Work in progress.
Not ready for study.

7 Adjectival nouns and descriptive noun phrases

7.1 Introduction

So far we have studied common nouns like رَجُل rajul “a man” and بَيْت bayt “a house”.

In this chapter we will study adjectival nouns. Adjectival nouns are a class of nouns that don’t denote objects. Rather they describe some quality of an object.

7.2 Adjectives in English

In English we usually use adjectives to describe nouns. For example, the word “big” is an adjective. It can be used in a couple of different ways:

It can be used to describe a noun in an descriptive noun-phrase. For example:

“a big car”
The adjective “big” can also be used as the information of a sentence, describing the subject noun. For example:

“The car is big.”

But the adjective “big” cannot be used by itself as a noun, for example, as the subject of a sentence. So we can’t say:

\(\times\) “The big is fast.”

We would have to say something like:

“The big car is fast.”

instead.

7.3 Terminology: the describer and the describee

We take this opportunity to introduce some grammatical terminology. The descriptive noun-phrase “a big car” consists of two parts:

The adjective “big”. It is describing the car. We will call it the describer in the noun-phrase.
The common noun “a car”: It is being described by the describer. We will call it the describee.

We will reserve this terminology of describer and describee only for the noun and adjective in an descriptive noun-phrase. So we won’t use this terminology for the sentence: “The car is big.”

Instead, here we will continue to use the existing terminology of subject and information. The definite noun “the car” is the subject of this sentence, and the adjective “big” is the information.

7.4 Adjectival nouns in English

Consider the English word “antique”. It is what we will call a adjectival noun.

It can be used just like an adjective to describe a noun as part of a noun-phrase. For example:

“The antique table is expensive.”

In the above sentence the adjective “antique” is a describer and is describing the noun “table”.

It can also be used as the information of a sentence, just like an adjective. For example:

“The table is antique.”

But what makes it different from an normal adjective is that it can also be used by itself as a noun. For example:

“The antique is expensive.”

Here “the antique” could refer to any entity that can be described by the quality of being old and valuable. The adjectival noun does not require any other noun in this sentence and can stand on its own as the subject of the sentence.

Adjectival nouns are rare in English. Instead, adjectives are usually used when we want to describe a noun.

7.5 Adjectival nouns in Arabic and genderizability

Arabic does not have adjectives. It only has adjectival nouns.

The word صَغِير ṣag͡hīr is an example of an indefinite adjectival noun in Arabic. It describes the quality of being “small” or “little”. It can be used to denote any person, animal, or things that can be described as being small. Technically we could translate it as “a little one_m” or “a small one_m”.

Being a noun صَغِير ṣag͡hīr, like all other nouns in Arabic, will have a grammatical gender. Since it does not end with a feminine marker like ة, we can state that صَغِير ṣag͡hīr is a masculine noun.

Adjectival nouns, typically, are genderizable. This means that we can feminize صَغِير ṣag͡hīr (masc.) to get the feminine noun. We will feminize صَغِير ṣag͡hīr (masc.) with the feminine marker ة to get the feminine adjectival noun صَغِيرَة ṣag͡hīrah (fem.) “a little one_f”.

Generally, the dictionary will typically only supply the masculine adjectival noun. And we are expected to know how to feminize it to get the feminine adjectival noun.

As opposed to adjectival nouns, common nouns are not genderizable. So, for example, if we know that the noun غُلَام g͡hulām “a boy” exists, we cannot assume that we can feminize it, by using the feminine marker ة, for example, getting: \(\times\) غُلَامَة g͡hulāmah. This would be a misguided attempt to obtain the meaning for “a girl” in Standard Arabic. Instead, we have to look up the Arabic word for “a girl” in the dictionary separately, and we find that it is جَارِيَة jāriyah.

Many times times, a masculine/feminine common noun pair will exist, that differ only by the feminine marker ة. For example:

ٱِبْن ʾibn “a son” and ٱِبْنَة ʾibnah “a daughter”.
مُعَلِّم muɛallim “a teacher_m” and مُعَلِّمَة muɛallimah “a teacher_f”

This does not indicate that the common noun is genderizable. Rather, when the common noun masc./fem. pair has a meaning that is derived from a verb or an adjective (like مُعَلِّم/مُعَلِّمَة), then the masculine/feminine pair are co-derived as separate non-genderizable words. We will discuss this in more detail in later chapters, if Allāh wills.

