The Syntax of Unaccusative Verbs in Moroccan Arabic: A Minimalist Approach

Abstract

The present paper explores the syntax of unaccusative verbs in Moroccan Arabic (MA) within the theoretical framework of the Minimalist Program (MP). The study aims to delimit the gap in the literature concerning the analysis of unaccusative verbs in the context of MA. The primary objective of this research is to apply the VP split hypothesis to account for unaccusative verb constructions. The findings reveal that unaccusative verbs can appear in locative inversion constructions and expletive-insertion structures but cannot undergo passivization. Furthermore, the Split-VP hypothesis provides an appropriate account for these constructions and the alternating SVO orders of MA. Semantically, unaccusative verbs take one internal theme argument in their thematic grid. This internal argument originates within VP, where it receives nominative case, and remains in VSO order. To derive the SVO order, the theme argument moves to spec-TP to satisfy the EPP feature of T. Therefore, the study provides insights into the syntactic structure of unaccusative verbs in MA, which can supply information for comparative syntax in future research.