LessonsA Second Sense of Majāz: Case Changes Through Ellipsis and AdditionQuiz

ExampleOmitted headOriginal caseExpressed case
وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَأَمْررَبِّ — genitiveرَبُّ — nominative
وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَأَهْلالْقَرْيَةِ — genitiveالْقَرْيَةَ — accusative

Both examples work through deletion of the head of annexation. The surviving genitive complement takes a new place in the sentence, but that place is nominative in one example and accusative in the other.

Correct analysis therefore requires two questions in order: “Was a word omitted or added?” and “What syntactic function does the surviving word now perform?”

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The common principle in the two ellipsis examples

A Second Sense of Majāz: Case Changes Through Ellipsis and Addition

ExampleOmitted headOriginal caseExpressed case
وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَأَمْررَبِّ — genitiveرَبُّ — nominative
وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَأَهْلالْقَرْيَةِ — genitiveالْقَرْيَةَ — accusative

Both examples work through deletion of the head of annexation. The surviving genitive complement takes a new place in the sentence, but that place is nominative in one example and accusative in the other.

Correct analysis therefore requires two questions in order: “Was a word omitted or added?” and “What syntactic function does the surviving word now perform?”