Lesson 90 – الدَّرْسُ التِّسْعُونَ

Introduction to Morphology - مُقَدِّمةٌ لِعِلْمِ الصَّرْفِ

The relation between syntax and morphology –عَلَاقَةُ عِلْمِ الصَّرْفِ بِعِلْمِ النَّحْوِ

  • Let's Continue to learn Arabic through our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course contains Arabic grammar, Arabic syntax, Arabic morphology and more.
  • The Arabic grammar consists of two inseparable parts; Arabic syntax and Arabic morphology. Syntax studies the structural functions of the words in sentence, while morphology studies the forms of the separate words.
  • For example, syntax studies the noun محمد Muhammad in the following sentences:

Example

Syntactical analysis

Arabic

English

Function

Case

اِسْتَيْقَظَ مُحَمَّدٌ مُبَكِّرًا

Muhammad got up early.

Doer (agent)

Nominative

سُرِقَ مُحَمَّدٌ فِي الْقِطارِ

Muhammad has been stolen in the train.

The pro-agent

Nominative

مُحَمَّدٌ مُجْتَهِدٌ

Muhammad is hardworking man.

Subject

Nominative

كانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أُسْتاذًا

Muhammad was professor.

Noun of Kaana

Nominative

إنْ الْمَسْرُوقَ مُحَمَّدٌ

He, who has been stolen is Muhammad.

Predicate of Inna

Nominative

كادَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَنْ يَنامَ

Muhammad was about to sleep.

Noun of Kaada

Nominative

ساعَدْتُ مُحَمَّدًا فِي الْعَمَلِ

I helped Muhammad in work.

Object

Accusative

عَلِمْتُ الْمَسْرُوقَ مُحَمَّدًا

I’ve known that the stolen was Muhammad.

Second object

Accusative

كانَ الْمَسْرُوقُ مُحَمَّدًا

The stolen was Muhammad.

Predicate of Kaana

Accusative

إنَّ مُحَمَّدًا طالِبٌ مُجْتَهِد

Indeed, Muhammad is a hardworking student.

Noun of Inna

Accusative

ظَنَنْتُكَ مُحَمَّدًا

I thought you are Muhammad.

Second object

Accusative

أَخَذْتُ الكِتابَ مِنْ مُحَمَّدٍ

I’ve taken the book from Muhammad.

Genitive noun

Genitive

هَذَا كِتابُ مُحَمَّدٍ

This is the book of Muhammad.

Annexed noun

Genitive

هَذَا كِتابُ الطَّالِبِ مُحَمّدٍ

This is the book of the student Muhammad.

Substitution

Genitive

  • Morphology helps syntax detecting the proper grammatical sign according the form or the morphologic pattern of each word.
  • Consider the following examples:

Nominative sign

Dammah

Waaw

Alif

The existence of Nuun

Morphological case

Singular noun

Sound masculine plural

Dual

Five verbs

Example

حَضَرَ الْمُهَنْدِسُ

حَضَرَ الْمُهَنْدِسُونَ

حَضَرَ الْمُهَنْدِسانِ

الطُّلابُ يُسافِرُونَ كُلَّ عامٍ

English meaning

The engineer attended.

The engineers attended.

The two engineers attended.

The students travel every year.

  • All these topics any many more will be studied in morphology lessons which will follow In-Shaa’-Allah.