stringtranslate.com

Iḍāfah

Roadsign in Morocco, showing an iḍāfah construction: جماعة أولماس jamāʿat ʾūlmās "Commune of Oulmes".

Iḍāfah (إضافة) is the Arabic grammatical construct case, mostly used to indicate possession.

Iḍāfah basically entails putting one noun after another: the second noun specifies more precisely the nature of the first noun. In forms of Arabic which mark grammatical case, this second noun must be in the genitive case. The construction is typically equivalent to the English construction "(noun) of (noun)". It is a very widespread way of forming possessive constructions in Arabic,[1] and is typical of a Semitic language.[2] Simple examples include:

Terminology

The word إضافة, spoken by a male from Tiznit, Morocco.

The Arabic grammatical terminology for this construction derives from the verb أضاف ʼaḍāfa "he added, attached", verb form IV from the hollow root ض ي ف ḍ y f.[3][4]

Kinds of relationship expressed

The range of relationships between the first and second elements of the idafah construction is very varied, though usually consists of some relationship of possession or belonging.[6] In the case of words for containers, the iḍāfah may express what is contained: فِنْجانُ قَهْوةٍ finjānu qahwatin "a cup of coffee". The iḍāfah may indicate the material something is made of: خاتَمُ خَشَبٍ khātamu khashabin "a wooden ring, ring made of wood". In many cases the two members become a fixed coined phrase, the idafah being used as the equivalent of a compound noun used in some Indo-European languages such as English. Thus بَيْتُ الطَلَبةِ baytu al-ṭalabati can mean "house of the (certain, known) students", but is also the normal term for "the student hostel".

Forming iḍāfah constructions

First term

The first term in iḍāfah has the following characteristics:[7]

Second term

The second term in iḍāfah has the following characteristics when it is a noun:[8]

Three or more terms

iḍāfah constructions of multiple terms are possible, and in such cases, all but the final term are in the construct state, and all but the first member are in the genitive case. For example: سَرْقةُ جَوازِ سَفَرِ أِحَدِ اللاعِبِينَ sarqatu jawāzi safari ’aḥadi l-lā‘ibīna "the theft of the passport [literally "license of journey"] of one of the athletes".[9]

Indicating definiteness in iḍāfah constructions

The iḍāfah construction as a whole is a noun phrase. It can be considered indefinite or definite only as a whole. An idafah construction is definite if the second noun is definite, by having the article or being the proper name of a place or person. The construction is indefinite if it the second noun is indefinite. Thus idafah can express senses equivalent to:

But it cannot express a sense equivalent to 'the house of a director': this sense has to be expressed with a prepositional phrase, using a preposition such as لـِـ li-. For example:

Nominal sentences, noun-adjective phrases, and iḍāfah

Iḍāfah constructions can typically be distinguished from nominal sentences (جُمْلَة اِسْمِيَّة) and from noun-adjective phrases (اسْمٌ وَصِفَّة) by the case ending of the muḍāf ilayhi as well as the definiteness of the nouns.

Adjectives and other modifiers in iḍāfah

Nothing (except a demonstrative determiner) can appear between the two nouns in iḍāfah. If an adjective modifies the first noun, it appears at the end of the iḍāfah.

Modifying the first term

An adjective modifying the first noun appears at the end of the iḍāfah and agrees with the noun it describes in number, gender, case, and definiteness (the latter of which is determined by the last noun of the iḍāfah).[12]

Modifying the last term

An adjective modifying the last term appears at the end of the iḍāfah and agrees with the noun it describes in number, gender, definiteness, and case (which is always genitive).

Modifying both terms

If both terms in the iḍāfah are modified, the adjective modifying the last term is set closest to the iḍāfah, and the adjective modifying the first term is set further away.[13] For example:

مَجْمَعُ اللُغةِ العَرَبِيّةِ الأُرْدُنِّيُّ

majma‘-u

academy

l-lughat-i

the-language

l-‘arabiyyat-i

the-Arabic

l-’urdunniyy-u

the-Jordanian

majma‘-u l-lughat-i l-‘arabiyyat-i l-’urdunniyy-u

academy the-language the-Arabic the-Jordanian

"the Jordanian Arabic Language Academy"

Iḍāfah constructions using pronouns

The possessive suffix can also take the place of the second noun of an iḍāfah construction, in which case it is considered definite. Indefinite possessed nouns are also expressed via a preposition.

Variant forms

For all but the first person singular, the same forms are used regardless of the part of speech of the word attached to. In the third person masculine singular, -hu occurs after the vowels u or a (-a, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw), while -hi occurs after i or y (-i, -ī, -ay). The same alternation occurs in the third person dual and plural.

صَدِيقَتُهَا ṣadīqatu-hā "her friend"
صَدِيقَتُهَا الجَدِيدةُ ṣadīqatu-hā l-jadīdatu "her new friend"
صَدِيقةٌ لَهَا ṣadīqatun la-hā "a friend of hers"
صَدِيقةٌ جَدِيدةٌ لَهَا ṣadīqatun jadīdatun la-hā "a new friend of hers"

In the first person singular, however, the situation is more complicated; -ī/-ya "my" is attached to nouns. In the latter case, -ya is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while -ī is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore, -ū of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to -ī before -ya (presumably, -aw of masculine defective -an plurals is similarly assimilated to -ay). Examples:

Pronominal nouns in most of Arabic dialects

References

  1. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 205-24 [§8.1].
  2. ^ Adam Pospíšil, 'The Idafa construction in Arabic and its morphosyntactic behaviour' (unpublished BA thesis, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2015), §7.1.
  3. ^ Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Standard Arabic: )ضيف( ضاف ḍāfa
  4. ^ Faruk Abu-Chacra, Arabic: An Essential Grammar: p. 61
  5. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 205 [§8.1].
  6. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 206-11 [§8.1.1].
  7. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 211-12 [§8.1.2.1].
  8. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 212-13 [§8.1.2.2].
  9. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 215-16 [§8.1.5].
  10. ^ Adam Pospíšil, 'The Idafa construction in Arabic and its morphosyntactic behaviour' (unpublished BA thesis, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2015), §3.2.3.
  11. ^ J. A. Haywood, H. M. Nahmad. A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language. Pages 36-37.
  12. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 213 [§8.1.3.1].
  13. ^ Karin C. Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 214 [§8.1.3.3].