Investigating the Null Object in Arabic Language

Abstract

In some languages, the direct object of transitive verbs can be dropped to remain phonetically unexpressed but identified by the verbal object agreement (OA) on verbs co-indexed with specified and definite antecedents. On the other hand, many languages allow the lexical object to be null without OA identification. In this paper, both types of null objects (NOs) are investigated cross-linguistically through comparing the Standard Arabic language with some other languages. It is worth mentioning that although some ancient and modern Arabic grammarians discuss NOs which are not identified by OA in Arabic and English articles and books, this is the first English article, as far as I know, which studies and compares both types of NOs in Standard Arabic with some South American, European, African and Asian languages