Wh-Questions In English, Najdi Arabic, Upper Egyptian Arabic: A Comparative Study

Mashael Hamed Alajmi, Haroon N. Alsager

Abstract


This paper investigates the wh-questions strategies in Najdi Arabic (NA), Upper Egyptian Arabic (UEA), and English (E) and aims to make a comparison between them. The method in this paper is qualitative; its data are derived from previous studies in the field of the syntax of wh-question of Arabic dialects, both argument and adjuncts. Both NA and UEA use the gap, class 2 gap strategy, resumptive and class 2 resumptive strategy, and in situ strategy. The result shows that Arabic dialects are more productive than English in question structures in both argument and adjuncts wh-questions. English does not use resumptive and resumptive class 2 strategies because no pronominal addition is attached to the main verb in the English questions structure.

Keywords


wh-question words, question strategy, NA, UEA, in-situ question, gap strategy, resumptive strategy.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18860/ijazarabi.v6i3.23143

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