Licensing: Movement and Feature Checking in Standard Arabic and Minimalism

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the Theory of Feature Checking in Minimalism and show how it works in morpho-syntactic analysis of Standard Arabic. It examines how Chomsky’s (1995) Minimalist distinctions among features (such as, categorical features, Case-features and phi-features) function in Standard Arabic and English and points out the differences between both languages in terms of [± Interpretable]. Besides, it tries to point out the parametric differences between Standard Arabic and English on the basis of the strength/weakness of their TNS and AGR features. It also illustrates how features of the verb and the subject NP in Standard Arabic are checked in overt/covert syntax.