Abstract This paper is concerned with a hitherto undiscussed type of tough-construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Our starting point is the observation that the tough-adjective in this construction invariably displays nominative masculine singular morphology, a pattern of ‘default’ agreement which does not seem to occur elsewhere in the grammar of MSA. At a semantic level, the relevant adjective is argued to form a complex predicate with a deverbal nominalization that acts as its complement: together, these two elements indirectly modify the subject noun phrase. To explain the default agreement pattern, we propose that MSA tough-constructions involve two distinct subjects, viz. a phonologically null expletive subject which controls agreement on the tough-adjective, and a Broad Subject which acts as the semantic subject of the whole construction. We show that there is independent evidence for the existence of both null expletives and Broad Subjects in MSA.

中文翻译：

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现代标准阿拉伯语恢复性强结构的语法和语义

摘要本文涉及现代标准阿拉伯语（MSA）迄今为止从未讨论过的坚硬构造类型。我们的出发点是观察到，这种结构中的强壮形容词始终显示主格的男性奇异形态，这是“默认”协议的模式，在MSA语法的其他地方似乎都没有出现。在语义层次上，相关形容词被认为形成了一个复杂的谓词，并带有副词名词化，作为其补语：这两个要素共同间接修饰了主语名词短语。为了解释默认的协议模式，我们建议MSA艰难的构造涉及两个不同的主题，即。语音学上空的形容词，控制着强硬形容词的一致，一个广泛的主题，作为整个结构的语义主题。我们显示，有独立的证据表明MSA中既存在空词又有广泛的主题。