The Morphosyntactic Behavior of the Preposition la in Sorani Kurdish Structures

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the role of the preposition la in the structure of Sorani Kurdish verbs. As certain verbs are usually accompanied by la in different sentences, this paper explains in detail how this preposition is situated in the structure of those verbs by providing a syntactic as well as morphological treatment of their linguistic behavior. Verbs are classified into four main categories for the sake of studying them in detail. Deriving from a number of different sources, it is deemed necessary to make a distinction between two main classes of prepositions discussed in Kurdish grammar: simple and absolute, a distinction that also applies to la. Drawing upon this distinction, this article sets out the main framework of this discussion and explains thoroughly how this preposition can behave differently based on the host it is attached to or followed by in the sentence. The verbs will also be analyzed with respect to how many morphemes they are composed of and a morphemic analysis will be taken into account throughout. The preposition la also serves to provide an archaic type of ezafe (construct).

Keywords

• simple prepositions
• absolute prepositions
• noun phrase
• prepositional phrase
• pronominal clitics
• Sorani Kurdish
• Central Kurdish
• Gorani

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