Morphology or word formation is a very powerful concept in Arabic, and if a learner knows the word-formation rules in Arabic, he/she will find it very helpful in their future learning. Arabic is a highly derivational language, i.e. you can make words from the same root by using different forms. In English, for example, we have words like, nation, national, nationalize, nationalization, etc. that are related to each other in form and meaning. Arabic is the same, and there are rules that govern how words are derived from each other. In this post, I give an example of a root and derivatives to demonstrate the power of this concept in Arabic grammar. In the future, I will explain the rules for making different types of forms form certain rules. If we consider the root (علم) ‘to know’, there are so many words that we can derive from it, e.g.
|
Knew |
عَلِم |
|
Science/knowledge |
عِلْم |
|
Sciences |
علوم |
|
Scientist |
عالِم |
|
Known |
مَعْلوم |
|
Information |
مَعْلومة |
|
Informatics |
مَعْلوماتية |
|
Taught |
عَلَّم |
|
Education |
تَعْليم |
|
Teacher |
مُعَلِّم |
|
Learned |
تَعَلَّم |
|
Learning |
تَعَلُّم |
|
Educated (person) |
مُتَعَلِّم |
|
Teachings (e.g. religious) |
تَعاليم |
|
Media |
إِعلام |
|
Information (e.g. info. Desk) |
اِسْتِعْلامات |
In this table, it is clear that all these words are related to each other in meaning, as they are all related to the concept of knowledge. If the learner of Arabic knows the rules for deriving different forms, it will be possible for them to guess the meanings of words they do not know by relating them to a certain root that gives the basic meaning and a certain patterns that gives it its specific meaning. It would also be possible for learners to make words that they did not know before by applying the rules for making the particular form to the root.
4 Comments
Nice table, thanks! It is helpful to see the derivations together.
One of the entires for the “word of the day,” ﻑﺮﻋ , is listed as “to know.”
How are the root concepts of ﻑﺮﻋ and عَلِم related to each other?
Ahlan Robert,
علم & عرف are synonyms. They both mean to know or to find out. You can use them interchangeably in experssions like: did you know the news?
هل عرفت الخبر؟
هل علمت الخبر؟
Some times there are differences between them, e.g. to know somebody, you can only use عرف
هل تعرف محمد؟
Do you know Mohammed?
Some examlples of derivatives of (عرف) are (عارف) one who knows (معروف) known, (معرفة) knowledge, (عرّف) introduced, (تعارف became acquaintances, etc.
I hope this helps!
Salam,
Aziza
“Nice table” is right! Shukran jazilan! Now, I need 10 other roots, and I’ll figure out the tables for each. I knew there were patterns in there somewhere.
True, Ray. There are patterns, and I will be explaining them in future posts. There are dangers in overgeneralizing rules for making derivatives, e.g. some of the derivatives are not in use for all roots, and some have special rules when one or more of the main letters of the root are vowels.
I remember one of my students who was fond of making derivatives for each and every root he encountered, and then he used to check with me and other teachers whether they were in use or not, correct or not, etc.
If you have an Arabic-Arabic, or an Arabic-English dictionary like Hans Wher, you will find many of the relevant derivatives listed under the root.
تحياتي
عزيزة