The Semantics of the Counterfactual Complementizer Law in Makkan Arabic

(Jumanah Abdulwahab Abusulaiman)

---

Abstract

This paper examines counterfactual (CF) structures in Makkan Arabic, a dialect spoken in the Western region of Saudi Arabia. It expands the study of CF structures beyond English. It also presents novel data highlighting the presence of a CF complementizer law that is lexically specified to invoke counterfactuality. The CF law interacts with past tense and perfect aspect in embedded propositions, contributing to ongoing debates in semantics about whether the past tense in such contexts is "fake" or "real." Within the framework of possible worlds semantics, the CF complementizer law enters the computation with a universal operator (∀) that quantifies over all CF worlds. The past tense morphology within the embedded proposition, headed by law, triggers a process called "back-shifting." This process ensures that the events in the CF worlds share the same past as the event in the actual world. The universal operator (∀) not only quantifies over all CF worlds but also over time, indicating that the CF worlds are historically similar to the actual world up to the moment of the utterance. Thus, this study highlights the intricate interaction between the complementizer law, tense, and aspect in Makkan Arabic, contributing new insights to cross-linguistic discussions on counterfactuality.
KEYWORDS
Arabic counterfactuals, counterfactual conditionals, fake past, past tense, perfect aspect, real past

PDF

References

Abusulaiman, J. (2023). Is the past tense real or fake in counterfactual structures? The case of makkan Arabic. Journal of Arts, King Saud University Press, 36(1), 1–9.
Al-Ansarie, J.A. (1964). Mugni Al-Labib ‘The Enricher of the Intelligent’. Damascus: Dar Al-Fikir. [in Arabic]
Al-Ghalayini, M. (2009). Jaami Al-Durus Al-Arabiyya ‘The Collection of Arabic Lessons’. Beirut: Al-Maktaba Al-Asriyya. [in Arabic]
Al-Kuwari, K. (2011). Al-Waseet Fi Al-Nahou ‘The Concise Book on Grammar’. Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm. [in Arabic]
Al-Muradi, H. (1992). Al-Jana Al-Daani Fi Huruf Al-Maani ‘The Approachable Collection on the Meaning of Particles’. Beirut: Dar Al-Kutub Al-Almyah. [in Arabic]
Alotaibi, Y. (2014). Conditional Sentences in Modern Standard Arabic and the Taif Dialect. PhD Thesis, University of Essex, UK.
Anderson, A.R. (1951). A note on subjunctive and counterfactual conditionals. Analysis, 12(2), 35–8.
Aoun, J.E., Benmamoun, E. and Choueiri, L. (2010). The Syntax of Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Arregui, A. (2005). On the Accessibility of Possible Worlds: The Role of Tense and Aspect. PhD Thesis, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts.
Badawi, E., Carter, M.G. and Gully, A. (2016). Modern Written Arabic: A Comprehensive Grammar. New York: Routledge.
Benmamoun, E. (2000). The Feature Structure of Functional Categories: A Comparative Study of Arabic Dialects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boneh, N. (2010). Perfect constructions in Syrian Arabic. In: P. Cabredo Hofherr and B. Laca (eds.) Layers of Aspect. Stanford: Center of the Study of Language and Information Publications (CSLI). 
Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Condoravdi, C. (2001). Temporal interpretation of modals: Modals for the present and for the past. In: D. Beaver, L. Casilas Martinez, B. Clark and S. Kaufmany (eds.) The Construction of Meaning. Stanford: Center of the Study of Language and Information Publications (CSLI).
Fassi Fehri, A. (2003). Arabic perfect and temporal adverbs. In: A. Aleciadou, M.M. Rather and A. von Stechow (eds.) Perfect Explorations. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 
Iatridou, S. (2000). The grammatical ingredients of counterfactuality. Linguistic Inquiry, 31(2), 231–70. 
Ippolito, M. (2002). On the temporal dimension of counterfactuality. Northeast Linguistics Society, 32(1), 237–55.
Ippolito, M. (2004). Imperfect modality. In: J. Gueron and J. Lecarme (eds.) The Syntax of Time. London: MIT Press.
Ippolito, M. (2006). Semantic composition and presupposition projection in subjunctive conditionals. Linguistics and Philosophy, 29(6), 631–72.
Ippolito, M. (2008). Subjunctive conditionals. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 12(n/a), 256–70.
Ippolito, M. (2013). Subjunctive Conditionals: A Linguistic Analysis. London: MIT Press.
Karawani, H. (2014). The Real, the Fake, and the Fake Fake: In Counterfactual Conditionals, Cross-Linguistically. PhD Thesis, Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Klein, W. (1994). Time in Languages. New York: Routledge.
Kratzer, A. (1977). What ‘must’ and ‘can’ must and can mean. Linguistics and Philosophy, 1(3), 337–55.
Kratzer, A. (1979). Conditional necessity and possibility. In: R. Bäuerle, U. Egli and A. von Stechow (eds.) Semantics from Different Points of View. Berlin: Springer Verlag.
Kratzer, A. (1981). The notional category of modality. In: H.J. Eikmeyer and H. Rieser (eds.) Words, Worlds, and Contexts: New Approaches in Word Semantics. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter.
Kratzer, A. (1998). More structural analogies between pronouns and tenses. In: Proceedings of SALT VIII, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts, 24–26/04/1998.
Kratzer, A. (2012). Modals and Conditionals: New and Revised Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kratzer, A. (2013). Modality for the 21st century. In: L’interface Language-cognition/the Language-cognition Interface: Actes du 19e Congre`s International des Linguistes Gene`ve, The University of Geneva, Switzerland, 22-26/07/2013.
Lewis, D. (1973). Counterfactuals and comparative possibility. Journal of Philosophical Logic, n/a(2), 418–46.
Lewis, D. (2005). Counterfactuals. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Matthewson, L. (2016). Modality. In: M. Aloni and P. Dekker (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Palmer, F.R. (2001). Mood and Modality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Portner, P. (2003). The (temporal) semantics and (modal) pragmatics of the perfect. Linguistics and Philosophy, 26(4), 459–510.
Portner, P. (2009). Modality (Oxford Surveys in Semantics and Pragmatics). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ryding, K.C. and Mehall, D.J. (2005). Formal Spoken Arabic Basic Course with MP3 Files (2nd ed.). Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Schulz, K. (2017). Fake perfect in x-marked conditionals. In: Proceedings of SALT 27. University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland, 12-14/05/2017.
Stalnaker, R.C. (1968). A theory of conditionals. In: W.L. Harper, R. Stalnaker and G. Pearce (eds.) Ifs: Conditionals, Belief, Decision, Chance, and Time. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer Netherlands.
von Prince, K. (2019). Counterfactuality and past. Linguistics and Philosophy, 42(6), 577–615.
Wright, W. (2023). Arabic Grammar. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.