Psychological Predicates and Verbal Complementation in Arabic

The issue of verbal complementation patterns in the Arabic vernaculars is one which is relatively under-researched: this paper aims to make a small contribution in this area, focussing on essentially two issues (i) the syntax of so-called experiencer-object psychological predicates (EOPVs) (that is, predicates in the 'frighten' or 'please' classes) and (ii) the syntax of aspectual or phasal predicates (that is, verbs such as 'begin' and 'continue'). We argue that the latter class of verbs are in fact raising verbs and go on to show that in some dialects the interaction of EOPV and aspectual predicates permits a pattern reminiscent of Copy Raising.