Movement, Scope, and LF between Al-Jurjani and Chomsky

Document Type : Original Article

Author

English Department, Faculty of Women, Ain Shams University

Abstract

Abstract
The current research centers on the concepts of Movement, Scope, and Logical Form (LF) - as explored by al-Jurjani, specifically, the terms al-taʔθ‏iːr and al-ħai‏z which correspond to the terms of Scope and Domain respectively. The main objective is to investigate the semantic Scope and syntactic C-Command relation of the logical operators in Classical Arabic (CA). It has been argued that the universal quantifier kul “all” has a narrow scope reading conveying the existential meaning ‘some’ when it is c-commanded by the past-tense negative operator lam. However, when it undergoes syntactic movement to the left periphery where it c-commands the negative operator, it takes a wide scope over the negative operator, and thus has universal reading. Therefore, Scope in CA is determined at surface structure, not at the LF level.
 

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