The Semantics of Additive Particles in Hijazi Arabic: On the Role of Context in Apparent Polysemy

Abstract

Hijazi Arabic (HA) is an under-studied language with very little research in the field of semantics, in particular, and in theoretical linguistics in general. This thesis presents the first study of additive focus sensitive particles in HA by investigating the two additive particles available in the language: kamaan and hatta. Each of these particles has an interpretational puzzle that gives rise to multiple interpretations of sentences containing the particle. The thesis provides original, introspection and naturally occurring data for kamaan and hatta. Based on the data and discussion provided, the thesis proposes two separate additive analyses for the particles under study. The thesis addresses four main research questions. The first three questions are related to the multiple interpretations each of the particle receives. We address the questions of whether the multiple interpretations is a genuine case of lexical ambiguity or whether a unified analysis (for each particle) is available. In answering these questions, we argue that separate uniform analyses are available for each particle. The fourth research question addresses the difference between kamaan and hatta. If both particles are additive, how are they alike or different? We argue that kamaan and hatta exhibit different patterns of focus association. On the one hand, kamaan associates with focus, indirectly, via associating with the contextual alternatives involved in the interpretation of the sentence with kamaan. We model this analysis after Rooth (1992)’s analysis of focus particles. On the other hand, hatta strictly needs to associate with an overt focus in its syntactic scope, which makes us propose an analysis of hatta as a focus particle that, directly, associates with the focus and the alternatives it generates. We model this analysis after Beaver & Clark (2008). The thesis raises a number of broader research questions that are crucial for our understanding of focus particles.