1 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014

Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration?

Steve Hewitt, UNESCO, s.hewitt@unesco.org, stevehewitt49@gmail.com
Both Welsh and Arabic have special marking for indefinite objects, soft mutation (lenition) of, for instance, t to d in Welsh, and
indefinite accusative case-marking an in Arabic (1). Welsh syntactic mutation (direct-object mutation) has been the object of
considerable debate among theoretical linguists over the past 30 years, Lieber, Zwicky and Roberts having adopted a case-based
approach, but Harlow, King, Borsley, and Tallerman preferring a configurational analysis (XP Trigger Hypothesis). When an active
subject is suppressed/retired ($), there is no marking of the entity that was the direct object in the active sentence (2) (no mutation in
Welsh, nominative instead of accusative in Arabic). When an adverbial or prepositional phrase is added after the subject of the
passive, there is no change (3a), but when it is inserted in between the verb and the subject of the passive, that NP has syntactic
mutation in Welsh, and sometimes, if erroneously, faulty accusative in Arabic (3b) ( =no person- or number-marking):
Welsh syntactic mutation (e.g. t house > d) Arabic (indefinite) accusative (-an)
(1) Gwelodd Mair d. (mutation)
saw Mary house (t)
raat miryam bait.an (ACC correct)
sawF Mary house.ACC.IDF
Mary saw a house.
(2) Gwelwyd t. (no mutation)
was.seen$ house
ruiya bait.un (NOM correct)
was.seen$.M house.NOM.IDF (M)
A house was seen.
(3a) Gwelwyd t ar y bryn. (no mutation)
was.seen$ house on the hill
ruiya bait.un al t-tall (NOM correct)
was.seen$.M house.NOM on the-hill
(3b) Gwelwyd ar y bryn d. (mutation)
was.seen$ on the hill house
ruiya al t-tall bait.an (faulty ACC!)
was.seen$.M on the-hill house.ACC!IDF
A house was seen on the hill.
It thus looks as if a single configurational HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT rule would account for both syntactic mutation in Welsh
and indefinite accusative in Arabic (for both correct and faulty accusative): whenever some XP NP, PP, AdvP etc. is inserted
between a verbal head and its bare (indefinite) dependent, the dependent is marked with lenition in Welsh and accusative indefinite in
Arabic. Every single example of faulty accusative in Arabic would have syntactic mutation in Welsh.
Yishai Peled, who is no doubt unaware of the Welsh evidence and debates, in his important 2004 article Accusatival subjects in
Arabic non-transitive constructions and the unaccusative hypothesis gives numerous examples of faulty accusative (all faulty
accusatives should, according to the canonical grammar, have nominative case) in both Middle Arabic and Modern Arabic, which he
analyses as being the result of unaccusative effects (intransitive unaccusative subjects having object-like properties). For most of his
examples, a configurational HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT rule would work just as well, but for a number of them, especially from
Middle Arabic and Biblical Hebrew, there is no trigger element inserted between the head and the dependent. In such cases, an
unaccusative explanation is probably unavoidable. This prompts speculation that faulty accusative, and perhaps accusative in
general, in Arabic may have evolved from a semantic (case-based) rule to a simpler, configurational HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT rule.
If such a case >configuration evolution was possible for Arabic, it could provide a clue to the genesis and evolution of
syntactic mutation in Welsh, which begins to appear, at first sporadically and then increasingly consistently, in the Middle Welsh
period, To begin with, any immediately post-verbal NP may show lenition, whether subject or object, and these are originally possibly
merely sandhi effects. With the advent of the Middle Welsh T-2 (tense-second) constraint (Willis 1998), the most likely candidates for
fronting are subjects of transitive verbs and unergative intransitives, leaving direct objects and subjects of unaccusative intransitives as
the most common post-verbal NPs. Lenition would then become associated with direct objects or subject NPs having object-like
properties (unaccusative subjects). On the basis of normal VSO order, such association with objects or pseudo-objects might then have
been reanalysed as a configurational HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT rule, giving the rule that best accounts for all instances of syntactic
mutation in Modern Welsh.

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 2
Abbreviations
< original source of quote
apersonal verb form: tense-
marked, but not person-
marked
1, 2, 3 first, second, third person
A agent
ACC accusative
ACC! Ar. faulty accusative
(<NOM)
ADV adverb, adverbial
AFF affirmative (a, y W
affirmative tense particle)
Ar. Arabic
Br. Breton
BH Biblical Hebrew
CA Classical Arabic
CH Classical Hebrew
CMA Christian Middle Arabic
CS construct state
DO direct object
DEF definite
DFO definite object marker
(Hebrew -; Turkish i;
Persian r)
DIR - directional accusative
(Hebrew)
DU dual
ELAT elative
ESA Educated Spoken Arabic
(colloquial-based tending
towards MSA)
F feminine
FA Formal Arabic (=CA, MSA)
GEN genitive
H Hebrew
HLP inna Ar. NP introductory
highlighting particle ( H
hinn lo, verily)
HYP lau Ar. hypothetical if
IDF indefinite
INF infinitive
INT hal interrogative particle
(Arabic)
IMP imperfect
IPF imperfective
IPR imperative
IH Israeli Hebrew
IHAA indeterminate human agent
active impersonal/auto-
nomous type
Ir. Irish
JUSS jussive (Formal Arabic)
L
lenition, soft mutation
J MA J ewish Middle Arabic
MMA Muslim Middle Arabic
MSA Modern Standard Arabic
MW Middle Welsh
M masculine
N
nasal mutation
NEG negative
NEG.PRF lam Ar. negative perfective
particle
NOM nominative
O object
o pronominal object
OBL oblique
PASS passive impersonal/
autonomous type
Pr predicate
P patient
PRF perfective, qad Ar.
perfective particle
PL plural
POT qad Ar. potential particle
PP past participle
Prep preposition
PrP prepositional phrase
PRP yn W predicative particle
PROG yn W progressive particle
PRT preterite
s pronominal subject
S
spirant mutation
S subject
$ active subject supressed (W
impersonal/autonomous
form ir, -er, -id, -wyd; Ar.
mahl unknown
(impersonal ~passive)
vowelling: PRF u-(u)-i;
IPF u-(a)-a)
SM W soft mutation (lenition)
SFA Spoken Formal Arabic (oral
production of MSA)
SG singular
SBJ subjunctive
T tense
[xxx]
T
XP trigger
UA unaccusative
UE unergative
V verb
V
L
lexical verb
V
S
syntactic verb
W Welsh
xxx

distance accusative head

A
xxx accusative-marked target
xxx

distance lenition head

L
xxx lenited initial consonant
3 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
1. STRIKING SIMILARITY BETWEEN ARABIC FAULTY ACCUSATIVE AND WELSH SYNTACTIC MUTATION
(1a) wid: an yakn lad-k hadaf.an
one: that should.be.SBJ M with-you.M objective.M.ACC!
One: that you should have an objective;
Muammad asanain Haikal, Maa haikal, Al-Jazeera, 20.03.2008, SFA
(1b) Un: bod da chi darged (<targed)
one: be.INF with you
L
target
One: that you should have a target Welsh equivalent to (1a)
(2a) yabd anna-hu sa-yakn hunk all.an siysy.an
seems that-it.M FUT-will.beM there solution.M.ACC! political.M.ACC!
yattasim bi-l-fau li-l-au f l-irq
it.is.characterized.M by-the-anarchy to-the-conditions in the-Iraq
It seems that there will be a fairly anarchical political solution to the situation in Iraq
BBC Arabic.com, 04.05.2004, MSA
(2b) Mae n debyg y bydd na ddatrysiad gwleidyddol
is PRP likely AFF will.be there
L
solution political
braidd yn anarchaidd ir sefyllfa yn Iraq.
rather PRP anarchical tothe situation in Iraq
It seems likely that there will be a fairly anarchical political solution to the situation in Iraq
Welsh equivalent to (2a)
Arabic faulty accusative not part of the canonical grammar of Formal Arabic;
all faulty accusatives should, according to the norm, be nominatives.
Welsh syntactic mutation (direct object mutation DOM) fully part of the grammar of both
Formal (Classical) Welsh and Colloquial Welsh; developed during the Middle Welsh period (1150-
1450).
However, persistent errors by skilled users (writers/speakers) of fu (Formal Arabic (FA):
Qurnic Arabic, Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), Spoken Formal Arabic (SFA))
suggest a subconscious reanalysis:
from a true case assignment system to a simpler configurational mechanism
All faulty accusative errors in Arabic would have syntactic mutation in Welsh:
same underlying rule?
In Formal Arabic, the affected noun is by definition indefinite. (Definites may be affected, but
much more difficult to tell few texts are fully vocalized; in SFA, many case/mood endings,
especially the definite ones, are elided).
In Welsh, the leftmost noun of the affected NP cannot have the (definite) article (mutations
triggered or blocked by the article take precedence over syntactic mutation), but may be
semantically definite, i.e. first term in a definite genitive construct t fy mrawd > d fy mrawd my
brothers house, or proper noun Pedr > Bedr.

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 4
2. PRELIMINARIES
2.1 Person-marking:
For ease of comprehension, we usually gloss what the verb form contains in normal English: kataba
[he.wrote], rather than [write.PST.3.SG]. Both Arabic and Welsh do not indicate number in verbs
followed by a 3.SG/PL subject; unlike Welsh, Arabic does indicate gender; such lack of indication of
number (possible in the 3rd person only) is indicated by . In such cases, we gloss kataba ar-raul/ar-
ril [wroteM the-man/the-men] and katabat al-mar/an-nis [wroteF the-woman/the-women]; in
Welsh, ysgrifennodd y dynion/y merched [wrote the men/the women].
2.2 Celtic impersonal/autonomous form; Arabic mahl unknown, passive: $
Both Arabic and Welsh have special impersonal/autonomous forms indicating action by some
indeterminate human subject, who one cannot, or does not wish to specify. Such forms are indicated in
glosses with $, indicating the backgrounding or withdrawal of the subject.
Celtic impersonal/autonomous forms: indeterminate human agent active / passive (see Hewitt 2002)
Breton appears always to have been of the indeterminate human agent active (IHAA) type, whereas
Welsh appears to have shifted from the IHAA type towards a more genuine passive (PASS) type
(accepts agentives by X), and Irish appears to have gone in the opposite direction, from the PASS type
towards the IHAA type:
Type\Period Old Modern
IHAA Br, W Ir, Br
PASS Ir W
The Welsh -ir, -er, -id, -wyd; Breton -er, -ffer, -ed, -ffed, -jed, -jod/-at; Irish -tar, -adh, -ta, -fa etc.
impersonal/autonomous forms refer implicitly to some indeterminate human agent for whom there is
no pronoun.
(3) gwelir t
is.seen$ house
a house is seen
The Arabic mahl unknown, passive vowelling patterns (perfective/past u (u) i; imperfective/present-
future u (a) a) are exponents of a valency-reducing process:
passive with transitives (all persons possible)
indeterminate human agentive with both transitives and intransitives.

