عِلْمُ الصَّرْفِ يَبْحَثُ عَنْ بِنْيَةِ الْكَلِمَةِ وَتَغَيُّرِ صِيَغِهَا لِلدَّلَالَةِ عَلَى مَعَانٍ مُخْتَلِفَةٍ.- Define Sarf and identify its subject matter.
- Distinguish Sarf from Nahw.
- Recognize the concepts of root and pattern.
- Observe how a single root produces related word forms.
Sarf studies the structure of the word and the changes of its forms that indicate different meanings.
Arabic morphology is built around recurring roots and patterns. Sarf teaches how letters are arranged, added, removed, or changed to produce different forms. These forms may express tense, voice, agency, objecthood, place, instrument, intensity, and other meanings.
What Sarf Studies
مَوْضُوعُ الصَّرْفِ
Roots, morphological patterns, conjugation, derived nouns, and changes that occur within Arabic words.
Sarf vs Nahw
الصَّرْفُ وَالنَّحْوُ
Sarf asks: how is this word formed? Nahw asks: what is this word doing in the sentence?
A Practical Goal
الغَايَةُ العَمَلِيَّةُ
By the end of the course, students should be able to look at an Arabic word, identify its root and pattern, and explain the major morphological information carried by its form.
01
Root ك ت ب
كَتَبَ ← كَاتِب ← مَكْتُوب ← كِتَاب
كَتَبَ = he wrote; كَاتِب = writer; مَكْتُوب = written; كِتَاب = book.
The core letters remain related to writing, while the form changes.02
Verb Forms
نَصَرَ ← يَنْصُرُ ← اُنْصُرْ
نَصَرَ = he helped; يَنْصُرُ = he helps; اُنْصُرْ = help!
The root remains ن ص ر while the form changes according to tense and function.01الصَّرْف
Morphology
Study of Arabic word structure and form changes.
02الجِذْر
Root
Original letters carrying the core lexical meaning.
03الوَزْن
Pattern
Morphological mould used to analyse the structure of a word.
04الصِّيغَة
Form
A particular morphological form of a word.
- Sarf studies the internal structure of words.
- Roots carry a core meaning.
- Patterns produce different forms and meanings.
- Sarf and Nahw answer different questions about Arabic.