The position of the broken plural in the grammar: rural Jordanian Arabic as a case study

• Marwan Jarrah ^[1] ; Jaradat Abdulazeez ^[2] ; Linda Alkhawaja ^[3]
  1. [1] University of Jordan

     University of Jordan

     Jordania

     
  2. [2] University Amman
  3. [3] Al-Ahliyyah Amman University

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• Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Nº 265, 2022
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This research paper investigates the functions of the broken plural in Rural Jordanian Arabic (RJA), offering a syntactic account of these functions within Borer’s (2005) Exo-Skeletal model. It argues that the broken plural in RJA can be a lexical item that functions as a categorizing head merging under n0 with a root of a non-count noun. In such cases, the broken plural expresses abundance or kind readings. Additionally, this paper shows that the broken plural in RJA can be inflectional (i.e., merging within the syntax of categorized words), yielding a ‘one-or-more’ or ‘more-than-one’ interpretation. This paper shows that the broken plural can be a divider merging under Div0 with count nouns and a counter under #0 with classifying and measuring phrases. This essentially indicates that the functions of the broken plural are supposed to be identified in relation to the nominal that it targets in the syntax. In so doing, this paper adds credence to the proposals that favour the split-analysis of plural (in the sense that the broken plural is not restricted to one position in the grammar) (cf. Alexiadou 2011; Kramer 2012; Gillon 2015, among many others).