is referred to here

for the first time; no previous study has already mentioned it. In the following examples

the main clause consists of the subject and adjective or the subject plus a verb and an

adverb while the subordinate clause consists of the subordinate conjunction \'an and a

noun or a pronoun.

28 - seh Jke: r-eh she beautiful- SG.F

[ADV.CL \' an than

'She is more beautiful than her sister.'

tseh her

29 - fat'imah \'i: I-oh [ \'an Fatemah long -SO.F. than

marjam] Mary

'Fatemah is longer than Mary'

k'a:k'eh] sister

30 - be\'ir j-o: !fed [ADV.CL Sah \'an elhe] camel 3sG.MIMP-walk quickly than cow 'The camel walks more quickly than the cow.'

The subordinate elliptical clauses of manner in the following examples consist of the

Subordinator ~an and a suffix pronoun:

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31-?eh ~i:lo [ADV.CL ~an -s] I long. SG.M than her. 'I am taller than her.'

32 - jeh j-edam mahle [ADV.CL ~an-k] he 3SG.M.IMP-sleep early than - you 'He sleeps earlier than you.'

The conjunction :Bod is also used in the SDG to form an elliptical adverbial clause of

manner indicating equality; it is followed by the suffix object pronoun.

33 - jeh :Bod - ak He as - 2SG.M-you He is as tall as you.'

6.2.2.4 Clause of Purpose

b- t'o:1 in length

The SDG has two clauses of purpose . It has finite indicative clause of purpose

and subjunctive clause of purpose.

6.2.2.4.1 Finite Clauses of Purpose

Finite clauses of pwpose in the SDG begin with the subordinators ken or ker

which mean 'so that'. Simeone -Senelle (1997) states that purposive adverbial clauses in

Soqotri are not always introduced by a subordinator and that the verb in that clause is

always in the SUbjunctive except with ken or ker. The fmdings of the study indicate

that all the finite clause of purpose are introduced by the subordinators ken ker and

even these subordinators are sometimes followed by the subjunctive form in the

presence of ~a as will be illustrated in the examples below:

34 - t-o: dem m ahla [ADV.CL ker mahla ] 2SG.M.IMP-sleep early so that 2SG.M.IMP-get up early

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'Sleep early so that you can get up early.'

35 - jeh he

ja-Jke: beten 3SG.M.IMP-learn

[ADV.CL ken so that

j-ko : sa no: fall 3SG.M.IMP-find work

'He learns so that he may fmd ajob.'

In the above example the tense in both the main and subordinate clauses is the same. It

is imperfect or present. However it is possible for the main clause to have a perfect or

past tense while the subordinate clause have present or imperfect tense.

36 - fEh fazlam-k b- sak'a:t'ri [kEr fa-Jke :bEtEn sak'at'rejah] I stay-lSG.PER in Soqotra so hat lSG.IMP-learn Soqotri language 'I stayed in Soqotra Island so that I could learn the Soqotri language.'

As mentioned earlier when the subordinate conjunctions kEr and kEn are to be

followed by a negative particle, the prohibitive particle la is used and followed by the

subjunctive form of the active or passive verb and the pwposive clause becomes

equivalent to that of English which has the subordinate conjunction (lest. ..... should).

37- tako: teb d- matal [ADV.CL ker tEnS -as] 2SG.M.IMP -write this- speech so that not forget \2.SG.M.SUB it 'Write the speech lest you should forget it.'

38-jeh a:1 j-t'o:hEr de ho:rb [ADV.CL ken la le-ltu:B"'] he not 3SG.M.IMP-go to war so that not 3SG.M.IMP.SUB.PASS.-kill

'He will not go to the war lest he should be killed.'

The above two examples contrast sharply with Simeone-Senelle's (1997) claim that

(kEn and ker) are not followed by the subjunctive form of the verb.

6.2.2.4.2 Subjunctive Clause of Purpose

Like the English infinitive clause of purpose, the subjunctive adverbial clause of

pwpose in the SDO does not begin with a subordinate conjunction and it does not have a

covert subject. Its omitted subject is usually but not always co- referent with that of the

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main clause. The clause also lacks reference to any time. The tense of the whole

complex sentence is indicated in the main clause.

39- ?Eh t' a: her-k su: k' [ADV.CL le-tJ er ?erhiz ] I go -ISG.M.PER. market 13SG.M.SUB.-to buy rice.

'1 went to market to buy rice' .

40 - jedem m ehle mahle ] 3SG.M.IMP-sleep early 3SG.M.IMP.SUB-get up early

'He sleeps early to get up early

The deleted subjects of the above mentioned subjunctive clauses of purposes refer to the

subjects of the main clauses. In some subjunctive clauses of purpose the deleted subject

refers to the object of the main clause rather than to its subjects:

41 - te-no: dek' ?enhe ej ?ek'nejah [ADV.CL le-te ] 2SG.MIMP-give me any food ISG.M.SUB-eat 'Give me any food to eat.'

42 - seh ?ende: k'eh t eh kta: b she give-3SG.F.PER him book

'She gave him a book to read. '.

6.2.2.5 Clause of Reason

[ADV.CL le-k're ] 1 SG.M.SUB-read

The clause of reason in the SOO is introduced by the subordinate conjunction seb

'because'. The subject of the clause of reason mayor may not be co referential with the

subject in the main clause. The verb used in this subordinate clause which usually

follows the main clause, is in the indicative form (perfect / imperfect).

43 - a: 1 teJo: r-k de kta:b dheh [ADV.CL seb a: 1 ~i:k -eh ] not buy-lSG.PER this book here because not want ISG.IMP it. 'I did not buy this book because I did not want it.'

44 - jeh ba: ~e1 tes [ADV.CL seb he marry\3SG,M,PER. her because 'He married her because he loves her.'

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je-~a:Ben

3SG.M.IMP-love -s ] her

In the above two examples the subjects of the subordinate clauses are co- referential

with the subjects of the main clause but in some subordinate clauses of reason the

subject is not co- referential with that of the main clause.

45 - feh 0: 1 f€Ja-k mokSam (ADV.CL sEb jeh ferem I not beat-ISG.PER child because he be\3SG.MPER 'I did not beat the child because he was ill. '

JO: S'ar] ill SG.M

Sometimes the adverbial clause of reason precedes the main clause in the complex

sentence as in the following example:

46- (ADV.CL s€b ta-lesso wi: no: \'ah]. 0: 1 because 3 SG.F.IMP-rain heavily now not

'Because it is raining heavily now, they (F) will not go.'

6.2.2.6 Conditional Clause

ta-t'o:haren 3PL.F.IMP- go

Conditional clauses are divided into real conditional clauses and unreal

conditional clauses. Real conditionals express real present or habitual situations. Unreal

conditionals are either imagiIlative or predicative (Thompson, et al., 2007).

6.2.2.6.1 Real Conditional Clauses

The SDO signals the conditional clauses by means of subordinating morphemes

such as laman , k - and ta which mean 'if'. Conditional clauses in the SDO

usually precede the main clause. The real conditional clause begins with the subordinate

morpheme (k). The verb in this type of conditional clause can be in the imperfect

(present) tense but more commonly it is used in the perfect or (past) form but this past

form refers to present situations. The verb in the main clause is in the present tense or

imperfect.

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a-Present Situations

47 - [ADv.CLka ta- t'o: her] if 2SG.M.IMP-go

'If you go, I will go.

2a-to: her. lSG.IMP-go

48 - [ADV.CL ka ta-IeSSD no: ~ah] 0: 1 t~J edhe : neh if 3SG.F.IMP.-rain now not 3DU.F.IMP-come

'Ifit is raining now, they (the two) will not come.'

49 - [ADv.CLka t'o:har- k] ja-t 'e: her if go- 2SG.M.PER 3PL.M .. IMP-go

'If you go, they (M) will go.'

b- Habitual

50 - [ADv.cLka te-de: rna mahle] te-~Se mehle if 2SG.M.IMP-sleep early 2SG.M.IMP- get up early

'If you sleep early, you will get up early.'

51- [ADV.CL ka de: m-ak mahle] if sleep- 2SG.M.PER early

'If you sleep early, you will get up early.'

-6.2.2.6.2 Unreal Conditional Clauses

t£-~Se mehle 2SG.M.IMP- get up early

There are two types of unreal conditional clause in the ADG. There are hypothetical

or imaginative conditional clauses and counterfactual conditional clauses.

a-Hypothetical Conditional Clauses

They are hypothetical imaginative referring to situations that might happen. The

subordinate morpheme laman 'if 'introduces this type of unreal conditional clauses in

the SDG. The verb used in them is in the perfect and the verb used in the main clause is

either in the perfect or in the subjunctive form.

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52 - [ADV.CL laman Jadah-k] Si : n-ak S'eh < unfulfilled> If come-lSG.PER. see- lSG.PER him

If I came, I would see him.'

53 - [ADV.cdaman t'aho: rk JO: he] kaso : k dEsEn ?e:rhon if go-3PL.F.PER valley find -. 3PL.M.PER their goats

'If they (F) went to the valley, they would fmd their goats. ' < unfulfilled >

b-Counterfactual Conditional Clauses

They refer to conditions which counter fact. These conditions cannot be fulfilled.

The semantic difference between hypothetical and counterfactual conditional clauses in

the SnG is matched one to one by a morphological difference. A different subordinator

10 is used in the counterfactual instead of laman which is used in the hypothetical

clauses. Another difference between these two types of unreal conditional clauses lies in

the tense. While the tense of the hypothetical clause is always in the perfect, it is always

in the imperfect in.the counterfactual clause. The tense of the main clause used with the

counterfactual clauses is perfect whereas it may be perfect, imperfect or subjunctive in

the main clause used with the hypothetical clause.

54- [ADV.CL 10 ?a-frer] fer-k if lSG.IMP-fly fly-lSG.PER

'If I could fly, I would fly.'

55- [ADV.cLio ?Eh " ?s'fe:: reh] fer-k de if I COP bird fly\lSG.PER to

'If I were a bird, I would fly to Soqotra Island.'

6.2.2.6.3 Negative Conditional Clauses

sak'a:t'ri Soqotra

The negative conditional clauses in the snG begin with the subordinate morpheme

used in the real conditional clause k plus the negation particle 0: 1 , these two words

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are joined together and pronounced as one word ko: 1 'if not or unless'. Like the real

conditional clause, the negative conditional clause has a verb in the perfect form but

referring to present situations in the if-clause and a verb in the imperfect form in the

main clause:

56- [ADV.CL ko : I less-eh ] ta-s' e : man 'ler hon If not rain \3SG.F.PER. 3PL.F.lMP- die goat PL.F

'If it does not rain, the goats will die.'

57 - [ADV.CL ko: 1 s.'aJe: b-eh tre dewa] 0: 1 ta-se: rof If not want \3SG.F.PER drink \3SG.F.SUB medicine not 3SG.F.IMP-recover

'If she does not want to take medicine she will not recover.'

6.2.2.6.4 Concessive Conditional Clause

Concessive conditional clauses are those clauses which are similar to "even if

clauses" in English. Like negative conditional clauses, concessive conditional clauses in

the SDG and in any other language are typically similar to the ordinary conditional

clauses in terms of the verb forms in addition to the expression of reality, unreality,

hypotheticality and counter factuality (Thompson, 2007).In the SDG, the subordinate

morpheme heb which means 'even' is used and followed' by the subordinate

morpheme of the counterfactual clauses 10 'if'

a- Real Concessive Conditional Clauses

58 - [ADV.CLheb 10 ~o: ma-k 'lenhe le-Jdah] 0: 1 ?a-Jedhen even if tell-2SG.M.PER me ISG.SUB-come not ISG.lMP-come.

'Even if you ask me to come, I will not come.'

b-Hypothetical Concessive Conditional Clauses

59-[heb 10 t'o:her-k hadibu: 'lmSen] 0:1 Sine-k s.'eh dbok even if go -2SG.M.PER Hadibu yesterday not see-2SG.M.PER him there 'Even if you went to Hadibu yesterday, you would not see him there.'

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c-Counterfactual Concessive Conditional Clauses

60 - [ADV.CLhEb 10 ?at 0 b?E: rEh kso: -k tak even if you SG.M COP in moon find -lSG.PER you

'Even if you were in the moon, I would find you.'

The if- clause in all the previously mentioned conditional clauses precedes the main

clause but it is also possible for the main clause to occur before the if-clause as in the

following example:

61- ta-JEdhEn [k <ti: k] 2SG.M.IMP-come if 2SG.M.lMP-want 'Come if you want'

6.2.2.7 Clause of concession

The adverbial clause of concession implies a presupposed contrast or counter-

expectancy . While the concessive adverbial clause paves the way for the counter-

expectancy, the main clause supplies the unexpected events or states (Givon, 1990).The

Concessive clauses in the SDG are marked with the concessive subordinator hEb 'even

if which is also used in the concessive conditional clauses .This subordinator is

followed by laman which is also used in the hypothetical conditional clause:

62- [ADV.CL hEb laman rEhom] a: I t-ama: t' sak'af even if talI2SG.M not 2SG.M.lMP- reach ceiling.

'Even if you are tall, you will not reach the ceiling. '

63 - [ADv.cLhEb laman JkE: r-Eh a: I ja-bo: <tel - s even if beautiful-SG.F not 3SG.M.IMP-marry - her

'Even if she is beautiful, he will not marry her.

6.2.2.8 Substitutive Clauses

Thompson et al (2007) point out that some languages use subordinating markers

to indicate the replacement of an expected event by an unexpected one. While English

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employs forms such as instead of and rather than, the SDG employs the subordinating

marker len.

64 - xe: r h-ek t-~: Ifed na: leh [ADV.CL len ?e:rrodeh kere: reh] good for you 2SG.M.IMP-walk now than walking tomorrow 'It is good for you to walk now rather than walking tomorrow.'

65-?e-z~:lem b-k'a:ler ?ehsen [ADV.CL len he:loh ta:r] lSG.M.lMP-stay at- home good than wondering around 'I will stay at home instead of wondering around the house.'

The verbs in the substitutive clause of the SDG as illustrated in the above two

examples are in fact nominalized. So the interpretation of the time reference of these

clauses depends on the verb of the main clause. This is totally consistent with what

Thompson et a1 (ibid) state about the verb and tense in such clauses. Another important

feature of this clause is that it always follows the main clause.

Adjectives such as ?ehsen, Xe: r ' good' occur either at the beginning or at the

end of the main clause which mayor may not be followed by a preposition and suffix

personal pronoun. Some main clauses do not have altogether such adjectives

66-xe:r h-ek li:reb t-eIfi:reb [ADv.cLlenfa:neh d-a:l t-eIfi:reb] good for-you back 2SG.M.IMP-know than face which- not 2SG.M-know

'A devil you know is better than an angel you do not know'

Some substitutive clauses in the SDG are elliptic; they consist of just the subordinating

marker and a noun;

67 -t-Sa:mel b- k'or?a:n [len ?eIfa:ne] 2SG.MIMP-listen to Holy Quran instead of songs 'Listen to the Holy Quran instead of songs.'

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6.2.2.9 Absolutive Clause

In such clauses there is no explicit signal of relationship between the main and

the subordinate clauses. However, Thompson, et al. (ibid) state that there are two ways

for marking a clause subordinate without signaling the precise subordinating relationship.

One of these ways is through marking the verb in a patticular way such as in the use of

the participle form. The other way is through the use of a general subordinating

morpheme. In English, the absolutive clauses are the dangling patticiple clauses i.e. the

-ing clause and the -ed clause. In the SDG the imperfect form of the verb and passive

perfect forms are used in these absolutive clauses. The following two examples illustrate

the use of the absolutive clauses with imperfect verbs in the SDG:

68 - [ADV.CL j a-Si: na dEh 3SG.M.IMP-seeing his

'Seeing his mother, the baby cried.'

bijDh] mEbrhE ,bESE mother baby weep 3SG.M.PER

69 - [ADV.CL ?DIfad b Sart' ] ksa:-k dra:hEm ISG-IMP-walking in street

'Walk:ing in the street, I found money.' fmd-ISG.PER money

The following example illustrates the use of absolutive clauses with passive perfect

verbs in the SDG:

70 - [ADv.cL?i :JijDh wi:] a: 1 3SG.F.PER.PASS.-beat a lot not

'Beaten a lot she does not speak.'

6.2.3 The Relative Clause in the SDG

taSEmtEl 3SG.F.IMP-speak

Dixon (2006, p.4) defmes the relative clause (RCL) as "a part of an NP which

fills an argument slot subject, objected, etc". Dixon (ibid) points out that the relative

clause modifies the head of the NP and helps to focus on its referent in the same way

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other modifiers such as adjectives do. Similarly Comrie and Kutiva (2005), Givon (1990)

and Andrews (2007) state that the relative clause is subordinate clause embedded in a

noun phrase to narrow the potential reference of a referring expression. The fmdings of

the study reveal that the SnG has two types of relative clause. It has attributive and non-

attributive relative clauses. The relative clause in the SnG is postnominal external

headed clause. This means that the RCL in the SnG occurs to the right of the head noun.

6.2.3.1 Attributive Relative Clause

The attributive relative clause is that one which has a head to modify in the main

clause. That head may be the subject of the main clause, the object of the verb in the

main clause, the object of a preposition, a locative constituent or a genitive constituent in

the main clause.

a-Subject:

When the subject in the main claue is relativized, it is the form of the verb in the

relative clause that refers to this relativized subject because a subjectless verb form such

as t' ahe : r-eh does not correspond exactly to the subject less English 'went', the

snG verb means 'she went' because the verb inflections refer to the antecedent or the

head noun number and gender , therefore, the relative clause after the relative pronoun

can serve as independent clause. This is not true of English.

1 - Ifojeh s[RCLdeJ t'ahe:r-eh dbok' ] j adnh-eh womanSG.M. REL.SG.F went-3SG.F.PER there come-3SG.F.PER 'A woman who went there came'

2 - Ifaji S[RCLdeki t'ahe: reh dbok' jade :tleh

man3DUL.M REL.DUL.M went- 3DU.M.PER there come \ 3DU.M.PER 'The two men who went there came.'

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3 - )fa !Je! tin S[RCL Ie t' aho ! r dbDk'] J:;}do : h woman 3PL .F REL.PLU went- 3PL.F.PER there come \ 3PL.F.PER

'The women who went there yesterday came.'

If the relativized subject is followed by an adjective or a noun without any copula verb

as it is the case in the nominal clauses, the inflectional markers of gender and number in

those adjectives and nouns refer to the relativized subject as in this example:

4 -)fa :J-eh NS [RCL dES ,,)i: l-eh ] " dEhD k'a:k':;}h woman -SG.F REL.SG.F COP tall-SG.F COP my sister 'The woman who is tall is my sister'

b- Object

When the object of the transitive verb or the extended transitive object in the

main clause is relativized, a suffix personal pronoun referring to that object and agreeing

with in person, number and gender is attached to the verb in the relative clause. That

pronoun is called resumptive pronoun. It marks the syntactic position of the relativized

noun. This relativization strategy is called the anaphoric pronoun strategy or pronoun

retention strategy .The relativized head noun is explicitly indicated by means of a

resumptive pronoun retained in the relative clause. So the missing co-referent noun

within the relative clause is replaced by this case-marked anaphoric pronoun (Comrie,

1989; Song, 2001; Givon, 2001 & Andrews, 2007).

