The preposition fī “in” in Tunisian is not really an object marker but a progressive marker. Used before the object of a verb, it means ongoing action like English -ing in i’m doing X. Tunisian has another way of expressing ongoing action: qāʿid (active participle of sit)+verb https://twitter.com/_elyza_elyza__/status/1337700200941559808

Both “fī” and “qāʿid” are locative elements, a common source for progressive constructions cross-linguistically. What’s interesting is that “qāʿid” can be used w/ any verb, but “fī” can only be used with transitive verbs bc it’s a preposition so it needs a noun after it. 2/4

So Tun. has a special progressive construction for transitive verbs, w/ the progressive marker before the object, and a general one where the marker is a preverbal auxiliary. Both can cooccur as in “qāʿid naqra fī ktēb” ( I’m sitting I read in a book I’m reading a book). 3/4

But what if a verb has an obligatory preposition before its object like “ġzor l-X” (look *at* X)? Then you have to use “qāʿid” for the progressive bc the preposition that goes w/ the verb wins: “qāʿid noġzor-lik” ( noġzor fīk) I am looking at you. 4/4