5 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
Hewitt 2002:15-16, exx. 35-38: Thus, [the Celtic impersonal/autonomous forms] cannot perform the
twin functions (indeterminate active subject / passive subject <object) of the majhl unknown, passive
vowelling (36) in Arabic:
(4) qatala
(a) killedM S.M (some masculine entity killed)
S.M killed
(b) he.killed.3.SG.M
he killed
(5) qutila
(a) was.killed$.M S.M (some masculine entity was killed)
S.M was killed
(b) he.was.killed$.3.SG.M
he was killed
(c) was.killed$.M
it was killed, there was killing, people were killed
(6) qatal
they.killed.3.M.PL
they killed
(7) qutil
they.were.killed.$.3.M.PL
they were killed

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 6
2.3 Unaccusative
Alexiadou et al. 2004:Introduction pp.1-13: intransitive verbs divided into unergatives with an
underlying VP-external subject NP [
VP
V], and unaccusatives with an underlying VP-internal subject
NP [
VP
V NP]; subjects of unergative verbs have subject-like qualities; subjects of unaccusative verbs
have object-like qualities.
Diagnostic Type of intransitive Unergative Unaccusative
Auxiliary selection (where split) jai march / je suis all HAVE BE
Impersonal passives (German, Dutch) es wird getanzt / *es wird gegangen
Subject-NP-modifying past participle: *the worked student / the departed
boy

Presentative construction: *there telephoned four new students / there
arrived four new students

Ne-cliticization (Italian) * ne teleferanno molti / ne arriveranno molti
studenti

Alexiadou et al. 2004:12-13:
a. Generally unergative predicates:
i. Predicates describing willed or volitional acts, e.g. work, play, speak, talk, smile, grimace, wink, walk, box, knock,
bank, laugh, dance; manner-of-speaking verts, e.g. whisper, shout, bellow; predicates describing sounds made by
animals e.g. bark, quack, roar.
ii. Certain involuntary bodily processes e.g. cough, sneeze, burp, sleep.
b. Generally unaccusative predicates:
i. Predicates expressed by adjectives in English; predicates describing size, shapes, weights, colours, smells.
ii. Predicates whose initial nuclear term is semantically a patient, for example, burn, fall, drop, sink, float, tremble,
shake, melt, freeze, evaporate, solidify, crystallize, dim, redden, darken.
iii. Predicates of existing or happening, such as exist, happen, occur, take place.
iv. Involuntary emission of stimuli, for example shine, glow, clink, pop, smell, sting.
v. Aspectual predicates: begin, start, stop, cease.
Unclear what tests could be used for Arabic or Welsh (cf. Tallerman 2001): no BE/HAVE auxiliary split;
past/passive participle Arabic , but not fully productive for Welsh. Presentatives not distinctive in
VSO languages. No ne-cliticization. No clear split with impersonal passives.

7 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
2.4 Arabic diglossia
Diglossia: Ferguson 1959a; original Arabic koin not identical with Classical Arabic: 14 non-classical
features shared by all modern dialects, Ferguson 1959b.
Formal Arabic (FA): fu al-lu al-fu the most elegant, refined language (Qurnic Arabic
(QA), Classical Arabic (CA), Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), Spoken Formal Arabic (SFA)). Written
and formal oral production; no ones native language, but some regular users acquire near-native
competence (most Western Arabists deny this). No one dialect closer to Formal Arabic than another.
Differences (cf. Altoma 1969, Brustad 2000) concern lexicon, syntax, morphology (FA irb lit.
Arabization: terminal mood variations in verbs; terminal case and definiteness variations in nominals),
phonology (some consonants have varying reflexes in different dialects; most Arabs well aware, through
television, of these equivalences; see Annex 1). Fu likely to have developed from a pre-Qurnic
poetic koin never actually spoken spontaneously (al-muallaqt the ones hung up: the very best pre-
Islamic poems hung up for public inspection in Mecca). SFA often shorn of final irb, except when
apparent in script, bringing it close to ESA.
Colloquial dialects al-lu al-mmy the common language, al-lu ad-drij the ordinary
language, lahj dialect, local form. mother tongue of all Arabs: capital of each country, sometimes
other distinct prestigious varities, e.g.: Aleppo, Mosul, Fs, Benghazi, etc. All spontaneous oral
communication except in the most formal situations. Rarely written, except for dialect poetry, some
plays, cartoon captions; not felt to be a suitable medium for normal written communication. Most Arabs
believe that modern dialects are corruptions of Classical Arabic (cf. above, Ferguson 1959b); often
describe dialects to non-Arabs as slang no grammar; loath to teach Colloquial Arabic to non-Arabs.
Slightly different status of Egyptian (Cairo) Colloquial: extremely well-defined and stable; understood
throughout the Arab world thanks to Egyptian soap operas and films; often acceptable in formal
situations where other Arabs would use SFA (also true to a lesser extent of Lebanese Colloquial).
Intermediate forms: Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA): dialect-based morphology, e.g.
2SG.F -, 3PL.M - instead of MSA -n, -n, no feminine human plurals, no duals in verbs; no case or
indefinite markers in nominals, esp. absence of accusative indefinite -an, mainly Egyptian or Levantine
(Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian) and to a lesser extent Iraqi dialect base. Many MSA lexical items
(usually no equivalents in spoken dialects).
Medieval Muslim Middle Arabic (MMA), Christian Middle Arabic (CMA), J ewish Middle Arabic (J MA,
written in Hebrew letters, but reproducing Arabic orthographic conventions: alef used to represent
all of , and final -an/- (indefinite accusative), as with final Arabic alif U? . Impression given by such
texts is of a living, spontaneous language very close to the borderline area between modern ESA and
SFA.

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 8
3. WELSH
3.1 Welsh soft mutation (lenition
L
)
Orthography

p t c m b d g ll rh
b d g f dd - l r
IPA

p t k m b d r
b d v -(<) l r
+voice +fric +voice
inventory of consonants affected
phonological process (historically)
three syntactic types of mutation:
o contact mutation: immediately after a preceding trigger
o spreading mutation: mutating element, e.g. F.SG noun: itself lenited following the article y, r;
infects following adjectives and nouns within the same NP. Originally sandhi; with phonetic
erosion (loss of declension), sandhi grammaticalized:
British: donios tecos [t-] fair man; merxa teca [d-] fair woman; with loss of endings:
Welsh: dn teg fair man; merch deg fair woman
o distance mutation: mutation unique to Welsh: case or configuration?
frequency (lexicon): high-frequency lexemes mutated more consistently than less frequent ones.
(8)
L
torth
L
o
L

L
fara < bara
loaf of bread
a loaf of bread
(9)
L
torth
L

L
fawr
L

L
felen < mawr; < M. melyn
loaf.F big yellow.F
a big yellow loaf
(10) y
L
dorth
L

L
fawr
L

L
felen < torth; < mawr; < M. melyn
the loaf.F big yellow.F
the big yellow loaf

9 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
3.2 Welsh syntactic mutation
(11) Tentative rule for syntactic mutation: V.T

[XP]
T

L
NP
(12) Mae torth o
L

L
fara ar y bwrdd < bara
is loaf of bread on the table
There is a loaf of bread on the table.
(13) Mae

[na]
T

L
dorth o
L

L
fara ar y bwrdd < torth; < bara
is there loaf of bread on the table
There is a loaf of bread on the table. Adv
(14) Mae

[ar y bwrdd]
T

L
dorth o
L

L
fara. < torth; < bara
is on the table loaf of bread
There is a loaf of bread on the table. PrP
(15) Gwelodd

[Sin]
T
y t
Saw Sin the house
(16) Gwelodd

[Sin]
T

L
d < t
Saw Sin house
Sin saw a house. S
(17) Gwelodd

[ef]
T

L
d < t
Saw he house
He saw a house. s
(18) Gwelodd

[ef]
T

L
d (ef = pro) < t
Saw.3.SG [he] house (t)
He/she saw a house. pro
(19) Gwelwyd t
Saw.$ house
A house was seen.
(20) Gwelwyd

[ar y bryn]
T

L
d mawr < t
Was.seen.$ on the hill house big
On the hill was to be seen a big house. PrP
(21) chonaic

[m]
T
[anuraidh]
T
[i
N

N
nGaillimhe]
T L
th Irish
saw.PRT I last.year in Galway you.ACC
I saw you last year in Galway
Only t you.SG, s he, s she, siad they > th you.SG, him, her, iad them affected
lexical?
(22) ma
S
oll
L

S
flijadur < plijadur Breton
my all pleasure
my whole pleasure
Not productive; almost always this particular example cited.

