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15 - Case in Arabic

from Part III - Theoretical and Descriptive Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2021

By
Karin Christina Ryding
Edited by
Karin Ryding  and
David Wilmsen
Karin Ryding
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
David Wilmsen
Affiliation:
American University of Beirut
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Summary

This chapter provides an overview of case morphology in Arabic starting with a discussion of the place of case in Arabic linguistic analysis and its historical basis. Ryding then proceeds to discuss contemporary case theory, valence theory, the lexicalist hypothesis, and case hierarchy theory as they apply to Arabic. She provides an overview of Arabic case morphology and examples of Arabic declensions before describing and analysing each of the three Arabic cases: nominative, genitive, and accusative, including a discussion of accusative/genitive syncretism and peripheral case categories such as the vocative.

Keywords

inflectional morphologyaccusativenominativegenitivecase theorycase hierarchydeclension
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics , pp. 353 - 370
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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