Construct state

The construct state or status constructus 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. Forms analogous to the construct state are also found in some other languages, such as Dholuo.

In Semitic languages, nouns are placed in the construct state when they are semantically definite and modified by another noun in a genitive construction. Note that this differs from the more familiar genitive case of European languages in that it is the head (modified) noun rather than the dependent (modifying) noun that is marked. However, in Semitic languages with grammatical case (e.g. Classical Arabic), the modifying noun in a genitive construction is placed in the genitive case, in addition to marking the head noun with the construct state.

In some non-Semitic languages, the construct state has various additional functions besides marking the head noun of a genitive construction.

Depending on the particular language, the construct state of a noun is indicated by various phonological properties (e.g. a different suffix, different vowels or different stress) and/or morphological properties (such as inability to take a definite article).

Semitic languages

In the older Semitic languages, the use of the construct state is the standard (often only) way to form a genitive construction with a semantically definite modified noun. The modified noun is placed in the construct state, which lacks any definite article (despite being semantically definite), and is often phonetically shortened (as in Biblical Hebrew). The modifying noun is placed directly afterwards, and no other word can intervene between the two. For example, an adjective that qualifies either the modified or modifying noun must appear after both. (This can lead to potential ambiguity if the two nouns have the same gender, number and case; otherwise, the agreement marking of the adjective will indicate which noun is modified.) In some languages, e.g. Biblical Hebrew and the modern varieties of Arabic, feminine construct-state nouns preserve an original -t suffix that has dropped out in other circumstances.

In many modern Semitic languages, the use of the construct state in forming genitive constructions has been partly or completely displaced by the use of a preposition, much like the use of the modern English "of". In these languages (e.g. Modern Hebrew and Moroccan Arabic), the construct state is used only in forming compound nouns. An example is Hebrew bet ha-sefer "the school", lit. "the house of the book"; bet is the construct state of bayit "house". To actually say "the house of the book", Modern Hebrew would say ha-bayit shel ha-sefer, which corresponds word-for-word with English "the house of the book".

Arabic

In Arabic grammar, the particular genitive construction where the construct state is used is called al-ʼiḍāfah (الإضافة; lit. "addition, annexion"). The construct is one of the three grammatical states of nouns in Arabic, the other two being the indefinite state and the definite state. Concretely, the three states compare like this:

Different noun states in Classical Arabic, using the noun malikah "queen"

State	Noun form	Meaning	Example	Meaning
Indefinite	malikatun	"a queen"	malikatun ǧamilatun	"a beautiful queen"
Definite	al-malikatu	"the queen"	al-malikatu l-ǧamilatu	"the beautiful queen"
Construct	malikatu	"the queen of ..."	malikatu l-baladi l-ǧamilatu	"the beautiful queen of the country"

Different noun states in Egyptian Arabic, using the noun malika "queen"

State	Noun form	Meaning	Example	Meaning
Indefinite	malika	"a queen"	malika ǧamila	"a beautiful queen"
Definite	il-malika	"the queen"	il-malika l-ǧamila	"the beautiful queen"
Construct	malik(i)t	"the queen of ..."	malikt il-balad il-ǧamila	"the beautiful queen of the country"

In Classical Arabic, words in the construct state are semantically definite. Nonetheless, they do not occur with the definite article al; nor do they receive the indefinite suffix -n (nunation). Some words also have a different suffix in the construct state, for example masculine plural mudarrisūna "teachers" vs. mudarrisū "the teachers of ...". Formal Classical Arabic uses the feminine marker -t in all circumstances other than before a pause, but the normal spoken form of the literary language omits it except in a construct-state noun. This usage follows the colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic.

In the spoken varieties of Arabic, the use of the construct state has varying levels of productivity. In conservative varieties (e.g. Gulf Arabic), it is still extremely productive. In Egyptian Arabic, both the construct state and the particle bitāʿ "of" can be used, e.g. kitāb Muḥammad "Muhammad's book" or al-kitāb bitāʿ Muḥammad "the book of Muhammad". In Moroccan Arabic, the construct state is used only in forming compound nouns; in all other cases, dyal "of" or d- "of" is used. In all these varieties, the longer form with the "of" particle (a periphrastic form) is the normal usage in more complicated constructions (e.g. with an adjective qualifying the head noun, as in the above example "the beautiful queen of the nation") or with nouns marked with a dual or sound plural suffix.

