Grammar term · Foundations · Murakkab tām — the complete construct

What is a complete construct (murakkab tām)?

murakkab tām
الْمُرَكَّب التَّامّ
FoundationsMurakkab tām — the complete constructcore term
Also written: Murakkab tām · Complete construct · Al-jumlah · Kalām · Sentence
In one line
A murakkab tām (مُرَكَّب تَامّ) is two or more words joined to give a complete meaning — a sentence, also called al-jumlah or kalām, which is either nominal or verbal.
Definition
الْكَلَامُ (أَوِ: الْجُمْلَةُ): مَا تَرَكَّبَ مِنْ كَلِمَتَيْنِ أَوْ أَكْثَرَ، وَلَهُ مَعْنًى مُفِيدٌ مُسْتَقِلٌّ.
“Complete speech — or the sentence — is what is composed of two or more words and carries a complete meaning that stands on its own.”
(النحو الوافي، ج1 ص14)
Understand it

Join two or more words so that together they give a meaning, and you have a مُرَكَّب (murakkab). When the meaning is complete, the murakkab is تَامّ (tām).

The test is whether the meaning stands on its own. The speaker can stop there, and the listener is not left waiting.

كِتَابُ مُحَمَّدٍ (kitābu muhammadin), “Muhammad’s book”, leaves the listener waiting. أَقْبَلَ ضَيْفٌ (aqbala dayfun), “a guest arrived”, does not. Two words, and nothing is missing.

A complete construct is a sentence. The books of grammar call the same thing الْجُمْلَة (al-jumlah) and الْكَلَام (kalām).

Types of Jumlah

A jumlah is one of two: ismiyyah, which opens with a noun; or fi'liyyah, which opens with a verb.

أَقْبَلَ ضَيْفٌ (aqbala dayfun) opens with a verb. This is called جُمْلَة فِعْلِيَّة (jumlah fi'liyyah). الضَّيْفُ كَرِيمٌ (al-dayfu karīmun), “the guest is generous”, opens with a noun. This is called جُمْلَة اِسْمِيَّة (jumlah ismiyyah).

In the language — فِي اللُّغَة

Like most Arabic grammar terms, تَامّ (tām) was taken from everyday speech and then given one precise technical sense.

In everyday Arabic it means complete — a thing with nothing left out.

شَهْرٌ تَامٌّ (shahrun tāmmun) — “a full month”

In Arabic grammar it describes a murakkab whose meaning is complete, so that it stands as a sentence.

Reviewed by Ustadh Muhammad Arjan Ali · Sources listed in the bibliography