Restricted Word Order in Languages without Overt Case Marking: Evidence from Modern Dialects of Arabic

The study examines the morphosyntactic strategies used in Arabic language to indicate grammatical functions (subject, object) within a sentence, comparing and contrasting modern dialects of Arabic, particularly Saudi Arabic, and Yemeni Arabic, with Standard Arabic. The empirical observation of the study is that, while Standard Arabic mainly relies on a case marking strategy to determine grammatical functions, the modern dialects of Arabic under investigation are incapable of employing this strategy. This incapability raises questions about how grammatical functions are indicated in the absence of overt case morphology in the mentioned dialects. The paper argues that the absence of overt case marking in modern dialects of Arabic leads to a reliance on word order strategy for expressing grammatical functions. This involves a shift in the unmarked word order from VSO to SVO in the concerned dialects, which contrasts with Standard Arabic, where VSO remains the default word order. The argument is empirically based on the observation that the occurrence of two noun phrases in sequence without overt case markers is considered grammatically unconventional and requires supplementary elements such as pragmatic interpretations and/or prosodic features. The study provides fresh insights into morphosyntactic strategies used to indicate grammatical functions in other modern dialects of Arabic like Moroccan Arabic, as well as in languages with impoverished case marking systems like English.