Schematising (Morpho)Syntactic Change in LFG: Insights from grammaticalisation in Arabic

This paper explores the grammaticalisation of two particular constructions in the Arabic vernaculars, seeking to provide an account of the relevant grammaticalisations paths and the commonality between then, using LFG as the theoretical model of morphosyntactic change. The two constructions express the progressive and the Universal perfect respectively. While their synchronic syntax has been recently analysed, we here take to the task to explore how hypotheses of reconstructed developmental paths that have led to the formation/grammaticalisation of these constructions could be accounted for by using the machinery of LFG. We particularly observe how change does not necessarily constitute, or equate to changes at the c-structure level. Alternatively, changes in function need not be accompanied by, or correlated with changes in form. While appreciating that the synchronic syntax of the two constructions under consideration are distinct, we observe how they share part of the developmental path that has led to their respective formation, and that is the shift from adjunction to embedding; a shift also observed in syntactic developments in Indo-European.