Tommi Tsz-Cheung Leung is Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University. His research specializes in syntax, phonology, typology, and psycholinguistics.

Dimitrios Ntelitheos is Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University. His research interests include the investigation of morphological and syntactic structures from a theoretical perspective, as well as their cross-linguistic realization and their development in child language.

Meera Al Kaabi is Assistant Professor and Chair in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the United Arab Emirates University and a visiting academic at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research interests include neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, language disorders, morphology, and Semitic languages.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Tables

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction

1.1 Emirati Arabic

1.2 Triglossia in the UAE

1.3. The Descriptive Approach to Emirati Arabic

1.4 Transcription

1.5. Glossing

1.6. Abbreviations

Further Reading

2 Sounds of Emirati Arabic

2.1 Consonants

2.2 Vowels

Further Reading

3 Phonological Processes

3.1 Feature-Level Processes

3.2 Segment-Level Processes

3.3 Suprasegmental Processes and Phonotactics

Further Reading

4 Morphology and Word Formation

4.1 Non-Linear Morphological Processes

4.2 Affixation

4.3 Reduplication

4.4 Compounding

4.5 Loanwords

4.6 Acronyms, Abbreviations and Blending

4.7 Back Formation

4.8 Conversion

Further Reading

5 Syntactic Categories and Parts of Speech

5.1 Nouns

5.2 Verbs

5.3. Adjectives

5.4 Adverbs and Adverbial Expressions

5.5 Prepositions

5.6. Quantification: Numerals and Quantifiers

5.7 Complementizers

5.8 Pronouns

Further Reading

6 The Noun Phrase

6.1 Definiteness

6.2 Possession

6.3 Appositives

6.4 Nominal modifiers

6.5 Agreement in the Noun Phrase

6.6 Demonstratives

6.7 Word Order in the Noun Phrase

Further Reading

7 The Verb Phrase

7.1 The Copular Structure

7.2 State Verbs

7.3 Experiencer Verbs

7.4 Unergative Verbs

7.5 Unaccusative Verbs

7.6 Ditransitive Verbs

7.7 Existential and Possessive Predicates

7.8 Raising Predicates

7.9 Control Verbs

7.10 Reflexive Verbs

7.11 Complex Predicates

7.12 Causative Verbs

7.13 Passive Verbs

7.14 Complement-taking Verbs

Further Reading

8 Aspect

8.1 The Perfective Aspect

8.2 The Imperfective Aspect

8.3 Participles

8.4 Lexical Aspect

8.5 Grammatical Aspect

Further Reading

9 Mood and Modality

9.1 Deontic Modality

9.2 Epistemic Modality

9.3 Dynamic Modality

9.4 Modal Adverbs

9.5 Verbs Expressing Modality

9.6 Evidential Modality

9.7 Imperatives

9.8 Counterfactuals

9.9 Hortatives

9.10 Optatives

Further Reading

10 Negation

10.1 Verbal Negation

10.2 Non-Verbal Predicate Negation

10.3 The Negative Particle ¿¿ laa 'no'

10.4 The Negative Prefix -¿¿ laa- 'not' and -¿¿¿ ¿eer- 'non-'

10.5 Negative Imperatives

10.6 Negative Coordination

10.7 Negation in Ellipsis

10.8 Negative Polarity Items

10.9 Negative Concord

Further reading

11 Word Order

11.1 Subject-Verb (SV) and Verb-Subject (VS)

11.2 Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)

11.3 Double Object Constructions

11.4 Word Order Permutation

Further reading

12 Relative Clauses

12.1 Restrictive Relative Clauses

12.2 Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses

12.3 Free Relative Clauses

12.4 Noun Complement Clauses

Further Reading

13 Questions

13.1 Yes-No Questions

13.2 Wh-Questions

13.3 Echo Questions

13.4 Embedded Questions

13.5 Rhetorical Questions

13.6 Exclamatives

Further Reading

14 Subordination

14.1 Temporal Clauses

14.2 Reason Clauses

14.3 Purpose Clauses

14.4 Conditional Clauses

14.5 Concessive Clauses

14.6 Other Subordinators

14.7 Parentheticals

Further Reading

15 Coordination

15.1 Conjunction ¿ w-/wa 'and'

15.2 Agreement in Coordination

15.3 Fixed Expressions Formed by ¿ w-/wa

15.4 Pragmatic Uses of ¿ w-/wa

15.5 Informal Use of ¿ w-/wa

15.6 ¿¿ bas 'but'

15.7 Disjunction ¿¿¿ wela 'or'

15.8 ¿¿ ¿aw 'or'

15.9 ¿ fa- 'and then/so'

15.10 Contrastive Coordinator ¿¿¿ ¿amma 'as for'

15.11 Comparative Coordinator ¿¿ ¿an 'than'

15.12 Negative Coordinator ¿¿ mub 'not'

15.13 Correlatives in Coordination

15.14 Paratactic Coordination

Further Reading

16 Ellipsis

16.1 Gapping

16.2 Stripping

16.3 NP Ellipsis

16.4 VP Ellipsis

16.5 PP Ellipsis

16.6 Clausal Ellipsis

16.7 Comparative Deletion

16.8 Sluicing

Further Reading

17 Interjections

17.1 Primary Interjections

17.2 Borrowed Interjections

17.3 Secondary Interjections

Further Reading

18 Speech Conventions

18.1 Politeness

18.2 Terms of Address

18.3 General Honorific Terms

18.4 Trendy Language

Further Reading

Glossary of Terms

References

Index