In Semitic linguistics, the elative (Arabic: اِسْمُ تَفْضِيلismu tafḍīl, literally meaning "noun of preference") is a stage of gradation that can be used to express comparatives or superlatives. The Arabic elative has a special inflection similar to that of colour and defect adjectives but differs in the details. To form an elative, the consonants of the adjective's root are placed in the transfix’aCCaC (or ’aCaCC if the second and third root consonants are the same), which generally inflects for case but not for gender or number.[1] Furthermore, elatives belong to the diptote declension. E.g. صغيرṣaghīr 'small' derives the elative أصغر’aṣghar 'smaller', جديدjadīd 'new' derives أجد’ajadd 'newer', غنيghanī 'rich' (root gh-n-y) derives أغنى’aghnā 'richer'.
However, there are several words that have particular feminine and plural forms when the elative is prefixed with the definite article,[2] although the agreement is not always observed in modern usage.[3] The feminine singular in such cases takes the transfix CuCCā, the masculine plural takes ’aCCaCūna or ’aCāCiC, and the feminine plural takes CuCCayāt or CuCaC. These feminine and plural forms had much more extensive use in ancient poetry.[4] E.g. The adjective كبيرkabīr 'big' changes to أكبر’akbar in the default elative, and then كبرىkubrā in the feminine singular, أكابر’akābir in the masculine plural and كبرياتkubrayāt in the feminine plural.
The adjectives آخر’āḫar 'other' and أول’awwal 'first' also take elative forms even though they do not have comparative meaning.
References
^Ryding, Karin (2005). Modern Standard Arabic Reference Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 246. ISBN9780511114809.
^Bennett, Patrick R. (1998). Comparative Semitic Linguistics: A Manual. Eisenbrauns. ISBN978-1575060217.
^Badawi, El-Said; Carter, M. G.; Gully, Adrian (2003). Modern Written Arabic: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. p. 250. ISBN978-1575060217.
^Haywood, J. A. (1965). A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language. London: Lund Humphries. p. 88. ISBN0-85331-585-X.
elative, gradation, other, uses, elative, disambiguation, semitic, linguistics, elative, arabic, يل, ismu, tafḍīl, literally, meaning, noun, preference, stage, gradation, that, used, express, comparatives, superlatives, arabic, elative, special, inflection, si. For other uses see Elative disambiguation In Semitic linguistics the elative Arabic ا س م ت ف ض يل ismu tafḍil literally meaning noun of preference is a stage of gradation that can be used to express comparatives or superlatives The Arabic elative has a special inflection similar to that of colour and defect adjectives but differs in the details To form an elative the consonants of the adjective s root are placed in the transfix aCCaC or aCaCC if the second and third root consonants are the same which generally inflects for case but not for gender or number 1 Furthermore elatives belong to the diptote declension E g صغير ṣaghir small derives the elative أصغر aṣghar smaller جديد jadid new derives أجد ajadd newer غني ghani rich root gh n y derives أغنى aghna richer However there are several words that have particular feminine and plural forms when the elative is prefixed with the definite article 2 although the agreement is not always observed in modern usage 3 The feminine singular in such cases takes the transfix CuCCa the masculine plural takes aCCaCuna or aCaCiC and the feminine plural takes CuCCayat or CuCaC These feminine and plural forms had much more extensive use in ancient poetry 4 E g The adjective كبير kabir big changes to أكبر akbar in the default elative and then كبرى kubra in the feminine singular أكابر akabir in the masculine plural and كبريات kubrayat in the feminine plural The adjectives آخر aḫar other and أول awwal first also take elative forms even though they do not have comparative meaning References Edit Ryding Karin 2005 Modern Standard Arabic Reference Grammar Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 246 ISBN 9780511114809 Bennett Patrick R 1998 Comparative Semitic Linguistics A Manual Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575060217 Badawi El Said Carter M G Gully Adrian 2003 Modern Written Arabic A Comprehensive Grammar Routledge p 250 ISBN 978 1575060217 Haywood J A 1965 A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language London Lund Humphries p 88 ISBN 0 85331 585 X This linguistic morphology article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Elative gradation amp oldid 1128295245, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
