Construct state
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 is succeeded by another noun in a genitive relation to the first.
Arabic
 | This section may be confusing or unclear to readers. (February 2009) |
In Arabic grammar, the status constructus is called al-ʼiḍāfah (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:
- ʼummun — "a mother"
- ʼ(a)l-ʼummu — "the mother"
- ʼummu — "the mother of"
- ʼUmmun ǧamilah — "A beautiful mother"
- Al-ʼummu ǧamilah — "The mother is beautiful"
- ʼUmmu l-šayḫi ǧamilah — "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-ʼUmm mtaʻ l-shaikh jamillah in Libyan Arabic for example, with mtaʻ 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 (
Ǧamʻ al-muḏakkar as-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 smikhut ([smiˈχut]) (סמיכות, lit. "contiguity").
- [ˈbajit] — "(a) house"
- [ha-ˈbajit] — "the house"
- [bet] — "house-of"
- [ˈsefeʁ] — "(a) book"
- [bet ˈsefeʁ] — "(a) school" (literally "house(-of) book")
- '[bet ha-ˈsefeʁ] — "the school" (formal; literally "house(-of) the book")
- [ha-bet-ˈsefeʁ] — "the school" (colloquial, high-grade cohesion (bet-sefer as a single lexical unit); literally "the house(-of) book")
- [uˈga] — "cake" (feminine)
- [gviˈna] — "cheese"
- [uˈgat gviˈna] — "cheesecake"
- [diˈbuʁ] — "speech" (an example for a noun for which the smikhut-form is identical to the regular form)
- [ˈħofeʃ] — "freedom"
- [ˈħofeʃ ha-diˈbuʁ] — "freedom of speech" (literally "freedom(-of) the speech")
Comparison between Classical and Modern Hebrew
According to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, unlike in Classical Hebrew, status constructus indicating possession is not productive in "Israeli" (his term for Modern Hebrew). Compare the Classical Hebrew status constructus [em ha-ˈjɛlɛd] "mother- the-child" with the more analytic Modern Hebrew phrase [haˈima ʃel ha-ˈjeled] "the-mother of the-child", both meaning "the child’s mother".[1][2]
Modern Israeli Hebrew grammar makes extensive use of the preposition shel (evolved as a contraction of asher le- "that-which-is to") to mean both "of" and "belonging to", thus almost completely avoiding status constructus except in a limited set of fixed terms, expressions, titles and names.
See also
References
- ^ See pp. 50-51 in Zuckermann, Ghil'ad, Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns. In Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2 (2009), pp. 40-67. According to Zuckermann, analyticity in what he calls "Israeli" is also conspicuous in non-construct-state possession. Modern Hebrew favours a Yiddish analytic possessive construction, as in my grandfather, to a synthetic one. Thus, whereas the Classical Hebrew phrase for "my grandfather" consisted of a single word: [saˈvi] "grandfather-my", in Modern Hebrew it consists of two words: [ˈsaba sheˈli] "grandfather of-me".
- ^ Gemination is not transcribed, e.g. [haˈimma], because it is almost never realized in Modern Hebrew.
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