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 10
Six basic syntactic mutation types in Welsh (Borsley, Tallerman, Willis 2007:224, exx. 1-6):
(23) Prynodd

[y ddynes]
T

L
feic. < dynes ; < beic VSO
bought the woman bike
The woman bought a bike S
(24) Gwnaeth

[y dyn]
T
[
L
werthu beic.] < gwerthu AuxSVO (V
S
S V
L
O)
Did the man sell.INF bike
The man sold a bike S
(25) Dechreuodd

[Huw]
T
[
L
olchi r llestri.] < golchi embedded VO clause
Began Huw wash.INF the dishes
Huw began to wash the dishes. S
(26) Dymunodd

[Aled]
T
[i Mair]
T
[
L
fynd adref.] < mynd embedded infinitival i-clause
wished Aled to Mair go.INF home [i S]
T
[
L
V]
Aled wanted Mair to go home S/PrP/both?
(27) Mae

[yn yr ardd]
T

L
gi < ci extrapolated existential (subject!)
is in the garden dog
There is a dog in the garden. PrP
(28) Roedd

[yna]
T

L
gath yn y gegin < cath; < cegin existential (subject!)
Was there cat in the kitchen
There was a cat in the kitchen Adv

11 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
3.3 Case-based approaches to Welsh syntactic mutation
Welsh assign accusative case to objects; ACC >
L
initial consonant of noun phrase (not preceded by y, r
[definite article]). Lieber 1983; Zwicky 1984; Roberts 1997, 2005.
Problems:
(29) T mawr welodd e (fronting: no mutation)
house big saw he
He saw a big house.
(30) Roedd Sin yn gweld t (object of verbal noun/infinitive: no mutation)
was Sin PROG see.INF house
Sin could see a house.
(31) vdet ptcu (object of infinitive: case-marking) Russian
see.INF bird.F.ACC
to see a bird
(32) Yr oedd Prs yn rhagweld [
PP
yn 1721] dranc yr iaith Gymraeg
AFF was Prs PROG foresee.INF in 1721 demise the language.F Welsh
Prs foresaw in 1721 the death of the Welsh language Tallerman 2006 <Thorne 1993:52
(33) Fe welodd e d, gardd a bachgen. (only leftmost object lenited)
AFF saw he house, garden and boy
He saw a house, a garden and a boy.
(34) Ja vu ptcu, dvuku i mlika. (all objects accusative-marked) Russian
I I.see bird.ACC.F.SG girl.ACC.F.SG and boy.ACC.HUM(=GEN).M.SG
I can see a bird, a girl and a boy
Case approach: Does not readily explain why no soft mutation on: (a) fronted objects; (b) non-leftmost
objects; (c) objects following infinitives (verbal nouns).
Tallermann 2006, summarizing Roberts 2005 case-based account of Welsh direct object mutation:
Direct object mutation (DOM) applies exactly where the finite main verb moves to the pre-subject
position in a transitive clause (i.e. to [the functional head] PERS ...). On the other hand, where an
auxiliary appears initially and the transitive main verb is realised in a non-finite form ... occupying a
position in between the subject and the object, there is no DOM.

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 12
3.4 Configurational approaches to Welsh syntactic mutation
XP Trigger Hypothesis (XPTH): [XP]
L
>
L
initial consonant of noun phrase (not preceded by definite
articley, r) Rhys J ones 1977 (NP without article mutates following subject pronoun/NP/proper name);
Harlow 1989; King 1993, 1995, 1996, 2003; Borsley 1997, 1999; Borsley & Tallerman 1996; Tallerman
1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2009.
Tallerman 2009:171: The principal idea in this literature is that initial consonants undergo SM when
immediately preceded by a phrase, XP
Tallermann 2009:172: A complement bears S[oft] M[utation] if it is immediately preceded by a c-
commanding phrase. No reference to head/verb (except indirectly: c-commanding phrase).
Tallerman 2009:176: X bears soft mutation if:
(a) X is a VALENT of a preceding overt head H, and
(b) X is SEPARATED from H.
Original suggestion by Rhys J ones (1977:167) soft mutation of brecwast after the pronoun e: fe fytodd e
frecwast da he ate a good breakfast. A noun substituted for e in this type of construction will also
cause soft mutation: fe fytodd Tom frecwast da Tom ate a good breakfast informal characterization.
Footnote 1977:167: The gramatical rule is that the direct object of the personal form of the verb will
undergo Soft Mutation, but the learner will probably find the above explanation easier in practice.
Dependency Distance Hypothesis (DDH) (Hudson 2009):
Hudson 2009:
Valent: subject or complement
SSM applies to any valent D2 which is:
after the head word H
and separated by another dependent of H, D1
(so dependency distance of D2 >0).

13 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
4. ARABIC
4.1 Formal and Colloquial Arabic verb systems
See Annex 6 note written forms (in yellow) which would not also reflect the spoken form; most of the
time, the written form may be interpreted (read out) either as Formal Arabic or as Educated Spoken
Arabic.
4.2 Formal Arabic case system nouns, adjectives, participles
(no case system in Colloquial Arabic)
Most common type (for all other declension types, see Annex 5 note written forms (in yellow)
which would not also reflect the spoken form; most of the time, the written form may be interpreted
either as Formal Arabic (FA) or as Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA):
Arabic name of case English French definite indefinite
raf being high, above (amma ? u) nominative cas sujet -u -un
(xaf being low, below (kasra ? i)
arr pulling
genitive cas indirect -i -in
nab raising, putting up (alif tanwn ?) accusative cas direct -a -an
Arabic script (unvocalized)

Transcription (raised letters full, formal)
construct definite indefinite indefinite definite construct
XO XO
XO
N bait
un
al-bait
u
bait
u
G bait
in
al-bait
i
bait
i
UO UO
A bait
an

-
#(-#)

al-bait
a
bait
a
house house
Only Formal Arabic (Qurnic, Classical, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)) has irb (case and
mood terminal variations, see Annexes 5 and 6); no living Arabic dialects do. Bedouin -in, -n
(popularly thought to prove that Bedouins have retained case-marking) is an invariable highlighting
marker, not true case.
Proper irb is de rigueur in all non-dialectal writing (dialectal writing uncommon; however, new
ESA styles arising with email and texting).
Most irb endings (except indefinite accusative) not apparent in unvocalized writing (writing
usually not vocalized, except in Qurn and pedagogical materials, or to disambiguate; partial
vocalization sometimes in classical poetry).
Dialect-based Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA) does not normally use case endings at all, except for
the very productive adverbial an (<accusative indefinite) e.g. tmtkyan automatically.
Spoken Formal Arabic (SFA) may range from full production of all case and mood endings (few
competent to do so spontaneously without slip-ups mainly newsreaders, literary academics,
religious leaders) to observance of correct endings only where apparent in the script (much more
frequent solution), with speakers constantly moving up and down the formality continuum.
Pausal forms: even in the most formal Arabic, a sentence-final short vowel -a, -i, -u or nunated
vowel -in, -un is always elided; many speakers simply extend this principle to more and more words
sentence-internally, and even to all words, so as not to have to worry about getting it right.
Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 14
Problem with indefinite accusative: correct pausal form - felt to be affected, precious (reminiscent
of Qurnic recitation, classical poetry); solution: either elide -an entirely (informal) or retain an in
all positions, even finally (formal).
Common solution for SFA: reproduce full irb only where actually apparent in Arabic script.
Only someone speaking at least this formally may be used to test for faulty accusative.
In written texts, only indefinites of the first and third declension classes may be used to test for
faulty accusative because only they are unambiguously indicated in the script and are not shared
with some other case (nominative or genitive, such as the masculine and feminine participial forms
and the dual forms, last classes); in the latter case the accusative/genitive usually coincides with the
general spoken form; so such a form could thus be the result of levelling influence from Colloquial
Arabic, ESA.
Common saying among Arabs about speaking fu (Formal Arabic):
(35) izim, taslam
cut.short.IPR.2.SG.M you.will.be.safe.J USS.2.SG.M
Cut short [elide case and mood vowellings], youll be safe.

15 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
4.3 Functions of the Formal Arabic cases
The nominative case (raf, marf) (unmarked, default form) is used for:
subject of a verb.
subject and predicate of a nominal (verbless) sentence.
citation form of nominals (nouns/adjectives)
The genitive case (arr, marr [xaf, maxf]) is used solely for genitive constructs:
all except first term of a genitive construct NP+NP(+NP(+NP, etc.)); (first term is nominative,
genitive, accusative, according to syntactic context).
object of a preposition PrP (all prepositions take the genitive).
complement of ayy any.
complement of an elative: akbar
u
bait
in
[big.ELAT.NOM house.GEN] the biggest house.
The accusative case (nab, manb) is used for a much wider range of functions:
direct/indirect object of a verb.
subject X (=NP) of clauses beginning with the pseudo-verb inna NP introductory, highlighting
particle ( Heb. hinn lo, verily) and its sisters (all subordinating: lakinna but X; anna that
X; lianna because X; kaanna as if X; laalla perhaps X, in the hope/fear that X); also laita in
the hope that X (X in each case complement of a pseudo-verb).
predicate (in Arabic direct object) of kna/yakn
u
be and its sisters (laisa not be; m zla not
continue, remain =still be; ra reach >become; abaa reach morning >become; a
reach forenoon >become; ams reach evening >become; alla remain, continue; bta spend
the night, become). Hence, al-bait
u
kabr
un
the house
NOM.DEF
is big
NOM.IDF
, but al-bait
u
kna kabran
[the house
NOM.DEF
it.was.3.SG.M big.ACC.IDF] the house was big (all complements of BE and other
predicative verbs)
both objects of anna think, consider X as Y and its sisters (asiba reckon, consider; itabara
consider; aala make X Y, etc.) (verb X =Y) (all complements of verbs of considering X as Y),
and a give Y X (also a give X to Y)
internal/cognate object: ma mashyan saran [walked.PRT.3.SG.M walk.ACC quick.ACC] he
walked a quick walk >ma saran [walked.PRT.3.SG.M quick.ACC] he walked quickly (all
cognitive [(same-root) objects of verbs)
adverbs: saran fast, rapidly (same as above, with elision of cognate object).
objects of specification (tamyz), purpose, circumstance (l): itaala muhandisan [worked.3.SG.M
engineer.ACC] he worked as an engineer (complement of verb function, purpose).
nouns after numerals 11-99 (unit+ten+NP (cf. German) distance government over (multiple of)
ten; even plain multiples of ten: 20 =? zero+20, or by assimilation to unit+ten+NP?). 1: SG; 2: DU;
3-10 +PL.GEN; 11-99 +SG.ACC; hundreds, thousands, millions, etc. +SG.GEN;

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 16
4.4 Example of scripted oral Formal Arabic and spontaneous Spoken Formal Arabic
(a) Arabic script; (b) what Arab eyes see; (c) FA fullirb; (d) SFA partial irb; (e) ESA no irb;
(a) WOKzUF U s be uKD WOU) uHu
(b) mw fw wzr -lxry ylbwn mzyd mn -l-z -ly

ly
(c) muwa af wizrti l-xriyti
employees.M.PL.CS ministry.F.GEN.(CS) the-external.F.GEN
yalubna mazdan mina l-izti l-ily
ti

they.demand.M.PL more.ACC.IDF of the-leave.F the-family.ADJ .F
(d) muwa af wizrt al-xriy yalubn mazdan min al-iz al-ily
(e) muwa afn wizrit al-xriy (b)yulub mazd_ min al-iz al-ly
Employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demand more family leave.
http://www.aljazeera.net/portal
lack of corpus material for Spoken Formal Arabic and for unedited Formal Arabic; difficult to
assess the prevalence of faulty accusative only concrete examples of faulty accusative
are significant; absence may always be attributed to observance of the canonical grammar.
Arabic faulty accusatives noted in Spoken Formal Arabic and in poorly edited or unedited
texts (Emad Mohamed, Egyptian linguist, p.c., notes that written faulty accusatives are
particularly common in letters to the editor and in film subtitles, both produced hastily, and
without proper editing; reveal more about users real grammatical instincts).

