A Comparative Study of Verb Phrases in Persian and Arabic Based on X-bar Theory and Its Application in Teaching Arabic to Persian-Speaking Students

Abstract

This paper is aimed at comparing and analyzing the various verb phrase categories in Persian and their Arabic equivalent in the light of X- bar theory to identify the similarities and differences of verb phrases in both languages and to use the findings in teaching Arabic to Persian speakers. X-bar theory is a syntactic theory proposed by Chomsky in 1970. This theory studies the internal structure of the phrases and specifies the position of the syntactic structure. In order to make the comparison 13 Persian verb phrases along with their categories were taken from Meshkot al-Dini (2014), Gholamalizade (2012), Rahimian (2010). The 13 Arabic VPs were chosen from al-Qāsi’a sermon, the longest sermon in Nahj al-Balāgha. Authors used their linguistic intuitions and knowledge to support the analyses. Persian VPs and their categories are classified due to the argument that verb takes in this language, then the equivalent Arabic VP is analyzed. This paper indicates that VPs in Persian are head final except in one case; when the verb complement is Complementizer Phrase, the complement comes after the VP. However, in Arabic, the VP is head initial, and the complement comes after the head of the VP. The results of this study done within a descriptive-contrastive analysis framework proves that the X-bar theory is efficient enough when it comes to comparing Persian VPs versus those of Arabic. This important achievement can be exploited in teaching Arabic to speakers of other languages in general and to those of Persian language in specific