And when the common noun masc./fem. pair has a primitive (non-verbal and non-adjectival) meaning, (like ٱِبْن/ٱِبْنَة), then this is only a coincidence. We alluded to this in section ??.

7.5.1 Examples of Arabic adjectival nouns

Here are some examples of Arabic adjectival nouns that we will use in this chapter.

Arabic adjectival noun	Meaning
کَبِير kabīr	a big one
صَغِير ṣag͡hīr	a small one
طَيِّب ṭayyib	a good one
قَدِيم qadīm	an old one
جَدِيد jadīd	a new one
طَوِيل ṭawīl	a long/tall one
وَاسِع wāsiɛ	a wide one
عَرَبِيّ ɛarabiyy	an Arab
مَشْهُور mas͡h·hūr	a famous one

7.6 The describer and the describee in descriptive noun-phrases

Let’s learn how descriptive noun-phrases are formed in Arabic.

We learned in section 7.3 above that descriptive noun-phrases consist of a describer and a describee.

In English descriptive noun-phrases, like “the small house”, the adjective describer (“small”) comes before the describee (“house”). Also, only one definite article (“the”) is used before the entire noun-phrase.

Here is the equivalent Arabic descriptive noun-phrase:

Note the following:

The adjectival noun describer ٱَلصَّغِير ʾaṣṣag͡hīr “the small one_m” comes after the describee ٱَلْبَيْت ʾalbayt “the house”.
Both the adjectival noun describer ٱَلصَّغِير ʾaṣṣag͡hīr “the small one_m” and the describee ٱَلْبَيْت ʾalbayt “the house” get the definite article ٱَلْ “the”.
The adjectival noun describer ٱَلصَّغِير ʾaṣṣag͡hīr “the small one_m” is genderized to match the describee ٱَلْبَيْت ʾalbayt “the house” in gender.
The adjectival noun describer ٱَلصَّغِير ʾaṣṣag͡hīr “the small one_m” matches the describee ٱَلْبَيْت ʾalbayt “the house” in state. In this example, they were both in the u-state but we will see examples in the other states as well.
The word-for-word equivalence of the above descriptive noun-phrase is “the small-one house” but we will usually give the more natural translation: “the small house”

Let’s try another example: let’s try to translate the sentence: “The little girl took a new book from the good mother.”

Here is the sentence in Arabic:

أَخَذَتِ ٱلْجَارِيَةُ ٱلصَّغِيرَةُ کِتَابًا جَدِيدًا مِنْ ٱلْأُمِّ ٱلطَّيِّبَةِ.
ʾak͡had͡hati -ljāriyatu -ṣṣag͡hīratu kitaban jadīdan mina -lʾummi -ṭṭayyibah.
“The little girl took a new book from the good mother.”

This sentence has three descriptive noun-phrases. We will analyze each one individually:

ٱَلْجَارِيَةُ ٱلصَّغِيرَةُ
ʾaljāriyatu -ṣṣag͡hīratu
“the little girl”

In this phrase the definite feminine noun ٱلْجَارِيَةُ ʾaljāriyatu is the doer of the verb أَخَذَ ʾak͡had͡ha “took”. Therefore it is in the u-state. It is also the describee in the descriptive noun-phrase. Its describer ٱَلصَّغِيرَةُ ʾaṣṣag͡hīratu follows the describee and is made to match the describee in state (u-state), gender (feminine), and definiteness (definite).
کِتَابًا جَدِيدًا
kitāban jadīdan
“a new book”

In this phrase the indefinite masculine noun کِتَابًا kitāban is the doee of the verb أَخَذَ ʾak͡had͡ha “took”. Therefore it is in the a-state. It is also the describee in the descriptive noun-phrase. Its describer جَدِيدًا jadīdan follows the describee and is made to match the describee in state (a-state), gender (masculine), and definiteness (indefinite).
ٱَلْأُمِّ ٱلطَّيِّبَةِ
ʾalʾummi -ṭṭayyibati
“the good mother”

In this phrase the definite feminine noun ٱلْأُمِّ ʾalʾummi is following the preposition مِنْ min “from”. Therefore it is in the i-state. It is also the describee in the descriptive noun-phrase. Its describer ٱَلطَيِّبَةِ ʾaṭṭayyibati follows the describee and is made to match the describee in state (i-state), gender (feminine), and definiteness (definite).

