The Derivation of Vocative Exclamatives with the Particle ？aya in Gulf Arabic

Research into vocative exclamatives (VocEs) is based on the traditional grammar of Standard Arabic (SA) which considers the structure of VocEs to be like that of vocatives due to the use of the vocative particle yā. The problem with this traditional view lies in the fact that it only accounts for VocEs in terms of their similarity to vocatives, and identifies only one type of VocEs with the particle yā that exists in SA. However, other types of VocEs, their underlying structure and derivation have not been given much attention. Therefore, this paper examines the syntactic structure and the derivation of vocative exclamatives in Gulf Arabic with the particle ？aya which does not exist in SA. It provides an analysis of the data within the Minimalist Framework and sheds light on the main differences between their structure and that of vocatives in terms of definiteness and projection.