Elementary Arabic Morphology 3
Nouns and Epithets
What is a noun?
What is an epithet?
Can all nouns be described?
What words are added to epithet?
A noun is a word that can be used for a person, یوسف, animal, بهیمة, or thing, کتاب, or a meaning, إحسان
An epithet is any word that describes a noun, for example: کریم.
All apalistic nouns can be described. The derived words that can be described are adverbial nouns of time and place and instrumental nouns. The rest of them are epithets.
Two types of words are added to the category of epithets: a relative noun, for example: بیروتي, and an apalistic noun that indicates the meaning of a derived noun, for example: رأیت قائداً أسداً, and lion here means brave. The epithet must follow the word it is describing in number and gender.