Note carefully that the describer matches the describee in gender, not necessarily in having the same ة ending. The feminine adjectival noun describer ٱَلطَيِّبَة ʾaṭṭayyibah is still formed using the feminine marker ة, despite the feminine describee ٱَلْأُمّ not having the ة feminine marker.

Sometimes, a common noun of one gender is used to refer to persons of either gender. For example:

the noun شَخْص s͡hak͡hṣ is itself a masculine noun but it may be used to refer to both male and female persons.

If such a noun is a describee, then we will prefer to match the describer to the grammatical gender of the noun, not the physical gender of the person it is referring to. For example:

ٱَلْجَارِيَةُ شَخْصٌ طَيِّبٌ.
ʾaljāriyatu s͡hak͡hṣun ṭayyib.
“The girl is a good person.”

See how we preferred to use the masculine adjectival noun طَيِّب ṭayyib instead of using the feminine طَيِّبَة ṭayyibah.

7.7 Adjectival nouns as the information of a sentence

7.7.1 Indefinite adjectival noun

Let’s see how to use Arabic adjectival nouns as the information of a sentence.

In the above sentence, the indefinite adjectival noun صَغِير ṣag͡hīr “a small one” is used as the information of a sentence. Its indefiniteness and u-state is indicated by the nūnated u-mark ◌ٌ on its end.

When an adjectival noun is the information of a sentence, then it shall be genderized to match the gender of the subject noun. The subject noun in this case (ٱَلْبَيْت) is masculine. Therefore, the masculine adjectival noun (صَغِير) is chosen.

Technically, the translation of this sentence is “The house is a small one.” However, because Arabic has only adjectival nouns and not adjectives, it is how we can express the English sentence “The house is small.” Therefore we can also translate it into English as such.

Now let’s try a sentence with a feminine subject:

ٱَلْجَارِيَةُ صَغِيرَة.
ʾaljāriyatu ṣag͡hīrah
“The girl is a little one_f.” = “The girl is little.”

In the above example the subject (ٱَلْجَارِيَة “the girl”) was feminine. Therefore, we feminized the masculine adjectival noun صَغِير ṣag͡hīr with the feminine marker ة to get the feminine adjectival noun صَغِيرَة ṣag͡hīrah “a little one_f” and used the feminine adjectival noun in the sentence.

7.7.2 Definite adjectival noun

Let’s see if a definite adjectival noun can be used in the information. For example, we would like to say “The old tree is the big one.”

The subject of the sentence is ٱَلشَّجَرَةُ ٱلْقَدِيمَةُ ʾas͡hs͡hajaratu -lqadīmuiatu “the old tree”. And the information is ٱلْکَبِيرَةُ ʾalkabīratu “the big one”. When we put the two together we get:

ٱَلشَّجَرَةُ ٱلْقَدِيمَةُ ٱلْکَبِيرَةُ
ʾas͡hs͡hajaratu -lqadīmatu -lkabīratu

The problem is that the above could also be interpreted as one phrase “the big old tree”, and not as the complete sentence “The old tree is the big one.” This is the same problem that we highlighted in section 4.5.

The solution, too, is the same. We insert a detached pronoun, that matches the gender of the subject, between the subject and the information. So in order to get our intended meaning, we will say:

ٱَلشَّجَرَةُ ٱلْقَدِيمَةُ هِيَ ٱلْکَبِيرَةُ.
ʾas͡hs͡hajaratu -lqadīmatu hiya -lkabīratu.
“The old tree is the big one.”

7.8 Adjectival nouns used without a described noun

We have mentioned that adjectival nouns are just like other nouns that we have learned so far, in that they have gender, state, and definiteness. Can we then use an adjectival noun by itself and not when it is describing another noun?

The answer is yes, we can. So for example, you can say:

شَرِبَ ٱلصَّغِيرُ حَلِيبًا.
s͡hariba -ṣṣag͡hīru ḥalībā.
“The little one drank some milk.”

The above is a correct sentence. But, by itself, it is not very clear. What do we mean by “the little one”? Is it a little boy, or a little cat, or something else? So, context would be needed to know what exactly is being denoted by the adjectival noun when it is used by itself independently.

Here is the same sentence again, but this time with some clarifying context.

حَمَلَتِ ٱلْأُمُّ ٱلصَّغِيرَ. وَشَرِبَ ٱلصَّغِيرُ حَلِيبًا.
ḥamalati -lʾummu -ṣṣag͡hīra. was͡hariba -ṣṣag͡hīru ḥalībā.
“The mother carried the little one. And the little one drank some milk.”

