The Grammaticalization of the Motion Verb "Raħ" as a Prospective Aspect Marker in Syrian Arabic

Abstract

This essay examines the development of a prospective future particle from a motion verb, a topic that, crosslinguistically, has played a key role in the development of the grammaticalization theory. The essay posits that the Syrian Arabic prospective future particle developed out of the Classical/Standard Arabic verb “rāħ” (go). The essay focuses on the uses of this future particle and lays out the grammaticalization stages of the “raħ”-future in Syrian Arabic. The grammaticalization path from the Classical/Standard Arabic verb “rāħ” to a prospective future particle in Syrian Arabic resulted in semantic shift (desemanticization), morphological shift (decategorialization), phonetic shift (erosion), and morphophonological shift (cliticization).