particles
Particles are functional terms like negators, quantifiers & complementizers, that do not belong to
any other category.
I have classified تبع as a particle, as it does not decisively belong to any other part of speech;
the تبع structure that it creates is unique in the language.
While its meaning is semantically close to English "of" — a preposition — its gendered forms suggest
that it is not a preposition, which do not observe grammatical agreement.
Additionally, if it were the head of a prepositional phrase, the phrase should be preceded by اللي if
modifying a definite noun — & the term only ever defines a definite noun.
the motorcycle that belongs to the man
On the basis of its genderedness alone, it should be either a noun — namely, a pronoun — with feminine & plural
forms, or an adjective subject to gender & number
agreement.
Normally, nouns can only modify other nouns via iḍāfa; in this structure, the modified term is overtly
indefinite, while the final modifier is overtly definite:
However, in the تبع structure, the modified noun features the article, showing that there is no iḍāfa.
Instead, the تبع structure is itself an iḍāfa structure in which تبع is the modified term; this
is audible in the pronunciation of the feminine form.
Because of these reasons, the تبع structure is best understood as an adjective that can form iḍāfa,
which is ordinarily impossible; the term observes definiteness agreement with the
head noun — which must be definite in the تبع structure — but displays that agreement via iḍāfa.