So now we can tell that what is meant by ٱلصَّغِير ʾaṣṣag͡hīr “the little one” here is “the baby”.

7.9 Adjectival nouns re-used as common nouns

Sometimes, an adjectival noun, through much usage, acquires the meaning of a common noun. It then gets listed with this meaning in the dictionary. We actually just saw an example above. The adjectival noun صَغِير ṣag͡hīr “a little one” is commonly used to mean “a baby”. Of course, context would be needed to know whether, in a particular sentence, it has its common noun meaning: “a baby”, or its general adjectival noun meaning: “a little one”.

The opposite of صَغِير ṣag͡hīr “a little one” is کَبِير kabīr “a big one”. It too has acquired the common noun meaning of “an elder person”. Here is an example of its usage:

قَدِمَ ٱلْکَبِيرُ وَوَعَظَ ٱلْغُلَامَ.
qadima -lkabīru wawaɛaḍ͡ha -lg͡hulāma.
“The elder arrived and admonished the boy.”

When an adjectival noun gets re-used as a common noun, it loses its genderizability. For example, the feminine adjectival noun حَسَنَة ḥasanah (fem.) “a good one” is re-used as a common noun meaning “a good deed”. So we can use it in a sentence:

ٱلصِّيَامُ حَسَنَةٌ.
ʾaṣṣiyāmu ḥasanah.
“Fasting is a good deed.”

The subject in this sentence is the masculine noun ٱَلصِّيَام ʾaṣṣiyām “fasting”. And the information is the feminine noun حَسَنَة ḥasanah “a good deed”. Note that the information does not match the subject in gender. This is because it lost its genderizability since it is no longer acting as an adjectival noun “a good one_f”, but rather as the common noun “a good deed”.

What if we have the sentence:

ٱَلصَّدَقَةُ حَسَنَةٌ.
ʾaṣṣadaqatu ḥasanah.

The feminine gender of the subject ٱَلصَّدَقَة. ʾaṣṣadaqah “charity” now matches the gender of the information حَسَنَة ḥasanah. So now, technically, the information could be the adjectival noun, meaning “a good one_f”. So the sentence could mean:

“Charity is good.”

Or the information could be the common noun, meaning “a good deed”. Then the sentence would mean:

“Charity is a good deed.”

Context would be needed to tell us which meaning is intended.

7.10 Common-nouns used as describers in a noun-phrase

Usually, adjectival nouns are used as the describer in an descriptive noun-phrase. However, we also often find a common noun used as a describer. For example,

هُوَ رَجُلٌ مُعَلِّمٌ.
huwa rajulun muɛallim.
“He is a teacher_m man.”
= “He is a man who is a teacher_m.”

7.11 Multiple adjectival nouns describing the same noun

In English we can have a noun described by multiple adjectives separated by commas and the word “and”. For example, “The building is big, tall, and wide.” In Arabic we will separate the multiple adjectival nouns with وَ wa- “and”:

ٱَلْبِنَاءُ کَبِيرٌ وَطَوِيلٌ وَوَاسِعٌ.
ʾalbināʾu kabīrun waṭawīlun wawāsiʾun
“The building is big and tall and wide.”

In an English descriptive noun-phrase, multiple describers may describe the same describee, without being separated by the word “and”. For example, “The man is a famous Arab writer.” In Arabic, we can do the same, except the describees will be in the reverse order:

ٱَلرَّجُلُ کَاتِبٌ عَرَبِيٌّ مَشْهُورٌ.
ʾarrujulu kātibun ɛarabiyyun mas͡h·hūr.
“The man is a famous Arab writer.”

7.12 A prepositional phrase separating the describer from the describee

Consider the phrase:

کِتَابٌ مِنَ ٱلْمَکْتَبَةِ
kitābun mina -lmaktabati
“a book from the library”

If we want to add a adjectival noun as to describe “the book”, we may add it either before or after the prepositional phrase describer. Here are both examples as complete sentences:

قَرَأَ کِتَابًا صَغِيرًا مِنَ ٱلْمَکْتَبَةِ.
qaraʾa kitāban ṣag͡hīran mina -lmaktabati.
AND
قَرَأَ کِتَابًا مِنَ ٱلْمَکْتَبَةِ صَغِيرًا.
qaraʾa kitāban mina -lmaktabati ṣag͡hīran.
“a small book from the library”

The first option is usually chosen as a matter of preference but the second option is legitimate too.