The Highest Subject Restriction and the Pro-drop Parameter in Arabic
Issa Abdel Razaq
Citation :Issa Abdel Razaq,The Highest Subject Restriction and the Pro-drop Parameter in Arabic International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature 2017,5(10) : 96-106.
The aim of this paper is to defend the claim that the Highest Subject Restriction is not an independent constraint that applies universally to all resumptive languages. Instead, the paper develops an analysis based on data from relative clauses in Jordanian Arabic and similar dialects that reduces the HSR into the familial pro-drop parameter that is operative in Arabic. Evidence that this is indeed the case comes from two main observations about the SV word order being a topic-comment construction and the pro-drop parameter in Arabic. The paper concludes that relative clauses in the Levantine dialects do contain a subject resumptive pronoun, albeit one that is not overtly spelled out.