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Topic-comment and relative clause in Arabic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Nancy Kennedy Lewkowicz
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Abstract

Three recent analyses of Arabic topic-comment sentences are re-examined, and some advantages of generating these structures as NP plus an embedded S, rather than by an optional transformation extracting a topic from an ordinary S, are pointed out. The possibility of topic-comment sentences being embedded as relative clauses is examined, and a severe restriction is proposed on the structure of the sentences to be embedded as relative clauses.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , December 1971 , pp. 810 - 825
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 by Linguistic Society of America

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