Camilleri, Maris & Sadler, Louisa: A Non-Canonical Diachronic Formation of Raising Predicates
While copy raising structures have been discussed for Arabic, it is sometimes claimed in the literature that SUBJ-to-SUBJ raising in the context of lexical predicates such as perceptual report verbs does not occur. With data from an array of vernaculars we argue that such structures do exist, and we demonstrate how they do not necessarily involve what we would take to be typical lexical verbal predicates. SSR constructions are more likely to be expressed through the use of non-canonical predicates. We discuss the gram- maticalisation path of the N šakl ‘form, shape’, and the P ‘like, as’ which we hypothesise to have led to their development as verbal perceptual report predicates, and ones which appear in SSR constructions. We argue that the presence of a Prominent Internal Possessor is an enabling factor in the diachronic development of šakl. As for the P ‘like’, in addition to its complementising role in marking copy-raising predicates in some varieties of Arabic, we suggest that it has also emerged as a perceptual report predicate in its own right in at least one dialect.
December 22, 2022 |
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