Aspectual object marking in Libyan Arabic

Abstract

In Libyan Arabic, the preposition fi 'in' has developed into a marker of continuous or habitual aspect. While structurally remaining a preposition which marks the objects of the non-tensed forms of dynamic transitive verbs, it serves to attribute an aspectual interpretation to the clause as a whole. We argue that this aspectual object marking is naturally modeled by an inside-out functional designator, and provide arguments that the aspectual value contributed by aspectual fi is best treated as an f-structure feature.