5 - )fa:JEh o[RcLdeS )ali Si :na - t- ES ] woman REL.SG.F Ali see-3SG.M.PER SUF.PRO-her 'The woman that Ali saw is beautiful'

JkE: r-Eh beautiful-SG.F

6 - dE )f:;}J 0 [RCL dE ?E :J-:;}k t-Eh ] sa: m~ DEM man-SG.M REL-SG.M beat-2SG.MPER SUF.PRO-him die-3SG.M.PER

'The man whom you beat died.' 7-ksa:-k J{QJ o[RcLdE nod:;}k'-k -t-E:h dra:hE:m]

Find-ISG.PER man REL-SG.M. give-ISG.PER PRO-him money 'I found the man whom I gave money.'

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Simeone-Senelle (1997) states that the relative clause in Soqotri always ends in

an independent anaphoric pronoun. But this is not true; the anaphoric pronoun used is

the dependent suffix pronoun not the independent free one and not all relative clauses

end with it, only those relative clauses that describe the object have such pronouns as

illustrated in the previous examples. If the subject in the sna is Relativized, it is

indicated by the inflection markers on the verb in the relative clause as shown in the

section that deals with the subject relativization.

c- Object of a Preposition

When the object of preposition in the main clause is relativized, the same

preposition is prefixed to the resumptive pronoun in the relative clause.

8- de If9J 0 [RCL de Semtelk -t-ek ~9n - eb] 0 d bDk' DEM. man REL.SG.M talk-lSG.M.PER ACC-you about-PRO COP there

'The man I told you about is there'

Instruments can also be relativized in the same way.

9 - kso: -k se : reb [RCL deS so: lem 10: t~If ~~li b-es] Find-3SG.PER knife-SG.F REL. Salem kill \3SG.M.PER Ali with-it 'I found the knife with which Salem killed Ali.

d-Locative constituents

Locative constituents can be relativized .. In such relative clauses, a preposition

indicating location is prefixed to the resumptive pronoun as shown in the following two

examples:

lO-k'o:~er [ReL deS ~9li bi:ro: b - es] 0 b-h~di:bD

house SO.F RBL..SO.F Ali born \3SG.M.PASS.PER. in it F COP in Hadibo 'The house in which Ali was born is in is in Hadibo'

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ll-de Ja:he[RCLde ri:hD b- eh ] {(} b k'~l~msij~h

DEM. valley REL.SG.M water in - it (M) COP in Galansiyah 'The valley in which there is water is in Galansiyah.'

e-Genitive Constituents

Genitive constituents in the SDG may be relativized. In these genitive relative

clauses the relative pronoun is followed by a possessive pronoun agreeing with the

relativized noun in number and gender, this pronoun is followed by the possessed noun.

12 - ~ali ba: ~el I:fa :Jeh [RCL deJ mas ~eni 0 sma: wti] Ali marry-3SG.M.PER woman REL.SG.M her eye DU.F COP blue- DU.F

'Ali married a woman whose eyes are blue'

13-de mDkJam [RCLde m-eh be:beh s'a:ma] j~-bo:Ji

OEM. boy REL.SG.M his father die 3SG.M.PER 3SG.M.IMP -weep 'The boy whose father died is weeping.'

6.2.3.2 Non-attributive (Headless) Relative Clauses

Not all the relative clauses modify lexical head nouns. Some relative clauses in

the SDG have no head noun to modify; such clauses are called non-attributive nominal

relative clauses or headless relative clauses (Givon,1990 ; Brustad, 2000).This clause

begins with a determinative relative pronoun such as 'who, whom, whose 'but without an

antecedent (head noun or referent).Such clauses are utilized in both English and the

SDG.

Examples from English::

a- Who studies hard will pass the exam b- 'Whom I saw will come.'

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In the SDa these clauses begin with relative determinative pronoun that usually implies

generalization. The deleted relativized elements or heads in these relative clauses are

subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions and genitives.

a-Subject

14- A[ RCL de Seh dra:hem] j-t~:)E:r ?erhon REL.3SG.M 3SG.M.IMP- have money 3SG.M.IMP-buy goats

'Who has money buys goats.'

15-s[RCL le jeSme:tal sok'ot'ri swa] well

s'u:ma REL.PL. 3PL.M.IMP.-speak Soqotri

'Who speak Soqotri well died.'

b- object of transitive verb

16 - Iroraba-k understand-lSG.M.PER I know what you do .'

O[RCL de REL.SG.M

17-taza:H" O[RCL de £i:k]

die \3PL.M.PER

t-na: fa£] 2SG.M.IMP-do

take 2SG.M.IMP REL.SG.M. want-you Take what you want'

c-Extended transitive object

18 - E[RCL deS £ali ?endok' -es dra: hem] 0 )a£e: r-eh REL.SG.F Ali gave-he ACC- her money COP ill -SG.F

, (The one) whom Ali gave money is ill'

d- Object 0 f a Preposition.

19- t-efte:ker men [de ta-t'~:her k- <i'-eh] 2SG.M.IMP-be careful from REL.SG.M 2SG.M.IMP- go with him 'Be careful from (the one) with whom you go.'

e- Genitive

20- [RCLde meh bejoh s'a:m-eh] H~:reb le-bSe REL.SG.M his mother die-3SG.F.PER learn \3SG.F.PER 3SG.M.SUB-weep

'(The one) whose mother died learnt to weep.'

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21- [RCLdeS mes geJ sfa:r] 0:1 te-kon ne:heh REL.SG.F her husband 3SG.M.PER.-immigrate not 3SG.F.IMP-be happy

'(The one) whose husband immigrated will not be happy.'

6.2.3.3 Restrictive and Nonrestrictive relative clauses

An important feature of the relative clause in the SDG is that the restrictive and

non restrictive relative clauses have the same syntactic construction, though they are

totally different in semantic and pragmatic terms since the restrictive clause uses

presupposed information for identifying the referent of the noun phrase while the

nonrestrictive clause provides new information about an already identified referent

(Comrie 1989).

Restricted relative clause

22- de B"eJ [de " OEM. man REL.SG.M COP 'The man who is old came'

Non restrictive relative clause

Je:bob] old SG.M

Jedeh (Restrictive meaning) come \3SG.M.PER

23- deho be:beh [de "Je:bob] Jedeh (Non-restrictive meaning) my father REL.SG.M COP old SG.M came 'My father who is old came'

6.3 Summary

Based on the Basic Linguistic Theory, functional typology and Ie Model , this

chapter answers the fourth research question:"what are the types, structures and

functions of the clause in the SDG?" The importance of this chapter lies in the fact that it

provides a systematic description for all the main and subordinate clauses that exist in

the SDG. It provides an in-depth description for the types, structures and functions of all

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these clauses. It bridges the gap in the previous studies on Soqotri which lack any

detailed study on the clause.

The SnG has two main clauses and three subordinate clauses. The main clauses

arc the nominal clause and the verbal clause. The subordinate clauses are the

complement clause, the adverbial clause and the relative clause.

The description of the nominal clause reveals many unknown features of this

clause. The nominal clause in the SnG consists of a subject and a predicate. The subject

and the predicate are juxtaposed without using a copula or any other finite verb. The

subject slot in the nominal clause may be occupied by a noun, a personal pronoun, a

demonstrative pronoun, an interrogative pronoun or a whole clause such as the relative

clause. The predicate of the nominal clause may be a noun, an adjective, and adverb or a

prepositional phrase. The SnG has main and minor nominal clauses. The main nominal

clauses have nominal predicate, adjectival predicate locative predicate and existential

predicate. The minor nominal clauses have genitive predicate, benefactive predicate

and predicate indicating origin and accompaniment. Though this clause has no verbs to

indicate tense, its intended tense is the indefInite present tense or real present tense. The

nominal clause in the SnG may have a pro-copula or a third person pronoun functioning

as a nonverbal copula This feature of the SnG has never been mentioned in any

previous study. Functionally, the nominal clause performs the function of identifIcation,

description and proper inclusion or equation.

The description of the verbal clause in this chapter discloses so many unknown

syntactic features of this clause. It has been found that the SnG has fIve types of the

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verbal clauses. They include intransitive, transitive, extended transitive, zero-transitive

clauses and copula clauses.

The intransitive clause consists of one argument. It is the S or the intransitive

subject argument. The transitive clause has two core arguments. They are A, the

transitive subject, and 0 the transitive object. The extended transitive clause has three

arguments. They are the previously mentioned A. and 0 in addition to E, the extended

object argument. The zero-transitive clause has not any argument at all. This clause is

used to express the weather conditions. In this clause the third person singular feminine

prefix is used as non-referential prefix and added to the verbs which describe the

weather. No previous study has ever referred to the function or the structures of this

clause. The copula clause in the SOG is the nominal clause plus a copula verb in the past

and future tense. The SOG has a Sf A syntactic pivot and has a nominative/accusative

system for determining its grammatical relations. These two important syntactic features

of the SOG are described in this study for the first time. Functionally, the verbal- clause

represent the subject as being acting when dynamic or transitive verbs is used and it

represents the subject as being in a certain state or condition when a stative or

intransitive verb is used.

The SOG has six types of complement clause. They include: whether/if clause,

wh-clause, that-clause, subjunctive clause, nominalized clause and participle clause. No

previous study has tackled any of these types of the complement clause. The whether/if

clause is used as an intransitive subject S and as an object 0 for transitive verbs. The

wh-clause is used as a subject S, and as an object 0 for transitive and extended transitive

verbs. That-clause functions as an object 0 for transitive and extended transitive verbs

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but it cannot be used as a subject. The subjunctive clause can be used as a nominal

subject and as an object for transitive and extended transitive verbs. Nominalized

clauses are used as subjects or transitive verb objects. Finally, the participle clause is

used as an object for verbs of sense. This chapter describes equa-deletion in complement

clauses which results in deleting certain components of these clauses such as the deletion

of the subject in the SUbjunctive clause. This chapter also describes another syntactic

feature related to these clauses. It describes the time sequence in these clauses. The SDG

has no tense copying in the reported speech. Reported clauses are expressed in the tense

in which the statement was originally made regardless of the main clause tense.

The SDG has nine types of adverbial clause. These types include clause of time,

clause of place, clause of manner, clause of Purpose, clause of reason, clause of

condition, clause of concession, substitutive clause and absolutive clause. The previous

studies ignored all these types of adverbial clause with the exception of some brief note

given by Simeone-Senelle (1997) on the clause of time and clause of purpose. This

chapter provides a detailed description for the structures and functions of each one of

these types. This description will undoubtedly contribute a lot to the little existing

information about this clause in Soqotri.

The clause of time begins with a time subordinator such as b;}l 'before', b;}~ed

'after', ~;}f 'till' or t;} 'when'. The clause of place usually begins with the subordinator

m;}n;}l 'where' . This clause may take the form of a relative clause by having a noun

meaning a place and a postnominal relative clause. The clause of manner in the SDG

starts with the subordinator t;} or BDd 'as'. The SDG has an elliptical clause of

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manner which consists of just t~ and the subject of the elliptical clause which may

take the form of an independent pronoun or a suffix dependent pronoun. The SDG has

no comparative forms for the adjective or the adverb, so the positive form of the

adjective and the subordinator \'~n 'than' are used in the clause of comparison. The

SDG has both finite clause of purpose with subordinators such as kEr and kEn 'so that'

and subjunctive clause of purpose without any subordinator. The subordinator sEb

'because' is used in the clause of reason, the subordinator hEb ; certainly, even' is used

in the clause of concession and the subordinator \'~n 'from, than' is used in the

substitutive clause. The absolutive clause has no subordinators; it employs the imperfect

form and the perfect passive form of the verb. The SDG has real conditional clauses

referring to present and habitual situation. It has also unreal conditional clauses

expressing hypothetical and counterfactual situations.

The SDG has two types of the relative clauses. It has attributive relative clause

and non-attributive relative clause. The attributive RCL has a head to modify. That head

can be the subject, the object of the verb in the main clause, the object of the preposition,

locative constituent or genitive constituent. When the subject is relativized, it is realized

and indicated by the inflections of the verb in the relative clause. When the relitavized

constituent is the object, the anaphoric pronoun strategy or pronoun retention strategy is

employed. The relativized object is indicated by means of a resumptive pronoun retained

in the relative clause. The non-attributive RCL has no head to modify. It begins with a

relative pronoun without an antecedent or head. Restrictive and non-restrictive relative

clauses in the SDG are structurally the same.

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CHAPTER 7

THE SENTENCE IN THE SDG

7.0 Introduction

Chapter 4 describes the morphemes along with the major inflections and

derivations of nouns, adjectives and verbs in the SDG paving the way for describing a

larger linguistic unit , the phrase, in chapter 5 which in tum facilitates describing a

larger linguistic unit , the clause, in Chapter 6. Describing the different types, structures

and functions of the main and subordinate clauses in the SDG in Chapter 6 makes it easy

for the researcher to embark on describing a larger linguistic unit that is the sentence in

this chapter.

Based on the Basic Linguistic Theory, functional typology and Ie Model, this

chapter describes the structure of the different sentence in the SDG and the different

communicative functions they perform. It also describes the two basic word orders in

this dialect. Thus this chapter answers the fifth research question: 'what are the types,

structures, functions and basic word order of the sentence in the SDG?'

7.1 Sentence Structure in the SDG

The findings of the current study show that the sentence in the SDG has four

structures as shown in figure 7.1. It may be either simple, consisting of just one main

clause with one subject and one predicate, a compound sentence consisting of two or

more main clauses, a compJex sentence consisting of one main clause and one or more

subordinate clauses or a compound complex sentence consisting of two main clauses

and one or more subordinate clauses.

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Sentence

I Simple Compound Complex Compound Complex

Figure 7.1: Structural Classification of the Sentence in the SDG

7.1.1 Simple Sentence

The main nominal and verbal clauses, described and illustrated in Chapter 6, are

in fact simple nominal and verbal sentences consisting of one subject and one predicate.

The subject in the simple nominal sentence is obligatory. The predicate in these

sentences is verbless or nominal and obligatory.

1- s[de-ki HaJ-i dhah] {(} PREO[ mSe~rek-i] DEM-DU.M man-DU here COP fishennan -DU.M 'These men (two) are fishennen.'

The subject in the simple verbal sentence is optional. It can be dropped since the verb

inflections can denote it. The predicate includes either intransitive, transitive, extended

transitive or copula verb.

2 - A [ ~ eh PRED [ksQ! -k 2b~ ir ] I fmd -ISG.PER camel PL.

'I found camels.'

3 - [ksQ! -k 2b~ ir] find -ISG.PER camel\ PL. 'I found camels.

Both the nominal and verbal sentences may have additional optional arguments such as

an adverb or a prepositional phrase.

4 - s [seh 0 PREO[ Jke! r-eh wi: ] she COP beautiful-SG.F very

'She is (very) beautiful

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5 - s [se:n PRED [j a-dnme:n They .F 3PL.M.IMP-sleep

'They sleep in the valley.'

7.1.2 Compound Sentence

b- Jo:he: ] in valley

O'Grady (1996) states that coordination is a syntactic pattern achieved through

joining together two or more categories that belong to the same type with or without a

conjunction. The findings of this study reveal that coordination of the compound

sentences in the SOG is achieved through employing sentence- initial conjunctions,

sentence-medial conjunctions such as and, or, but and through juxtaposition. Using

sentence-initial conjunctions serves to bind sentences into less tightly knit connection. In

Juxtaposition no conjunctions are used, but the two sentences are said with a no-final

pause in the sentence medial position. So in juxtaposition the absence of the

conjunctions is compensated with phonological devices (Longacre, 1985).

Cohesion through sentence-initial conjunctions:

1-10:ken ~ali 0:1 j-to:her but Ali not 3SG.M.IMP- come

' ... But Ali will not go.'

2 -wa 'lat tat'o:her ? and you 2SG.M.IMP-go And will you go?'

Cohesion through sentence-medial conjunctions:

3 - [~eli s'oleb 20: z] we [ fa: t'imeh k'ede: r-eh teh Ali kill-3SG.M.PER goat and Fatemah cook-3SG.F.PER meat 'Ali killed the goat and Fatemah cooked the meat.'

Cohesion via juxtaposition:

4-~ali s'oleb 20:z fo:t'imah k'ade:reh teh Ali kill-3SG.M.PBR goat Fatemah cook-3SG.F.PER meat 'Ali killed the goat, Fatemah cooked the meat. '

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7.1.2.1 Notions encoded within Compound Sentences structures

The previous section describes the fonnal devices employed m joining

compound sentences together. This section will describe the notions that may be

encoded within such structure in the SDG. Coordination in the SDG can encode many

notions such as the notion of conjoining (coupling, contrast), alternation, and

temporality (Longacre, ibid).

a-Conjoining

This notion includes other sub-notions such as coupling and contrast (ibid)

1- Coupling

It denotes non-temporal relation

5 - [seh ((} ~ i : leh] we [seh ((} Ske: reh] she COP tall-SG.F and she COP beautiful-SG.F

'She is tall and she is beautiful.'

6-[je~0:Jeb ri:ho:] we 3SG.M.IMP-want water and

[ je~o:Jeb 3SG.M.lMP-want

'He wants water and he wants food.'

~ek'njeh]

food

The repetition of the same subject and verb in the above two sentences serves emphatic

purposes. In ordinary situations such repeated identical constituents are deleted as it will

be described and illustrated in the section that deals with the coordination reduction.

2- Contrast

It denotes a contrast relation as that expressed by 10: ken "but".

7-[jeh ((} men sek'a:t'ri] 10:ken[je-Semtel he COP from Soqotra but 3SG.M.IMP-speak 'He is from Soqotra but he speaks Arabic.'

336

~erbijeh]

Arabic

8 - [nen na-~Q: Ben 2erhDn] 10: ken [0: 1 na-~Q: Ben te: ten] we 1 PL.-love goats but not IPL.-love sheep 'We love goats but we do not love sheep. '

b- Alternation

The coordination here denotes a relation of two or more alternatives. The conjunctions

used are (j a ....... j a) "either ... or", (walla), ( ~am) "or"

9-[je tete] [ je either 2SG.M.IMP-eat or 'Either you eat or you will die.

te-s'em] 2SG.M.IMP- die

10-[t-zo!l~e dekto:b]walla [t-~o:k'el -Sl 2SG.M.IMP-take book or 2SG.M.lMP-leave it 'Take the book or leave it."

ll-[te-t'o:her bok'] ~am[ te-zo:~em nah?] 2SG.M.IMP-go there or 2SG.M.lMP-stay here

'Will you go there or stay here?'

c- Temporality

Coordination may express temporal relation such as succession. Succession

relation is expressed in the SnG through the use of w ~ 'and then'.

