The Syntax of Conditional Sentences in Syrian Arabic: A Study Based on the Dialect of Deir Ezour

This work is a descriptive and analytical account of the syntax of conditional constructions in the dialect of Deir Ezour, an Arabic dialect spoken in the northeastern part of Syria. In chapter 1, the general syntactic features of Deir Ezour Dialect (DED), including inflection, word formation, pronouns, verbs, modality, etc., arc outlined. In chapter 2, I review various perspectives on the different types of conditionals, and identify some of the main studies that have considered conditional structures. In chapter 3, DED conditional sentences are divided into two main types, realis and irrealis; each type is further divided into different subtypes. I focus on the ways in which the choice of a conditional particle expresses different conditional relations and on the difference (and overlap) between conditional constructions and other superficially similar constructions (e.g. 'when- clauses). In chapter 4, I investigate the internal properties of the P and Q clauses particularly with respect to the tense of the verb and the use of auxiliaries. Tense forms used in DED conditionals are examined and discussed in the light of Declerck's (1991) Tense Theory. Chapter 5 investigates the factors which determine the order of the P and Q clauses. Cases where the P-clause occurs after the Q-clause are discussed in relation to Peled's (1992) claim that final P-clauses can function as Q-clause modifiers. Finally in chapter 6, I discuss a range of sentence-types which do not have the canonical (if P, Q) patterns; these are called paratactic conditionals (PCs). PCs are divided into two main types, Imperative-Like Conditionals (ILCs) and Imperative-Like Ultimatums (ILUs). The differences between ILUs and ILCs, their structural patterns, and cases where they can have a subject other than the second person are also covered.