17 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
4.5 Formal Arabic equivalents of Welsh examples in 3.1
(36) Tentative rule for faulty accusative: V

[XP]
T

A
NP
(37) ra ysuf
.u
l-bait
.a

sawM Yusuf.NOM the-house.ACC.DEF
Yusuf saw the house.
(38) ra

[ysuf
.u
]
T

A
bait.an
sawM Yusuf.NOM house.ACC.IDF
Yusuf saw a house. S
(39) ruiya l-bait
.u.

was.seen$.M the-house.M.NOM.DEF
The house was seen.
(40) ruiya bait
.un

was.seen$.M house.M.NOM.IDF
A house was seen.
(41) ruiya [al t-tall] bait
.un
kabr
.un

was.seen$.M on the-hill house.M.NOM.IDF big.M.NOM.IDF
On the hill was to be seen a big house. Correct
(42) ruiya

[al t-tall]
T

A
bait.an
A
kabr.an
was.seen$.M on the-hill house.M.ACC!IDF big.M.ACC!IDF
On the hill was to be seen a big house. Faulty accusative, PrP

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 18
4.6 Definite object marker (DFO) in Hebrew, Persian and Turkish
Important for detecting unaccusative in Biblical Hebrew.
(43) r ysef bayi (Classical) Hebrew
sawM J oseph house
J oseph saw a house.
(44) r

[ysef]
T

A
-ha-bayi (Classical) Hebrew
sawM J oseph DFO-the-house
J oseph saw the house. (configurational analysis possible, but more likely DFO case-marking)
(45) ysuf manzil dd Persian
Yusuf house he/she.saw
Yusuf saw a house / some houses.
(46) ysuf manzil-r dd Persian
Yusuf house-DFO he/she.saw
Yusuf saw the house
(47) yusuf ev grd Turkish
Yusuf house he/she.saw
Yusuf saw a house / some houses
(48) yusuf evi grd Turkish
Yusuf house.DFO he/she.saw
Yusuf saw the house.

19 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
4.7 Examples of Arabic faulty accusative: V.T

[XP]
T

A
NP
Faulty accusative in Arabic noticed by Blau (various), Schen 1973, Mahmoud 1991, Abdul Raof 1998,
Peled 2004, and myself (without at first being aware of these authors). No trace in standard grammars
(ostensibly incorrect).
(49) wid: an yakn

[lad-k]
T

A
hadaf.an Muammad asanain Haikal, Maa haikal
one: that should.be.SBJ M with-you.M objective.M.ACC! Al-Jazeera, 20.03.2008
One: that you should have an objective; SFA, PrP
(50) yabd anna-hu sa-yakn

[hunk]
T

A
all.an siysy.an BBC Arabic.com
seems that-it FUT-will.beM there solution.M.ACC! political.M.ACC! 04.05.2004
yattasim bi-l-fau li-l-au f l-irq
it.will.be.characterized.M by-the-anarchy to-the-conditions in the-Iraq MSA, Adv
It seems that there will be a fairly anarchical political solution to the situation in Iraq
(51) wa-l akk f anna rmsfld BBC Arabic.com 07.05.2004
and-no doubt about that Rumsfeld MSA, o-NP
l yazu

-[hu]
T

A
ayy.an min htain a-ifatain
NEG lack-him any.ACC! of these.two.DU.F the-two.qualities.DU.F
and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld does not lack either of these qualities
[determination and firmness]
(52) wa-naqari an yudra

[f l-waq 33 mm/5]
T
Egyptian reply to consultation
and-we.suggest that be.included.$.M in the-document 33 C/5 on UNESCO Programme

A
nuhj.an ify mutarak bain al-qit amilt:... and Budget for
approaches.F.ACC! additional.F joint.F between the.sectors likes.CS: 2006-2007
We suggest that additional intersectoral approaches be included in document 33 C/5, such as:...
MSA, PrP
(53) wa-sa-yuqad

[yauma adin]
T

A
itim.an xar Iat a-arq
and-FUT-will.be.held.$.M day.ACC.CS tomorrow.GEN meeting.M.ACC! other.M 19.07.2005
and another meeting will be held tomorrow SFA, Adv
(54) li a anna-hu warada

[bi-hi]
T
(adwal al-aml) Egyptian reply to consultation
was.noticed.$.M that-it.M arrived in-it.M [agenda] on UNESCO 33 C/Resolution 92

A
ur.an wfiy
explanations.F.ACC! extensive.F MSA, PrP
It was noted that it [the agenda] contained extensive explanations
(55) wa-kna

[la-h]
T
(muallaft Ibn Rushd) Ms asan, Pres. UNESCO Gen. Conf.,
and-wasM to-them.F.SG [works Ibn Rushd] World Philosophy Day 15.11.2006,

A
tar.an kabr.an al l-fikr al-mas wa-l-falsaf Rabat, Morocco
influence.ACC! great.ACC! on the-thought the-Christian and-the-philosophical
f l-ur al-wus MSA, PrP
in the-ages the-middle.F
And they [the works of Ibn Rushd (Averros)] had a great impact on Christian and philosophical
thought in the Middle Ages.
(56) abaa

[hunk]
T

A
burd.an bain amrk wa-marInterviewer M war al-xabar
has.becomeM there coolness.ACC! between America and-Egypt Al-Jazeera,
There is now a coolness between America and Egypt SFA, Adv 1950 GMT 02.04.2008
Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 20
(57) hal yabq

[f l-ahn]
T

A
aar.an al maql MSA, PrP
INT remainM in the-minds trace.ACC! on dictum.F
yuraddidu-h ba al-mustariqn al-udud wa-l-mutaaibn
1

repeatM-it.F some the-orientalists.M.PL the-new.M.PL and-the-fanatical.M.PL
Is there any trace left in [peoples] minds of a dictum often repeated by some latter-day, fanatical
orientalists
(58) inna-n f mir [ladai

-n]
T

A
mn.an rsix.an bi-anna Egypt, UNESCO Executive
HLP-we in Egypt with-us faith.ACC! firm.ACC! in-that
Board, 182 EX/SR.3 para. 7.4
We in Egypt have a firm belief that MSA, PrP 12.09.2009
(59) laisa

[la-h]
T
(al-arakt al-muri)
A
daur.an fil al-Ittijh al-mukis
is.notM to-them.F.SG (the-movements the-opposing) role.ACC! active. 21.09.2010, 1940 GMT
They [the opposition movements] have no active role SFA, PrP
(60) wa-nataalla il an Egypt, 186th UNESCO Executive Board
and-we.look.forward.1.PL to that 186 EX/SR.2 para. 2.6, 09.05.2011
yakn

[li-l-ynesk]
T

A
daur.an f MSA, PrP
beSBJ .M to-the-UNESCO role.ACC! in
And we look forward to UNESCO having a role in .


1
The influence of the Arab heritage on the West in the field of medicine and pharmacology, paper presented at the
International Encounters on the Shores of the Mediterranean: The Alchemy of an Uninterrupted Dialogue, UNESCO,
Paris, 4-6 December 2008.
21 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
4.8 Examples of Arabic faulty accusative analysed by Peled (2004) as unaccusative,
but for which a configurational approach also works
Peled 2004 remarkable article explains faulty accusative effects in Arabic (and Hebrew) as the result
of unaccusativity. Peled no doubt unaware of the configurational HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT >lenition
approach for Welsh. For non-contemporary examples, Peled rightly gives only non-vocalized original
Arabic or Hebrew script; my proposed transcriptions, to make the examples accessible to non-
Semiticists; assumption that final Ar. U? or H is -an rather than strict pausal form -; of little moment
for the argument.
(61) fa-lam yabq

[la-hu]
T

A
aar.an ><
d t UI rK
PELED 2004:122
so-NEG.PRF remainM to-it.M trace.ACC! <BLAU 1966:336 n.67
And no trace of it remained. CMA, PrP
(62) wa-kna talq- al lik al-iwr PELED 2004:119
and-wasM comment.M-my on that.M the-dialogue.M <HAIKAL 1978:210
na tanhat

[ilay-ya]
T

A
arf.an min-hu
when reachedF to-me parts.F.ACC! of-it.M
My comment on that exchange, when bits of it reached me, was MSA, PrP
(63) wa- kna

[l-]
T

A
walad.an wad >< PELED 2004:128
and- wasM to-me boy.M.ACC! single*
<BLAU 1981:185
And I had only one son. J MA, PrP
(64) lam yail

[ilai-h]
T

A
aad.an >< PELED 2004:122
did.not.PRF arriveM to-him anyone.M.ACC! <BLAU 1981:172
No one came to him J MA, PrP
(65) umma yubn

[al ass mil hihi l-muwfaq]

T
PELED 2004:124
then will.be.builtM on basis such this.F the-agreement.F <al-Muawwar
(l-iftiry.F)
A
taqaddum.an aula 49 nuq 07.02.1997:25
[the-putative] progress.M.ACC! around 49 point MSA, PrP
then, on the basis of such an [putative] agreement, progress will be made on 49 points.
(66) wa-kam kna yawadd lau yad

[f-him]
T

A
wid.an PELED 2004:124
and-how he.was he.wants if is.found.$.M in-them one.M.ACC! <BLAU 1973:196
and how he would like it if there were [to be] one among them MSA, $, PrP
(67) l yaz an yuzd

><' ' PELED 2004:125

NEG is.allowed that be.added.$ <BLAU 1981:185
[alai-him]
T

A
xmis.an
onto-them fifth.ACC!
It is not allowed to add a fifth to them. J MA, $, PrP
(68) malik
(un?)
wulida

[la-hu]
T
><
UM t s t b pK
PELED 2004:125
king.
NOM?
was.born.$.M to-him <BLAU 1966-7:336
[min amati-hi]
T

