On Arabic and English Syntax: An Analytical Study of NP Types

Ilham Bouayad

Abstract: This paper investigates the syntactic behaviour of NP types in English and Standard Arabic with respect to binding principles as stipulated in Chomsky?s Government Binding Theory. This research brings about some evidence, based on a comparative analytic method that both languages conform to the main rules adopted in the binding approach though having different syntactic characteristics. Just like English NPs, Standard Arabic NPs seem to behave in accordance with the principles of Binding theory with some differences related to the NP trace syntactic behaviour in each Language.

Keywords: GB Theory, NP types, Anaphors, Pronominals, Lexical NPS, Syntactic Behaviour