27 October 2015

Arabic Verb Form VII (7) اِنْفَعَلَ Infa'ala Infa3ala

Meaning shades of Arabic Verbal Form VII

Also see posts on Other Arabic Verb Forms
This post is on The Meanings of Arabic Verb Form VII اِنْفَعَلَ . Usually one or multiple (more than one) of the following meaning shades are applicable in a Form VII verb and applicable meaning shades may differ from verb to verb.
Last edited on : 27-October-2015 and planned to be edited and improved further.

1 . (w)(t) Can be made from root by prefixing augmentative letter نْ before it and giving it pattern اِنْفَعَلَ . Can be made from Form I فَعَلَ by prefixing نْ to it, due to which it becomes نْفَعَلَ and then to facilitate its pronunciation اِ is added before it and resulting pattern is اِنْفَعَلَ . Form VII is always intransitive.

2 (t)(n) . This form has a specific نْ prefix and it basically has a Self Reflexive meaning shade (in which the agent does the action on itself, the action is carried out by the subject towards the subject. Thus the subject of a reflexive verb is both the performer and the recipient of the action). The نْ prefix addition at the beginning can be said to be adding the meaning shade of to itself here. So naturally Form VII is always intransitive. This form has an inherent or inbuilt object i.e. itself, the one doing the action and the one on which the action is done is the same.

خَفَضَهُ (Form I) he lowered it

اِنْخَفَضَ (Form VII) he lowered himself

3 (w)(n) . Form VII can also have an Effective signification. The effective signification differs from the passive signification in this that the passive indicates that a person is the object of, or experiences the effect of, the action of another; whereas the effective implies that an act is done to a person, or a state produced in him, whether it be caused by another or by himself or automatically.
(t)(n) . This can also be called Agentless signification, passive without agent, in which the agent is totally ignored and not even assumed. The passive without agent denotes an action directed toward the subject without saying anything about the fact that someone did it. In other words, it ignores the agent of the action.

فَتَحَهُ (Form I) he opened it

اِنْفَتَحَ (Form VII) it became opened

4 (t) . In rare cases, where Form I is also intransitive, Form VII usually has a reflexive causative signification i.e. causing or making itself become.

دَثَرَ (Form I) he faded away

اِنْدَثَرَ (Form VII) he made himself fade away

5 (h)(k)(t) . Form VII is usually peculiar to physical action and production of impression. Because reception of impression is more appropriate and congruous in what is apparent to the eyes, e.g. breathing, cutting, pulling etc. (simple, basic actions). Usually the Form VII verbs have the impact or effect of acts done by the use of limbs e.g. breaking, and/or are those that are usually perceivable by the 5 senses i.e. sight, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling.

ِاِنْقَطَعَ It became cut (Form VII) (limbs e.g. hand can be involved in cutting and cutting can also be perceived by sense of sight)

6 (h)(k) . Form VII اِنْفَعَلَ is quasi-passive مُطَاوِع of Form I فَعَلَ
(a) . مُطَاوِع is a verb whose (grammatical) agent receives the effect of the action of the agent another verb.
(w) . The مُطَاوِع expresses the state into which the object of the action denoted by the verb of which it is مُطَاوِع is brought by that action, as its effect or result.

كَسَرْتُهُ فَٱنْكَسَرَ I broke it (Form I) , so it became broken (Form VII)

7 (w) . Sometimes Form VII implies that a person allows an act to be done in reference to him, or an effect be produced upon him.

اِنْخَدَعَ (Form VII) he let himself be deceived

8 (w) . The reflexive pronoun contained in form VII is never the indirect object to which may be added another object, but always the direct object of the act. Form VII never assumes the reciprocal signification.

9 (w) . Form VII اِنْفَعَلَ is sometimes quasi-passive مُطَاوِع of Form IV أَفْعَلَ specially in modern Arabic but very rarely in Classical Arabic.

أَصْلَحَهُ فَٱنْصَلَحَ he rectified it (Form IV) , so it became rectified (Form VII)

10 (k)(q) . Introducing new meaning in Form VII which is not present in Form I. 

11 (w) . Table 1, demonstrating examples using root ق ت ل

12 (q) . Table 2

Important Note: 
Best examples for analyzing and verifying the level of applicability or non-applicability of above mentioned meaning shades and for finding additional meaning shades is by studying all occurrences of the Form in The Qur'an and for that you can check relevant examples for this Form in Pattern Wise Concordance PDF by visiting the post:
Pattern wise, Root wise & Letter wise Concordance of The Qur'an
& downloading the concordance documents freely. You can check relevant examples of most of the patterns used in the Qur'an by using concordance documents.

References: When multiple references mentioned for a point, it means material selected from all quoted references more from some and less from others and all quoted references do not necessarily agree on everything. Material is not exactly copied but based on the reference quoted and I have made additions, editions & changes where required :   

h = Howell Arabic Grammar English
w = Wright Arabic Grammar English
t = Arabic notes on tripod site by Hani Deek
k = Aasaan Khaasiyyaat e abwaab Urdu
q = Qawaid Zaban e Qur'an Urdu
n = new indication by me.
a = Derived from other tools like arabic almanac or some other book.