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Definiteness and indefiniteness markers

Definiteness and indefiniteness markers. Definite article al- ال The definite article in Arabic is spelled with alif- laam and is attached as a prefix. The Cases. The basic functions of the three noun cases are as follows:.

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Definiteness and indefiniteness markers

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  1. Definiteness and indefiniteness markers • Definite article al-ال • The definite article in Arabic is spelled with alif-laam and is attached as a prefix.

  2. The Cases • The basic functions of the three noun cases are as follows: • The nominative case is used for the subject and predicate nounoradjective. • The accusative case is used for the direct object, predicativecomplement in verbal sentences, and for most adverbs. • The genitive case is used for expressing possession and after prepositions.

  3. Definiteness and indefiniteness markers • The definite article ... أَلْ al... is used more frequently in Arabic than in English. One of the reasons for this is that nouns referring to abstract things, whole collectives and generic terms, generally take the definite article, e.g.

  4. Sun and moon letters • The Arabic consonants are phonetically divided into two major classescalled: • sun letters, حُرُوفٌ شَمْسِيَّةٌ assimilating • moon letters, حُرُوفٌ قَمَرِيَّةٌ non-assimilating

  5. Sun letters • The sun letters have received their name from the Arabicword for‘sun’, شَمْسٌ , whose first letter, ... ش//, belongs to the classof assimilating letters.There are fourteen sun letters. These letters are pronounced with thetongue touching the teeth or front part of the mouth: ص ض ط ظ ل ن ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش

  6. Sun letters • When the definite article ... أَلْ /al.../ is attached to a wordwhich begins with a sun letter, the sound ... ل /l/ of the definite article isassimilated to the sound of the following sun letter. Owing to the assimilation, the first consonantof the word is doubled, which is indicated by a şaddah above it.

  7. Moon letters • The other fourteen letters are called moon letters, because the first letter,ق, of the Arabic word for ‘moon’, قَمَرٌ, represents theclass of non-assimilating letters: أ ب ج ح خ ع غ ف ق ك م ه و ي

  8. Moon letters • When the definite article ... أَلْ // is attached to a wordbeginning with a moon letter, the lam ... ل /l.../ of thearticle is notassimilated and retains its pronunciation, e.g. • قَمَرٌ a moon أَلْقَمَرُ the moon • كِتَابٌ a book أَلْكِتَابُ the book

  9. Adjectives • An adjective normally follows the noun it qualifies and agrees with it ingender, number and case, except when the noun refers to non-humans,i.e. animals and things. • When the adjective functions as predicate in a nominal sentence (predicative construction), it is always indefinite, even when the subject is definite: • أَلْمَتْحَفُ جَمِيلٌThe museum (is) beautiful/nice. • ألْبَيْتُ وَاسِعٌThe house (is) large.

  10. Adjectives • When the adjective functions as a modifier of a noun (attributiveconstruction), it also agrees with the head noun in terms of definiteness. • لْوَاسِعُأَلْبَيْتthe large house • بَيْتٌ وَاسِعٌa large house OR A house is large

  11. Nominal and verbal sentences • A nominal sentence does not contain a verb and consists of twocomponents: subject and predicate. The subject is usually a noun(phrase) or pronoun in the nominative case. The predicate may be anoun (phrase), pronoun, an indefinite adjective, or an adverb of place ortime.

  12. Nominal and verbal sentences • A nominal sentence refers to the present tense and does not require the copula to be, e.g.

  13. Nominal and verbal sentences • A verbal sentence contains a verb, and has the following basic wordorder: • verb + subject + object or complement • The subject is normally in the nominative case. The direct object,whichmay occur only with transitive verbs, is in the accusative case • خَرَجَ طَالِبٌ A student went out. أَكَلَ كَلْبٌ خُبْزًا A dog ate bread.

  14. NOUNS - Gender • There are two genders in Arabic. The term used for genderis أَلْجِنْسُ, which literally means ‘sex, race, kind’. • (a) Masculine nouns, أَلْمُذَكَّرُare without specialform. • (b) Feminine nouns, أَلْمُؤَنَّثُhave several forms

  15. NOUNS - Gender • Tâ marbûtah • When the letter hâ هis written with two dots above ةit is pronounced as /t/, exactly like the letter ت.It is then called tâ • marbûtah and occurs only at the end of a word, mostly to indicate the • feminine gender of nouns or adjectives. • The most common way to derive feminine nouns and adjectives is by • adding the ending .َ ةٌ to the masculine form, e.g.

  16. NOUNS - Gender

  17. NOUNS - Gender • Most parts or organs of the body which occur in pairs are feminine • e.g. • يَدٌعَيْنٌرِجْلٌ • There are words which are feminine by nature, e.g. • أُمٌّعَرُوسٌحَامِلٌ • A few nouns are feminine by usage, e.g. • حَرْبٌأَرْضٌشَمْسٌ

  18. Number - Dual and plural • Arabic nouns and adjectives are inflected for three numbers: • singular مُفْرَدٌdual مُثَنًّىplural جَمْعٌ • Dual • The dual is used for pairs, namely for two individuals or things of the same kind or class, e.g. two boys, two girls, two hands, two books, etc. • انِfor nominative • يْنِfor accusative and genitive

  19. Number - Dual and plural

  20. The plural • There are two plural types in Arabic: • (a) The sound pluralmay be compared to the Englishexternal plural or regular plural. • (b) The broken plural may be compared to the Englishinternal or irregular plural.

  21. The plural • The sound masculine plural of nounsand adjectives is formed by replacing the case endings of the singularwith the following two suffixes: • ونَ .ُ.in the nominative • ينَ .in the accusative and genitive • Sing. (masc.) Plur. nom. (masc.) Plur. acc. and gen. (masc.) • مُعَلَّمٌمُعَلَّمُونَمُعَلَّمِينَ

  22. The plural • The sound feminine plural is formed byadding the following two suffixes to the singular word stem: • اتٌ .َ./ in the nominative • اتٍ .َ. / in the accusative and genitive

  23. TENSES • There are two main tenses in the Arabic language. 1.Perfect Tense, 2.Imperfect Tense or the Present Tense. The action is completed in the perfect tense. Alternately, in the second tense, i.e., the imperfect, the action is still continuing. • To form future tense in Arabictheprefix (سـَـ) ”" is addedtothepresent tense verb, or (سوف) ”".

  24. PRONOUNS

  25. PREPOSITIONS

  26. Numbers ٠صفر ١واحد ٢إثنان ٣ثلاثة ٤أربعة ٥خمسة ٦ستة ٧سبعة ٨ثمانية ٩تسعة ١٠عشرة ١١إحدى عشر ١٢إثنا عشر ١٣ثلاثة عشر ٢٠عشرون ٣٠ثلاثون ٤٠أربعون ٥٠خمسون ٦٠ستون ٧٠سبعون ٨٠ثمانون ٩٠تسعون ١٠٠مائة ١٠٠٠ألف ١٠٠٠٠٠مائةألف ٢٠٠٠ألفين ١٠٠٠٠٠٠٠ مليون

  27. Resources • Books • Arabic – Verbsand Essentials of Grammar / Jane Wightwick, Mahmud Gaafar • Arabic: An EssentialGrammar / Faruk Abu-Chacra • EasyArabicGrammar / Jane Wightwick, Mahmud Gaafar • A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic / KARIN C. RYDING • Websites • http://arabic.tripod.com/ • http://www.languageguide.org/arabic/ • http://www.arabic-language.org/

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