12- [no:lab 2erhon] we ~ [ no:dak' deh HaJeh ixo : t] Milk3sG.M.PER goats and then give3SG.M.IMP his wife milk 'He milked the goats and then gave his wife milk.'

13- [hen ro: ben-~m ] we 500 we have a bath -l.PL..M.PER and then

[ de: man] sleep \ IPL.M.PER

'We had a bath and then we slept. '

7.1.2.2 Coordination Reduction

The current study reveals that repeated constituents of the compound sentence in

the SDG can be deleted. For example the subject of the second nominal and verbal

337

sentence is deleted through gapping which is defined as an optional syntactic process

that deletes medial identical materials particularly from the second of two conjoined

sentences (Van Oirsoum 1987; Carlson 2002).

14-a- seh ~: l-eh w seh Jke: r-eh she tall-SG.F and she beautiful-SG.F

'She is tall and she is beautiful.'

14-b- sEh ~: l-Eh w she tall-SG.F and

'She is tall and beautiful. '

o JkE: r-Eh beautiful-SG.F

15-a- seh k'adE! r-Eh 2Erhiz we sEh ~amE : r-Eh JE: hi she cook-3SG.F.PER rice and she make-3SG.F.PER tea 'She cooked rice and she made tea'

15-b- sEh k'adE! r-Eh 2Erhiz wa o ~ame!r-eh JE:hi she cook-3SG.F.PER rice and make-3SG.F.PER tea 'She cooked rice and made tea. '

In the above examples the coordinated clauses share the same Sf A syntactic

pivot ,therefore, it is possible to omit it from the second clause~ If two coordinated

clauses have the same predicate but different subject, then the predicate may be omitted

from the second clause as illustrated below (Dixon 2008).

16-a- 2ali tE s'ooEh w 2ahmad Ali eat-3SG.M.PER and Ahmad 'Ali ate fish and Ahmad ate rice.'

16-b- 2ali tE sOOEh w 2ahmad

Ali eat-3SG.M.PER and Ahmad 'Ali ate fish and Ahmad ate rice.'

17-a- 2ah a! I t'a:hEr-k w jEh I not gO-ISG.M.PER. and he 'I did not go and he did not go.'

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tE eat-3SG.M.PER

0 2Erhiz rice

a! 1 t'a:hEr not go \3SG.M.PER

2Erhiz rice

17-b- ?eh 0:1 t'o:hEr-k W 0:1 0 jEh

1 not gO-ISG.M.PER. and not he 'I did not go nor did he.'

Sometimes the deleted predicate verb is replaced by W 2erhn "and so do/did"

18-a- ?eh t'o:her-k W jEh and he

t '0: her go\3SG.M.PER I gO-l SG.M.PER

'I went and he went.'

18-b- ?eh t'o:her-k w ?erhn jeh 0 1 go-ISG.M.PER and so he 'I went and so did he.'

When the coordinated clauses have the same syntactic pivot and the same predicate but

different objects, it is possible to omit the pivot and the predicate from the second clause.

(ibid)

19-a-jEh to:Jer kto:b l-?ali w jEh to:Jer ?o:z l-fo:temah he bUy3SG.M.PER book for Ali and he bUy3SG.M.PER goat for Fatemah

'He bought a book for Ali and he bought a goat for Fatemah.'

19-b- jeh to:Jer kta:b 1-2eli w 0 0 2o:z I-fa:temeh he buy3SG.M.PER book for Ali and goat for -Fatemah

'He bought a book for Ali and a goat for Fatemah.'

7.1.2.3 Directionality Constraint of Reduction

The order in which VP deletion operates depends on the order of the constituents

of the compound sentence. If the identical elements are on the left branching, verb

deletion operates forward, but if they are branching on the right, verb deletion operates

backward. This dependency of the deletion movement or direction on the identical

constituents branching structure is known as the directionality constraint (Harris-Delisle,

1978).

339

The V -deletion in the SDG provides examples of both forward deletion and backward

deletion. The intransitive verbs in the SDa are on right branches thus the deletion

operates backwards:

20-a- 'tali do: hak wa 2 ahmad do : hak Ali laugh \3SG.MPER. and Ahmad laugh \3SG.M.PER 'Ali laughed and Ahmad laughed.'

20-b- 2ali 12) wa 2ahmad do :he: k-eh Ali and Ahmad laugh -3DU.M.PER 'Ali and Ahmad laughed.'

The transitive verbs in the SDG are on left branches, consequently the deletion operates

forwards:

21-a- 2ali to :jer bondok' wa 2ahmad to :jer s'e: reh Ali buy \3SG.M.PER gun and Ahmad buy \3SG.M.PER knife

'Ali bought a gun and Ahmad bought a knife.'

21 b- a-2ali to :jer bondok' wa Ali buy \3SG.M.PER gun and

'Ali bought a gun and Ahmad a knife.'

7.1.3 Complex Sentence

2ahmad Ahmad

o s'e: reh knife

The complex sentence consists of one main clause and one or more subordinate

clauses such as a complement clause, an adverbial clause or a relative clause. As all

these subordinate clauses and their different types have already been described and

illustrated in details in chapter 6, only an example from each clause will be used here to

illustrate the structure of the complex sentence

a- A complex sentence with a subordinate nominal clause:

1- [SCL t~-lessD 10 a: 1 t~-lessD] [MCL bi: Ie ~ll~h has'a -s] 3SG.F.lMP-rain or not 3SG.F.IMP-rain thing Allah know-3SG.M.PER- it 'Whether it will rain or not is a matter Allah knows.'

340

b- A complex Sentence with a subordinate adverbial clause:

2 - [MeL j eh a: I j a-na: fe~ ] He not 3SG.M.IMP-work 'He does not work because he is ill'

[seL seb j eh 0 JO: ~ar ] because he COP ill-SG.M

c- A Complex Sentence with a subordinate relative clauses:

3 -[ MeL Si: n-ek HaJ ] [seL de j e-ha: rek' dra: hem] see-ISG.PER man who 3SG.M.IMP- steal money

'I saw the man who steals money.'

The complex sentence in the SDG usually begins with the main clause but it can also

begin with a subordinate clause such as a conditional clause or a wh -clause as shown in

chapter six.

7.1.4 Compound Complex Sentences

Strumpf and Douglas (2004) state that the sentence needs two or more main

clauses to be compound and to be compound complex, one or more of these main

clauses need to be connected to a subordinate- clause. Compound complex sentences

have a frequent occurrence in the SDG:

1- MeL [jan re:S -as sed fol Jaden] MeL [Ia:ken jeh a:1 Ba:Ba~ - h~n] theyask-3PLPER him how come \3SG.M.PER but he not tell \3SF.M.PER them

'They asked him how he came but he did not tell them.'

The above compound complex sentence consists of:

I-two main clauses connected with la: ken 'but': a- jan re : S -as 'They asked him.' b- jeh a: I Ba: Ba~ hen 'he did not tell them.'

2- One interrogative complement subordinate clause:

fol Jeden 'how he came. '

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The following compound complex sentence consists of two main clauses joined with

(wa) and two subordinate that- clauses

2- [j a) 0 : mer] [ ber ja-Jedhen ] wa [dhe bejDh ta)o:mer] [0:1 Ja-Jedhen] Say-3SG.M.IMP that 3SG.M.IMP-come and his mother 3SG.F.IMP- say not 3SG.IMP-come MCL SCL MCL SCL

'He says that he will come and his mother says that he will not come.' In the following compound complex sentence there are two main clauses joined with

10: ken and one subordinate relative clause.

3- Mcdjeh Jo:~ar] 10: ken Mcrijeh ja-Jt'e:leb]sCL[de-)i:Jeb Jat'e:beh] he iU-SG.F but he 3SG.M.IMP-help REL- 3SG.M-want help

'He is ill but he helps anyone who needs help.'

Finally, this compound complex sentence consists of two main clauses and two

subordinate clauses; nominal that clause and adverbial clause of condition.

4- MCL [2endak' enhe dro: hem] wa MCL [ )0 : mer] scd ber ja-Jedhen give \3SG.M.PER me money and say \3SG.M.PER that 3SG.M.IMP-come

Sa] SCL [ k -)i :Jebk] with me if wantlSG.PER 'He gave me money and said that he would come with me ifI want.'

7.2 Sentence Function in the SDG

Based on the sentence functional classification provided by Sadock & Zwicky

(1985) and K'onig and Siemund (2007), the sentence in the SDO are classified into basic

or major sentences and minor sentences. The basic sentences are declarative sentences,

imperative sentences and interrogative sentences. The minor sentences are exclamatory

sentences, optatives and imprecatives. The imperative sentences are subdivided into

basic imperative sentences (commands) and sub-set imperative sentences such as

prohibitive and hortative which is further subdivided into suggestions, advice, etc. The

interrogative sentences are subdivided into polar questions alternative questions and

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content questions. Figure 7.2 below summarizes the functional classifications of the

sentence in the SDG.

Sentence Function

I

Declarative Imperative Interrogative I

Basic (Commands)

Prohibitive

I Polar Alternative Content

Sub-set I I

Hortative

I

Affirmative Negative Tag Question

I st imperative 3rd. Imperatives Advice Obligation Request

Minor

Exclamation Optatives Imprecatives

Figure 7.2: Functional Classification of the Sentence in the SDG.

7.2.1 Basic Types of Sentence

The basic types of sentence are those which express basic communicative

functions, they include declarative sentences, interrogative sentences and imperative

sentences (Sadock & Zwicky ,1985; K'onig & Siemund, 2007).

7.2.1.1 Declarative Sentence

This study shows that the declarative sentences in the SDG are the unmarked basic

nominal and verbal clauses. The different types of these main clauses or simple

declarative sentences have been described in detail in Chapter 6.

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1- jeh 0 JO: ~er he COP ill-SG.M

'He is ill.'

2 - t~-Semto: I en dj~~

2PL.F.lMP-speak badly 'You (F) speak badly.'

The findings of this study show that the features of the declarative sentences in

the SDG are in total agreement with what Lyons (1968, 1977) and Payne (1997) state

regarding declarative sentence characteristics. Lyons (1968, 1977) describes the

declarative sentence as a kernel-sentence or a simple sentence which is unmarked in

mood, voice and polarity indicating that the unmarked mood is the indicative rather than

the imperative, the unmarked voice is the active rather than the passive and the

unmarked polarity is the affinnative rather the negative. Similarly, Payne (1997)

describes the declarative sentence as an unmarked clause that asserts infomlation.

Depending on typological data collected from so many languages allover the

world, K' onig and Siemund (2007) find out some features that distinguish declarative

sentences from the other sentence types. The declarative sentences in the SDG have all

these features mentioned by K"onig & Siemund (ibid) which are as follows:

a-They are frequent type of sentence

b- The word orders exhibited by them (VS/SV and V AOI A VO are the basic word orders

of the SDG.

c- They are less restricted in their distribution in comparison with the other sentence

types. The subordinate clauses have the same formal properties as declarative sentences

d- Declarative sentences in the SDG exhibit ~e full paradigm of tense and aspects

available in the SDG.

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e- They may be used to express most of the speech acts distinguished in typology as

illustrated below:

I-Representative speech act:

3 - ta-IEssD 3 SG.F.IMP-rain 'It is raining'

2 Commissives

4 - 'la: I ~ad 'la-n 0 :Si mak SEm not AUX ISG.IMP-forget POSS.PRO name 'I will never again forget your name. '

3-Directives

5 - 'lat ta-Jfo : rE b 'lEnEm ta-na: fE~ you 2SG.M.IMP- know what 2SG.M.IMP-do

'You know what you have to do.'

6 - SEn {3 Jk::>: r they-F COP beautiful-PL.F. 'They (F) are beautiful

f- Sentence type other than declarative have fonns based on the declarative construction

in the sense that the other types involve the declarative construction plus some particles

or intonation change as it is the case in the interrogative and imperative sentences.

7.2.1.2 Imperative Sentence

The current study shows that the SDG has basic imperative sentences such as

the second person imperative sentences (commands or orders) and subsets of

imperatives such as prohibitive sentences and hortative sentences which include first

person imperative sentences (suggestions) and third person imperative sentences, advice,

and requests. This classification of the imperative sentences in the SnG is based on

(Hamblin, 1987; Sadock & Zwicky, 1985).

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7.2.1.2.1 Basic Second Person Imperative Sentences

The form of the verb used in the second person imperative sentence in the SnG

is the imperfect form of the second person singular, dual or plural used in the declarative

sentence. Sadock and Zwicky (ibid) state that in so many languages such sentences are

used with a verb form that has a fewer than a normal number of affixes and in some

other languages an entirely affixless verbal base is used. However, the snG uses the

imperfect verbal form with all its inflectional affixes used in the declarative sentence.

1- ta-t'o: her 2SG.M-go 'Go' (It is said to a man)

2- tat'e:hir 2SG.F-go

'Go' (It is said to a woman).

3- ta-t'ehe: r-oh 2DU.M .IMP-go .

'Go.' ( It is said to two trien ).

4- ta-t'ehe: r-oh 2DU F.IMP-go 'Go.' ( It is said to two women)

5- ta-t'o: her 2PL.M-go 'Go.' (It is said to three or more men)

6- ta-t'o:horen 2PL.F-go 'Go.' (It is said to three or more women.)

The subject in the imperative sentence is usually dropped as the verb inflections

refer clearly to it, so mentioning it will be a kind of redundancy. It is also possible to

drop the subject in the declarative sentence as explained in the previous chapter unless

the speaker wants to emphasize the identity of the subject. So what distinguishes the

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imperative sentence from the declarative one in the snG is the context or situation in

which the sentence is uttered in addition to the speaker's intonation. Simeone-Senelle

(1997) refers very briefly to this main or basic type of imperative in Soqotri saying that

the indicative imperfect form is used in the affirmative imperative sentence and the

subjunctive form is used in the negative imperative sentences but with out giving any

further details or illustrations and with out referring at all to the other types of imperative

sentences that do exist in Soqotri such as the first person imperative and third person

imperative sentences which will be described below in detail and for the first time.

7.2.1.2.2 Subtypes of the Imperative Sentences

The SnG has two subtypes of imperative sentences; prohibitive and hortative

imperative sentences.

7.2.1.2.2.1 Prohibitive Sentences

Prohibitive sentences are negative imperative sentences employed to order the

listener not to do certain things. A distinctive feature of the imperatives in the SOO is

the fact that negative imperatives are handled differently from negative declaratives. In

Western languages and even in some Semitic languages such as Arabic the negation

marker used in declarative sentences is added to the imperative sentence so as to convey

a prohibition. The SnG has a negative marker in sentences with imperative meaning

which is not the same as the one usually found in other sentence types. Arabic uses the

negative marker Ie in both the negative declarative sentences and in the negative

imperative sentence too. But the SnG uses a! 1 as a negative marker in the declarative

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sentences and the negative marker ~a In the negative imperative sentences or

prohibitive sentences.

Sentences with negative imperative meaning in the SDG have non-imperative

verb forms. While the indicative imperfect second person singular, dual and plural forms

of the verb are used in the affirmative imperative sentences, the dependent subjunctive

verbal forms of the second person singular, dual and plural are used in the prohibitive

sentences. So in the SDG, prohibitive sentences have both a non-imperative verb form

and a special negative element and this according to Sadock and Zwicky (1985) means

that the SDG displays a special prohibitive sentence type. Hebrew shows this feature too

(ibid). The following examples illustrate the use of prohibitive sentences in the SOO.

7- ~a tet 'her not go\ 2SG.M.SUB.

'Don't go.' (It is said to a man)

8- ~a tet. 'hir not go \ 2SG.F.SUB

'Don't go.' (It is said to a woman)

9- ~a tath'e: reh not go \ 2DU.M.SUB

'Don't go.' (It is said to two men)

lO-~a tath'e: reh not go \ 2DU.F.SUB

'Don't go. (It is said to two women)

l1-~a tet'her not go \ 2PL.M.SUB

'Don't go.' (It is said to three or more men)

12 ~a tet 'haren not go \ 2PL.F.SUB 'Don't go.' ' (It is said to three or more women)

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7.2.1.2.2.2 Hortative Sentences

Hamblin (1987) and Dixon (2004a) state that the 1st and 3rd person imperative

sentences, advice, duty and obligations are types of hortative imperative sentences.

Similarly, Kaiser, et al. (2001) state that hortative sentences express proposed actions

'shall I Iwe' or an invitation to do something together "let's", therefore, hortative

sentences are used with verbs that express an action that can be controlled by the speaker.

The SDG has fIrst and third person imperative, advice and obligation.

a- First person Imperative Sentences in the SDG

Regarding the fIrst person imperative in the SDG, it is only a hortative form

expressing a desire or a suggestion. It is similar to the English fIrst person hortative

"Let's ". Their structure consists of the hortative form wed 'let' and the pronominal

object suffix of the fIrst person dual or plural then comes the indicative imperfect form

of the verb for the fIrst person dual or plural. When the hortative wed is used with dual

suffix and dual verbal form the imperative sentence signify that the agent of the action is

the speaker together with a single listener but when it is used with a plural suffix and

plural verbal form the imperative sentence indicates that the agent of the action is the

speaker along with more than one listener.

I-First Person Dual Imperatives (M I F)

13- wed-ki 2at'ahe: reh let-lDU.M.F IDU.IMP-go

'Let's (the two) go.'

14- wed-ki 2a-nba:Jeh kDrrah let-lDU.M.F IOU.IMP-go foot ball

'Let's (the two) play foot ball'

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2-First Person Plural Imperatives (M / F)

15- wed-h~n na-t'o:he:r let-lPL.M.F IPL.IMP-go

'Let's (more than two) go

16- wed-h~n na-na:heJ kDrrah let-lPL.M.F IPL.IMP-go foot ball

'Let's (more than two) play foot ball'

b- The Third Person Imperative Sentences in the SDG

Xrakovskij (2001) states that the third person singular dual and plural

imperatives can be synthetic fonned with affixation. It has fonns mOIphologically

homogeneous with the fonus of the basic second person imperative .This is totally

consistent with the third person imperative in the SDO and Hebrew. In both of them the

same indicative imperfect forms of the third person singular, dual and plural are used as

imperatives. These forms are used with present and future perspective. The command or

order is issued in the absence of the person he or she has to carry out that order.

Third person singular Imperative (M &F)

17- j-t '0: he:r 3SG.M.IMP.-go

'He is to go. '

18- tat '0: he:r 3SG.F.IM.-go 'She is to go.'

Third person Dual Imperative (M &F)

19- j-t'e:he:: re:h 3DU.M.IM.-go 'They (two men) are to go.'

20- j-t'e:he:: re:h 3DU.M.IM.-go 'They (two women) are to go.'

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Third person Plural Imperatives (M &F)

21- j-at'e :her 3PL.M.IMP.-go 'They (more than two men) are to go.'

22- ta-t'o :haren 3 PL.F.IMP.-go 'They (more than two women) are to go.'

This synthetic third person imperative can be negated by using / \'a / followed by the

verbal subjunctive form of the third person singular, dual and plural as illustrated below:

Third person singular negative imperative

23- \'a le-t 'her not 3SG.M.SUB-go 'He is not to go.'

