The Syntax of Applicative Constructions in Spoken Sudanese Arabic

Different languages have different means for structuring clauses which allow the coding of a thematically peripheral argument or adjunct as a core-object argument. The resulting constructions are known as double object or applicative constructions. The primary aim of this paper is to present a syntactic analysis of applicative constructions in Sudanese Arabic within the theoretical framework of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1993, 1995), in particular, the notion of phases, in combination with Pylkkänen s proposed phrase structure and the semantics of I-applicative (2000, 2008). The overall endeavor is to provide answers to the central questions: how applicatives in Sudanese Arabic are derived? Whether applicatives in Sudanese Arabic are I- applicatives or Eapplicatives? The derivation of such constructions in Sudanese Arabic involves the coding of new argument in the argument structure of the verb. This new argument is introduced via a preposition and has a benefactive/goal interpretation. This argument is c-commanded by any internal argument. The applied argument is placed in the complement position of the head ApplI, and can undergo neither A-movement nor wh-movement. This makes Sudanese Arabic fit into the general syntactic typology of I-type applicative languages cross- linguistically and consequently promoting contrastive linguistics.