GRAMMATICALIZATION AND PROCESSING EFFICIENCY IN MODERN STANDARD ARABIC: THE CASE OF THE ANALYTIC EXPRESSION OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE
GRAMMATICALIZATION AND PROCESSING EFFICIENCY IN MODERN STANDARD ARABIC: THE CASE OF THE ANALYTIC EXPRESSION OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE

Summary/Abstract: vIn this paper I present the results of a corpus-based study of the use of the constructions tamma S [Predicate + Undergoer] (so called periphrastic passive) and qāma S [Actor] bi-O [Predicate +Undergoer] (no term currently) in classical and modern Arabic texts. By means of a qualitative analysis of the intra-clausal contexts of use of the two verbs in the corpora I was able to distinguish the cases of their use as auxiliaries from the cases of their use as lexical verbs, and demonstrate the process of auxiliation of the verbs and grammaticalization of the respective constructions as analytic equivalents of the synthetic constructions expressing the active and the passive variant of a transitive clause: V Pass V [Pred] S [UG] and V Act V [Pred] S [Act] O [UG]. A quantitative analysis, based on the results of the qualitative analysis, shows that the two verbs are used in the corpora of modern texts more often as auxiliaries than as lexical verbs, not only in the newspaper corpora, but also in the corpora of fictional and non-fictional prose. A comparative analysis in terms of the Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis of Hawkins (2004) provides for the conclusion that the analytic constructions have evolved and spread due to their lower level of complexity and higher level of processing efficiency.

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