Modality in Modern Standard Arabic: Hierarchical Structure and Complement Selection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1606.35Keywords:
epistemic modality, deontic modality, Cinque’s hierarchy, complement selectionAbstract
This study provides a syntactic analysis of modality in Modern Standard Arabic, distinguishing between epistemic and deontic/root modals and examining their structural properties within the framework of Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy of modal heads. Using a corpus-based approach, this study analyzes how modality is marked in Arabic, which types of modals occupy higher syntactic positions, and the kinds of complements they select. The findings reveal that Arabic modals include verbs (e.g., yajib “must”, yumkin “may”), prepositional phrases (mina al-dˤaruwrii “necessary”), particles (qad, rubbama), and prepositions (ʕala, al-lam). Epistemic modality, in particular, can be expressed through modal verbs such as yumkin “may” and yuħtamal “might”; prepositional phrases such as mina al-muʔakkadi “certainly” and mina al-muħtamali “likely”; and particles (qad + perfective), (qad + imperfective), rubbama “perhaps”, and the verb yabdu “seem”. The data confirm that epistemic modals occupy a structurally higher position than deontic modals, consistent with cross-linguistic typological trends. Additionally, modal verbs predominantly select complementizer phrase (CP) complements (e.g., ʔan + verb phrase (VP)) over noun phrase (NP) complements, indicating a syntactic preference that contrasts with that in English. The results indicate that Arabic aligns with Cinque’s hierarchy, with obligation modals (e.g., yajib “must”) ranking higher than ability/permission modals (e.g., yaqdir “can”).
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