A
ibn.an
from maid-his son.M.ACC!
A king to whom a son was born from his maid. CMA, $, PrP, PrP

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 22
4.9 Peleds examples of Arabic and Hebrew faulty accusative
for which unaccusative is more plausible than configuration
(69) lam yadu

A
ai.an PELED 2004:111
NEG.PRF happenM thing.M.ACC!
Nothing happened. MSA?, UA
(70) wa-f ayti-n taassadat

A
durs.an
A
mustafdt.an PELED 2004:119
and-in life-our materializedF lessons.F.ACC! beneficial.F.ACC! <al-Muawar 07.02.1997:31
In our lives, lessons have materialized from which we could
learn a great deal MSA, UA
(71) adaa

A
.an ><' ' PELED 2004:122
happenedM famine.M.ACC! <BLAU 1981:185
A famine occurred J MA, UA
(72) l yjad

A
malm.an fa-l yasul

A
ilm.an
A
jadd.an PELED 2004:124
NEG is.found$.M known.M.ACC so.NEG happens knowledge.ACC! new.ACC! <MA thesis
There is no known, nor does any new knowledge arise MSA, $ UA
(73) ga-n walad.un/an ism-uh ><... PELED 2004:123
cameM-us.ACC boy.M.NOM/ACC! name-his <BLAU 1946:32
There came to us a boy whose name was J MA, UA?
(74) futia

A
maui.an ><
UF{u `
PELED 2004:125
was.opened$.M place.M.ACC! <SCHEN 1973:84
A place was opened MMA, $ UA
Biblical Hebrew examples show that unaccusative effects are very old in Semitic:
(75) -v h-r wa--ha-dv >< - PELED 2004:123
and-came the-lion and-DFO-the-bear <1 Samuel 17:34
When a lion came or a bear
(76) - kl h-r ha-z b l-n >< - PELED 2004:123
DFO all the-evil.F the-this.F it.came.F upon-us <Daniel 9:13
All this evil came upon us
(77) w--ha-barzl nfal l-ha-mayyim ><- - PELED 2004:123
and-DFO-the-iron.M it.fell. M to-the-waters <2 Kings 6:5
The iron [axe-head] fell into the water
(78) way-yiwwle la-nx - r ><- PELED 2004:126
and-is.born to-Enoch DFO Irad <Genesis 4:18
And unto Enoch was born Irad.
(79) way-yugga

l-rivqh >< - PELED 2004:126

and-was.told$.M to-Rebeccah <Genesis 27:42

A
-divr ew
DFO-words.PL.CS Esau
And the words of Esau were told to Rebeccah.
(80) im
A
-kl d ha-yam >< - PELED 2004:126
or DFO-all fish.PL.CS the-sea <Numbers 11:22
yesef

l-hm
will.be.gathered$.M to-them
Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them?

23 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
5. WELSH AGAIN
Iosad 2007c:2: The Direct Object Mutation of Welsh is triggered not by a specific lexical item or a
class of those, but rather by a certain syntactic configuration: in simple terms, whatever comes directly
after the first post-verbal constituent undergoes soft mutation. In particular, this includes the object NP
in VSO clauses.. Reformulate as V.T

[XP]
T

L
NP: tensed verb; verb must govern affected NP
reference to three terms: finite verb government, XP trigger and target NP.
Origins of Welsh syntactic mutation: Willis 2007:313-15; Evans 1964; Morgan 1953 lenition of
post-verbal NPs in Middle Welsh confused. Lenition not always written; when written, after tensed verb
forms: sometimes subject lenited, sometimes object; only at a later stage does the indefinite object (bare
NP, without preceding article (may be definite in genitive constructs)) lenite systematically. Sangiad
(interpolated XP) sometimes triggers lenition, sometimes not.
Morgan 1953:185 gives examples of instability in mutating post-verbal subjects and objects in Middle
Welsh, all from J . Gwenogvryn Evans (ed.) The White Book of Mabinogion, Pwllheli, 1907):
a glywei llef could hear a cry (VO no mutation)
a welei lannerch could see a glade (VO mutation)
a welei carw could see a deer (VO no mutation)
ual y llathrei wynnet y cwn y llathrei cochet eu clusteu
as glowed the whiteness (VS mutation) of the dogs so glowed the redness (VO no mutation) of their ears
ual y llunyei uanawydan y gweith y gwniei pryderi
for as Manawyddan (VS mutation) shaped the work, so Pryderi (VS no mutation) stitched it
Morgan 1953:184 Here are three types of normal sentence:
(a) [tensed] Verbform + noun (subject or object) immediately after the verb, and here, whichever of
the two nouns [subject or object.] follows the verb, it is mutated following some verbforms, such as
torrai [broke imperfect], clybu [heard preterite], cigleu [has heard perfect] [all ending in a vowel];
but it keeps the radical [unmutated consonant] following others, such as tyr [breaks/will break
present/future], torro [should break subjunctive], torrodd [broke preterite], torres [broke preterite],
cymerth [took preterite], dug [bore, carried preterite], gwnaeth [did, made preterite] [all ending in
consonants except torro; originally torr-h-o, which may have given a pronunciation with final consonant
torroh].
(b) [tensed] Verbform + nominal subject + nominal object, and here mutation or otherwise of the
subject is determined by the verbform, as in (a); as for the object, all that can be said here is that the
verbform has nothing to do with whether or not it is mutated;
(c) [tensed] Verbform + postclitic [subject] pronoun + object, with the verbform having nothing to do
with whether or not the object is mutated.
(Dyna dri math o frawddeg normal: (a) Ffurfiad berfol +enw (goddrych neu wrthrych) yn union ar l y ferf, ac yma,
pa enw bynnag or ddau a ddilynor ferf, fei treiglir ar l rhai ffurfiadau megis torrai, clybu, cigleu; ac fe geidwr
gysefin ar l eraill megis tyr, torro, torrodd, torres, cymerth, dug, gwnaeth; (b) Ffurfiad berfol +goddrych enwol +
gwrthrych enwol, ac yma penderfynir a fydd tr. ir goddrych neu beidio gan y ffurfiad berfol fel yn (a), eithr am y
gwrthrych, y cwbl a ddywedir yma yw nad oes a wnelor ffurfiad berfol r cwestiwn a ddylid treiglo neu beidio;
(c) Ffurfiad berfol +rhagenw l +gwrthrych, heb fod wnelor ffurfiad berfol r cwestiwn a ddylair gwrthrych
dreiglo.)

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 24
Possible sequence of developments in Middle Welsh, assuming both unaccusative and configurational
explanations for Arabic faulty accusative are germane:
Lenition of following NP after tense(-person) endings, especially those ending in a vowel or a
sonorant (except subjunctive -o: original -h-o, metathis > -oh blocking lenition?), irrespective of
whether NP is subject or object (difficult to ascertain conclusively; absence of written lenition does
not prove absence in spoken language) (also increasing frequency of post-verbal subject pronouns,
all ending in vowels).
o Erich Poppe, Syntactic variation in Middle Welsh: New perspectives (presentation at the
First European Symposium in Celtic Studies, Trier, Germany, 5-9 August 2013) has 12
examples of tensed verb followed immediately by subject:
gweles Pawl (V-obstruent +S: no mutation) (3 times)
oruc Pawl (V-obstruent +S: no mutation)
duc Mihaghel (V-obstruent +S: no mutation)
oed morynnyon (V-obstruent +S: no mutation)
oedynt morynnyon (V-obstruent +S: no mutation) (twice)
gwelei Pawl (V-sonorant +S: no mutation) (only example of no mutation following sonorant)
gwelei Bawl (V-sonorant +S: mutation) (twice)
klywei Bawl (V-sonorant +S: mutation)
With introduction of T-2 constraint, O (P) and S.UA (P) likely to be more frequent following V
than S.UE (A) (general tendency for NPs with object properties to come later than those with
subject properties).
Post finite-verb lenition shifts from phonetic to semantic: first NP with object properties: O (P) or
S.UA (P). Accusative case realized by lenition on first object-like bare NP (no definite article).
Shift from semantic (case)-based rule (above) to simpler configuration mechanism, as in Arabic:
V.T

[XP]
T

L
NP (XP may be S, s, pro, PrP, Adv, etc.) with no reference to semantic function; neatly
accounts for sangiad lenition of non-objects.
Need to screen Middle Welsh texts (by 50-year periods with following types) for lenition of post-verbal
NPs and for relative prevalence of types:
(V =verb; A =agent (transitive subject; intransitive unergative subject);
P =patient (transitive object; intransitive unaccusative subject;
Verb-initial: V A P; V A; V P
X-initial: X V A P; X V A; X V P (X =AdvP, PP, etc.)
Argument-initial: A V P; A V; P V; (P V A?)

25 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
Adjacency construct in Arabic
V N
NOM
N N
GEN
inhra bait
-u-n

collapsedM house.M-NOM-IDF
A house collapsed
bb
-u
l-bait
-i

door-NOM the-house-GEN
the door of the house

P N
GEN
f l-bait
-i

in the-house-GEN
in the house
N N
GEN
N
GEN
.
bb
-u
bait
-i
-adq
-i

door-NOM house-GEN the-friend-GEN
the door of the friends house
Distance dependency in Arabic HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT (accusative-marked)
V [N
NOM
] N
ACC
N [N
GEN
] N
ACC
ra zaid
-u-n
bait-a-n
sawM Zaid.M-NOM-IDF house-ACC-IDF
Zaid saw a house.
ruyat-
u
zaid
-i-n
bait-a-n
sight-NOM Zaid-GEN-IDF house-ACC-IDF
Zaids seeing of a house
V [N
NOM
] N
ACC
N
ACC
N [N
GEN
] N
ACC
N
ACC
a zaid-un adq-a-n kitb-a-n
gaveM Zaid.M-NOM friend-ACC.IDF book-ACC.IDF
Zaid gave a friend a book.
bb
-u
bait
-i
-adq
-i

door-NOM house-GEN the-friend-GEN
the door of the friends house
V [PP]N
ACC

an yakn
-a
ladai-k hadaf-a-n
that beM.SBJ with-you.M goal.M-ACC!IDF
that you should have a goal

V [Adv] N
ACC

sa-yakn hunk all-a-n siysy-a-n
FUT-beM there solution-ACC!IDF political-ACC!IDF
There will be a political solution.
unit [ten] counted
ACC
??
xams wa-irn
a
kitb-a-n
five and-twenty.NOM book-ACC-IDF
twenty-five books
irn
a
kitb-a-n
twenty.NOM book-ACC-IDF
twenty books

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 26
6. A (VERY!) TENTATIVE CONCLUSION
Arabic evolution: case (unclear when lost in living dialects) >unaccusative effects give faulty
accusative NOM ACC; reanalysed from case to simpler configuration: V.T

[XP]
T

A
NP
(HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT >accusative). Possible overlapping of unaccusative and configuration,
with growing dominance of configuration; unlikely that faulty accusatives which can only be explained
by unaccusative effects are frequent today; near-native-speaker reanalysis of canonical fu rules
governing indefinite accusative marking. (HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT rule may account for correct
accusative (VSO), faulty accusative (V-XP-NP where XP may also =PP, AdvP, etc.), unit-[ten]-counted
noun, etc.
Welsh evolution: phonetic (sandhi) after tensed verb endings: lenition on first post-verbal NP following
vowels and sonorants >(in connection with emergence of Middle Welsh T.2) post-verbal intransitive
subject increasingly likely to be unaccusative >lenition of post-verbal NPs thus increasingly associated
with object features >VSO with systematic lenition of Case effects unsurprising; HEAD-[TRIGGER]-
DEPENDENT >lenition overlaps with unaccusative HEAD-[TRIGGER]-DEPENDENT >lenition probably
dominant today, and appears to explain all instances of syntactic mutation (DOM, sangiad, etc.)

