| The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: (1) to analyze the tense-aspect system of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) from the point of view of Generative Semantics, and (2) to compare and contrast the systems of tense and aspect in English and MSA in terms of their underlying semantic structures, derivational processes and surface manifestations for pedagogical purposes.;Chapter one is introductory and consists of brief discussions of the purpose and scope of this study, Generative Semantics, Contrastive Analysis, the concept of tense and aspect, and the status of MSA in the Arab world.;Chapter two presents a review of the literature written on tense and aspect in both English and MSA, and the theoretical background of this study.;Chapter three comprises an inventory and analysis of the various semantic categories of tense and aspect in English as a prelude for their comparison with those of MSA.;Chapter four deals with the tense-aspect of MSA. The chapter begins with the postulation of a new tense-aspect system for MSA based on the concepts of perfectivity and imperfectivity, and proceeds to the discussion of the aspectual categories of inchoativity, causativity, iterativity, participation, reciprocation, eduction, inception, durativity, prospectiveness and other categories that are represented by derivational morphology or aspectual verbs. Also, the various tense types are analyzed in terms of their semantic structures and surface realization.;Chapter five is a contrastive analysis of the semantic and formal categories that constitute the tense-aspect systems of English and MSA.;Chapter six is a conclusion presented in the form of a hierarchy of difficulty that the native speaker of SMA may encounter in learning the English tense-aspect system. The application of the Generative Semantics model to MSA has produced insightful results and proven the adequacy of this model in handling the semantic structures of MSA. |
