Li and ʕala disappear from Zahrani Spoken Arabic prepositional phrases

Abstract

Prepositions can be classified into two main groups in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) Fanka (2000): non-derived prepositions and derived prepositions. Non-derived prepositions, also known as “true prepositions” (Ryding, 2005; Lentzner, 1977), include closed lexical items. They indicate different meanings as well as different relations between two arguments. Derived prepositions are formed from triliteral roots. These prepositions are also known as locative adverbs in Arabic (Ryding, 2005). Arabic dialects can be shown to contain both types of prepositions.