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- "رَقَم هاتِف لُبْنانِيّ"
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[[raqam-u haatif-in] lubnan-ee]] = "[(the)[Lebanese] number [of a phone]]"?
Am I parsing this right? But why does it come out as indefinite (a phone number)? I thought that iDafaas are automatically always definite... Is it because haatif-in is indefinite, the whole construct becomes indefinite?
November 22, 2019
Yes, exactly! It's because the second part is also indefinite, making the whole phrase indefinite.
If one had to translate literally رَقَم هاتِف, it would be "the number of a phone". In this construction, we can deduce that a phone has only one possible number. However, since the phone is not define, the number is not define either.
November 23, 2019