Introduction To Nahw Part 2 - The Nominal Sentence

Nahw is the Arabic science which states how words can be grouped together in order to add additional meanings. We have already discussed the example of "tall boy", where we have the word "tall" conveying the meaning of height, the word "boy" referring to an entity, and by placing them together in that order we create the descriptive phrase and associate the two entities together. Had we said "boy tall" instead, we would have a meaningless phrase.

Building on this, in Arabic, Nahw (Grammar) revolves around two main issues, and we can say Nahw is entirely concerned with solving these two problems. This lesson will present these problems and give an introduction into how Nahw solves these 2 problems.

What is a sentence?

We have already mentioned that our favourite example, "tall boy", is a phrase because the listener has received a partial benefit. He knows what the information is but does not know who we are speaking about. In grammar, the person/thing/entity that we are talking about is called the Subject مُسْنَد إْلَيْه. The information we are conveying about the subject is called the Predicate مُسْنَد.

In English, the Subject of the sentence always comes first. I am tall. I went to the shop. I am studying Arabic. (Unless you are Yoda). But in Arabic, it is possible for the Predicate of a sentence to come first. This gives rise to 2 types of sentences in Arabic.

The Nominal Sentence -

The Nominal Sentence is what resembles the English sentence, in that the Subject comes first followed by the Predicate. A sentence will also either contain a verb or it won't. In the case where the sentence contains a verb, the subject will always come first in a nominal sentence.

We also refer to the مُسْنَد إْلَيْه as the مُبْتَدَأ and the مُسْنَد as the خَبَر in a Nominal Sentence. They will be translated exactly the same, Subject and Predicate. We do this because for the other type of sentence that we will study later, the Verbal Sentence, the مُسْنَد and مُسْنَد إْلَيْه are of a different nature and so have their own terms.

• الرَّجُلُ مَشْهُوْرٌ - The man is famous.
  This is a nominal sentence without a verb. الرَّجُلُ is the Subject, followed by the Predicate مَشْهُوْرٌ
• الرَّجُلُ ذَهَبَ - The man went.
  This is a nominal sentence with a verb. الرَّجُلُ is the Subject, followed by the Predicate ذَهَبَ

The Problem with the Nominal Sentence

Take a close look at الرَّجُلُ مَشْهُوْرٌ and compare it to الرَّجُلُ الْمَشْهُوْرُ. "The man is famous" vs "the famous man". The first is a sentence while the second is a phrase. You will also see that both have the same number of words. الرَّجُلُ which means "the man" and مَشْهُوْرٌ which means "famous". So where do we get the "is" translation for the sentence?

This is the fundamental issue with Nominal Sentences in Arabic. There is no word for "is" which in English is used to separate between the Subject and the Predicate in a sentence. Instead, in Arabic, it is assumed and understood, and we add the word in when understanding. But we might get confused and miss the assumed "is" and instead translate it as "the famous man".

So, how do we know where to place the "is" in a nominal sentence?

We ask ourselves, is there a phrase level relationship between the first two words كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ? Let's try موصوف صفة. For موصوف صفة, both parts need to match in definiteness, number, gender, and grammatical state. And the موصوف needs to come before the صفة. So automatically we can discount موصوف صفة as the word كِتَابُ comes before كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ. We could even look at the meaning of both words and see that the Descriptive Phrase doesn't make sense here.

So we try our next type of phrase, مضاف - مضاف إليه. We know that the مضاف needs to be free from both 'Al' and tanween. And we see that كِتَابُ is missing both 'Al' and tanween. This tell-tale sign is a very good indication that we are dealing with a مضاف - مضاف إليه, Possessive Phrase structure. We then notice that زَيْدٍ is in the state of Jarr by way of its Kasrah, fulfilling the condition of مضاف إليه.

As a result, we will translate كِتَابُ زَيْدٍ as "The book of Zaid" or "Zaid's Book", and there will be no 'is' between the two words. We are still dealing with the مُسْنَد إْلَيْه, the Subject, part of the sentence.

Okay, so we move onto the next pair of words زَيْدٍ الْمَشْهُوْرِ and we ask ourselves the same question. Is there a phrase level relationship between the two words?

Let's try مضاف - مضاف إليه again. We notice that الْمَشْهُوْرِ ends in a Kasrah and so is in the state of Jarr, fulfilling the condition of the مضاف إليه. But when we take a look at زَيْدٍ, we notice that Zaid ends in Kasratain, it has tanween, which means it cannot be a مضاف.

Next, we try موصوف صفة. Do both words match in all 4 categories? Definiteness, number, gender, grammatical state? Well, they are both definite. Zaid is the name of a person, and الْمَشْهُوْرِ has 'Al', making it definite. They both end in Kasrah, which reflects their Jarr state. Zaid is masculine, and الْمَشْهُوْرِ does not end in the 'round taa' of femininity ة, which means it is also masculine. It is also singular. As all 4 conditions are matched, we can label this as a Descriptive Phrase موصوف صفة. The translation so far would then be "The book of famous Zaid...." or "Famous Zaid's book...."

Finally, we only have one pair of words left الْمَشْهُوْرِ جَدِيْدٌ. By process of elimination, we already know the 'is' must be in between these two words. But let's assume there were more words upcoming and see how we could still determine that this is the correct place to insert the 'is'.

The process is actually quite quick. We can automatically see it can't be مضاف - مضاف إليه since the الْمَشْهُوْرِ has an 'Al', preventing it from being a مضاف. And the two words can't form a موصوف صفة relationship because they don't match in either definiteness or state. One is definite because it has 'Al', and the other is indefinite because it has tanween. One is مجرور, reflected by Kasrah, and one is مرفوع, reflected by Dammah.

Since we have exhausted all of the phrase level relationships, that is where we will "drop" the "is". Our final translation then is: "The book of famous Zaid is new" or "Famous Zaid's book is new".