The metamorphosis of <i>ʤaaj</i> in Rural Jordanian Arabic

Abstract This paper reports on the syntactic and semantic properties of grammaticalized uses of the motion active participle ʤaaj ‘coming’ in Rural Jordanian Arabic (RJA). We show that ʤaaj has undergone grammaticalization, resulting in the emergence of three markers with distinct semantics and syntactic behaviors. In particular, we show that ʤaaj has three functions in RJA: (i) a volitional act marker, signifying a purposive or deliberate action, (ii) a marker of inceptive aspect, indicating the initiation of an action, and (iii) a directive mood marker, encoding imperative mood. From a syntactic perspective, we argue that the three markers occupy distinct functional head positions in the clause in line with Cinque, Guglielmo. (2006). Restructuring and functional heads: The cartography of syntactic structures , Vol. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The volitional and inceptive ʤaaj respectively head their own functional projections, Volition Phrase and Aspect inceptive Phrase, both located below Tense Phrase. On the other hand, the directive ʤaaj heads an imperative Mood Phrase above Tense Phrase. We support this division by showing that the first two makers exhibit full agreement in phi-features with the thematic subject, whereas the latter does not agree with the subject at all due to its high position above Tense Phrase. The findings of this paper align with the crosslinguistic observation that motion verbs like come can be grammaticalized into varying functional elements (Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins &amp; William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; Dragomirescu, Adina &amp; Alexandru Nicolae. 2014. The multiple grammaticalization of Romanian veni ‘come’. Focusing on the passive construction. In Maud Devos &amp; Jenneke van der Wal (eds.), Come and go off the beaten grammaticalization path , 69–100. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter; Heine, Bernd &amp; Tania Kuteva. 2002. World lexicon of grammaticalization . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Kuteva, Tania, et al. 2019. World lexicon of grammaticalization , 2nd edn., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Lumien van Klinken, Catherine. 1999. A grammar of the Fehan dialect of Tetun . Canberra: Pacific Linguistics).