27 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
7. ENVOI
reliability of data in generative work on exotic languages
usefulness of typology with smaller numbers of languages of which linguist has practical mastery
possibility of rules from different components overlapping, applying simultaneously (e.g. both case
or unaccusative and XPTH)
Hewitt 2001:156 Lun des dbats rcurrents en linguistique moderne concerne le nombre et
lorganisation des composants de la grammaire phonologie, morphologie, lexique, syntaxe,
smantique, pragmatique, structure de linformation, etc., et lon recherche un modle maximalement
efficace et conomique, avec des frontires prcises et tanches entre ces composants. Cependant, lon
sait quen phontique acoustique le signal sonore contient une redondance optimale de lordre de 50 %
avec moins de redondance, le risque de perdre le signal est trop grand ; avec plus de redondance, le
systme devient excessivement lourd. Ce principe de redondance optimale pourrait bien stendre
lensemble des sous-systmes linguistiques, et notamment aux rapports entre eux ; ainsi il ny aurait plus
de frontires nettes (mais curieusement insaisissables) entre les diffrentes parties de la grammaire, dont
le chevauchement servirait renforcer la fiabilit du systme. Mme lopposition entre la rptition
mcanique de phrases toutes faites et lanalyse grammaticale sophistique pourrait sestomper dans ce
schma, les deux principes sappliquant simultanment. Lanalyse grammaticale est naturellement
ncessaire pour pouvoir produire et dcoder des phrases totalement nouvelles : la phrase jai vu un
crocodile en coiffe danser la gavotte avec Alexis Gourvennec na gure t produite auparavant, mais
elle est parfaitement comprhensible pour tout locuteur du franais. En revanche, lon peut se demander
si tout le dispositif grammatical est rellement mis en marche chaque fois quon dit ou entend jen
sais rien , phrase qui a d tre prononce littralement des milliards de fois. Finalement, lide de la
redondance optimale et du renforcement mutuel des diffrents composants de la grammaire pourrait
galement expliquer comment les gens qui parlent des variantes sensiblement diffrentes dune langue
arrivent communiquer.






rK e

izim, taslam!
Cwtogwch, byddwch yn saff!
Cut short, youll be safe!

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 28
Annex 1: Arabic consonants dialect variation
= pharyngealization (tafxm) emphatic consonants: a dull, hollow, dark sound, mainly perceptible to non-Arabs in
the lower, backed timbre of the adjacent vowels) [sounds used in elevated lexical items]

Letter

Name
Standard
transcription
Classical
Arabic
Bedouin
dialects
Urban
dialects





l

d
, th, t
, dh, d
,




(orig. ?)




t [s]
d [z]
[]
[]

qf q () q [q] [q]

m , j, dj
Lower Egypt, North Yemen
Levant, Maghreb
Upper Egypt, Sudan
One of the epithets of the Arabic language is lut a-d the language of the [letter] d, so unique that sound was
deemed to be; it is paradoxical that is today a sound which many Arabs have trouble pronouncing correctly; in
spoken dialects it falls everywhere together with / /: Bedouin-type dialects / /; urban-type dialects (ordinary words)
// (but often not pharyngalized: /d/), (elevated words) //. There is evidence that the original sound also involved a
lateral, i.e. something like , cf. Arabic al-q the judge, cf. Spanish alcalde mayor.
Annex 2: Arabic dialect map
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Arabic_Dialects.svg



29 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
Annex 3: Arabic script positional forms, transcription variants and IPA values
name of letter alone end middle front transcription IPA
hamz
R? Q? T? R? Q? ??

alif
U?
<

a/i/u- -- - () a ()
alif mamdd
P?
<

+
b
V? ?? ?
b b
t
X? ?? ?
t t

Y? ?? ?
th t (t s)
m
Z? ?? ?
j dj ( )

`? ?? ?
H 7
x
a? ?? ?
x kh k 5 x
dl
b?
<

d d
l
c?
<

dh d (d z)
r
d?
<

r r
zy
e?
<

z z
sn
f? ?? ?
s s
n
g? ?A? ?
sh
d
h? ?B? ?
S 9 s

d
i? ?C? ?{
D 9 d

(
+
z

)

j? ?D? ?
T 6 t

k? ?E? ?
Z 6

(z

)
ain
l? ?F? ?

c
9 3
ain
m? ?G? ?
gh g 3
f
n? ?H? ?
f f
qf
o? ?I? ?
q 2 8 q ( )
kf
p? ?J? ?
k k (/_i/e_)
lam
q? ?K? ?
l l
lam-alif
?
<

l / l-a/i/u- (l+, l+a- i- u-)
mm
r? ?L? ?
m m
nn
s? ?M? ?
n n
h
t? ?N? ?
h h
t marb
W?

- -a -ah
-t -at (CS)
- --a - - (+h)
- --a - - +t (CS)
ww
u?
<
u?
w
(- in verbs)
au aw
w
u: :
au ou (o)
y
w? ?O? ?
y

ai ay
j
i
ai ei (e)
alif maqr
v?
- - (-) - -a - (-)
fat
? (U? W? U?)
a (-an)
a (-an, -n)
kasr
? (?)
i (-in)
i e () (-n)
amm
? (?)
u (-un)
u o () (-n)
sukn
?
(no vowel)

add
?
CC (dbl. cons.)
C
<Older traditional order (subparagraphs (a), (b), (c), etc.)
Mnemonic: abad hawwaz u kaliman safa quriat axi a i

Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 30
Annex 4: Hebrew script transcription variants and IPA values (Classical and Israeli Hebrew)
Alphabet Classical Hebrew Israeli Hebrew
name
letter (5 have
end forms)
transcription IPA transcription IPA
lf (-) (-) >-
b b v b bh b v b v b v
gml g gh g g
dl d d dh d d d
he h h h h
ww w w v v
zayin z z z z
x kh ch > x
t t t t
y y j y j
kaf - k x k kh ch k x k x kh ch k x
lm l l l l
mem - m m m m
nn - n n n n
smx s s s s
ayin
c
> >-
pe - p f p ph p f p f
- s t ? c ts tz
qf q q q k ? q k k
r r r ? r
n sh sh
n s ? s s
tw t t th t t t
paa a a a a
sl e
sl-y/ml e
r e e e
r-y/ml e e
rq i i i i
rq-y i i i
qma gl

: a a
qma f o o
lm o o o
lm-ww/ml o o
qibbu u u u u
rq u u u
w e e
aef-paa a a
aef-sl e e
aef-qma o o
Bakfa letters: with de (point inside), stops: b d g p t k;
without de, fricatives: v f x (Israeli Hebrew only for v, f, x)
Gr diacritic for non-Hebrew sounds: j/ x (not ) ' x / .
Classical Hebrew consonants: , b~v, d~, g~, h, w, z, , , y, k~x, l, m, n, s, , p~f, ,.q, r, , , t~;
long vowels: , , , , ; short vowels: a, , e, i, , o, u; furtive vowels:
, a, ,

Classical >Israeli Hebrew: >d, >g, >t, w>v, >c[], >s, (>x, >>-), double consonants >simple;
no long or furtive vowels: all vowels short: , > a; , , , >e []; > i; , , , >o []; > u
31 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
Annex 5: Terminal variations in Formal Arabic nominals
(nouns and adjectives irb lit. Arabization) FA markers
Arabic script (unvocalized) Transcription (raised letters full, formal)
construct definite indefinite indefinite definite construct
XO XO
XO
N bait
un
al-bait
u
bait
u
G bait
in
al-bait
i
bait
i
UO UO
A bait
an

-
#(-#)

al-bait
a
bait
a
house house
Wb Wb* Wb
N madras
tun, -h#
al-madrasa
tu, -h#
madrast
u
G madras
tin, -h#
al-madras
ti, -h#
madrast
i
A madras
tan, -h#
al-madras
ta, -h#
madrast
a
school F.SG school F.SG
w{U w{UI
U
N
q
n
(al-)q
G
UO{U
A q
yan
-i
y
#)

