----------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: Though ma: is a particle, its distribution is actually ... actually what? Is there any meaning difference between la: and lam/lan? It sounds like you have a preverbal adverb strategy for negation. In addition, /wa/ can be used to coordinate nouns within a matrix clause. When this is done, agreement on the verb is shown not with dual inflection, as might be expected, but rather with number/gender that matches that of the first conjunct. Cool :-) The first conjunct would be the one closest to the verb, wouldn't it? Do you see number/gender agreement anywhere else in the language (e.g., with adjectives), and if so what happens with coordinated N's? What about coordinations involving conjuncts with different person values? Finally, if the subjects of the coordinated phrases are coreferential, /wa/ may be left out entirely. This sounds like apposition, not coordination. or X=Y, X!=Y meanings What are X=Y X!=Y meanings? This seems to be terminology from the online page, but you should try to translate into categories we have been using and/or provide a description of what that means. (From a quick look at the page, it looks like they're talking about sentences with non-verbal predicates. The = and != metaphor is probably influenced by the fact that English uses the copula (forms of 'be') in these predicates, even though Arabic does not always do so.) There is another form called the jussive, however, that is used in negative imperatives, and in other ways that I find only oblique references to, such as an apparant "permissive" construction with a preposition 'li' li t-aktub pcpl 2SG-write 'let him/her write' Example with a negative imperative? Regardless of the form of the modal element, the subordinated verb within a modal is formed using the subjunctive, Even when the modality is expressed by an adverb? Also, what is the word order with the auxiliaries. Where do they appear with respect to the subordinated verb? In finding a good transitive example, I also found a good example showcasing the VSO/SVO asymmetry that I referenced in my lab 1 writeup. To recap, when the order of elements is SVO, the verb and subject agree in both number and gender, but when the order is VSO, the agreement is only in gender; the number of the verb is always singular. This is cool. It would have been helpful to paste the example into your write up, so I could see what you are talking about. Are there constraints on when you get SVO versus VSO order? Do you end up with different forms of the verb? Is the gender agreement handled by the same affixes in both cases, or is it a different set of affixes (where the number and gender information are expressed in single portmanteau forms)? I was unable to find any specific examples for embedded declarative or interrogative clauses, though there were some offhand references to them in my grammar. The references seemed to indicate that such embedded clauses would be treated similarly to modals, but there was not enough information for me to build examples We will be covering this in the class --- I'm pretty sure Arabic has this phenomenon. Have you found a native speaker yet? You can probably get at these by asking for translations of sentences with "think", "know" and "ask" with clausal complements. Btw, have you decided which variety of Arabic you're focusing on? MSA? The spoken variety from any particular region? Consider adding some ungrammatical examples for coordination of NPs with extra "wa" markers and/or the "wa" in the wrong place. (or no "wa"). Are overt subjects with imperatives grammatical? No ungrammatical examples for modals? You should add some examples for case showing that the transitive verbs require NOM ACC, not ACC NOM or ACC GEN or NOM NOM or ACC ACC... Source: {b} Vetted: {s} Judgement: {g} Phenomena: {case, agreement} qara?-a ?al-?awlad-u d-dars-a read-3SG.MASC the-boys-NOM the-lesson-ACC 'The boys read the lesson' If this is grammatical, there's something wrong with your glossing conventions, I think. That is, it seems that -a just counts as 3rd person masculine when the subject follows the verb. Even if it's the same affix as the 3SG.MASC form in SVO sentences, I think the gloss should reflect what's happening in this sentence. Also, you say this series is illustrating case and agreement, but I don't see what it has to do with case. Maybe word order and agreement would be a better combination of phenomena tags.