العطف بالحرف - Conjunctions with a Particle
العطف بالحرف is one of the five categories of توابع, those words that follow the اعراب of a proceeding word (متبوع)
This post will explain one of the five categories of توابع words, العطف بالحرف. Whereas the تابع in this situation is called المعطوف, the متبوع is called المعطوف عليه.
Definition of المعطوف بالحرف
The definition of المعطوف بالحرف is:
تابع يُنسب إليه ما نُسب الى متبوعه
It is such a tāb’i for which the thing linked to it is the same thing linked to its matbū’
Ruling of العطف
The معطوف will take the same ruling as the معطوف عليه. Hence, if the معطوف عليه is نعت, then the معطوف will also be a نعت. Similarly, if the معطوف عليه is a خبر, then the معطوف will also be a خبر.
The rule-of-thumb is that for you to be able to do عطف, you should be able to replace the معطوف with the معطوف عليه.
For instance, it is not permissible to do عطف in the following sentence:
ما زيدٌ قائمًا و لا ذاهبًا عمرٌو
Zayd is not standing and Amr is not going.
Since قائمًا and ذاهبًا appear to be in the same state, one may assume there to be عطف. However, this cannot be farther from the truth, and we see this upon implementing the discussed rule-of-thumb.
If we were to consider قائمًا as the معطوف عليه and ذاهبًا as the معطوف, then we should be able to replace ذاهبًا with قائمًا. Upon doing this, we get the sentence
ما زيدٌ ذاهبًا عمرٌو (Zayd is not going Amr)
This construction does not make sense and is not grammatically correct since عمرو requires a خبر. Hence, this is no عطف here.
Examples of عطف
Example 1
أو كَصَيِّبٍ من السماءِ فيه ظُلُماتٌ و رَعدٌ و بَرقٌ
Or like a rainstorm from the sky, in it is darkness, thunder, and lightening [2:19]
In this example, رعد and برق matches ظلمات in حال (being مرفوع)
Example 2
جاءني رجلٌ طويلٌ و عاقلٌ
A tall and intelligent man came to me.
The structure (تركيب) of the sentence will be as follows:
Condition for عطف بالحرف
There must be a حرف العطف between the تابع and its متبوع
The حروف عطف are:
Can you do عطف upon a ضمير (pronoun)?
Yes, but with one condition: you cannot do عطف upon الضمير المرفوع المتصل without a separation between them
For example, one cannot say ضربتُ وزيدٌ
This is because زيد is معطوف upon تُ, which is a الضمير المرفوع المتصل and معطوف عليه. However, there is no separation between تُ and زيد. Hence, this sentence is not allowed.
Instead, you can say:
ضربتُ أنا وزيدٌ (Zayd and I hit)
Because you are doing عطف upon أنا, which is a ضمير مرفوع منفصل, this sentence is allowed.
ضربتُ اليوم وزيدٌ (Zayd and I hit today)
Although you are doing عطف upon a الضمير المرفوع المتصل, you have a separation made by the word اليوم. Hence, this sentence is allowed.
ضربتَني و زيدًا (You hit me and Zayd)
Since you are doing عطف upon ني, which is a ضمير منصوب متصل, this is sentence is allowed.
Can you do عطف upon a ضمير مجرور?
Yes, but you must repeat the حرف الجر
For example, if you want to say “I passed by you and Zayd”, you must say:
مررتُ بكَ وبزيدٍ, repeating the حرف الجر, which is ب.
You cannot say مررتُ بكَ و زيدٍ.
And Allāh knows best.
Source: Hidāyat al-Nahw m’a As’ilatin wa Ajwabatin bil Lughatil Angalaziyyah