(al-)q
ya
judge judge
vMF vMF* vMF
N
man
n
(al-)man G
A
meaning meaning
u ub u
N
daw (ad-)daw G
A
call, invitation call, invitation
_
N akbar
u
(al-)akbar
u
G
akbar
a
(al-)akbar
i
A (al-)akbar
a
biggest, most great biggest, most great
wUF wUF*
UF
N
man
n
(al-)man
G
wUF
A man
ya
(al-)man
ya
meanings F.SG meanings F.SG
uLK uLK* uLK
N (al-)muslimn
a
muslim
wLK 5LK* 5LK
G
(al-)muslimn
a
muslim
A
Muslims M.PL Muslims M.PL
d
N riln
i
ar-riln
i
ril
wK 5Kd 5K
G
rilain
i
ar-rilain
i
rilai
A
two feet DU two feet DU
ULK ULK* ULK
N muslimt
un
G
muslimt
in
A
Muslims F.PL Muslims F.PL
Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 32
Annex 6: Formal Arabic verbs and typical ESA verb morphology
(FA modal variations irb lit. Arabization) FA markers in script ESA markers
Arabic script MSA transcription typical ESA

kataba, yaktubu write; (ariba, yarabu drink)
Preterite (perfective)
f m m f m f
3SG
X V
kataba katabat katab katabit
2SG
X X
katabta katabti katabt katabti
1SG
X
katabtu katabt
3PL
6 u
katab katabna katabu
2PL
7 r
katabtum katabtunna katabtu
1PL
UM
katabn katabna
3DU
U U
katab katabat
(irib, irbit, irbu)
2DU
UL
katabtum
Present/Future Indicative (imperfective)
3SG
VJ VJ
yaktubu taktubu (b)yiktib (b)tiktib
2SG
5J VJ
taktubu taktubn
a
(b)tiktib (b)tiktibi
1SG
V
aktubu (b)aktib
3PL
6J uJ
yaktubn
a
yaktubna (b)yiktibu
2PL
6J uJ
taktubn
a
taktubna (b)tiktibu
1PL
VJ
naktubu (b)niktib
3DU
UJ UJ
yaktubn
i
taktubn
i

((b)yirab, (b)yirabu)
2DU
UJ
taktubn
i

Imperative
2SG
V
uktub uktub iktib iktibi
2PL
6 u
uktub uktubna iktibu
2DU
U
uktub (irab, irabi, irabu)
Subjunctive (FA)
3SG
VJ VJ
yaktuba taktuba yiktib tiktib
2SG
J VJ
taktuba taktub

tiktib tiktibi
1SG
V
aktuba aktib
3PL
6J uJ
yaktub yaktubna yiktibu
2PL
6J uJ
taktub taktubna tiktibu
1PL
VJ
naktuba niktib
3DU
UJ UJ
yaktub

taktub
(yirab, yirabu)
2DU
UJ
taktub

Jussive (FA)
3SG
VJ VJ
yaktub taktub yiktib tiktib
2SG
J VJ
taktub taktub

tiktib tiktibi
1SG
V
aktib
3PL
6J uJ
yaktub yaktubna yiktibu
2PL
6J uJ
taktub taktubna tiktibu
1PL
VJ
naktub niktib
3DU
UJ UJ
yaktub

