THE LEFT PERIPHERY IN MODERN STANDARD ARABIC (MSA): AL-ISHTIGHAL CONSTRUCTION

This paper is trying to investigate the interaetion between case checking and the thematie roles of the DP in al-Ishtighal (verbal occupation) construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Standard Arabic belongs to the group of VSO languages which also allow SVO as an alternative order in finite clauses. Yet, Arabic possesses a rich case morphology that is able to mark the thematic roles of the DPs in the clause. This research provides evidence that there are differences between left-dislocation and the verbal occupation construction (Ishtighal) despite of their structural similarity. These differences show that verbal occupation construction in MSA has the tendency to behave as topicalization where the fronted DP possesses the focus characteristics. Further, it has been shown that the multi-foci tendency is valid in such constructions like verbal occupation.