The traditional Arabic grammar of iʿrāb (إعراب) assigns a syntactic role to each word in a sentence. Pairs of syntactic units are related through directed binary dependencies. In the Quranic Arabic corpus these relations are represented as directed edges on dependency graphs. The following tables list dependencies which are used to relate morphological segments, words, phrases and clauses.
Nominal Dependencies
Relations betweens nominals are shown in Figure 1. These include the relation between an adjective and the noun it describes, as well dependencies that relate pairs of nominals (predicate, apposition and specification). The compound relation is used to form numbers from single digit words.
| Relation | Arabic Name | Dependency | Dependent → Head |
| adj | صفة | Adjective | adjective → noun |
| poss | مضاف إليه | Possessive construction | second noun → first noun |
| pred | مبتدأ وخبر | Predicate of a subject | predicate → subject |
| app | بدل | Apposition | second noun → first noun |
| spec | تمييز | Specification | second noun → first noun |
| cpnd | مركب | Compound | second number → first number |
Fig 1. Dependency relations for nominals.
Verbal Dependencies
Verbs are related to their arguments through subject and object dependencies, with certain special verbs taking a subject and predicate as arguments. Imperfect verbs (فعل مضارع) may form part of an imperative expression through the imperative and prohibition relations.
| Relation | Arabic Name | Dependency | Dependent → Head |
| subj | فاعل | Subject of a verb | subject → verb |
| pass | نائب فاعل | Passive verb subject representative | subject representative → verb |
| obj | مفعول به | Object of a verb | object → verb |
| subjx | اسم كان | Subject of a special verb or particle | subject → verb or particle |
| predx | خبر كان | Predicate of a special verb or particle | predicate → verb or particle |
| impv | أمر | Imperative | imperfect verb → imperative particle |
| imrs | جواب أمر | Imperative result | result → imperative verb |
| pro | نهي | Prohibition | imperfect verb → prohibitive particle |
Fig 2. Dependency relations for verbs.
Phrases and Clauses
A preposition phrase is formed from a preposition and its genitive noun. Preposition phrase attachment is annotated through the link dependency. Conjunction particles relate two clauses as either a coordinating conjunction, or through a subordinating conjunction which introduces a subordinate clause. Another common pair of dependencies which relates clauses are the condition and result relations.
| Relation | Arabic Name | Dependency | Dependent → Head |
| gen | جار ومجرور | Preposition phrase | preposition → noun |
| link | متعلق | PP attachment | PP phrase → verb or noun |
| conj | معطوف | Coordinating conjunction | second phrase → first phrase |
| sub | صلة | Subordinate clause | subordinate clause → particle |
| cond | شرط | Condition | condition → conditional particle |
| rslt | جواب شرط | Result | result → conditional particle |
Fig 3. Dependency relations for phrases and clauses.
Adverbial Dependencies
Several relations link a noun to its verb to form an adverbial expression. In each of these constructions, the noun will always be found in the accusative case manṣūb (منصوب). These include accusatives of circumstance and purpose, the cognate accusative and the comitative object.
| Relation | Arabic Name | Dependency | Dependent → Head |
| circ | حال | Circumstantial accusative | accusative → verb |
| cog | مفعول مطلق | Cognate accusative | accusative → verb |
| prp | المفعول لأجله | Accusative of purpose | accusative → verb |
| com | المفعول معه | Comitative object | accusative → verb |
Fig 4. Dependency relations for adverbial expressions.
Particle Dependencies
Certain types of particle occur frequently in Quranic Arabic, and due to their individual nature they are each assigned unique syntactic relations. For example, the vocative and exceptive particles each affect the case ending of nouns that they modify according to different grammar rules. A list of dependencies for particles is shown in Figure 5 below:
| Relation | Arabic Name | Dependency | Dependent → Head |
| emph | توكيد | Emphasis | verb → emphatic particle |
| intg | استفهام | Interrogation | verb → interrogative particle |
| neg | نفي | Negation | imperfect verb → negative particle |
| fut | استقبال | Future clause | imperfect verb → future particle |
| voc | منادي | Vocative | noun → vocative particle |
| exp | مستثني | Exceptive | noun → exceptive particle |
| res | حصر | Restriction | noun → restriction particle |
| avr | ردع | Aversion | dependent → aversion particle |
| cert | تحقيق | Certainty | dependent → particle of certainty |
| ret | اضراب | Retraction | dependent → retraction particle |
| prev | كاف | Preventive | preventive particle → accusative particle |
| ans | جواب | Answer | dependent → answer particle |
| inc | ابتداء | Inceptive | dependent → inceptive particle |
| sur | فجاءة | Surprise | dependent → surprise particle |
| sup | زائد | Supplemental | dependent → supplemental particle |
| exh | تحضيض | Exhortation | dependent → exhortation particle |
| exl | تفصيل | Explanation | dependent → explanation particle |
| eq | تسوية | Equalization | verb → equalization particle |
| caus | سببية | Cause | imperfect verb → particle of cause |
| amd | استدراك | Amendment | dependent → amendment particle |
| int | تفسير | Intepretation | dependent → particle of intepretation |
Fig 5. Dependency relations for particles.