taktub
(yirab, yirabu)
2DU
UJ
taktub

33 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
References and bibliography
Arabic
ABDUL-RAOF Hussein. 1998. Theme and Agent in Modern Standard Arabic. Curzon, Richmond, UK.
al-Ittijh al-mukis [The Opposite Direction]: Al-Jazeera debating programme pitting two guests against each other.
Al-Jazeera: international Arabic satellite channel.
ALTOMA Salih J . 1969. The Problems of Diglossia in Arabic: A comparative study of Classical and Iraqi Arabic.
Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge, Mass.
BBC Arabic: international radio station and website.
BLAU J oshua. 1946. Alif ha-akusativus le-tsiyyun ha-nose ve-ha-nasu be-tekstim araviyyim-yehudiyyim
[Accusative alif indicating subject and object in J ewish Arabic texts], Tarbiz 25:27-35.
BLAU J oshua. 1965. The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic: A study of the origins of Middle
Arabic. Oxford University Press. Reprinted by Ben-Zvi Institute, J erusalem, 1981.
BLAU J oshua. 1966-7. A Grammar of Christian Arabic, Based mainly on South-Palestinian texts from the first
millennium. Peeters, Louvain.
BLAU J oshua. 1970. On Pseudo-Corrections in some Semitic Languages. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities,
J erusalem.
BLAU J oshua. 1973. Remarks on some syntactic trends in Modern Standard Arabic. Israel Oriental Studies 3:172-231.
BLAU J oshua. 1976. Some additional observations on syntactic trends in Modern Standard Arabic. Israel Oriental
Studies 6:158-190.
BLAU J oshua. 1988. Studies in Middle Arabic and its Judaeo-Arabic Variety. Magnes Press, Hebrew University of
J erusalem.
BLAU J oshua. 2002. A Handbook of Early Middle Arabic. Hebrew University of J erusalem.
BRUSTAD Kristen. 2000. The Syntax of Spoken Arabic: A comparative study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and
Kuwaiti dialects. Georgetown University Press, Washington D.C.
FERGUSON Charles A. 1959a. Diglossia. Word 15: 325-40.
FERGUSON Charles A. 1959b. The Arabic koine. Language 35/4: 616-30.
GOLDZIHER Ignaz. 1994 [1878]. On the History of Grammar among the Arabs. J ohn Benjamins,
Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
al-awdi [Events]: Arabic weekly, Beirut.
al-ayt [Life]: Arabic daily, London.
HAIKAL Muammad asanain. 1978. ad al-mubdara [Talking of the initiative (Sadats peace initiative with
Israel)]. Mabaat Bairt, Beirut.
HASSELBACH Rebecca. 2013. Case in Semitic: Roles, relations, and reconstruction. Oxford University Press, 2013.
HEWITT Steve. 2006. Arabic: verb-subject-object or verb-given-new? Paper presented at the Conference on
Communication and Information Structure in Spoken Arabic, University of Maryland, 16-18 June 2006.
HOLES Clive. 2004 [1995]. Modern Arabic: Structures, functions and varieties. Revised and updated edition,
Georgetown University Press, Washington D.C. 1st edition, Longman, London 1995.
HOPKINS S. 1984. Studies in the Grammar of Early Arabic: Based on papyri datable to before AH 300 / AD 912.
Oxford University Press.
Iat a-arq [Radio Orient]: French-Lebanese international radio station.
KINBERG Leah & Kees VERSTEEGH. 2001. Studies in the Linguistic Structure of Classical Arabic. Brill, Leiden.
al-Muawwar [Illustrated]: weekly, Cairo.
LENTIN J rme & J acques GRANDHENRY. 2008. Moyen arabe et varits mixtes de larabe travers lhistoire:
Actes du Premier Colloque International (Louvain-la-Neuve, 10-14 mai 2004). Peeters, Louvain.
Maa haikal [With Haikal]: Weekly hour-long reminiscences on Al-Jazeera by Muammad asanain Haikal, editor-
in-chief of al-Ahrm, Egyptian government newspaper, in the days of Nasser; Nassers closest confidant.
MAHMOUD Abdelgawad T. 1991. A constrastive study of middle and unaccusative constructions in Arabic and
English, pp.119-36 in Bernard COMRIE & Mushira EID (eds), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics III: Papers from
the Third Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. J ohn Benjamins, Amsterdam.
M war al-xabar [Behind the News]: News background programme on Al-Jazeera satellite television.
OWENS J onathan. 1988a. Case and proto-Arabic. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Part I:
61/1:51-73; Part I: 61/2:215-27.
Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 34
OWENS J onathan. 1988b. The Foundations of Grammar: An introduction to medieval Arabic grammatical theory.
J ohn Benjamins, Amsterdam.
OWENS J onathan. 1990. Early Arabic Grammatical Theory: Heterogeneity and standardization. J ohn Benjamins,
Amsterdam.
PARKINSON Dilworth B. 1994. Speaking Fu in Cairo: The role of the ending vowels, pp.179-211 in Yasser
SULEIMAN (ed.), Arabic Sociolinguistics: Issues and perspectives, Curzon, Richmond, Surrey, UK.
PELED Yishai. 1999. Aspects of the use of grammatical terminology in medieval Arabic grammatical tradition,
pp.50-85 in Yasir SULEIMAN (ed.), Arabic Grammar and Linguistics, Routledge Curzon, London & New York.
PELED Yishai. 2004. Accusatival subjects in Arabic non-transitive constructions and the unaccusative hypothesis,
A. LEVIN, S. HOPKINS, J . BLAU, et al (eds) Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 29:111-35: Studies in honour of
Moshe Piamenta. Institute of Asian and African Studies at the Hebrew University of J erusalem.
PELED Yishai. 2009. Sentence Types and Word-Order Patterns in Written Arabic. Brill, Leiden.
SCHEN I. 1973. Usama Ibn Munqidhs memoirs: Some further light on Muslim Middle Arabic (Part II), Journal of
Semitic Studies 18:64-97
VERSTEEGH Cornelis H.M. (Kees). 1993. Arabic Grammar and Qurnic Exegesis in Early Islam. Brill, Leiden, New
York, Cologne.
VERSTEEGH Cornelis H.M. (Kees). 1995. The Explanation of Linguistic Causes: Al-Zas theory of grammar
introduction, translation, commentary. J ohn Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. (see Ch XVI The theory about
the lexical meaning of the nominative, accusative and genitive
VERSTEEGH Cornelis H.M. (Kees). 1997. Landmarks in Linguistic Thought III: The Arabic Linguistic Tradition.
Routledge, New York/London.
VERSTEEGH Cornelis H.M. (Kees). 2001. The Arabic Language. Edinburgh University Press.
VERSTEEGH Cornelis H.M. (Kees), Konrad KOERNER, Hans-J . NIEDEREHE (eds). 1982. The History of Linguistics in
the Near East. J ohn Benjamins, Amsterdam.
al-Waan al-arab [the Arab Homeland]: weekly, Paris.
WRIGHT William. 1859-1862. A Grammar of the Arabic Language. 2 vols. Simon Wallenberg, London. Numerous
editions and reprints.
Zack Liesbeth & Arie Schippers. 2012. Middle Arabic and Mixed Arabic: Diachrony and synchrony. Brill, Leiden.
Unaccusativity; grammatical/thematic roles/relations; split auxiliary systems
ALEXIADOU Artemis, Elena ANAGNOSTOPOULOU, Marin EVERAERT (eds). 2004. The Unaccusativity Puzzle:
Explorations of the syntax-lexicon interface. Oxford University Press.
ARANOVICH Ral (ed.). 2007. Split Auxiliary Systems: A cross-linguistic perspective. J ohn Benjamins, Amsterdam/
Philadelphia.
DONOHUE Mark & Sren WICHMANN (eds). 2008. The Typology of Semantic Alignment, Oxford University Press.
DOWTY David. 1991. Thematic proto-roles and argument selection, Language 67/3:647-619.
BURZIO L. 1986. Italian Syntax: A Government and Binding approach. Reidel, Dordrecht.
LEVIN Beth. & Malka RAPPAPORT-HOVAV. 1995. Unaccusativity at the Syntax-Lexical Semantics Interface.
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
LEVIN Beth. & Malka RAPPAPORT-HOVAV. 2005. Argument Realization. Cambridge University Press.
PALMER Frank R. 1994. Grammatical Roles and Relations. Cambridge University Press.
PERLEMUTTER David M. 1978. Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis, pp. 157-90 in Proceedings of
the 4th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.
RAPPAPORT-HOVAV Malka, Edit DORON, Ivy SICHEL (eds). 2010. Syntax, Lexical Semantics, and Event Structure.
Oxford University Press.
SORACE Antonella. 2000. Gradients in auxiliary selection with intransitive verbs, Language 76/4:859-90.
Welsh, Celtic
BALL Martin & Nicole MLLER. 1992. Mutation in Welsh. Routledge, London. [esp. 3.3 Direct Object Mutation (and
others) revisited, pp.136-161]
BORSLEY Robert D. 1986. Prepositional complementizers in Welsh, Journal of Linguistics 20:277-302.
BORSLEY Robert D. 1989. An HPSG approach to Welsh, Journal of Linguistics 25:333-54.
BORSLEY Robert D. 1995. On some similarities and differences between Welsh and Syrian Arabic. Linguistics 33:99-
122.
35 8th Celtic Linguistics Conference, Edinburgh, 6-7 June 2014
BORSLEY Robert D. 1997. Mutation and case in Welsh, Canadian Journal of Linguistics 42/1-2:31-56 (special issue,
E. GUILFOYLE (ed.) Topics in Celtic Syntax).
BORSLEY Robert D. 1999. Mutation and constituent structure in Welsh, Lingua 109:267-300.
BORSLEY Robert D. & Ian ROBERTS. 1992. The Syntax of the Celtic Languages: A comparative perspective.
Cambridge University Press.
BORSLEY Robert D. & Maggie TALLERMAN. 1996. Phrases and soft mutation in Welsh, Journal of Celtic Linguistics
5:1-33.
BORSLEY Robert D., Maggie TALLERMAN, David WILLIS. 2007. The Syntax of Welsh, Cambridge University Press.
COMRIE Bernard. 1977. In defence of spontaneous demotion: The impersonal passive. pp.25-55 in Peter COLE &
J erry SADOCK (eds), Syntax and Semantics, vol. 8, Grammatical Relations. Academic Press, New York.
EVANS D. Simon. 1964. A Grammar of Middle Welsh. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
HAMP Erich. 1951. Morphophonemes of the Keltic mutations, Language 27:230-47.
HANNAHS S.J . 1996. Phonological structure and soft mutation in Welsh. pp.46-69 in U. KLEINHENZ (ed.), Interfaces
in Phonology. Akademie Verlag, Berlin.
HANNAHS S.J . 2011. Celtic mutations, pp.2807-30 in Marc VAN OOSTENDORP, Colin EWEN, Beth HUME, Keren RICE
(eds), Blackwell Companion to Phonology, vol. V. Wiley-Blackwell, Boston.
HANNAHS S.J . forthcoming. Celtic initial mutation: Pattern extraction and subcategorisation. Word Structure 5/2:
HARLOW Stephen J. 1981. Government and relativization in Celtic, pp.213-54 in Frank HENRY (ed.), Binding and
Filtering. Croom Helm, London.
HARLOW Stephen J. 1989. The syntax of Welsh soft mutation, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 7:289-316.
HARLOW Stephen J. 2009. Syntactic soft mutation in Welsh: A constraint-based alternative to the XP Trigger
Hypothesis. Handout of talk given on 26 May 2009 at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages,
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
HEWITT Steve. 2001. Quest-ce quune langue ? pp. 155-7 in Parlons du breton ! Petra nevez gar brezhoneg ?
[Whats new with Breton?] Exhibition catalogue, Association Buhez / Ouest France, Rennes.
HEWITT Steve. 2002. The impersonal in Breton, Journal of Celtic Linguistics 7:1-39.
HUDSON Dick. 2009. Welsh soft mutation and Word Grammar. Presentation to the annual meeting of the Linguistics
Association of Great Britain, 6-9 September 2009.
IOSAD Pavel. 2006. Some observations on the grammaticalization of ICM [initial consonant mutation] in Welsh.
Moscow Student Conference in Linguistics, 14 April 2006.
IOSAD Pavel. 2007a. AllWordsLeft: The development of Welsh mutation. Presentation at the Fifth Celtic Linguistics
Conference, 7-9 September 2007, Plas Gregynog, Wales.
IOSAD Pavel. 2007b. Grammatikalizovannyje eredovanija naalnyx soglasnyx: Tipologija, teorija, diaxronija
[Grammaticalized alternations of initial consonants: Typology, theory, diachrony]. MA thesis, Moscow State
University.
IOSAD Pavel. 2007c. Phonological processes as lexical insertion: More evidence from Welsh and elsewhere. Old
World Conference in Phonology 4, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece, 19-21 January 2007.
IOSAD Pavel. 2010. Right at the left edge: Initial consonant mutations in the languages of the world. pp.105-38 in
Michael CYSOUW & J an WOHLGEMUTH (eds), Rethinking Universals: How rarities affict linguistic theory, Mouton
de Gruyter, Berlin.
J ONES Bob Morris. 2010. Tense and Aspect in Informal Welsh. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York.
KIBRE Nicholas J. 1997. A Model of Mutation in Welsh. Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington.
KING Gareth. 1993. Modern Welsh: A comprehensive grammar. Routledge, London. 2nd edition 2002.
KING Gareth. 1995. Basic Welsh: A grammar and workbook. Routledge, London.
KING Gareth. 1996. Intermediate Welsh: A grammar and workbook. Routledge, London.
KING Gareth. 2003. Colloquial Welsh. Routledge, London. 2nd edition 2008.
LIEBER Rochele. 1983. New developments in autosegmental phonology: consonant mutations, pp.165-75 in Michael
Barlow, Charles A. Ferguson, Daniel Flickinger, M. Westcoat (eds), Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on
Formal Linguistics. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.
LONGOBARDI Giuseppe & Ian ROBERTS. Forthcoming. The parametric comparison method and the Celto-Semitic
puzzle.
MANNING H. Paul. 1995. Fluid intransitivity in Middle Welsh: Gradience, typology and unaccusativity, Lingua
74:171-94.
Steve Hewitt Welsh syntactic mutation and Arabic faulty accusative: case or configuration? 36
MORGAN T.J . 1952. Y Treigladau au Cystrawen [Mutations and their Construction]. Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru
[University of Wales Press], Caerdydd [Cardiff]; syntactic mutation: esp. pp. 182-233.
MORRIS-J ONES J ohn. 1913. A Welsh Grammar, Oxford University Press.
MORRIS-J ONES J ohn. 1931. Welsh Syntax: An unfinished draft. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
POPPE Erich. 2013. Syntactic variation in Middle Welsh: New perspectives. Presentation at the First European
Symposium in Celtic Studies, Trier, Germany, 5-9 August 2013.
RHYS J ONES T.J . 1977. Teach Yourself Living Welsh. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
ROBERTS IAN. 2004. Parametric comparison: Welsh, Semitic and the Anti-Babelic principle. Handout, University of
Cambridge.
ROBERTS Ian. 2005. Principles and Parameters in a VSO Language: A case study in Welsh, Oxford University Press.
ROBERTS Ian. 1997. The syntax of direct object mutation in Welsh, Canadian Journal of Linguistics 42/1-2:141-68
(special issue, E. GUILFOYLE (ed.) Topics in Celtic Syntax).
ROUVERET Alain. 1994. Syntaxe du gallois: Principes gnraux et typologie. CNRS ditions, Paris.
SADLER Louise. 1988. Welsh Syntax: A government-binding approach. Croom Helm, London.
SCHRIJ VER Peter. 2010. Free lenition in Middle Welsh: Problems of function and origin, handout for history of
Welsh lectures, Cambridge University, 19-20 March 2010;
http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/let/2011-0304-200624/Cambridge%20MWFreelenition%20_2_.pdf
STRACHAN J ohn. 1909. An Introduction to Early Welsh. Manchester University Press.
STUMP Gregory. 1995. Nonlocal spirantization in Breton. Journal of Linguistics 24:457-81.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 1987. Mutation and the syntactic structure of modern colloquial Welsh. PhD dissertation,
University of Hull.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 1990. VSO word order and consonantal mutation in Welsh, Linguistics 28:389-416.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 1998. The uniform case-licensing of subjects in Welsh. The Linguistic Review 15:69-133.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 1999. Welsh soft mutation and marked word order, pp.277-94 in Michael DARNELL, Edith
MORAVCSIK, Frederick NEWMEYER, Michael NOONAN, Kathleen WHEATLEY (eds), Functionalism and Formalism
in Linguistics, vol.2, Case Studies, J ohn Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 2001. A (very!) preliminary look at unaccusativity in Welsh. Talk given at the Eighth Welsh
Syntax Seminar, 4-5 July 2001, Plas Gregynog, Wales.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 2006. The syntax of Welsh direct object mutation revisited, pp.1750-76 in Robert D.
BORSLEY, Ian G. ROBERTS, Louisa SADLER, David WILLIS (eds), Celtic Linguistics, special issue of Lingua 116.
TALLERMAN Maggie. 2009. Phrase structure vs. dependency: The analysis of Welsh syntactic soft mutation, Journal
of Linguistics 45:176-201.
THOMAS Peter Wyn. 1996. Gramadeg y Gymraeg [Grammar of Welsh]. Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, Caerdydd
[University of Wales Press, Cardiff].
THORNE David. 1993. A Comprehensive Welsh Grammar/Gramadeg Cymraeg Cynhwysfawr. Gwasg Prifysgol
Cymru, Caerdydd [University of Wales Press, Cardiff].
WILLIAMS Stephen J . 1980. A Welsh Grammar. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
WILLIS David. 1998. Syntactic Change in Welsh: A study of the loss of verb-second. Oxford University Press.
WILLIS David. 2007. Historical syntax. Chap. 9, pp.286-337, in BORSLEY, TALLERMAN, WILLIS, The Syntax of Welsh.
ZWICKY Arnold. 1984. Welsh soft mutation and the case of object NPs, pp.387-402 in J . DROGO, V. MISHRA,
D. TESTEN (eds), Proceedings of the Twentieth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Chicago
Linguistic Society, Chicago.