The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the process through which future and progressive markers in Assiri Arabic evolve from lexical elements into grammatical ones, a process known as grammaticalization. Addressing a gap in the literature, this study provides the first analysis of grammaticalization within Assiri Arabic, a previously unexamined dialect in the field. This paper follows van Gelderen's (2003) proposal that elements move up the syntactic tree rather than down as they grammaticalize. Moreover, this analysis advocates a streamlined syntactic structure where there is only a single functional category below the Tense Phrase (TP), known as the Aspect Phrase (ASPP). This approach simplifies the syntactic model and aligns with trends in contemporary syntactic theory. The structural framework employed in this analysis is based on the Minimalist Program as developed by Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2001b, 2007, 2008). This Minimalist approach aims to explain linguistic phenomena with the simplest and most economical theoretical constructs, making it an ideal choice for examining the intricate process of grammaticalization in Assiri Arabic.
Abdulaziz H. Alnajmi (Fri,) studied this question.