Aramaic

In Syriac Aramaic the construct state evolved much in the same way as in Modern Hebrew, becoming a relic by the time of the Peshitta.

Berber

In Berber, the construct state is used for the possessor, for objects of prepositions, nouns following numerals, and subjects occurring before their verb (modified from the normal VSO order).

In some cases, (not) applying the construct state could completely alter the meaning of the phrase. The Berber particle d means "and" and "is/are" in English. Also, many Berber verbs are both transitive and intransitive. In the intransitive case, the construct state is required for the subject.

Examples:

• Taddart n urgaz — lit. "The house of the man" — (instead of: "Taddart n argaz).
• Aghyul d userdun — lit. "The donkey and the mule" — (instead of: Aghyul d aserdun, which means: The donkey is a mule).
• Udem n temghart — lit. "The face of the woman" — (instead of: Udem n tamghart).
• Afus deg ufus — lit. "Hand in hand" — (instead of: Afus deg afus)
• Semmust n terbatin — lit. "Five girls" — (instead of: Semmust n tirbatin).
• Icca ufunas — "The bull has eaten" — (while "Icca afunas" means: He ate a bull).

Dholuo

The Dholuo language (one of the Luo languages) shows alternations between voiced and voiceless states of the final consonant of a noun stem.^[1] In the construct state (the form that means 'hill of', 'stick of', etc.) the voicing of the final consonant is switched from the absolute state. (There are also often vowel alternations that are independent of consonant mutation.)

• ɡɔt 'hill' (abs.), god (const.)
• lʊθ 'stick' (abs.), luð (const.)
• kɪdo 'appearance' (abs.), kit (const.)
• tʃoɡo 'bone' (abs.), tʃok (const.)
• buk 'book' (abs.), bug (const.)
• kɪtabu 'book' (abs.), kɪtap (const.)

Hebrew

In Hebrew grammar, the construct state is known as smikhut ([smiˈχut]) (סמיכות, lit. "support" (the noun), "adjacency"). Simply put, smikhut consists of combining two nouns, often with the second noun combined with the definite article, to create a third noun.

בַית — [ˈbajit] — "(a) house"

הבַית — [ha-ˈbajit] — "the house"

בֵית — [bet] — "house-of"

ספר — [ˈsefeʁ] — "(a) book"

בֵית ספר — [bet ˈsefeʁ] — "(a) school" (literally "house(-of) book")

בֵית הספר — [bet ha-ˈsefeʁ] — "the school" (formal; literally "house(-of) the book")

הבֵית ספר — [ha-bet-ˈsefeʁ] — "the school" (colloquial, high-grade cohesion (bet-sefer as a single lexical unit); literally "the house(-of) book")

עוגה — [uˈɡa] — "cake" (feminine)

גבינה — [ɡviˈna] — "cheese"

עוגת גבינה — [uˈɡat ɡviˈna] — "cheesecake"

דיבור — [diˈbuʁ] — "speech" (an example for a noun for which the smikhut-form is identical to the regular form)

חופש — [ˈħofeʃ] — "freedom"

חופש הדיבור — [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, the construct state indicating possession is not productive in Modern Israeli Hebrew. Compare the Classical Hebrew construct state [em ha-ˈjeled] ('child's mother') with the more analytic Modern Hebrew phrase [haˈima ʃel ha-ˈjeled].^[2][3]

Modern Israeli Hebrew grammar makes extensive use of the preposition shel (evolved as a contraction of she-le- "which is (belonging) to") to mean both "of" and "belonging to", thus almost completely avoiding the construct state except in a limited set of fixed terms, expressions, titles and names.

See also

• Compound (linguistics)
• Definiteness

References

1. ^ Stafford, R. (1967). The Luo language. Nairobi: Longmans. 
2. ^ 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').
3. ^ Gemination is not transcribed, e.g. [haˈimma], because it is almost never realized in Modern Hebrew.