24-\'a tet'her not go\3SG.F.SUB 'She is not to go.'

Third person dual negative imperative

25- \'a le- t 'he: reh not 3DU.M.I F.SUB -go.

'They are (two men I women) not to go.'

Third person plural negative imperative

26- \'a le-t 'her not 3PL.M.SUB- go

'They are (more than two men) not to go.'

27- \'a te-t"haran not go\3PL.F.SUB

'They are (more than two women) not to go.'

The independent personal pronoun can occur at the end of these third person negative

imperatives for emphatic reasons.

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28- ~a le-t'her (jeh) not 3SG.M.SUB-go he 'He is not to go.'

29- ~a te-t'h~:r (seh) not go \3SG.F.SUB she

'She is not to go.'

In addition to the above described synthetic third person imperative, Xrakovskij

(2001) refers to an analytical third person singular, dual and plural imperative formed by

particles. The SDG also has this type of hortative analytical imperative. It is formed by

the hortative particle Be: b 'let 'the object suffix pronoun and the subjunctive singular,

dual or plural form of the verb as follows

Be: b + SUF.PRO + .SUB

Analytical third person singular imperative

30- Be: b -S le-t 'her let-2SG him 3SG.M.SUB-go

'Let him go.'

31- Be:b -s tet'her let-2SG her go \3SG.F.SUB

'Let her go.'

Analytical third person dual imperative

32- Be:b -hi let-2SG them- 3DU.M

'Let them (two men) go.'

le- t 'he: reh go-3DU.MSPS.

33- Be: b -hi le- t 'he: reh Let-2SG them-3DU.F go-3DU.F.SUB. 'Let them (two women) go.'

Analytical third person plural imperative

34- Be: b - h-Qn le-t 'her let-2SG them-3PL.M. go-3PL.M.SUB

'Let them (more than two men) go.'

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35- Be:b -s~n tEt'haran Let-2SG them-3PL.F. them go\3PL.F.SUB

'Let them (more than two women) go.'

c-Advice in the SDG

The advice in the SDG can have more than one form. It may have the fonn of the

second person imperative or the prohibitive as in these examples:

36- ta-xo:dem swa dat be:beh 2SG.M.IMP- help well your father

'Help your father well.'

37- \'a te-bda not lie \3SG.M.SUB

'Don't lie'

1. Advice may also take the form of a conditional clause as in:

38- j-me: te1~n \'an-k ~e: fe, [ka: I ta-xo: dem dat be: beh] 3PL.M-talk about -you people if not 2SG.M.IMP-help your father 'People will talk badly about you if you do not help your father. '

39- [In 'lEh 'lat] 'la-z:>: \'em b- k'a: \'er If I you lSG.MIMP-stay at home 'If I were you, I would stay at home. '

Finally advice may be indirect especially when the speaker talks generally so as

not to cause embarrassment for the listener .Such advice has a structure that consists of

an adjective with negative or positive meaning coming at the beginning of the structure

and a nominal relative clause as in :

40- dja\' de bad who

jo:bed 3SG.M.IMP- lie

'He who lies is bad.'

41- Ske:r de jS'o:leb good who 3SG.M.IMP-kill (goats for his guests) 'He who receives guests is good.'

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d- Requests in the SDG

The fmdings show that the SnG has two types of request. The first type is

expressed through the use of certain verbs that indicate requests and the second one is

expressed through the use of swearing or oath phrases. The perfect fonns of verbs such

as mat i : n-ak or sa: lk which mean ' appeal request or ask' are followed by

suffix object pronoun refering to Allah or the person requested then comes the request in

which the imperfect fonn of the verb is used as in the following examples:

42- mati:n-ak tak k'anenhi ta-no :dek' -an mEssa lSG.M.PER-appeal RES.PRO-you God 2SG.M.lMP-give us rain 'I appeal to you my God to give us rain.'

The suffix pronoun -tak in the above example is resumptive because the full noun

object k'anenhi 'God' also exists in the sentence .In some requests the full noun

object is either dropped or replaced by a nominal relative clause as follows:

43- sa: lk -teS taho:lib 2o:z lSG.M.PER\request you F 2SG.F.IMP-milk goat 'Please milk the goat.

44-mati : n-ak tak [ de man \'ale: ten ] te-no: dek' eh \'afjh lSG.M.PER-request RES.PRO-you who high 2SG.M.IMP-give him heath 'You, who are high in the skies, give him health. Please'

The second type of request begins with oath phrase in which the speaker swears

by something dear to the listener such as his life or the life of his parents to do some

thing for him. This oath phrase is followed by a negative conditional phrase with a verb

in the perfect as illustrated in the following examples:

45- [bhi dat \,id ] 1ml z\'o : m-k by your life if not stay-2SG.M.PER 'I swear by your life to stay'

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The following request is more emphatic

46- [bhi )id dat ~e: fe ] kol Ba:Bag-k enhe by life your parents if not tell-2SG.M.PER me I swear by the life of your parents to tell me. '

The perfect verb fonn ~ak'ZDmak 'I swore on you to' is also used in strong requests .It

is also followed by the negative conditional clause.

47- [2ak'ZDm-ak - tak ] ka:l z)o:m-k swear -ISGM.IMP SUF.O.PRO if not stay-2SG.M.PER. 'I swear on you to stay.'

In the previous examples the perfect fonns (past) are used in both the main and

subordinate clauses to express a request whose real intended tense is present in the main

clause and the future in the subordinate clause. To ensure the listener's acceptance of his

request the speaker will make his swearing include in addition to ~ak'ZDmak, the life

of the listener or the life of one of those who are dear to him as exemplified below:

48-[~ak'ZDmak- tak b-)id da:l aJzak ka:l z)o:mk swear-lSG.M you by life who not hate-2SG.M.PER ifnot stay-2SG.M.PER.

I swear on you by the life of those whom you love to stay.'

e-Obligation in the SDG

Obligations in the SDG are expressed by the use of 1a: k' which means 'must'.

It is followed by the accusative particle h- and the suffix object pronoun of the

subject .The verb form used in these structures is the subjunctive.

49- 1a: k' h-ck must, 2.SGM,SUF.PRO.

'You must come'.

tCJdah come \ 2.SG.M.SUB

50-1a:k' h-~n ncnfa~ swa must, IpL.M,SUF.PRO. work \ IPL.M.SUB. well

'We must work well.'

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51-1a: k' h-es teb~el

must, 3SG.F,SUF.PRO. 'She must marry.'

marry \ .3SG.FSUB.

The SDG has another structure used for expressing duty and obligation. It

consists of t'e~18h 'must' and the imperfect form of the main verb, but unlike

la:k' , t'e~leh 'is used only with the second person,

52- t'e~leh t -se must 2SG.M.1MP 2.SG.M.IMP- eat.

, You must eat to recover'

53- t'e~leh te-dom

ken ta-to: ref to 2SG.M.IMP- recover

nre~ah

must 2SG.M.IMP .2.SG.M.IMP- sleep now 'You must sleep now'.

7.2.1.3 Interrogative Sentences

Each language has its own grammatical (syntactic and phonological) properties

which indicate that the pwpose of certain sentences is to gain information. The use of

such syntactic and phonological properties of the language results into three main types

of interrogative sentences or questions: polar questions (yes-no questions), alternative

questions and the content or question-word questions (Sadock & Zwicky, 1985; K-onig

& Siemund ,2007).The current study shows that SDG has all these three types of

questions. In about only ten lines Simeone-Senelle (1997) tries to describe the

interrogative sentences not only in Soqotri but also in the other five MSAL. In that brief

description she made three brief comments on the interrogative sentences of Soqotri.

Firstly, she states that intonation is used in the yes-no question of Soqotri without

referring to the verbal fonns used in these questions or the type of intonation used.

Secondly she indicates that some interrogative words in the wh-questions of Soqotri

come initially and some come finally and she mentions only two of these interrogative

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words he: 'where' and fn! 'how'. She does not mention or give examples of those

which occur at the end of the question, and more importantly she does not refer to the

verbal forms used in this type of questions nor does she mention all its interrogative

words. Finally, she states that the negative interrogatives in Soqotri are similar to the

negative statement. She (ibid) neglects some other types of interrogative sentences

employed in this language such as the alternative questions and the tag questions.

7.2.1.3.1 Polar Question

The polar question or yes-no question is one to which the expected answer is the

equivalent of 'yes' or 'no'. Sadock and Zwicky (1985) state that this (nexus) question is

the most basic and the most widely- distributed question in languages indicating that its

aim is to seek a remark or a comment on the degree of truth of the question proposition.

Unlike Arabic, the SDG has no formal marker for the polar question; the interrogative

final rising intonation is the only grammatical device that distinguishes polar questions

from declaratives which usually have a falling intonation. This feature of the SDG also

exists in some other Semitic languages. For example, Lipinski (2001) confirms that such

questions are employed in some Semitic languages and that they are said with a rising

tone at the end of the question. From the 842 languages analyzed by Dryer (2005e), 138

languages are similar to the SDG in that they employ the interrogative intonation for

marking the polar questions. The SDG has different types of polar questions such as the

affirmative polar question, negative polar question and tag question.

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7.2.1.3.1.1 Mfirmative Polar Questions

Affmnative polar questions in the SDG may be used with or without a copula verb and

with a main verb.

a- Affirmative Polar Questions without Copula Verbs

In these questions the subject (nouns or independent pronouns) are obligatory.

Subjects are juxtaposed to their predicate nouns, adjectives, prepositional phrases or

adverbs without the use of copula verbs.

1 - jeh mk'es's'ed t? he poet -SG,M

'Is he a poet?

2 - lat J:>: ~Er ,

you SG.M ill-SG.M 'Are you ill?

3 - SEn b-k'a: S'er t ? they-3PL.F at- home

'Are they at home?'

4- sEh dbook' t ? She there 'Is she there?"

b- Affirmative Polar Questions with Copula Verbs

When the tense of the question is in the past or in the future a copula verb is used

to link the subject with its predicate, exactly as it is the case in the declarative nominal

sentences .The subject in such questions is usually dropped as the copula verb includes

pronominal markers that refer to the subject number and gender in addition to referring

to the tense.

5 - ta-knn mderrs t ? 2SG.M.IMP-be teacher-SG.M 'Will you be a teacher?'

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6 - ~e: rem- S Ja<i'e: r-eht ? be- 2SG.F.PER ill-SG.F

'Were you (F) ill?'

7-~e:rem-k b- sak'a:t'ri t ? be-2S.M.PER be Soqotra 'Were you in Soqotra Island?'

c- Affirmative Polar questions with main verbs

The subject in such question is optional. It is usually dropped.

2SG.M.IMP-want 2SG.M.SUB \marry 'Do you want to marry a Soqotri woman?'

9- j-Se:<i'rek k'are:reht? 3SG.M.IMP-fish tomorrow 'Will he fish tomorrow?'

10- t'ahe:r-eh ~amSent ? go- 3SG.F.PER yesterday 'Did she go yesterday?'

7.2.1.3.1.2 Negative Polar Questions

sak' at 'rij ah Soqotri woman

?

The above described polar questions are some times called no- preposed negation

yes-no questions. They do not necessarily give rise to implicature - "implications which

can be deduced from the fonn of an utterance" (Crystal 2003.p, 228).There is another

type of polar question called preposed negation polar questions or negative yes-no

question. This type gives the implicature that the speaker believes or at least expects that

the positive answer is correct (Han, 1998).Negative polar questions can also be used

with main verbs and with or without copula verbs.

11- ~a:l 1at <i'alit? not you-80.M Ali

'Aren't you Ali?' (The speaker expects the listener to answer saying 'yes')

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When the question does not have a main verb as it is the case in the previous

example an overt subject (noun or pronoun) must occur but when the question has a

copula or main verb the subject can be covert as in the examples below:

12- 0: 1 'lE: rem-k J:>: ~ar 'lamSEn t ? not COP-2SG.MPER ill-SG.M yesterday '\Veren't you ill yesterday?' (The speaker expects the listener to say 'yes'.)

13-20: I Si: n-ak ~Eh t ? not 2SG.M.PER- see him 'Didn't you see him?' (The speaker expects the listener to say that he saw him.)

7.2.1.3.1.3 Tag Questions

Another common secondary type of polar question is the tag question. Its aim is

not to gain information but to gain confirmation. It is a statement that carries with it a

request for the addressee to express his agreement or disagreements .Such questions are

formed by a tag attached to a declarative sentence. This tag which is usually but not

always negative has a predicate that means 'is that true' (Sadock & Zwicky, 1985; Payne,

1997). K· onig and Siemund (2007) state that interrogative tags differ from interrogative

particles (question words) in that interrogative tags contribute certain bias through

rising expectations toward either a positive or a negative answer. Another difference

between interrogative tags and interrogative particles is that tags almost exclusively

occur at the end of a sentence (ibid).This is absolutely true in the SDG.

Two interrogative tags are used in the SDG. The first one consists of the negative

particle 0: 1 plus the adverbial subordinator or conjunction of manner t a which means

'as' and the verbal form ~o :mErk 'said' the first person singular perfect form of the

verb ~o: mEr 'say' as in: [ 0: 1 ta ~o: mErk ? 'isn't it as I said?' ]

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14- ?at lali, a:l ta lo:mEr-k? you SG.M Ali not as say-lSG.M.PER

'You are Ali, aren't you? [The speaker expects a positive answer]

Is-ten a:l ta-ta:baIEn t'E:rob, a:l ta lo:mErk? you PL.F not 2PL.F.IMP-collect wood not as say-lSG.M.PER

'You are not collecting wood, are you?' [The speaker expects a negative answer]

The second tag question used in the SDG consists of the negative particle a: 1

plus the word trenEh which means 'right / correct'

16-sen ta-rE:1En 2Erhon a:l trenEh ? they (F) 3PL.F.IMP-pasture goat \ PL.F not right 'They are pasturing goats, isn't that right? '

17- bE-k ba:1El-k a:l trenEh ? already- AUX-2SG.M.PER. marry- 2SG.M.PER not right 'You have already married, isn't that right? '

7.2.1.3.2 Alternative Questions

In this type of questions the speaker provides the listener with a list of choices

from which he or she has to select the right one (Sadock & Zwicky , 1985).The

conjunctions (10 and !lam) "or" are used in the alternative questions of the SDG as

illustrated below:

18- t-Sa: m 2 Erhon 10 2 ElhetEn ? 2SG.M.IMP-sell goats or cows 'Do you sell goats or cows?'

19- Si: n-Eh 18k 10 t~

see-3SG.F.PER you or me 'Did she see you or me?'

20- sEh ta-!la:JEb tat'her

?

She 3SG.F.IMP-want go \3SG.M.SUB 'Does she want to go or to stay at home?

!lam taz!lEm b - k'a: !ler or stay\3SG.M.SUB at home

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7.2.1.3.3 Content Questions

The content questions or the infonnation questions differ from the polar

questions in that they aim at eliciting a specific answer other than 'yes' or "no' and in

having an interrogative phrase (Dryer, 2005e).Actually, content or infonnation questions

are used when the speaker and listener share the knowledge of a certain proposition but

one element in the proposition is missing for the speaker. This missing element is the

focus of the infonnation question; it can be the subject, the object, verb predicate, adverb,

indirect object, time, place manner reason etc (Givon, 1990).

In the SDG these questions are fonned with the use of interrogative words

which ask about subject, direct object, indirect object, manner, time, place, reason,

possession or quantity. The part of the question that follows the interrogative word has

the same word order and the same verb conjugation of the declarative sentence. So

content questions are distinguished from declarative sentences by two markers: the' _

question words and intonation. These questions are used for asking about the subject,

the transitive verb object, the extended transitive verb object, manner, time, place,

reason, possession and quantity.

a-Subject

man 'who ,

21- man 'lat ? who you-SG.M

'Who are you?'

22- man j-SEmte1 sak'at'rijah ? who 3SG.M.IMP-speak Soqotri

'Who speaks Soqotri?'

362

23 - m:)n df: : mf: ? Who sleep3SG.M.PER 'Who slept?"

man is often followed by a relative clause in the SDG. This feature of the SDG

may be attributed to the fact that content questions share a lot of the syntactic features

of the cleft or pseudo-cleft constructions including the relative clause (Sadock &

Zwicky, 1985; Givon 1990).

24- man RCL [ dE j-SEmtel sak'at'ri jah] ? who REL.3SG.M 3SG.M.lMP-speak Soqotri 'Who speak Soqotri?'

25- man RCL [ dE S t' ahE: r-Eh] who REL.3SG.F gO-3SG.M.PER

'Who is the one that (F) went ?'

2aj 'which'

26- 2aj 20:z which goat-SG.F

'Which goat is good?'

dSkE: r-Eh ? good-SG.F

fnl which usually means 'how' can also be used to ask about the subject meaning

'what'

27- fnl mak Sf:m? what your SG.M name

'What is your name?'

b-Transitive verb object

The same interrogative word man is also used to ask about the object. So man

cannot by itself indicate which part of the proposition the speaker wants to know about.

That means it cannot detennine whether it is subject or the object, the addressee is asked

to provide infonnation about. However, when it is followed by an intransitive verb, it

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asks about a subject as in example 23 and when it is followed by a transitive verb and an

object it also asks about a subject as in example24, but when it is followed by a

transitive verb without mentioning the object, it asks about an object as illustrated in

these examples:

28 - man Si:n-ak ? whom 2SG.M.PER-see

'Whom did you(M) see?'

29- man ksa:-S ? who find- 2SG.F.PER

'Whom did you (F) find?'

Even when man is used to ask about the object, it can be also followed by a relative

clause:

30- man Red d- ~i: k ] which REL.SG.M 2SG.M.IMP- want

'Whom do you want?'

Though most of the interrogative words in the SDG usually occur at the begim:)ing of the

interrogative sentence, man can occur at the end of the interrogative sentence when it is

used to ask about the object:

31- k'e: bt-ak man? 2SG.M.PER-teach who 'Whom did you teach?'

32- ksa: -S man? 2SG.F.PERfind - who 'Whom did you (F) find?'

The question word 2enem 'what' can also be used to ask about the object as in this

example:

33- 2enem ta-~a:mer ? what 2SG.MIMP- say

'What are you saying?

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c- Extended transitive verb object

In these question the interrogative word man 'whom / who' is used.

34- man dE ~Endak tEh whom REL.PRO give -3SG.M.PER him 'Whom did you give milk?'

ixo: f ? milk

35- man dE £at'bak'k who REL .PRO send -2SG.M.PER

'Whom did you send a letter?'

tEh Xat' him letter

d-Manner

The interrogative word fol 'how' is used in these questions

36- ful haru:k' ~erhon?

how stea1- 3PL.M.PER goat \ PL 'How did they (M) steal goats?'

37- fol tak'o: dir teh ? how 2SG.FIMP- cook meat

'How do you (F) cook meat?'

e-Time

mi: ta / mi: h 'when' are used in these questions.

