Chapter published in:
Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew: Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax
Edited by Ruth A. Berman
[Studies in Language Companion Series 210] 2020
► pp. 507–538

Chapter 14
Genitive (smixut) constructions in Modern Hebrew

| Tel Aviv University

The chapter concerns the morpho-syntactic structure and usage-based properties of MH constructions involving two nominal constituents, an initial head and following modifier. Focus is on the three smixut ‘adjacency’ or ‘dependency’ constructions: (i) “construct-state” compounds in the form N^ N(P), where a caret indicates the relation between an initial bound head N and its free-form modifier; (ii) free, analytic N(P) šel (N)P constructions with the genitive marker šel ‘of’; and (iii) doubly marked N1pro2 šel N2 genitives. Usage-based analyses of alternations between these three options for expressing possession and other genitive relations reveal conflicting results, leading to the conclusion that text-type (genre, medium of expression, level of usage, and communicative setting) plays a major role in choice of construction. The chapter also considers two other binominal constructions – construct-state Adj^ Noun and Noun + Denominal Adjective phrases – and concludes by noting more general properties of Modern Hebrew reflected in current use of these constructions.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Constructions analyzed
    • 1.2Sources of data
  • 2.Binominal N^ N(P) smixut genitive constructions
    • 2.1Bound N^ N(P) constructions
      • 2.1.1Morphological marking of head noun
      • 2.1.2Syntactic constraints on N^ N constructions
        • 2.1.2.1Constituents of N^ N construct state: Head nominal and modifying constructions
          • 2.1.2.2Word-order constraints
          • 2.1.3Stylistic and processing constraints
          • 2.1.4Degree of lexicalization
          • 2.1.5Semantics of head nouns in bound N^ N constructions
          • 2.2Free analytical genitives
          • 2.3Double-marked complex genitives
          • 2.4Alternation between genitive constructions
  • 3.Other binominal constructions
    • 3.1Construct-state adjective + noun [ac]
    • 3.2Head noun + denominal adjective (daj)
  • 4.Concluding discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 March 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.210.15ber
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