Status constructus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The status constructus or construct state is a noun form occurring in Afro-Asiatic languages. It is particularly common in Semitic languages (such as Arabic and Hebrew), Berber languages, and in the extinct Egyptian language. It occurs when a semantically definite noun (marked by the definite article the in English translation) is succeeded by another noun in a genitive relation to the first.

[edit] Arabic

In Arabic grammar, the status constructus is called al-iḍāfa (الإضافة; lit. "addition, annexion").

The construct is one of the three states of nouns in Arabic, the other two being the status absolutus (indefinite state) and the status emphaticus (definite state; also called the status determinatus). Concretely, the three states compare like this:

  • ˀummun — "a mother"
  • ˀ(a)l-ˀummu — "the mother"
  • ˀummu — "the mother of"
  • ˀUmmun jamilah — "A beautiful mother"
  • ˀAl-ˀummu jamilah — "The mother is beautiful"
  • ˀUmmu 'l-shaykhi jamilah — "The sheikh's mother is beautiful".

In Classical Arabic, words in the status constructus do not occur with the article al, nor do they receive an -n after their case marking vowel (nunation). When the following word begins with an article, however, dialectic and colloquial Arabic do allow a word in status constructus to take the defininte article al-, but only when the construction is expressed periphrastically; in such a case, the above example would be al-ˀUmm mta' 'al-shaikh jamillah in Libyan Arabic for example. The rules of pronouncing Ta' marbuta are closely linked to whether a word is in status constructus or not. This is more prominent in dialectical Arabic where status constructus is the only case in which Ta' marbuta is pronounced t. The only exception to this rule is some Bedouin varieties of Arabic which have nunation optionally in such a case Ta' marbuta is pronounced, as part of the nunation, as t in the case on indefinite state.

Other situation where status constructus is marked is in the dual (both masculine and feminine) and the sound masculine plural (Jam' al-mudhakkar al-salim). In both cases the final nun is dropped in status constructus. This dropping of the nun does not occur in vernacular Arabic.

[edit] Hebrew

In Hebrew grammar, the status constructus is known as smikhut (סמיכות, lit. "contiguity").

  • bayit — "(a) house"
  • habayit — "the house"
  • bet — "house of"
  • sefer — "(a) book"
  • bet sefer — "(a) school" (literally "house of (a) book")
  • bet hasefer — "the school" (literally "house of the book")
  • eretz ארץ‎ — "land"
  • haaretz הארץ‎ — "the land"

[edit] See also

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.