Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

(70) 'Amala Yusuf/huwa al-'amal nafsuhu
Did Y. /he the work himself-NOM
'Yusuf/he did de work himself'
Like English himself, nafsuhu(NOM)/nafsahu(ACC) is both a SELF element and an
unambiguous reflexive (i.e., it has to be either bound, adjoined to a DP or floating):
(71) a. [ DP [ DP Yusuf/huwa ] nafsuhu ]
Y. /he SELFNom
b. Karaha Yusuf nafsahu
Hated Y. himselfAcc
'Yusuf hated himself'
So, to some extent, we could say that MSA has [+anaphoric] I-subjects. In fact, it appears
that MSA has pre-VP [-anaphoric] I-subjects, and post-VP [+anaphoric] I-subjects. We can
interpret this in the following way: the subject basic position is post-VP, but in MSA there is a
'second internal subject position'. Suppose this means that this is a derived position (so not really
the 'internal subject position' proper), but low enough to have essentially the same properties as
an I-subject w.r.t. BT. In fact, as we pointed out in Chapter 1, whether inverted subjects are
really in the subject basic position or in a close higher up position is not clear, and will not really
matter for the purposes of this thesis. In the next chapter, the facts in MSA will follow
straightforwardly from the theory, with minimal additional theoretical cost w.r.t. the account for
other languages.
The facts in Arabic might be reminiscent of some facts in Italian we have overlooked
thus far. In Italian, some speakers report, 48 lui when used as an emphatic I-subject precedes the
object, while lui stesso follows it:
1
48
G. Longobardi's judgements were clear cut.