38- mi: ta ta-lesso ? when 3SG.F.IMP-rain

'When will it rain?, 39- mi:h to:h~rk sak'a:t'ri?

when go-2PL.M .. PER Soqotra 'When did go to Soqotra Island?'

{-Place

(d) he: / menD 'where' are used in these questions

40- (d) he: lesss-eh? where rain-3SG.F.PER

'Where did it rain?'

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?

41- (d) he: Ii: tHat ? where kil1\3SG.F.PER.PASS. 'Where was she killed?

42- meno where

Jadah-k ? come- 2SG.M.PER

'From where did you comeT

g-Reason

10 'why' is the interrogative word used in these questions.

43- 10 jan hah? why they-M here

'Why are they (M) here?'

44- 10 t a-do: haken ? why 3PL.F.IMP-Iaugh

'Why are they (F) laughing?'

h- Possession

demhon 'whose' is used in these questions.

45- demhnn be:beh s'a:ma ? whose father die \3SG.M.PER 'Whose father died?'

46- k'a: ~er demhon ~ake: r-eh ? house SG.F whose big SG.F

'Whose house is big?'

i-Quantity

kam which means 'how many / how much' is used in these questions.

47 - kam Sa-k ~asi: 1 ? how much have -2S0.M.SUF.PRO honey

'How much honey do you have?'

48- kam te:Jer-k deS k'a:~er ? how much buy-2S0.M.PER. DEM.SO.F house SO.M.F 'How much did you pay for this house

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49 - kem HejOJ b- fedhon ? how many man \ M.PL in mountain

'How many men are in the mountain?'

In some cases the interrogative pronoun is preceded by a preposition, but still both the

preposition and the interrogative pronoun occur at the beginning of the question:

50 - b- 2enem with what

tek's'es' S erhon ? 2SG.M.IMP-cut tree

'With what do you cut a tree?'

51- k - men sfa:r-k ? with whom 2SG.M.PER.-travel

'With whom did you travel?'

7.2.2 Minor Types of Sentences

The minor sentence types include exclamations, imprecatives and optatives (Sadock &

Zwicky, 1985).

7.2.2.1 Exclamatory Sentences

The function of the exclamatory sentence resembles that of the declarative

sentence. Both sentences denote a proposition as being true but the exclamatory sentence

is intended to be expressive while the declarative one is intended to be informative. In

the exclamatory sentence the speaker emphasizes his strong emotion towards what he

takes as a fact, whereas, in the declarative one he emphasizes his intellectual appraisal

towards the truth of the proposition (ibid).

Despite the fact that exclamations expressmg surprise, admiration, dismay,

pleasure etc. are of frequent occurrence in the SDG, no previous study has ever referred

to them. The form of the exclamatory sentence in the SDG particularly the order of the

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constituents is unlike that of the declarative or interrogative sentences. It resembles the

word order of the exclamatory sentence in English because the adjective precedes the

subject. It begins with a vocative particles j a or j 0: which is followed by the adverb

heb 'certainly', an adjective, a demonstrative pronoun and the subject as in this formula:

[j a I j 0: + heb + ADJ + DEM. + S]. In addition to the special word order, there are

other distinguishing characteristics of the exclamatory sentence in the SDG such as the

intonational and paralinguistic features that always accompany it. For example, the long

vowel or diphthong in the adjective is extremely elongated. Intonation of the

exclamatory sentence in the SDG and generally in most languages is falling (K-onig &

Siemund). The following examples illustrate the use of this type of exclamatory clause in

theSDG:

1- jo: heb Ske: r-eh deS !fo:J-eh dhah oh certainly beautiful SG.F OEM.SG.F woman SG.F here SG

'Oh how beautiful this woman is !'

2- ja heb )0: t'em de

oh certainly fat SG.M DEM.SG.M 'Oh, how fat that man is! '

!faJ manSG.M

dbDk'

thereSG

Some exclamatory sentences in the SDG begin with formulatic statements such

as ja 1alla: h! • ja mham mad! 'the Prophet Mohammad P.B.U.' Lipinski

(2001) states that these fonnulatic statements are common in some Semitic languages

such as in Arabic and in Old Babylonian. Lipinski (ibid) regards them as minor

sentences because they have no subjects or predicates. However, these formulated

statements in the SDG are followed by declarative or interrogative sentences denoting

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the reason of the exclamation which is usually a surprise as in example 4, or dismay as

in examples 5 and example 6.

3 - ja ?alla:h! fo! Jadah-k ! Oh my God! how come-2SG.M.PER

'Oh my God! , how did you manage to come?'

4-ja mhammad ! S'EnEm j-na:faS' dE mk'E:naS'dhah? oh Mohammad what 3SG.M.IMP-do this mad SG.M here 'Oh Mohammad! what is this mad man doing"?

5- ja mham mad ! mokSEm je-IftE: ak' oh Mohammad child 3SG.M.IMP-drown

'Oh Mohammad! the child is drowning"

7.2.2.2 Imprecatives

According to Sadock and Zwicky (1985) Imprecatives or curses are another

minor type of sentences that occurs with a considerable frequency in the different

languages. Imprecatives in the SDG resemble exclamation in that they are expressive

and emotional in tone but they differ with them in fonn particularly in the word order

which resembles the word order in the declarative sentence. The verbal fonn used in the

imprecatives is usually the second person perfective. The following examples illustrate

the use of this type of sentences in the SDG:

1 - rak'ah-ak tak sacrifice-lSG.M.PER you 'I scarificed you. '

2- rak'ah-ak tak

dE:mar destruction

ZkE:h scarifice-l SG.M.PER you charity

'I scarificed you to those who may be in need.'

When a speaker utters such a sentences, he or she wishes the listener death. In

some imprecatives, the subject (second person singular, dual or plural) is dropped as in

these examples:

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3- ber k' andher Son foreigner 'You, son of foreigner'

.This sentence is said to those whose fathers are not Soqotran even if they speaks Soqotri.

4- ber mt'alk'a:t Son \ PL divorced women 'You, the sons of divorced women'

7.2.2.3 Opatives

Opatives or the speaker's wishes are also regarded as a minor type of sentences

(ibid). In the SDG wishes are expressed in two ways. They are expressed either through

the use of the third person imperfect form of the verb or through the use of certain

conditional clauses. In the first type of optatives or wishes which are expressed through

the use of the third person singular imperfective form of the verb, the subject is always

allah 'God' and the object is the person to whom the speaker directs his wish.

1- j-no:dek' ak 2alla:h s.'afjah 3SG.M.IMP-give you Allah health 'May Allah give you good health.'

2- ja-hi - ak 3SGM.IMP-help you 'May Allah help you.'

alla:h Allah

3- ja-ba: rek alla:h b-s::m la2erhDn 3SGM.IMP-bless Allah them-RES.PRO. goats 'May Allah bless the goats.'

Some times the third person subjunctive form of the verb is used instead of the

indicative imperfect as in this example:

4- le-t'af ~ak ?ala:lh ?rhDn de:lak' 3SG.M.SUB- endow you-SG.M Allah goatIPL a lot 'May Allah endow you with a lot of goats.'

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5- IE-t'ef ~eS 1e11e h 3SG.M.SUB- make you-SG.F Allah 'May Allah make you a princess?'

s'et'a: n-Eh Princess

The second type of wishes can be expressed through the use of certain

conditional clauses such as those which begin with le~em, ID and lemen .' if',

followed by the imperfect form of the verb:

6- le~em Se k'a: ~er if have.ISG.M.1MP house

'If I had a house'. or 'I wish I had a house'

ID can be used with an interjection, the optional existential ~ eni 'there' and the

imperfect form of the verb to express wishes.

7- 2eh ID (~eni) melju:n INTERJ if there have ISG.M.1MP million 'Oh ifl had a million.'

8- 2eh ID 2ekDn t'ebi :b INTERJ. if beISG.M.1MP doctor 'Oh if I were a doctor' or' I wish I were a doctor'.

lemen is also used with the existential 2eni and the imperfect to express wishes:

9- lemen ~eni Se If there have.ISG.M.1MP

'If I had a million'

7.3 Basic Word orders in the SDG

melju:n Million

Siewierska (1988) states that the basic word order at the clause and simple

sentence level in any language can be found in the neutral independent indicative clauses

with definite agentive and human NP subjects, definite semantic patient objects and with

verbs denoting actions not states. Following this defipition, the researcher analyzes the

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pragmatically-neutral clauses in the data and found that the SDG has the folloing two

basic word orders:

1- Clauses with intransitive verbs : a- S V (intransitive subject + intransitive verb) b- VS (intransitive verb +intransitive subject) 2-Clauses with transitive verbs: a-AVO ( transitive subject + transitive verb + object)

b- V AO (transitive verb + transitive subject + object)

1 - 2~li de :me Ali sleep\ 3SG.M.PER

S V 'Ali slept.'

2- mnkJam boy-SG.M A

2e:JE beat \3SG.M.PER V

'The boy beat the girl.'

3 - de :me 2~li

sleep\ 3SG.M.PER Ali V S

'Ali slept.

firehim girl-SG.F o

4 - 2E :JE mnkJam firehim beat \3SG.M.PER boy-SG.M girl-SG.F V A 0

'The boy beat the girl. '

Dryer (1996,1992, 2005f, 2005g, and 2007c) suggests other additional criteria

for identifying the language basic word order such as the frequency of that word order

and its confonnity to crosslinguistic generalizations. These two criteria are also

implemented in identifying the basic word order in the SDG .It has been found that these

two basic word orders SV/ VS and AVO N AO have a high frequency of occurrence in

the texts collected by the researcher and in Muller's texts. These word orders of the SDG

also conform to other word orders in other Afro-Asiatic Semitic languages such as the

colloquial dialects of Arabic and in Hebrew (Doron, 2000; Lipinski, 2001).

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The verb- initial languages VSN AO and the SV I AVO languages have

distinctive order features. In these languages both the subject and the object may follow

the verb. Manner adverb follows the verb rather than preceding it. They have

prepositions rather than postpositions and their genitive follows the possessed. They

have comparative constructions in which the word "more', is replaced with the word

''than'' and fmally their adverbial subordinators occur at the beginning of the subordinate

clause Dryer (1989,1991, 1992, and 2007c). The SDG displays all these order features of

the VSN AO and SV/AVO languages and this proves the conformity of its two basic

word orders with crosslinguistic generali7..ations.

Simeone-Senelle (1997) indicates that these two word orders exist not only in

Soqotri but also in the other MSAL. However, the SDG makes use of another word

order which has the pattern OVA, but this word order seems to be non basic since it is

pragmatically-motivated (aiming..at emphasizing the identirj of the object) and since it is

less common than the previously-described orders This order is rare not only in the SOG

but also in the world's languages (Dryer, 2005g). In this word order the 0 which

precedes the verb takes the form of a common noun but the suffix object pronoun of that

noun occurs after the verb as a resumptive pronoun. Neither Simeone-Senelle (1997) nor

any other researcher referred to this pattern of word order in Soqotri.

5- 0 mokJam v 2e :J-eh - J A Ifa :J-eh boy-8G.M beat-38G.F.PER SUF.PRO-3.SG.M woman-.8G.F 'The woman beat the boy.'

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7.4 Summary

Based on the Basic Linguistic Theory, functional typology and Ie Model, this

chapter achieves the fifth research objective which is describing the types, structures,

functions and basic word orders of the sentence in the SDG. This chapter provides a

detailed systematic description for the structures and functions of all the types of

sentence in the SDG. The sentence in the SDG is neither structurally nor functionally

described in the previous studies, therefore, this description will add a lot to the little

existing knowledge about the sentence in Soqotri. The structural and functional

description of the sentence in this chapter has a typological significance. The major

structural and functional features of the sentence in this unknown and poorly described

Semitic language are provided in this chapter for those who are interested in conducting

typological or comparative studies between this language and the other Semitic

languages or between it and languages descending from other language families.

Structurally, the sentence in the SDG is simple, compound, complex or

compound complex. The simple sentence is the main nominal and main verbal clauses.

Each one of these simple sentences has one subject and one predicate. The subject in the

simple nominal sentence whether it is lexical or pronominal cannot be dropped. It is

always overt. But in the simple verbal sentence it can be either overt or covert indicated

by the verbal inflections. The later type of subject is more common than the former

which is used only when the speaker aims at emphasizing the subject. Compound

sentences in the SDG are joined through sentence-initial or sentence-medial

conjunctions. They can be also joined through ju.""<:taposition. The repeated constituents

are deleted in compound sentences. Regarding the directionality constraint of reduction

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in the SDG it has been found that both forward and backward reductions are employed.

The complex sentence in the SOG has a main clause and a subordinate complement

clause, adverbial clause or relative clause. The SDG has also a compound complex

sentence with two main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses.

Functionally, the sentence in the SDG is either basic or major performing basic

communicative functions such as declarative, imperative and interrogative sentences or

minor expressing minor communicative functions such as exclamatory, imprecative or

optative sentences. The declarative sentences in the SOG are the unmarked nominal and

verbal clauses. The SOG has basic imperative sentences such as the 2 nd person

imperative sentences 'commands' and subset of imperatives such as prohibitives and

hortatives which include 1st person imperatives, 3rd person imperatives, advice,

obligations and requests. The structures and functions of all these types of imperative

sentences are described in this current study for the first time.

The SOG has polar questions used without question words. These polar

questions can be negative polar questions, affinnative polar questions or tag questions.

The SDG has also alternative and content questions.These questions are distinguished

from declarative sentences by their rising tone These types of questions are described in

this thesis for the first time.

Exclamatory sentences are used in the SDG. Some exclamatory sentences begin

with an interjection, followed by heb 'certainly' an adjective and finally the subject.

Other exclamatory sentences begin with certain fonnulatic statements. Imprecatives are

also found in the SDG. They are usually expressed through the perfect fonn of the verb.

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Optatives or wishes in the SnG are expressed through the use of the 3 rd person singular

imperfective and through some conditional clauses. The SnG has two basic word order

used in the nonmarket declarative sentences. The fIrst word order is SV, AVO and the

second one is VS, V AO.

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CHAPTERS

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

S.O Introduction

While chapter 4 describes the major morphological features of the SDG;

Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 describe the structures and the functions of the

phrase, the clause and the sentence in the SDG respectively. This concluding chapter

provides a brief overview describing the purpose and the design of the research,

informants, research questions and data collection of the current study. This chapter also

summarizes the seven chapters of this study, draws conclusions from the research

findings, highlights the study contributions and indicates some pedagogical and

typological implications of the findings. It also refers to the limitations of the study and

suggests further research in this field.

S.10verview of Purpose, Design, Informants, Research Questions and Data Collection

The purpose of the current study is to describe synchronically the major

morphological and syntactic feature of the SDG. Regarding the research design of this

study, it is a qualitative ethnographic descriptive field research. The informants of this

study were selected purposively from the inhabitant of Galansiyah. The current study

seeks to answer the following research questions:




3- What are the types, structures and functions of the phrase in the SDG?

4- What are the types, structures and functions of the clause in the SDG?

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SDG?

The data of the study were obtained through the use of various instruments.

These instruments included elicitation, participant observation and oral text collection.

Elicitation incorporated mainly oral questionnaires in addition to interview, translation

data manipulation, native speaker judgment, controlled tasks and stimulus prompt. The

oral questionnaires used are those provided by Bouquiaux and Thomas (1992). They

included the questionnaire of morphology, the questionnaire of the VP, the questionnaire

of NP and the questionnaire of sentence types. The Swadesh List was also used. The

interviews used are the structured and semi-structured.

Participant observation was employed. The researcher remained 10 months in the

field observing the informants' use of the language in its natural settings. The researcher

also collected and recorded many oral poems, stories, proverbs legends, etc.The data

collected through the use of all these instruments were recorded, transcribed and

reported as narrative description through the morphological and syntactic analyses.

8.2 Summary

Chapter 1 provides the background of the study and states clearly its topic which

is describing the main morphological and syntactic aspects of the Soqotri Dialect of

Galansiyah. This background begins with describing the genetic affiliation of Soqotri

and the other MSAL within the Afro-Asiatic and Semitic language families showing the

different branches of the Semitic family including the branch from which Soqotri

descends. This background also refers to the old history of Soqotri and the other MSAL

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which dates back to the pre-Islamic era and refers to the geographically-isolated

and naturally-defended area in which they are spoken showing how this geography

helped them to survive up to now. This background also refers to the Europeans'

discovery of Soqotri in 1835 and the arrival of the Austrian Expedition to the MSAL

area in 1898. Finally the background of the study gives an overview for MSAL in

general and Soqotri in particular showing their current unstable and endangered situation,

their speakers and their dialects.

This chapter also provides the statement of the problem which is the

endangerment of Soqotri and the lack of any synchronic detailed study on the

morphology and the syntax of this language. It shows that that no MA or PhD thesis has

ever been written on Soqotri. It also shows that all the previous studies on Soqotri are

brief philological and comparative studies and it confinns the urgent need for describing

. and documenting this endangered language before the increasing influence of Arabic

changes it to a dead language.

Chapter 1 provides the objectives of the study which are describing the types

and functions of the morpheme in the SnG and the way they combine

nonconcatenatively to fonn stems, describing the inflectional and derivational operations

the stem in the snG may undergo and describing the types, structures and functions of

the phrase, clause and sentence in addition to the two basic word orders in that dialect

Finally, this chapter also provides the related five research questions, significance of the

study and its limitation.

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Chapter 2 provides the theoretical and empirical framework for the current study

through reviewing the current literature on descriptive linguistics and through reviewing

the previous studies on the Soqotri language. The fIrst part of this chapter reviews the

structural morphological descriptive approaches such as Item and Arrangement approach

lA, Item and Process IP approach and Word-and- Paradigm model WP. It also reviews

the generative approaches to the morphological description such as morphology in the

Standard Theory and Halle's Model. Then it moves to review the nonlinear

morphological descriptive approaches such as the Nonconcatenative Theory. This

chapter also reviews the development of the descriptive syntactic theories and models

such as the structural Bottom Up Model and Bottom Down or Immediate Constituents

Analysis IC, the formal theories such as the Government and Binding Theory with all its

models, the functional theories such as Halliday's Systemic Grammar, Role and

Reference Grammar, Functional Typology and Dixon's Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT).

In the second part of this chapter, the previous works on Soqotri are arranged

according to their topics and reviewed in details so as to show the gap in these studies

the current study will abridge. This chapter provides the eclectic conceptual framework

of this study which is adopted from these descriptive models and theories. This

framework is based mainly on Dixon's (BLT) and Functional Typology but it also

makes use of other models and theories such as WP Model, IC Model and

Nonconcatenative Theory in describing the rich and complex morphology and syntax of

theSDG.

380

Chapter 3 explains the methods that have been used for conducting this

qualitative ethnographic research and it provides the research design which describes in

details the operational procedural steps of conducting the fieldwork, the site of the

research and the participants. It also describes the sources of data, the instruments

employed for data collection as well as the methods and procedures followed in

collecting and analyzing the data.

