Four types of status

السلام عليكم and welcome back!  By now, we’ve touched on the concept of how words show their status (explicitly or implicitly) through changes in their endings.  Now we’re going more into what statuses are possible for a word to be in.

َوَ أقْسامُها أرْبَعَةٌ: رَفْعٌ وَنَصْبٌ وَخَفْضٌ وَجَزْمٌ, فَلِلْأسْماءِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ الرَفْعُ وَالنَصْبُ وَالخَفْضُ وَلا جَزْمَ فِيْها, وَلِلْأفْعالِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ الرَفْعُ وَالنَّصْبُ وَالْجَزْمُ, وَلا خَفْضَ فِيْها

The four divisions of grammatical status are: رَفْعٌ (raf’), نَصْبٌ (nasb), خَفْضٌ (khafdh) and جَزْمٌ (jazm). From that (list), اسم’s have raf’, nasb and khafdh, and no jazm, and فِعل’s have raf’, nasb and jazm, and no khafdh.

Altogether, there are four possible states for the ism and the fi’l:

1. الرَفْع (Raf’)
2. النَصْب (Nasb)
3. الخَفْض  (Khafdh), also known as الجَرّ (jarr)
4. الجَزْم (Jazm)

Each of these has a linguistic and grammatical meaning.

الرَفْع (raf’)

Linguistically, it means “to be high and to rise up”. In grammar, it is “a specific change whose sign is ضَمّة (dhammah) and what substitutes for it”. By “what substitutes for it” we mean that the even though the dhammah is the default sign of this state, some words show this state using something else.  Raf’ occurs in both the اسم (ism) and the فِعْل (fi’l). For example:

• يَقُومُ عَلِيٌّ (“Ali stands”)
• يَصْدَحُ الْبُلْبُلُ (“The nightingale sings”).

Each of these sentences has a verb followed by a noun, with dhammah at the end being the sign of raf’ for both.

النَصْب (nasb)

Linguistically, it is to “stand straight and upright”. Grammatically, it is “a specific change whose sign is فَتْحَة (fathah) and whatever substitutes for it”. It also occurs in both the اسم and the فعل, as in:

لَنْ أُحِبَّ الْكَسَلَ (“I will not like laziness”)

The word ّأُحِب is a verb that is in nasb because of the particle ْلَن, and the word الكَسلَ is in nasb because it’s a noun that is the object of the action.  Both of these words show that using fathah.

الخَفْض (khafdh), also known as الجَرّ (jarr)

Linguistically, it is “to sink low”. Grammatically, it is “a specific change whose sign is كَسْرَة (kasrah) and whatever substitutes for it”. It only occurs in the noun, as in:

تَألَّمْتُ مِنَ الكَسُولِ (“I suffered due to the lazy one”)

The word الكسول is in khafdh because the word before it (مِن) is one of the particles of خفض , and it shows status using kasrah.

Note:  Another name for this state is الجَرّ (“dragging”), which kind of makes sense because when you drag something you drag it low.  Khafdh and jarr are interchangeable and mean the same thing when we’re talking about grammar.  So if you see me calling it khafdh in some places and jarr in others, please don’t freak out!

الجَزْم (jazm)

Linguistically, it means “to cut”. Grammatically, it is “a specific change whose sign is سُكُون and whatever substitutes for it”. It only occurs in the فِعل مُضارِع (the present tense verb), as in:

لَمْ يَفُزْ مُتَكاسِلٌ (“A lazy person has not won”).

The word يَفُزْ is in جزم because of the particle ْلَم before it, and shows it using سكون.

So, the types of إعْراب fall into three :

• Shared between isms and fi’l‘s: raf’ and nasb
• Exclusively for isms: jarr
• Exclusively for fi’l’s: jazm

From the Quran

In the following page from the Quran (17:27-37), all that I’ve highlighted are words that are showing one of the four statuses using the main sign of that status.

Some notes:

• All the highlighted letters are ends of words.  If it looks like it’s coming in the middle of the word (like the د in يدك of the second line), it’s actually two words connected to each other.
• As mentioned before, the concept of status only applies to nouns (اسم’s) and present verbs (فِعل’s).  That means we are not checking حرف’s, past tense verbs and command verbs for status.
• If you’ve been paying attention to the segments on the signs of the اسم and فعل, you might have spotted some that I haven’t highlighted.  That’s because even though they do have a grammatical state, they’re not showing it using one of the default endings.

Questions

1. What are the categories of I’rab?
2. What does raf’ mean, linguistically and grammatically?
3. What is nasb, linguistically and grammatically?
4. What do khafdh and jarr mean, linguistically and grammatically?
5. What is جزم, linguistically and grammatically?
6. What are the categories of I’rab that the اسم and the فعل share in?
7. Which type of I’rab is exclusive to the ism?
8. Which type of I’rab is exclusive to the فعل?
9. Bring 2 examples of:
   ism in raf’ state
   فعل in nasb state
   ism in jarr state
   فعل in جزم state

Until next time, السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

 

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