Noun-Adjective Agreement in Najdi Arabic: A Constraint-Based Account
Abstract
Agreement is a cross-linguistic phenomenon that interestingly interacts with different language disciplines such as morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. It has been investigated considerably in various linguistic topics in Standard Arabic. This, however, does not apply to modern Arabic varieties whose use is increasing nowadays. Najdi Arabic (NA) is an example of these Arabic varieties, where agreement has not received the same level of attention. Hence, the current paper focuses on a detailed investigation of one of the intriguing topics in agreement. It particularly explores the patterns of noun-adjective agreement in NA. Employing naturally occurring examples, the paper demonstrates how nominal variation correlates with adjectival agreement patterns. In addition to describing all noun-adjective agreement patterns, the paper provides a formal theoretical analysis of these patterns within the constraint-based approach of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The analysis aims to account for the structure of all the instances of this type of agreement in NA, shed light on the mechanisms responsible for the relevant agreement patterns observed in this variety, and deepen our overall understanding of the agreement phenomenon across languages.