Chapter 4 focuses on the morphology of the SOG. Based on Nonconcatenative

Theory and WP Model, this chapter describes with elaboration the three types of

morphemes in the SOG. It describes the templatic morphemes (the root morpheme, the

pattern morpheme and the vocalic melody morpheme), the affixational morphemes

(inflectional and derivational prefixes, infixes and suffIxes) and the non-templatic word

stems (loan words and function words such as conjunction, preposition and pronouns).

It describes each templatic morpheme and the function it performs. It also shows

how these three discontinuous templatic morphemes combine nonconcatenatively to

form the stem. It also describes the inflectional and derivational prefixes, infixes and

suffIxes. All the different types of pronouns in the SOG, their paradigms and their

functions are described and illustrated in this chapter.

This chapter describes the inflectional and derivational operations the stems of

nouns adjectives and verb undergo. It shows how these inflections and derivations are

performed externally through affixation or internally through vocalic modification.

Finally, this chapter describes the different types of adverbs that exist in the SOO such

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as the adverbs of manner, adverbs of place, adverbs of frequency and adverbs of time. It

also describes the possible positions in which each type of these adverbs may occur.

Chapter 5 focuses on the syntax of the phrase in the SDG. It provides a structural

and functional description, based on the BLT, functional typology and the IC Model, for

the NP, VP, PP, ADJP and the ADVP in the SDG. The description of the noun phrase in

the SDG includes describing its different types, the grammatical categories that may

occur in its head slot, its possible different modifiers along with their orders and their

agreement in number and gender with the head noun in addition to describing the

different functions it performs.

The description of the verb phrase in this chapter includes describing verb

phrases with main verbs (transitive, intransitive and extended transitive) and verb

phrases with auxiliaries in addition to the passive verb phrases. It also includes

describing the different tenses and aspects expressed through both main verbs and

auxiliaries. This chapter also provides a description for the structures and functions of

the adjectival phrase, prepositional phrase and the adverbial phrase in the SDG.

Chapter 6 provides a structural and functional description for the clause in the

SDG. This description is based on the BLT, functional typology and IC Model. In this

chapter the main clauses in the SDG are subdivided into nominal clauses and verbal

clauses, Nominal clauses are further subdivided into basic nominal clauses and minor

nominal clauses. The verbal clauses are also subdivided into intransitive clauses,

transitive clauses, extended transitive clauses, copula clauses and zero-transitive clauses.

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The structures, functions and patterns of all these types of the main nominal and verbal

clauses are described and illustrated elaborately.

This chapter also includes a structural and functional description for the three

subordinate clauses in the SDG. The description of the complement clause includes

describing the wh-clause, the if/whether clause, that clause, subjunctive clause and the

participle clause. The description of the adverbial clause includes describing the clause

of time, place, manner, purpose, reason, condition, concession the substitutive and

absolutive clauses.Attributive and nonattributive relative clauses were described too.

Chapter 7 focuses on the syntax of the sentence in the SDG. Based on the BLT

and functional typology, this chapter describes the sentence structurally as simple

sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences and compound complex sentences.

It also describes the sentence functionally as basic sentences (declarative sentence,

imperative sentence and interrogative sentences) and as minor sentences (exclamation,

optatives and imprecatives).The features of the declarative sentence and its relation to

the other basic and minor types of sentence are described .The different types of the

interrogative sentences in the SDG such as affiImative polar questions, negative polar

questions and tag question, alternative questions and content questions are all described

and illustrated in this chapter. The different types of imperative sentences in the SDG

such as the basic 2nd person imperative sentence, prohibitives and hortatives such as

1st persons imperative, 3rd person imperatives, advice, obligations and requests are all

described in this chapter. The minor sentences in the SDG such as the different

exclamatory sentences, optatives and imprecatives are described. Finally, this chapter

includes a description for the two basic word orders in the SDG.

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8.3 Conclusion

The findings of the current study reveal many morphological and syntactic features

of the SDG. The following conclusions are drawn from these findings.

8.3.1 Types and Functions of the Morpheme in the SDG

Like all the Semitic languages, the SDG has three types of morphemes. It has

templatic morphemes,affIXational morphemes and non-templatic word stem morphemes.

The templatic morphemes are the root morpheme, the pattern morpheme and the vocalic

melody morphemes. The function of the root morpheme is the representation of the

abstract general manning shared by all the derivatives. The pattern morpheme function is

to code the phonological shape of the word and its main syntactic function. It also

functions as the categorical component of nouns, verbs and adjectives. It classifies them

into syntactic and semantic classes such as agent nouns, instrument nouns, reflexive, and

accusative verbs, etc. The vocalic melody morpheme conveys further syntactic functions

and performs inflectional and derivational operations

These morphemes are abstract and discontinuous. They must combine together

nonconcatenatively to form the stem in the SDG. The formed stem is an independent

form with full meaning. The verbal stem is the 3rd person singular perfect form. The

stem of the noun and adjective is the singular masculine form of that noun or

adjective.The stem in the SDG is subjected to external (inflectional and derivational)

operations through the addition of affIXes. It is also subjected to internal (inflectional

and derivational) operations through the modification of its vocalic and root morphrmes.

So the SDG is typical to all the other Semitic languages with regard to the number, types

384

and functions of its templatic morphemes and their nonlinear combination to form the

stem.

The affixational morphemes in the SDG are the prefixes, infixes and suffixes.

Some prefix morphemes are inflectional such as the prefixes which mark person,

number, gender and tense in the imperfective verbs and some of them are derivational

such as the derivational prefixeses which are added to the verb stem to derive agent

nouns, instrument nouns, and nouns of place and causative verbs. The infix morpheme

in the SDG is used derivationally to form reflexive verbs.

Some suffix morphemes in the SDG are inflectional such as those which mark

person, number, gender and tense in the perfective verb. Other inflectional suffix

morphemes are those which mark number and gender in nouns and adjectives. Some

other suffix morphemes are derivational such as these suffixes used in deriving nouns of

action from verbs and the suffixes used in the derivation of diminutive nouns. So there is

no relation between the type of the morpheme (templatic or affixational) and the

function it performs (inflectional or derivational) in the SDG. Neither Simeone-Senelle

(1997) nor any other researcher has studied and classified these morphemes in such

systematic way as the one used in this study.

The non-templatic word stem morphemes are those words which cannot be

reduced according to the root and pattern morphology. This type of morpheme includes

loan words and functional words such as prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns. The

SDO has a very rich pronoun system. It includes independent or free personal pronouns,

dependent or bound personal pronouns, interrogative pronouns, possessive pronouns,

385

demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, reciprocal pronouns and reflexive pronouns.

This richness in the pronoun system of the sno is a typical Semitic feature. The

typicality of this Semitic feature was confirmed in other studies such as that ofNaumkin

(1998).

8.3.2 Inflectional and Derivational Operations of the Stem

The root and pattern morphology plays an important rule in the morphology of all

the Semitic languages including the SOO. The inflectional and derivational operations,

the stems of nouns, adjectives and verbs in the SOO undergo are achieved either

externally (linearly) by adding just an affixational morpheme (prefix or suffix) to the

stem or internally (nonlinearly) through changing the vocalic melody morpheme of that

stem and in some cases this internal operation involves both vocalic modification and

adding an affix. This internal inflectional and deviational operation which is called root

and pattern morphology is common in the SOO as well as in the other Semitic language.

This fact was confirmed by other researchers who conducted researches on other MSAL

such as Simeone-Senelle (1997) and by researchers who conducted researches on other

Semitic languages such as Watson (2002)

Nouns in the SOO are inflected for number and gender. They have three numbers:

singular, dual and plural. The dual noun is marked externally by adding the masculine

suffixes -i and the feminine suffix - ti to the singular masculine noun form which is

considered as the stem. Some nouns are marked for duality by adding these suffixes to

the stem and modifying its vocalic melody morpheme. Plural nouns are either marked

externally by adding the masculine suffixes ( -hen, -hon) and the feminine suffix

386

( e: tin) to the noun stem or marked internally' nonlinearly' through operations that

may affect the vocalic melody of that stem such as apophony or through operations that

affect root such as in reduplication, replacement, reduction, suppletion, and subtraction.

Nouns have two genders: masculine and feminine. The masculine gender is

unmarked, it is the stem of the noun. The feminine gender in many nouns is marked

externally by adding the suffixes (-eh ,-Dh, -t and -e: tin) to the masculine

form'stem' but the feminine gender of some other nouns is formed internally through

modifying the vowels of the masculine fonn. Some feminine nouns have no feminine

markers at all but still they take feminine agreement.

Nouns are derived from verbs and adjectives by adding prefixes such as (?~- ,

de- and m-) and suffixes such as (- eh ) to the verbal and adjectival stems which also

undergo a vocalic modification. Most of the diminutive forms of nouns are derived

internally but some of them are formed externally by adding the suffixes (-en, -ehen

and -Dh ) to the stem. Endocentrlc and exocentrlc compound nouns are formed by

adjoining two stems with or without the possessive particle.

Like nouns, adjectives in the SDG inflect for number and gender. Adjectives

have three numbers: singular, dual and plural. While the dual forms of some adjectives

are marked externally by adding the suffixes ( -i, -ti, -tDh) to the masculine singular

adjectival form ,the stem of the adjective, the dual forms of some other adjectives are

marked through an internal operation that involves both the modification of the stem

vowels and the addition of the previously-mentioned suffixes. Adjectives in the SDG

387

have external plural fonns marked through adding the plural masculine suffix -Eh and

the feminine plural suffix -E: tin to the stem or the masculine singular fonn.

Adjectives also have internal plural fonns marked through vocalic modification of the

stem. The feminine gender of some adjective is marked by adding the suffixes ( -Eh, -

Dh, -t and E: tin) to the unmarked masculine adjective but in some other adjective it

is marked internally through vocalic modification of the stem. Some feminine adjectives

have no feminine markers at all.

The verb in the SDG inflects for person (first, second and third person) , gender

(masculine and feminine), number (singular, dual and plural) and tense (perfect and

imperfect). The verb in the SOG exhibits almost the same features of the verbs in the

West Semitic languages in that it adopts the suffix --conjugation for the perfect verb

fonn and the prefix-conjugation for the imperfect verb fonn.

The inflectional categories of number, person, gender in the imperfect verb are

marked externally through adding prefixes to the verb stem while the inflections of

person, number, gender of the perfect verb are marked through adding suffixes to the

verb stem. All these inflectional morphemes of person, number, gender and tense are

accumulated in one morpho This indicates clearly that the SOG is a fusional or a

synthetic language.

Verbs are derived from adjectives and from other verbs through adding prefixes

such as 'li-, -S, infixes such as -t- suffixes such as - Eh and also through vocalic

modification and reduplication. The passive is fonned nonlinearly through vowel

388

modification of the stem. The verb in the SDG has untimed form called subjunctive form.

This fonn is used only in subordinate clauses. It is inflected for number and gender

through adding the prefix 1£- to the verb stem and modifying the vocalic melody of that

stem or just through modifying the vocalic melody of the stem. The subjunctive verbal

fonn in the SDG perfonns the same funtions perfonned by the infinitive fonn in English.

It function as a subject and as an object.in addition to achiving pwposive functions.

As in most of the Semitic languages, adverbs in the SDG have a limited number.

They have solid stems which are rarely subjected to inflectional or derivational

processes except some adverbs of place which may be inflected for number.

8.3.3 Types, Structures and Functions of the Phrase in the SDG

Regarding the types, structures and functions of the phrase in the SDG, it can be

concluded that the NP in the SDG is either simple consisting of one head noun with or

without a simple modifier such as an adjective, a conjoined NP consisting of two

conjoined nouns, a complex NP with a complex modifier such as the RCL or an elliptic

NP without a head noun. The head noun in the NP can be a proper or common noun, a

personal, demonstrative or possessive pronoun, a numeral or an adjective. The modifiers

of the NP in the SDG can be a determiner (a quantifier, a demonstrative pronoun, a

possessive pronoun, or numeral), an interrogative pronoun, a noun, an adjective, a PP or

a clause such as the RCL and SUB.CL. The NP functions as a subject, an object a

subject complement, an object complement and an appositive (noun in apposition).

389

The VP in the SDG can be a VP with a main verb or a VP with both main verb as

a head and an auxiliary as a modifier. Like the other Semitic languages,the SDG has

only two tensed verbal forms. They are perfect and imperfect fOlms. Consequently, each

one of these fonns is used to express almost all the tenses. For example, the perfect

verbal fonn in the VP can express simple past, simple present, present perfect and

simple future and the imperfect verbal fonn in the VP can express simple present, simple

past, simple future, and perfect future. The verb in the SDG does not conjugate for

aspects, therefore, temporal adverbs and auxiliaries are added to the main verbs in the

VP to express aspects. This fact contradicts Simeone-Senelle (1997) claim that

auxiliaries in Soqotri do not combine with main verbs to form certain tenses and aspects .

The passive VP in the SDG is either morphological (formed without auxiliaries) or

periphrastic (fonned with auxiliaries).The VP function is to represent the subject actions

or temporary states. It also expresses tense and aspects.

The PP in the SDG consists of a preposition followed by an NP which may be a

noun or a suffix personal pronoun. Its function is to relate the noun to a large syntactic

unit, to be a predicate for the nominal clause and copula clause, and to modify nouns

and adjectives. The ADJP in the SDG consists of an adjective as its head and an optional

pre or post modifier expressing the degree of quality. It functions as a postmodifier for

the NP in addition to being a subject complement, an object complement and a noun

substitute occupying the position of the subject or the object in the sentence and

performing their functions. Finally, the ADVP in the SDG is composed of an adverb as

its head and an optional modifier usually an adverb of degree. Its function is to modify

the verb, the adjective, the adverb and the whole sentence.

390

8.3.4 Types, Structures and Functions of the Clause in the SDG

With regard to the types structures and function of the clause in the SDG, it can

be concluded that the SDG has two main clauses and three subordinate clauses. The

main clauses are the nominal clause and the verbal clause. The subordinate clauses are

the complement clause, the adverbial clause and the relative clause.

The nominal clause in the SDG has a nominal predicate juxtaposed to the

obligatory subject without the use of copula verbs. The nominal predicate agrees with

the subject in number and gender .This predicate can be nominal, adjectival, locative,

existential, genitive, benefactive associative referential or a predicate indicating origin.

Tense in the nominal clause is either indefinite present tense used for expressing facts or

actual present tense indicated by the context and the temporal adverbs. Some nominal

clauses in the SDG has a non-verbal pro-copula. They employ the 3rd person singular

masculine or feminine pronoun as a copula This feature is common in some Semitic

languages. There are main and minor nominal clauses in the SDG, both of them perform

the function of identification, description, proper inclusion and equation.

The verbal clause in the SDG has a verbal predicate and an optional subject The

SDG has different types of verbal clauses such as intransitive clauses, transitive clauses,

extended transitive clauses, zero-transitive clauses and copula clauses. Transitive,

intransitive and extended transitive clauses have various patterns in the SDG. All these

patterns are listed and illustrated in Chapter 6. The zero-transitive clause does not have

any argument. It employs the non-referential 3rd person singular feminine verbal form to

express information about the weather conditions. The copula clause resembles the

391

nominal clause structurally but it differs from it in having a copula verb usually in the

past or future tense. Functionally, the verbal clauses represent the subject of the clause

as acting when a transitive or dynamic verb is used or as being in a temporary state when

an intransitive or stative verb is used.

The SDG has a SI A pivot. The discourse topic or the pivot in any clause in the

SnG is always the S argument, if the verb is intransitive, or the A argument, if the verb

is transitive. The grammatical relation within the verbal clause in the snG is determined

through the Nominative IAccusative System. The SnG treats S/A morphologically alike

and it treats the 0 argument differently. The snG has lost its case marking except in the

case of personal pronouns. So when the clause has A and 0 in pronominal forms, the A

will have the nominative fonn and 0 will have the accusative fonn. When both A and 0

are nouns, the SDG manifest Nominative I Accusative system on the affixes that marks

number and gender on the verb. Both A and S have the same affixes but 0 does not. So

the argument that agrees with the verb in number and gender is the A. When both A and

o have the same number and gender, the SnG distinguishes between them by

manifesting a Nominative I Accusative system on the word order. It allows both SI A to

occur in preverbal positions but it does not allow the 0 to occur in such position in the

pragmatically- neutral sentences.

The SnG has indicative complement clauses including if-clause, wh-clause and

that-clause. It also has a subjunctive complement clause, a nominalized complement

clause and a participle complement clause. The iflwhether clause wh-clause and the

subjunctive clause can function as subjects S and object for transitive and extended

transitive verbs object in the complex sentence.The nominalized complement clause

392

functions as a subject S or an object O. That-clause can only function as an object for

transitive and extended transitive verbs. The participle clause functions as an object for

the verbs of senses.

The adverbial clause in the SDG includes clause of time, locative clause, clause

of manner, clause of purpose, clause of reason, clause of condition, clause of concession,

substitutive clause and absolutive clause. These clauses usually begin with the

subordinate conjunctions. They usually follow the main clause but some of them such as

the conditional clauses can also occur before the main clause.

The SDG has attributive relative clause and non-attributive relative clause. The

attributive RCL modifies a head noun .This head noun can be the subject, the object of

a verb, the object of a preposition, a genitive constituent or a locative constituent. The

non-attributive RCL does not have a head to modify. When the relativized constituent is

the subject, it is indicated by inflections of the verb in the RCL not by a pronoun as

Simeone-Senelle (1997) argues. When that Relativized constituent is an object the SDG

employs the anaphoric pronoun strategy or pronoun retention strategy. That pronoun is

the dependent suffix pronoun not the independent one as Simeone-Senelle (ibid) states.

8.3.5 Types, Structures, Functions and basic word orders of the Sentence in SnG

Regarding the types, structures and functions of the sentence in the SDG, it can be

concluded that structurally, the sentence in the SDG is either simple consisting of one

subject and one predicate, compound consisting of two or more main clauses, complex

consisting of one main clause and one or more subordinate clause or compound complex

consisting of two main clauses and one or more subordinate clause.

393

Functionally, the sentence in the SDa is either basic perfonning basic

communicative functions such as declarative sentences, imperative sentences and

interrogative sentences or minor performing minor communicative functions such as

exclamation, optatives and imprecatives. The declarative sentence in the SDa is the

unmarked nominal and verbal clauses. It exhibits the full paradigm of tense and aspects

available in the SDa and expresses most of the speech acts. The other types of sentence

in the SDa involve the declarative sentence construction plus adding certain particles or

intonation change as it is the case in the interrogative sentence.

The SDa has various imperative sentences. Some of these imperative sentences can

be found only in some Semitic languages. For example the SDG differs from Arabic

and resembles Hebrew in having prohibitive sentences with both a special verbal

form 'subjunctive' and special negative particle ~~ not used in negating declarative

sentences. Imperative sentences in the SDa include the 2nd- person imperative

sentences 'commands', prohibitives and hortative which include 1st imperative / 3rd.

imperatives, advice obligation and request. The 2nd person imperative is performed with

the indicative and the fully-inflected second person singular, dual and plural forms of the

verb. The first person imperative expresses a desire or a suggestion. It is similar to the

hortative English ' let's'. The SDa has synthetic third person imperative formed by

affixation and analytical third person imperative formed by using particles. Both of them

are used to issue commands in the absence of the person who has to carry out that

command. Advice in the SDa is expressed through the 2nd person imperative,

conditional clauses or through prohibitive sentence. Requests are expressed either

through the use of verbs indicating request and appeal or through the use of oath phrases.

