Regarding Query: http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-2298.html#2 
 
Emily Manetta wrote informing me about her Ph.D dissertation that deals 
with Peripheries in Kashmiri and Hindi-Urdu.Here is the abstract of her 
dissertation : 
 
This dissertation is an investigation of wh-movement and wh-expletive 
constructions in the Indic language Kashmiri. 
 
Through this investigation, we develop a theory of the periphery, or the 
clausal positions which mediate A-bar movement. In particular, a detailed 
study of wh-expletives and wh-expletive constructions reveals underlying 
similarity of design between the A and A-bar systems, and indicates that 
the two can be understood as driven by the same basic set of mechanisms. 
Empirically, this work addresses the lesser-studied language Kashmiri, 
bringing to the fore linguistic data not yet discussed in formal syntactic 
literature. 
 
The dissertation advances our understanding of the A-bar system in three 
core areas. First, we present the basic facts of the rich left periphery 
of the Kashmiri clause, and provide an account of this periphery that 
employs a single functional head. This account seeks to build on the 
empirical advances of the so-called “cartographic” hierarchy of 
projections, while offering an analysis of the left periphery that is 
compatible with the notion of the phase. 
 
Second, the dissertation presents the wh-movement and wh-expletive 
constructions of Kashmiri, and offers an account of wh-dependencies which 
in which the mechanisms driving the A and A-bar systems emerge as being 
parallel – in a way that does not emerge so clearly from the more 
closely-studied languages. 
 
Finally, the dissertation offers a micro-comparison of the syntax of 
wh-questions in Kashmiri and in Hindi-Urdu. This detailed comparative work 
yields an important result: we can understand a set of systematic contrasts 
between the two languages in terms of the properties of specifically the 
phase-defining heads C and v. In effect, what we see is the same clausal 
topology in Kashmiri and Hindi-Urdu, but occurring lower in the clause in 
Hindi-Urdu (at the vP layer) and higher in the clause in Kashmiri (at the CP 
layer). This lends support to the claim that the specifier position of vP 
may play the same role often attributed to the specifier position of CP in 
wh-movement: it can be a position for wh-expletives and partially moved 
wh-phrases. 
 
Thank you Corina Anderson for drawing my attention to very critical issues 
such as the difference between Rel & Wh , and also to other constructions 
such as correlatives , participial relatives. Her remarks and suggestions 
are also interesting for they question the extent to which an analysis 
assuming a derivational approach can be extended to other structures 
such as relatives.
 
Thank you once more for your valuable remarks 
 
Finally hakima Marouani writes: 
since you are looking for any references that may help in your research, I 
would like to inform you that there is an MA thesis about RELATIVES IN 
ARABIC.submitted by Alzzahri Driss in Ibn Tofail University(2006-2007). I 
am not sure of its great use to you but I think that it may help. The 
thesis is delivered in Arabic.
 
Arabic and dialectale linguistics UFR 
Ibn Tofail University 
Kenitra
 
Thank you Hakima Marouani for informing me on a number of recent works on 
Relatives in Arabic carried out within Chomsky's Minimalism approach 
including an MA thesis about RELATIVES IN ARABIC.submitted by Alzzahri 
Driss in Ibn Tofail University(2006-2007). Special thanks go to Hakima for 
giving me her judments on a large body of data in Moroccan Arabic, which I 
appreciate a lot. 
 
Well, thanks again to all of you who responded , may be I will quote one or 
two of you in my dissertation (about the treatment of left periphery 
Within Chomsky's 2001, 2001 approach, and the approach to structures like 
corelatives and participial relatives. 
 
Kindest regards 
Souad