Advanced - في إنَّ

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Thank you for your noble endevours

What kind of message you get when you try to download? I downloaded this lesson just now and had no problem at all. Can you listen to the lesson if you play the podcast from the browser?

I’m rather puzzled by the last two words in the text. The meaning is clear, but the grammatical relationship between the words is not. ﺴﻮﺀ means “evil” or “wickedness”, ﻨﻴّﺔ means “intent” or “intention”, and the definite article ﺍﻠ has been prefixed to ﻨﻴّﺔ. The Arabic word combination can be rendered as “evil intent” (a typically English collocation). Now everything would be perfectly clear if ﺴﻮﺀ were a noun meaning “intent” and ﻨﻴّﺔ were an adjective meaning “evil”, for Arabic nouns are frequently followed by attributive adjectives, and the definite article is normally inserted between the noun and the adjective that qualifies it. In this instance, however, two nouns have been juxtaposed and linked by the definite article. Is this a grammatical anomaly or a rhetorical device peculiar to Arabic? And if it is a rhetorical device, what is it called?

It’s just occurred to me that the word combination “suu' (ﺴﻮﺀ) al-niiyya (ﺍﻠﻨﻴﺔ)” displays the same structure as many Arabic compound nouns. A typical example is provided by the Arabic term corresponding to Engl. “wardrobe”: “khizaana (ﺨﺰﺍﻨﺔ) al-malaabis (ﺍﻠﻤﻼﺒﺲ)”. Unlike “khizaana (ﺨﺰﺍﻨﺔ) al-malaabis (ﺍﻠﻤﻼﺒﺲ)”, however, “suu' (ﺴﻮﺀ) al-niiyya (ﺍﻠﻨﻴﺔ)” brings together two abstract nouns.

In such terms "which are combination of two words here" the second word decides whether the term is defined or not.
For instance, the term (خزانة ملابس) differs from (خزانة الملابس), where (خزانة ملابس) means (a wardrobe) while (خزانة الملابس) means (the wardrobe). Same thing with (سوء النية) which describes specific (evil intent or bad intention) while (سوء نية) is undefined general term to any (bad intention).

Thanks for your prompt reply to my enquiry, Ehab. Your comment on the two word combinations highlights three interesting points:

(1) Grammatically, “suu' (ﺴﻮﺀ) al-niiyya (ﺍﻠﻨﻴّﺔ)” is a kind of compound and is therefore subject to the same rules as “khizaana (ﺨﺰﺍﻨﺔ) al-malaabis (ﺍﻠﻤﻼﺒﺲ)”.

(2 The Arabic word combination under discussion can only be used in two ways (i.e. with or without the article). By contrast, the English word combination “evil intent”, unlike “wardrobe”, can be used in three ways: (a) with the definite article (“the evil intent”), (b) with the indefinite article (“an evil intent”) and (c) with a zero article (“evil intent”).

(3) In the closing sentence of the text presented in the podcast the Arabic definite article corresponds to an English zero article because the sentence is a generalisation. This means that the definite article in Arabic, like the definite article in French, may fulfil two distinct functions. It may express (a) definiteness or (b) a high level of generality.

This brings me to another problem, viz. the use of the definite article before titles in English and Arabic. In English the definite article is omitted before a title (e.g. “King Edward”) unless the title is followed by a prepositional phrase introduced by “of” (e.g. “the “Prince of Wales”). In Arabic, by contrast, there are apparently different rules for different titles. Thus, for instance, the Arabic translation of “King Lear” is “al-malik (ﺍﻠﻤﻠﻚ) liir (ﻠﻴﺭ)”, while “the governor of Aleppo is “haakim (ﺤﺎﻜﻡ) uu (-) halab (ﺤﻠﺐ)” (cf. the passage where the governor gives instructions to his scribe).

Hi,It was not from your server.It was from my Internet service provider.THANK U ANYWAY

may u explain the different functions of قد both in term of grammar and meaning.

Ahlan abazgiri!

I dare say you spotted the particle ﻠﻗﺪ at the beginning of the second sentence in the text, where it has been fused with the proclitic conjunction ﻒ. If you go to the lesson entitled “Scout Member” you’ll find my comments on ﻠﻗﺪ and ﻗﺪ.

Arabic particles can be very difficult. I recently came across another particle which, according to Syed Ali, is used to indicate that an event occurred in the recent past. The particle in question is ﻗﺫ and is placed before verb forms like ﺫﻫﺐ. I was wondering if Ehab might consider discussing this particle in a podcast.