394

Obligations in the sna are expressed through the use of auxiliaries such as 1a: k'

'must' ,plus the suffix pronoun and the SUbjunctive verbal form.

Interrogative sentences in the sna include affirmative and negative polar

questions, tag question, alternative questions and content questions. Unlike Arabic, the

sna has no question words for the affirmative polar questions, negative polar questions

and alternative questions. The only grammatical device that distinguishes these

questions in the sna from the declarative sentence is intonation. These questions have a

rising tone while declarative sentences usually have a falling tone. The content questions

have the same word order of the declarative sentence and differ from them only in

intonation and in having question words.

The sna has exclamatory sentences that have structures similar to that of the

English exclamatory sentence. It begins with heb 'certainly' followed by an adjective

and the subject. The sna has some imprecatives in which the imperfect verbal form is

used. Optatives or wishes in the sna are expressed either through the use of the 3 rd

person imperative or through the use of certain conditional clauses.

Finally the sna is primarily a head-initial language with VS/SV and V AOIA VO

word orders. These two basic word orders seem to be equally frequent. It has

prepositions, adjectives and relative clauses as well as genitives (typically with a full

possessor noun) follow the head noun they modify, while demonstratives, numbers, and

genitives (typically with a pronominal possessor) precede the head noun.

395

8.4 Contributions of the Study

The current study made distinct contributions to the efforts of preserving the

world's linguistic diversity, the fields of typology, Universal Grammar, Soqotri, MSAL

and Semitic linguistics. These contributions may be summarized as follows:

I-The current study described and documented the major morphological and syntactic

features of an endangered language facing death and oblivion, thus it contributes a lot to

the efforts aiming at preserving the world's linguistic diversity. The study accumulated

enormous linguistic data, expressions and structures along with the functions these

expressions and structures perform, accordingly, it contributes a lot to the field of

linguistic typology and the field of Universal Grammar which aims at understanding all

the possibilities of formal and semantics expression of human thoughts.

2- The current study described and recorded the types, and functions of the morpheme,

the internal and external morphological operations in the SDG along with the types,

structures and functions of its phrase, clause and sentence, consequently it makes a

significance contribution to the little existing little knowledge in the field of MSAL in

general and in the field of Soqotri in particle. It also provides original contribution to the

efforts aiming at publishing a text book for Soqotri.

3-the current study provides enormous data and information about one of the oldest and

least known Semitic languages, consequently, it makes original contribution to the field

of Semitic linguistics.

4- Another contribution of the current study is its new findings. It discovers many

unknown morphological and syntactic features of the SDG and describes them for the

396

first time. Some of these new findings which have been described for the first time are

as follows:

a- Some previous studies referred briefly to the inflectional categories of nouns

adjectives and verbs and referred to some derivational processes in Soqotri but non of

them gave the full paradigms and patterns of these inflections and derivations. This study

provides full paradigms of the inflections and derivations which are formed externally

and it lists the most common patterns of the inflections and derivations that are formed

internally.

b- This study also provides a description for the common patterns of some inflections

and derivations which are formed through a joint internal and external operation that

involves simultaneous vocalic modification and affixation. No previous study has ever

referred to this joint process at all.

c- This study provides a description of some internal inflectional and derivational

morphological operations in the SDG which were not referred to before in any previous

study such as reduplication, suppletion, subtraction and replacement.

d- It also describes for the first time unknown Soqotri derivations such as verb to noun

derivations which include action, agent, patient, instrument and location nominalizations,

adjective to noun derivation, and adjective to verb derivations.

e-The current study describes elaborately and for the first time the types structures and

functions of the morphemes in the SDG.

397

f- This study provides a structural and functional description of the NP, VP, ADJP, PP,

and ADVP in the SDG. No previous study attempted describing these phrases in

Soqotri .The VP description included a description of tense and aspect in the SDG. It is

the fIrst description for the tense and aspects in this Semitic endangered language.

g-This study provides a structural and functional description for the different types of

the main nominal clause, the main verbal clause, the subordinate clauses (complement

clause, adverbial clause and relative) in the SDG. There is no description for these

clauses in the previous studies except a brief reference made by Simeone-Senelle about

the relative clause and some adverbial clause in Soqotri.

h- The structural and functional description of the sentence in the SDG as simple,

compound, complex, compound complex, declarative imperative interrogative

exclamatory, optatives and imprecative in this study provides totally-new syntactic

information that will undoubtedly add to the little existing knowledge about MSAL in

general and about Soqotri in particular.

8.5 Typological and Pedagogical Implications and Recommendations

The findings of the current study have some typological implications. They show

structural and functional similarities and differences between the SDG and the other

Semitic languages such as Aramaik, Syriac, Akkadian, Arabic and Hebrew.The findings

also show structural and functional similarities between the SDG and languages

belonging to non-Semitic language families. For example, the same particle de is used as

a relative particle and as a possessive particle in the SDG, Mandarin Chinese and

Japanese. Another example of these typological implications is the use of the double

398

demonstrative in both the SDG and French. The current study includes a lot of such

information which could be a source for those interested in Semitic or universal

typological comparisons.

The findings have also pedagogical implications for the teaching of the SDO which

will be a decisive step in any attempt to preserve and save the endangered Soqotri

language. The study provides the common inflectional and derivational paradigms and

patterns of nouns, verbs and adjectives in addition to the paradigms of the pronouns.

These patterns facilitate learning the Soqotri mOlphological system since mastering such

patterns in any Semitic language is a prerequisite to learning and understanding the word

structure of that language (Aryan, 2001). Another pedagogical implication of this study

is that the study provides the different patterns of phrase, clause and sentence in the

sno along with their functions and the different rules that govern their structures. Such

syntactic patterns and rules will be of great help to those who are interested in teaching

Soqotri or in publishing text books about it.

The following recommendations are suggested:

I-As Soqotri is an unwritten language, it is highly recommended to establish an

alphabetical system for it. Such system will enhance communication among the

Soqotrans and will lead to the documentation of its old and new oral literature and will

be the base for teaching and learning the language. Crystal (2000) states that an

endangered language will progress if its speakers can write it down.

2- Soqotri must be allowed to be taught for the Soqotri students in schools by trained

native speaker teachers. Language endangerment is possible to reverse if children are

allowed and encouraged to learn the language (ibid). Literacy programs and mother

399

tongue education are essential in preserving the endangered Soqotri language (Crystal,

ibid; lanse, 2003).

8.6 Suggestions for Further Research

Among the limitations of the current study is that it focuses on one variety of

Soqotri, the Soqotri Oialect of Galansiyah SOO. The study is also limited to the major

morphological and syntactic features of SOG. Morphologically, it focuses on the types

and functions of morphemes, inflections of nouns, adjectives and verbs and on some

derivations of the noun and the verb. Syntactically, it focuses on the types, structures

and functions of the phrase, the main and subordinate clauses, the sentence and the basic

word orders. However this study is not intended to be an exhaustive study of the

morphology and syntax of the SOG. It is an introductory work that may serve as a base

for further researches.

In order to get better understanding of Soqotri in general and the SOO in

particular, further research on the following topics, which are among the limitations of

this study, will be useful.

I-The phonological system of the SOG.

2- Information structure in the SOG.

3-Linguistic comparison between the SOG as the main dialect of the western area and

the dialects of the eastern areas of the island.

4- Comparing Muller's 1902, 1905 and 1907 Soqotri texts especially those collected

from the western area of Soqotra in 1898 with current texts from the SOG to measure

the extent of linguistic change the SOG underwent during the last 110 year due to the

influence of Arabic.

400

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420

APPENDIX (A)

The Swadesh List of the SDG ( Cited in Renfrew, 1990, p.297)

English SDG English SDG 1 all fO:Hareh 37 to eat te 2 and w 38 egg k'~helhnn

3 animal inm::x 39 eye ~i:n

4 ashes re :mid 40 to fall 2entef 5 at b 41 far ra:h~k'

6 back ta:de~ 42 fat ~a: t'em 7 bad dij~~ 43 father be:beh 8 bark k~lifnh 44 to fear ?ez 9 because seb 45 feather milj~t'

10 belly me:r 46 few ha:rirhen 11 big ~o:k'~r 47 to fight 2int~h

12 bird ?es'fe: reh 48 fire iija:t' 13 to bite Bo:~eb 49 fish s'ndeh 14 black ha:r 50 five xo:m~h

15 blood do:r 51 to float te :fe 16 to blow ru:roh 52 to flow da:~er

17 bone znhleh 53 flower s'a: frir 18 to breathe ne: fui 54 to fly fer

-19 to bum 2enha 55 fog ha:ro 20 child mnkS~m 56 foot ia: b / ker~nn 21 cloud hihnr 57 four ?o:rbe~

22 cold he:k' 58 to freeze Jo:m~d

23 to come J~d~h 59 fruit xnrf Ira: k'~h 24 to count ho:seb 60 to give no :d~k' 25 to cut k'~s' 61 good Ske:r 26 day jo:ml Sa:m 62 grass ro~nd

27 to die s'a:m~ 63 green ie:15er 28 to dig ho: f~r 64 guts m~ho:ten

29 dirty he:dek 65 hair s'~f

30 dog k~lb 66 hand ?id 31 to drink re: 67 he jeh 32 dry k'e: i~~ 68 head ri: 33 dull a: Ih~le : feh 69 to hear hem~~

34 dust k'a: rk'~h~r 70 heart ?elbib 35 ear ?idihen 71 heavy 2e: d~k'

36 earth 2er15 72 here dh~h

422

73 to hit miSthir 112 to play na:hq 74 hold SmE: 1Ek 113 to pull S'E: t ':;)r 75 how £01 114 to push dE : fur 76 to hunt (game) tE :rEd 115 to rain mESS:;)

77 husband H:;)] 116 red ha:r 78 I ~Eh 117 right (correct) sw:;)

79 ice t:;)lJ 118 right (hand) ?imhi1 80 if k- 119 river k'a: ~ijod 81 in b 120 road ~ E : rim I :> : rib 82 to kill 1a: t:;)H 121 root SEr:;)h 83 know (facts) HO :rEb 122 rope k'E :d 84 lake HE::5Eh 123 rotten (log) ba:1:;)~

85 to laugh do:h:;)k 124 rub fEk 86 leaf hES' 125 salt mE1hD 87 left (hand) SEmi1i 126 sand sibEh:;)h 88 leg SEf Ik'Er~in 127 to say ~o:mEr

89 to lie bt':;)h 128 scratch (itch) kE :rS 90 to live ~Ed 129 sea rEnhEm 91 liver iEbdEh 130 to see Si :n:;) 92 long rE:hEm 131 seed dE:ri 93 louse kDnEm 132 to sew iirEJ IhEz 94 man If:;)] 133 sharp (knife) ~Ebh:;)lE:tEn

95 many dE: l:;)k' 134 short kErhE Ikiri 96 meat tEh 135 to sing ~o:den

96bmoon ~E:rEh 136 to sit zO:~Em

97 mother bijoh 137 skin ]:;)li : doh 98 mountain fidhon 138 sky ~iitin

99 mouth hEh 139 to sleep dE:mE 100 name SEm 140 small k'i :hEn 101 narrow ko:fid 141 to smell tE~EI SEt'E 102 near SE:kE 142 smoke hi: l:;)k' 103 neck fik'rEreh 143 smooth mEst':;)~:;)h

104 new J:;)di:d 144 snake ba:iel 105 night htE IIEllhE 145 snow t:;)lJ 106 nose nexrhEr 146 some f:;)k':;)h 107 not a:1 147 to spit 1E:~:;)m

108 old t'a:hEm 148 to split SEt ':;)r 109 one t'od 149 to squeeze SE1hE:bn 110 other hiE 150 to stab (or stick) 1 111 person hi hi 151 to stand zE:Jid

423

152 star kibieb 192 wing knzi 153 stick mark'ah 193 wipe ha:l3af 154 stone 2o:ben 194 with k IS 155 straight sameh 195 woman Ifo:jeh 156 to suck ~e :dnk' 196 woods ka: Sen 157 sun So:m 197 wonn t'a~aleh

158 to swell k'te :de 198 ye tin 159 to swim sa:bax 199 year ~i:noh

160 tail dnnib 200 yellow karkam 161 that de ... bok' 162 there bok' 163 they jan 164 thick do:te 165 thin sa:~idi

166 to think fte :ker 167 this de ... dhah 168 thoU/you 2at 169 three ie~teh

170 to throw k'a: la~ 171 to tie ~a:s'am

172 tongue leien 173 tooth metnejah 174 tree hermlSirnm 175 to turn k'e: lob Ilet' 176 two t'roh 177 to vomit k'e 178 to walk Ho:d 179 warm me :rnt 180 To Wash ra:beh 181 water r iho: 182 we hen 183 wet messsa 184 what 2enem 185 when mi: ta I mi:h 186 where (d) he: 187 white libhon 188 who man 189 wide ra:h:;,b 190 wife Ifo:Jeh 191 wind (breeze) rah

424

The following questionnaires of morphology, verb phrase, noun phrase and sentence type have been adapted from Bouquiaux and Thomas (1992).

I-Root 1.1 Derivation

Deverbal, verb noun to kill I killing 1a: ta~ I 1a: ta~ to weep I weeping be ! S i I be! S i

APPENDIX (B) Questionnaire of Morphology

to fish I fishing Se~rek I Se£re :keh

to walk I walking ~o:dl 2a~o:deh

Frequentative, iterative to knock I to knock again and again dek I dekdek to cut I to cut into pieces k'as I k'as' k'as to hit I to hit repeatedly def I de fde f

Causative (implies the notion of causing to do something) To start / cause to start ne: i~r I 2enher Laugh I cause to laugh de:hak I 2edhak

Applicative or prepositional benefactive To give / to give to-2end~k I 2end~k t-To lie be:d~

I to lie to-I be:d~ ~-

To buy I to buy for to:Jer I to:Jer le-

Reciprocal To see I to see each other Si :n-nh I Si :n-nh-tetat'hi to kill / to kill each other la:t~Jroh I la:t~Jroh-tetat'hi

Agent nouns tofish I fisherman Se~rek I m Se~rek

425

learn I Sek'a:bit I Kill I la:taH

1.2 Compounding

learner miSek'o:bnt killer

dela:taH

Words often used as the basis for compounding camels I camel milk Jemhhnl Jemhhnl ixo: f mother I mother love bijnh Ha:5enhen de bijnh

goats I goats pasturing ~nerhnn ~nerhnn ra:~i

2 Structures

The following inflectional and derivational paradigms of this questionnaire were elicited through the use of interviews especially the structured interviews and occasionally the semi-structured interviews are used when the researcher wanted ro chek certain aspects of these elicited paradigms.

a- Inflection derivation (any modification in form apart from affixation, i.e., reduplication, change in tones, consonant or vowels and a possible combination of all theses features) Derivation by reduplication

mouth I speak he Ihu:ha rest / to have arest Seb I Sebeb Shake I shake violently raJ raJraJ

Derivation by vowel modification Palm date tree I a small palm date tree (diminutive) temreh tu:me:rnh

b- MilXational derivation The affix may be a prefix, suffix or infix

laughed I caused to laugh de : hak /: ~ e-dhak closed (TRA. V) I clause (INT.V) ~ek'f~:l Se-k'f'el fed I ate k' e : nah I k'n<t>nah walk I walking Ho:d l~aHo:deh

C-Derivation formed by both afilXation and inflection fished I act of fishing

426

Se~rek Se~r-e:-k- eh (vowel modification + suffix) kill / the killed person ) la: taH de-l-i : -t:;'H (prefix + vowel modification red / redness ~a: fer / ~a-~f-e-r-eh (prefix + vowel modification + suffix)

Inflectional paradigms a- Paradigms of Nouns

Number Dual fonns timreh biie:leh be:beh fidehon

Plural Fonns t'ifer t'irb he:lot Je:hi fo:lhi k'ed k'a:rn ho:z mokSem mizeher fedehon s'a:hreh Noun gender ta:hrar HaJ iaibab de:dn firehim

timre:ti biiiliti bebe:hi fido:ni

t'e: fere: tin te: rob ha:ljat' ~eJhrejo

fileho k'ijod k'irihon ~erhDn

mek'a: Si mu:k'eher fedenhen s'a:hra:t

ta:hrir Ha:Jeh iaibib dednh unmarked

B-Paradigms of Adjectives Number Dual fonns ~a:fer

~e:feroh

Plural forms ~e: fereh ' red'

~e:fri . ~e:feroti

~afere: tin 'red (SO.F) '(PL.F)

'palm tree' /'two palm tree' 'snake' /'two snakes' 'father' / 'two fathers' 'mountain' / 'two mountain'

nail/nails ' log' / 'logs'

guest / guests valley /valleys

'calf / 'calves' ' rope /ropes horn, 'horns' 'goat / 'goats' boy/boys

places for keeping goats mountain / mountains

'sister/sisters in law'

male / female wild goat 'man' / 'woman' 'old man / woman' 'paternal uncle / aunt' girl

'red'DU.M 'red'. DU.F

427

~a:fer 'red' ~efe: reh 'red' Ske: r 1 'good' Sko: rl 'good'

Adjective gender

(SG,M) (PL.M) (SG.M)

(PL.M)

Je~lhDl 'round' SG.M Je~lhil 'round' SG.F s'o: t 'e~ 'hungry' (SG.M) s'et'o: ~eh 'hungr (SG.F) C-Verb Paradigms of inflection Person, number, gender and tense inflections of the verb Hero: b 'understood' 1 st person Perfect Imperfect Singular M 1 F Hero: b-k 2:}-HO: reb Dual M 1 F Hero: b-ki 2:}-H:}re : b-eh Plural M 1 F Hero: b-en :}-HO: reb 2 ndperson Singular M

F Dual M

F Plural M

F 3 rdperson Singular M

F Dual M

F Plural M

F

1- Present

1.1 I 1.2. you (SG.M.) 1.3. you (SG.F)

1.4. he Ishe 1 1.5. we 1.6. you (PL.M.)

