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Blocking Arabic Passive Nominalization: Unveiling the Syntax-Semantics Conspiracy
Othman Alshehri
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2026.04.001
Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
This paper examines the apparent restriction against passive event nominalizations in Arabic, with a focus on Form VII templates (nC1aC2aC3). While Form VII verbs in the verbal domain allow both unaccusative and passive interpretations, only unaccusative readings are available under nominalization. The author argues that this asymmetry follows from a mismatch between the argument structure of Passive Voice and the semantic requirements of nominalization. Building on work in Distributed Morphology, he proposes that the nominalizing head n selects a VoiceP complement that must denote a saturated predicate of events. Passive Voice, however, introduces an external argument variable that requires semantic closure. The author argues that this closure is provided by a higher functional projection, which is neither syntactically available nor semantically interpretable in nominalizations. As a result, passive nominalizations lead to a type mismatch and are blocked.
nominalization, passives, Arabic, non-active
Othman Alshehri. Blocking Arabic Passive Nominalization: Unveiling the Syntax-Semantics Conspiracy. US-China Foreign Language, April 2026, Vol. 24, No. 4, 133-147 doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2026.04.001
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