12 55 Years of Arab Studies in Romania - Secţia de Arabă

1SG FI bag ruined
„My bag is ruined.‟
b. ’inta fī bint hilu (Al-Azraqi 2010: 170)
2SG FI daughter beautiful
„Your daughter is beautiful.‟
c. baba ’ana fī ’īn ta’bān (Al-Azraqi 2010: 170)
father 1SG FI eye ill
„My father‟s eye is ill [sic]‟
Three remarks are in order here. Firstly, by itself fī cannot be analyzed as a
possessive pronoun: at the very best, the personal pronoun plus fī could be a
pronominal possessive adjective. Secondly, attributive (or nominal) possession is
expressed by juxtaposition of two noun phrases, with variable word order:
possesse – possessor (21a) or, less frequently, possessor – possessee (21b):
(21) a. hada walad ’ana (Al-Azraqi 2010: 166)
DEM child 1SG
„This is my son.‟
b. ’ana uxt fī zawāj ba’dēn (Al-Azraqi 2010: 166)
1SG sister FI marry later
„My sister is getting married later.‟
Thirdly, sentences such as those under (20) actually illustrate the use of fi to
express predicative possession (the have-construction). Al-Azraqi (2010: 169)
herself writes that fi is used “in place of the verbs to be or have”. Finally, the
sentences under (20) are structurally similar to those in (22), which illustrate
precisely this statement, and in the translation of which Al-Azraqi uses the verb
„have‟:
(22) a. ’ana fī sadīk (Al-Azraqi 2010: 169)
1SG FI friend
„I have a friend‟
b. Hiyya fī ša’ar tawīl. (Al-Azraqi 2010: 170)
3SG.F FI hair long
„She has long hair.‟
Finally, fi is a verbal predicate marker, in e.g. future or past tense contexts:
(23) a. Sadīg ’ana fī rūh itnēn šahar. (Al-Azraqi 2010: 166)
friend 1SG FI go two month
„A friend of mine is leaving in two months.‟
b. lēš ’inta ma fī warrī ’ana? (Al-Azraqi 2010: 171)
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