Croft’s cycle in Arabic: The negative existential cycle in a single language

• Published in: Linguistics 2020-03, Vol.58 (2), p.493-535
• Main Author: Wilmsen, David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arabic dialects; Arabic language; Dialects; Existential constructions; Function words; Grammaticalization; grammaticalization in Arabic; linguistic cycles; Negation; negative existential cycle; Regional dialects; southern Arabian peninsular dialects; standard negation
• ISSN: 0024-3949; 1613-396X
• DOI: 10.1515/ling-2020-0021

The negative existential cycle has been shown to be operative in several language families. Here it is shown that it also operates within a single language. It happens that the existential that has been adduced as an example of a type A in the Arabic of Damascus, Syria, negated with the standard spoken Arabic verbal negator , does not participate in a negative cycle, but another Arabic existential particle does. Reflexes of the existential particle )/ of southern peninsular Arabic dialects enter into a type A > B configuration as a univerbation between and the existential particle in reflexes of . It also enters that configuration in others as a univerbation between , the 3rd-person pronouns or , and the existential particle in reflexes of . At that point, the existential particle loses its identity as such to be reanalyzed as a negator, with reflexes of negating all manner of non-verbal predications except existentials. As such, negators formed of reflexes of skip a stage B, but they re-enter the cycle at stage B > C, when reflexes of begin negating some verbs. The consecutive C stage is encountered only in northern Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects. An inchoate stage C > A appears only in dialects of Lower Egypt.