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Proceedings/Recueil des communications Année : 2009

The verb kan 'be', in Moroccan Arabic

Résumé

The unit kan 'be' in Moroccan Arabic (MA) is traditionally identified as a copula in the context of a non verbal unit and as an auxiliary in the context of a verbal unit. We argue here that the notion of copula, borrowed from the Indo-European languages, is not relevant for kan in MA. Kan is not a copula but a connective verb. Although it is semantically weak, kan is syntactically a full verb, particularly a bivalent verb requiring two essential arguments: a subject and an attribute. Therefore, in the connective structures, kan is the syntactic nucleus (syntactic predicate). Moreover we show that kan, in the context of a verbal unit, even though it exhibits some auxiliarity's features - is not an auxiliary inasmuch as it doesn't form a "structure of auxiliarity" (Simeone-Senelle & Vanhove 1997: 86) - i.e. a morphological, semantic and syntactic unit - with a second verb. Kan is a bivalent existence-verb governing two arguments; the second argument can be a verbal phrase.
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Dates et versions

halshs-00732544, version 1 (15-09-2012)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-00732544 , version 1

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Nizha Chatar-Moumni. The verb kan 'be', in Moroccan Arabic. 22-23, John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp.167-186, 2009, Current issues in linguistic theory. ⟨halshs-00732544⟩
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