ON SOME SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WELSH AND SYRIAN ARABIC

Welsh and Syrian Arabic are similar in a number of ways. Both language s have verb-initial clauses, and both have NPs in which what might be regarded as a subject follows the noun and precedes any complements. B oth also have subject-initial clauses. Clitics are also an important f eature of both languages, appearing in both clauses and NPs. There are , however, two notable differences: Welsh has no finite subject-initia l clauses, and clitics behave differently in verb-initial clauses. The version of head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) developed in B orsley (1987, forthcoming) and Pollard and Sag (1994: chapter 9) permi ts an interesting account of the similarities and the differences betw een the two languages in these areas.