1.7. you (PL.F)

Hero:b-k t:}-HO: reb Hero:b-S ta-He: rib Hero:b-ki t:}-Here : b-eh Hero:b-ki t:}-Here : b-eh Hero:b-ken ta-He :reb Hero:b-kin ta-Ho : rab-en

Hero:b j:}Ho:Heb Here: b-eh let t:}-HO: n::b Here :b-eh j:}H:}re:beh

Here :b-teh t:}H:}re : b-eh Heru:b j:}-He: n::b Hero:b t:}Ho:r:}be

APPENDIX (C) Verb Phrase Questionnaire

2eh 2:}HO:d 10:1 2:}Ho:d 2~ttO:H~d /a:l t~Hod 2 i t t:}Hid 1 a: 1 t:}Hid jeh/seh jo: H:}d 1 to: H:}d 10: 1 hen nO:H:}d/a:lno:H:}d ten to: H~d / a: 1 t:}Hod ten t:}H: den / a: 1 t:}H: den

428

is walking / is not walking

1.8. they (PL.M) jan jO:H~dl a:ljo:H~d 1.9. they (PL.F) sen t~HO: d~n I a: 1 t~HO: d~n 1.10 they (DU.M) hi j ~He : deh la: Ij ~He : deh 1.11 What are you doing? I am crushing the grains

?enem t~~a:mer? ?to:hen h~bu:b

2- Past 2.1 Did you see my son yesterday? Yes, I saw him. No, I did not see him

Si: n~k de mDS~m ?~mSen ? ju~h Si: n~k ~eh, a: 1 Si: n~k ~eh 2.2 What were you doing this morning? I was crushing the grain

?enem ~e:remk~o:m~k ks'~h? ~e:remk ?to:hen h~bu:b 2.3 What did you kill yesterday? I did not kill any thing. I killed a cat

?enem la:t~Hk ?~mSen? a:lla:t~Hk bi:leh.la:t~Hk ka:rbiJ 2.3 Whom did you see in the valley? I did not see anyone .I saw only an old man

manSi:n~k b Ja:hi a:l Si:k ?~j t'Dd S:n~k H~J iaibab 2.4 Who came just now I this morning,

manJ~d~h Ikerhen nre~ah I ks'~h

Immediate past 2.5 I have just finished skinning the goat

kerhen nre~ah te: et~k da: hS de ?o: z 2.6 He has just left

jeh kerhen nre~ah t'a:her 2.7 He has just arrived

j eh kerhen nre~ah J~d~h

3- Future 3.1 I shall not do any thing

?eh 0: I ~~o: mer bi: leh 3.2 My cow is dead. What shall I do ?

dehn ~dhe so:m~h ~enem ~~o:mer nre~ah ? 3.3 won't you go to see Ahmad

0:1 t~t'o:her test~t' ?~hm~d

3.4 \Vill he arrive tomorrow?, Yes he will arrive. No, he will not arrive j~Jedhen k'~re: reh ? ju~h j~Jedhen, 10: 0; 1 ~Jedhen

3.5 will you work today or tomorrow? I will work tomorrow ,today I shall rest t~no: f~~ he: r ~~m k'~re: reh I ?~no: f~~ he: r

3.6 who will go" I will go m~n jt'o:hr? ?eh ~t'o:her

3.7 He will come tomorrow ~Jedhen k'~re: reh

3.8 He will come next month j~Jedhen io:her de j~Jedhen

3.9 He is going this night Inow j t '0: her deS xte: r I nre~ah

4-Indicative

429

4.1 He is going jEh jt'o:hEr

4.2 He is eating jEh jEt::>

4.3 H e is eating bread j Eh jEt::> 2Es'hEr

4.4 He is opening the door jEh jk'o: ~Er to: r

5- Reported speech 5.1 He said that you were to come

jEh ~o:mEr bEr t::>JEdhEn 5.2 He said that he will come

jEh ~o:mEr bEr j::>JEdhEn 5.3 He said that he is not ill

jEh~o:mEr jEho:l Jo:~::>r

6-Narrative 6.1 'Yesterday, I went to Hadibu (the island capital) and I bought rice and brought it home to my wife and told her to cook it and then she cooked it. '

2amS En ta: har-k hadi : bD w - t~: J ar-k ErhEz wa Jadah-k -tE:sEn k'a:~Er mDh dEhD2E:JEh w-~o:mar-k hes t-ak'dEr -SEn wa :5od sEh k'adErE-t SEn

7- Subjunctive 7.1 I want to beat you

~E :JEb lEJ-::>k 7.2 We do not wantto die

hf:n 0:1 ~i:k nf:sm::> 7.3 T he chief does not want to come

mk::>dd::>m 0:1 ~f:Jib lEJd::>h 8-0ptative 8.1 May Allah give you good health

jno:dek' ak 2allah ~afjah

8.2 'May Allah bless the goats.' jabo: rek allah b-sen la2erhDn

8.3 'May Allah make you a princess let'af ~aS {allah s'at'a: n-eh

9-Potential 9.1 He is able to come

j f:h Jf:: Sf:r lEJd::>h 9.2 He is not able to come

j Eh J E : SEr lEJd::>h 10- Obligative 10.1 You must eat in order to recover

t'f:~lf:h t -Sf: kEn ta-to:rf:f 10.2 You must sleep now'

430

t'e~leh te-dDm nre~ah

ll-Injunctive I Prohibitive

11.1 Sing. What should I sing? Don't sing t~no: ter 2EnEm ~no: ter. ~~ tenter

11.2 Let's all sing wEd-hen n~no: ter

12-Permossive 12.1 May I come tomorrow?

2~Jedben k'~re: reh ? 12.2 May I sleep?

2ejdnm ? 13-Volitional 13.1 Ifhe wants to come ,he will see him

jeh k ~eJeb leJdeh, j~Si :n~ ~eh 13.1 He wanted to come but he couldn't

jeh ~eJeb leJdeh b~s 0:1 Jeser 14-Sequential (purposive or successive) 14.1 He went to drink. I came to see my sister

to: her lere 2eh J~d~k ken 2~s't~t' dehn k'o: k'~ 14.2 I will give you a knife to kill the goat

2~no:dk'~ks'e:reh ken t~s'o:leb 20z 15- Negative 15.1 He did not come here

j eh 0: 1 J~d~h dh~h

15.2 He has not come yet jeh ~~d o:IJ~d~h

15.3 He is not ill. jeho:1Jo:~~r

16-Interrogative Yes/no questions

16.1 Will he come? j~Jedben ?

Wh- questions 16.2 What are you doing?

2EnEm t~no:f~~ ? 16.2 When did go to Soqotra Island?

mi:h to:h~rk sak'at'ri ? 17- Passive 17.1 Why is the child crying?

10 mokS~m jzo: ~ek Because he is being beaten. sebjeh jU:J~ He was beaten

431

sebjeh ?i :J~ 18- Reciprocal 18.1 The two men killed each other

If~Ji la:teIfeh tetat'hi] 18.2 We will kill each other

hen n~la: t~If te: tat'an 19-Reflexive 19.1 The man killed himself

If~Ji la:teIfbnhnfS 19.2 We shall kill ourselves

hen n~la: t~Jf b nhDf~n 20-Benefactive (action on behalf of others) 20.1 I am cooking for my husband

?~k'o: der de 1 If~J 20.2 work for the chief

?na:f~~ mk'~dd~m

21- Instrumental 21.1 What are you using this stone for"

?enem t~na! f~~ deS ?o: ben I grind grains with ?~t'o:hen bes

22- Causative 22.1 . The man woke up. The child woke the man up.

If~J ~eS ~en de :meh mnkS~m. tk'n~ If~J 23- Habitual 23.1 What do men do in Soqotra? The look after goats and they fish

?enem jna:f~~ IfijnJ b s~k'a:t'ri? jro:~n ?erhnn w jS~o:rek s'ndeh

24- Initiative 24.1 I began / have begun cutting palm date fruits

se :berak 1a - k'nz temhir 24.2 He has started reading the Holy Quran sine he was still young'

se:berja-k'o:re k'nra:n w ~ad k'i:hen 25- Simultaneous 25.1 She sings while grinding the grain

seh tno:ter wt~t'o:hen h~bu:b 25.2 He was speaking and weeping

j eh ?e: rem j S emtd w j~bo: S i 26- Progressive 26.1 She is (in the process of) preparing the food

seh t~k'o: der ?~k'nijnh

27- Completive 27.1 He has arrived

jeh J~d~h

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27.2 She died s'o:m~h

28- Incompletive 28.1 He has not come yet

j eh ~~d 0: 1 J~d~h 28.2 I have not married yet

~~k 0: 1 00: ~dk 29- Conditional 29.1 If he came ,I would see him

k J~d~h 2~Si :n~ ~eh

29.2 If it rains, I will not cone k lesseh 0:1 2~Jedhen

30- Directional 30.1 Go there

t~t' 0 : he rdbDk' 30.2 Come here

t~J edhen h~h

APPEDDIX (D) Noun Phrase Questionnaire

One Modifier IndefInite article 1.1 aman

If~J

1.2 t'Dd If 0 : J eh DefInite 1.3 theman

If~J / de If~J 1.4 the woman

Ifo:Jeh/deeS Ifo:Jeh Pluralizer

Indefinite 1.5-some men

f~k'~h IfijDJ 1.6 some women

f~k'~h If~Je: ten 1.7 the men

IfijDJ I Ie IfijDJ 1.8 If~Je: ten lIe If~Je: ten Dual 1.9 both men

kil- e: ti If~Ji

1.10 kil- e: ti Ha:Ji: ti

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Trial 1.11 three men

iE~tEh IfijoJ 1.12 three women

iilEh If~JE: tEn 2-Possessive

2.1 My man / two men / three men dEho If~J I If~Ji liE~tEh IfijoJ

2.2 My woman! two women! three women dEho ga:JEhl Ha:Ji:ti I iilEh ga:JE:tEn

3- Demonstrative 3.1 thisman

dE gaJ dhah 3.2 this woman

dES ga:JEh dhah

3.3 thatman dE gaJ dbok'

3.4 that woman dES Ha:JEh dbok'

3.5 these two men dE - ki(h) HaJ - i dhah

3.6 these two women dE Si ga:Ji: ti dhah

3.7 Thosetwomen dE - ki gaJ - i dbok'

3.8 those two women dE Si ga:Ji:ti dbok'

3.9 These men IE gijoJ Ihah

3.10 these women IE ga:JE: tEn Ihah

3.11 Those men IE gijoJ Ibok'

3.13 those women IE ga:JE: tEn Ibok'

4- Quantifier 4.1 All the men

fo: HarEh IE gijoJ 4.2 all the women

fO:HarEh IE ga:JE:tEn 4.3 Bachman

kol gaJ

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4.4 any woman ~9j J!o:Jeh

5-Numeral 5.1 oneman

t'oo H9J 5.2 one woman

t 'eh Ha: Jeh 5.3 fourteen men

~9Se:reh w ~e:rb9~ HijDJ 5.4 the first man

H9J de ne: S er 6- Lexical (free) modifiers Adjectives 6.1 a white woman

J!o:Jehl~bi:neh

6.2 a white man H9J libhDn

Two Modifiers 6.3-the good old father

be: beh de ~o: k'er de Ske: r 6.4-the beautiful young mother

bijDh k'i:nnh Ske:reh Three Modifiers 6.5-t~1 beautiful young woman

rm:Jeh k'i:nnh Ske:re:h rijo:mnh Four Modifiers 6.6-beautiful tall thin young woman

J!o:Jeh k'i:nDh dxo:mehrijo:mDh Ske:reh Noun Modifiers 6.7-the chiefwife

J!o:Jeh de mk'~dd~m 7- Sequence of Modifiers

7.1 the village chief's dog k~Ib mk'~dd~m de bIa: d

.7.2-the chief's white loincloth mDxfuf de mk'~dd~m libhDn

8- Combination of grammatical and lexical modifiers 8. I-some big bowls of milk

f~keh mDJ!e: rif de ixo: f d ~ 0 : k' er 8.2-my big bowls of milk

dehD mDJ!e : rif de ixo: f d ~ 0: k' f:r 9- Restriction 9. I-He saw only the chief

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j eh a: lSi : n~ 1ml m~k~d~m 9.2-H e eats only meat j eh te b~s teh 10- Comparison 10.1 He ran like a hare.

j eh SD~D t SDbeh ~~rn~b 10.2. He sings as a bird

j eh jno: ter l30d ~~s'fe :reh 11- Privation 1 1. I-He came without the chief

J~d~h bl~ m~k~d~m

II.2-He went without money t'a:her bl~ dra:him

12-Repitition 12.IHe saw another bird

Si: n~ ~~sfe: reh d~hHi 12.2-He made another drum ~o: mer dbe : beh d~hHi 13- Destination 13.1 He brought back a goat for the chief ~~Jd~h ~DZ d m~k~d~m

13.2-He will bring milk for the child· Jecihen ixo: f 1 mebrhe

14- Direction 14. I-He went towards the city

ta:her d bla:d 14.2-He passed through the town

na:her b bla:d 15- Location 15.I-He sat among people

~~z~~m b ~~mk' ~e : fe 15.2-He sat in the house

~~z~~m b k'a:~er 16- Relative Noun Phrase

16.1-a bird that sings ~~sfe: reh de tne: ter

17.1 a man who tells lies H~J de j~bed

17 -Apposition 17. I-The child, the chief's child, is ill

mebrhe , mebrhe de mk~dd~m, JO: ~er 17.2 The goat, the woman's goat, died

~DZ ,~DZ de Ha:Jeh, s'a:m~

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APPENDIX (E) Sentence Types Questionnaire

1- Simple sentences a- SE = PRED (the predicate here is the verb ) 1.1 He understands

Hero:b 1.2 I understand

Hero:b-k 1.3 She understands

Here :b-eh b-SE=PRED C 1.4 He goes there

jat'o:her dbDk' 1.5 She will go now

tat'o:her na:~eh 1.6 He was ill

2e:rm Jo:~er

c-SE=S PRED 1.7 He understands

jeh Hero:b 1.8 I understand

2eh Hero: b-k 1.9 She understands

seh Here: b-eh d-SE=S PRED C Cl = Adverb 1.10 He goes there

jeh jat'o:her dbDk' 1.11 She will go now

seh tat'o:her na:~eh C2 = Adjective 1.12 He was ill

jeh 2e:rm Jo:~er

C3 = personal pronoun (direct object) 1.13 She saw him

seh Si :nak ~eh C4 = personal pronoun (indirect object) 1.13 She gives him money

seh tno: dek' ~ eh dra: hem 2- Sentences with sentences particles (SP) such as the negative marker or the interrogative markers e- SE= S SP PRE 1.14 He did not come

jeh a:l Jaddah

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F- S= SP PRE 1.15 What are you doing?

2em;mt~~a: mer 2- Complex Sentence A- Secondary complex sentence .One of the major constituents of the simple sentence is expanded by a clause (adverbial, complement or relative) 2.1 He did not come because he was ill

je:h a:l J~d~b se:b Jo:~e:r

2.2 He said that he was ill j e:h ~Dm~r be:r JO: ~e:r

2.3 The man who is ill did not come H~J de: JO: ~e:r a: I J~d~b

B- Primary complex sentence. The whole of the simple sentence I is expanded by a clause SE = S PRED S PRED 2.4 He swims and fishes

je:h jso :b~X w j S~e: :re:k 2.5 She cooked rice and I cooked meat.

se:h k'~de:: re:h 2e:rhe:z w 2e:h k'o: de:rk te:h

APENDIX(F) Text about Soqtri marriage Traditions

(Collected fromShihab 19May 2007)

be:hi de: ~iJe:b 1e:b~e:1 me:n sk'a:t'ri xe::r he:-S a:1 ~i:k Person who want marry from Soqotra good for -him no want 1e::5hak 1u:h fe::re:hamde:sk'a:t'ri Ske::r w me:skin:t Tell you why. girls of Soqotri beautiful and poor taSo:Ja bi:-se:n de: ~i: k bili be:-k rabmah do with -:-them what want if no in-you mercy ta be:hi ~i :Je:b 1e:b£e:1 j-~a: 1e:£ de:h bijDh w de:h bijDh When person want to marry tell his mother and his mother t-~a:1e:~ deh be::beh w dse:h HaJ j-to:he:r k'a:~er be:beh tell his father and her husband go house father de firehim w j-Sho:me ts e:h w jSa:dide:n mi:ta takDn ~e:feh

of girl and ask hand her and discuss when be feast b ~e::fe:h 23rhiz w te:h je:te: behi me:n la:dek' ~af la:dek' in feast nce and meat eat person from Jaw to jaw k1a:n j-o:dem b k'a:~er de: h didnh le~teh 2nhDr w bridegroom sleep in house his father in law three days and ~ Dd j-i: ZDf deh de: k'a: ~e:r then taken his to house 'It is good for you to marry a Soqotri woman, wouldn't you like me to you why?

Soqotri women are beautiful and poor .. Even if you are cruel with them they will never

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complain.When a person wants to get married, he tells his mother about the matter and his mother informs his father that their son want to get married. The father goes to the house of the bride's father and asks her hand for his son. He discusses the marriage cermoney and feast with the bride's father. The marriage feast is usually rice and meat. A person can eat as much as wants in such feasts . The bridegroom stays in the house of his father-in-law., then accompanied by his guests he takes his bride to his own house' .

APPENDIXG Soqotri Poem

This is an old Soqotri poem compsed by unknown poetess and narrated by Salem Saeed (14 march 2007)

Sa:ba ta ~am bak b k'a:t£n a:1 ~i:k £o:J£l m1a:xi Think me be in Gaten not able come Malakhi £ah1£f a:1 hi:d£r b xazh£n wa:1 ri::5a:5 bmar:5a:5eten Ahelf not built of iron and nor fortified with stones 1£ d£ ba:~£rk m£n d£:m£ l£sb~ k 'a:n d£ marak'e :ten I wish vist you early in morning be in the place of pastures w~ habas'ah £Ha:b£r 4ia:b£r s'a:hah w 4ia:berma:t'er And Habasah meet before dawn and before light 1£ mo:Si d£ ~a:Jbk ha1mnt£h ta:r dat d£ k'a:~£r

I wish be lake near door your house k£r tarija maskat'imah w k Sa:mah t£ra:bah To drink when thirsty and when sun hot has a bath in wk maxatij£:ten deJadah tako:hed w t£ht£re:m£h And when another man carnes dried without water wk habas'ah de Jadah tra:kah men 2ansa:f ~jo:nten And when Habasah who carne water appear from all sides 1ebra:mak berhe: sa~e:: te:h ~aSe: r£h d£hin b£ :b£h I wish to give birth to chidren nme ten their father £ahfe:f t'Dd w t'Dd jzo:ni w too j ah£:l 2a1~ar£:b£h

Carry one and one walks behind me and one run round fence

'Don't think that as I am in Gaten, Iwill be unable to come to Malakhi'(a place near from her lover village)' Abelf ( her lover' s village) has not been built from iron knives nor has it been fortified with huge stones to prevent me from coming and seeing you'.I wish I could visit you in the early morning when you just get up or meet you in the pastures while it is still dark just before dawn ( so as not to blamed by the others) I wish I were a lake near the door of your house so as to make it easy for you to drink from it when you are thirsty. and to have a bath in it when it is hot. That lake will become dry when other people come to it but when you , Habasah , comes, it will be full of water again. I will give birth to nine sons and the tenth one will be you , their father. I will be carryng one, another will be walking behind me and a third will be running around the fence of our house.

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morphological and syntactic aspects of the soqotri

Documents

Transcript of morphological and syntactic aspects of the soqotri