Adverbial Transformations in English and Arabic

Abstract

The objective of this study is to point out the similarities and/or differences between adverbials in English and Arabic. The results are useful in FLT ( Foreign Language Teaching), Translation, and Stylistics. To reach the aims of the research, the analysis depends on Transformational Generative Grammar (TG) which allows a deep structure analysis rather than phrase structure rules (surface structure) only. This type of analysis facilitates both the examination of adverbials in each language and the comparison between them. There are various approaches and notations in TG. The approach and kind of notation used by Paul Roberts in his English Syntax (1964) is followed here. It is the type closest to most approaches though some notations are replaced for simplicity. Sometimes transformationalists interpret certain kinds of structure differently and their applications of transformational rules to the phrase structure rules are eventually different. For example, two kinds of deep structure are given for this sentence: Ali left when the others came.