PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

This paper explores the morphosyntax of causative construction in Sudanese Arabic. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the Minimalist Programme (Chomsky, 1993, 1995). This construction is projected by the causative verb, which is itself derived via a particular morphological process. It is universally assumed that all predicates fulfil their lexical-semantic requirements e.g. displaying their argument/thematic structure, in their syntactic structure (e.g. VP shell). The analysis of causative construction involves the presence of the head CAUSE, which is morphologically realised on the verb. The presence of CAUSE requires the obligatory presence of an external argument (causer). Semantically, CAUSE is a functional head that signifies the meaning of the causative to that particular linguistic expression. Overall, Sudanese Arabic projects use the causative morphologically via germination of a second consonant. The derived causative is a lexical causative with respect to many syntactic examinations. Therefore, the typological difference between Sudanese Arabic and other languages is due to the implications of Universal Grammar theories, in particular principles and parameters.