Status constructus

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. In Semitic languages, 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.

Arabic

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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 mtaʿ 'l-shaikh jamillah in Libyan Arabic for example, with mtaʿ meaning belongs to or related to. 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 situation 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 situations where status constructus is marked is in the dual (both masculine and feminine) and the sound masculine plural (Jamʿ 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, except in very few fossilized cases.

Berber languages

In Berber, the construct state is used for the possessor (e.g. Central Morocco Tamazight babuxam 'head of the house' < bab + axam), for objects of prepositions, nouns following numerals, and subjects occurring before their verb (modified from the normal VSO order).

Hebrew

In Hebrew grammar, the status constructus is known as smichut ([smiˈχut] ) (סמיכות, lit. "contiguity").

• báyit — "(a) house"
• habáyit — "the house"
• bet — "house-of"
• séfer — "(a) book"
• bet séfer — "(a) school" (literally "house(-of) book")
• bet haséfer — "the school" (formal; literally "house(-of) the book")
• habet séfer — "the school" (colloquial, high-grade cohesion (bet-sefer as a single lexical unit); literally "the house(-of) book")

• ugá — "cake" (feminine)
• gviná — "cheese"
• ugát gviná — "cheesecake"

• dibúr — "speech" (an example for a noun for which the smichut-form is identical to the regular form)
• chófesh — "freedom"
• chófesh hadibúr" — "freedom of speech" (literally "freedom(-of) the speech")

Comparison between Hebrew and "Israeli"

According to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, unlike in Hebrew, status constructus indicating possession is not productive in "Israeli" (his term for "Modern Hebrew"). Compare the Hebrew status constructus ’em ha-yéled "mother- the-child" with the more analytic Israeli phrase haíma shel ha-yéled "the-mother of the-child", both meaning "the child’s mother".^[1]

See also

• Compound (linguistics)
• Definiteness

References

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