Rami Waleed Salim Alwardat//Department of English Linguistics, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary.
Eqab Al-Shawashreh/Department of English Language and Literature, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate cases of object clausal prolepsis in Jordanian Arabic in which a pronoun is linked to a complementiser that sits at the right edge of the clause. As a language that allows arguments to drop, Jordanian Arabic does not have authentic expletives, but it has proleptic pronouns that herald embedded clauses. The subordinate CP is heralded by a clitic attached to the verb or a null pronoun. We argue that these pronouns originate in theta-marked positions. There are different constructions in which proleptic pronouns receive theta-roles. Proleptic proforms are conventionally personal pronouns like it in English. It has been found that there is a richer inventory in other languages. Some languages, including Dutch and Hungarian, reveal morphological variation regarding their proleptic proforms. Likewise, Jordanian Arabic exhibits, alongside purely pronominal proleptic elements, a demonstrative element that can be used as proleptic proform for the subordinate clause, namely heɪk/heɪʧ ‘that’.
Keywords: Clausal prolepsis, Jordanian Arabic, Proform, Subordinate clause, Theta-role.