The Verb שָׁאַף in Biblical Hebrew

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Noah W. D. Crabtree
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
Semantic Expansion

Abstract Biblical Hebrew lexicons unanimously present the basic meaning of the verb שׁאף as “pant, snuff.” Absent etymological evidence, however, the lexical value of the verb hangs on the contextual interpretation of three attestations where the verb has not undergone semantic expansion: Isa 42:14; Jer 2:24; 14:6. Fresh analysis of the philological evidence garners support for an alternate interpretation of שׁאף רוח in Jer 2:24; 14:6 as “bray, cry out” and suggests that ואשׁאף in Isa 42:14 constitutes an elliptical form of the phrase with the same meaning. This new semantic understanding in turn allows for a reanalysis of derived meanings, furnishing a revised understanding of the verb שׁאף.

A Case for Grace? Case-Grammar, Frame-Semantics, and Biblical Hebrew חֵן

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Carsten Ziegert
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Case Grammar ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
Biblical Texts

Abstract The traditional rendering “grace” for חֵן is controversial. Frame semantics, a theory originating in cognitive linguistics, anticipates that prototypical situations are evoked in language users’ minds each time a word is used. Thus, a “frame” for “חֵן situations” is reconstructed from Biblical texts. Apart from the basic meaning “beauty” which is offered in dictionaries, too, an extended meaning is presented: חֵן designates “the settling of a (potential) conflict between two parties that only one party can bring to a conclusion.”

A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill T. Arnold ◽  
John H. Choi
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Hebrew

A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill T. Arnold ◽  
John H. Choi
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Hebrew

The Table of Grammar: Lqr't as Test Case

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. H. Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Evolutionary Growth ◽  
Content Item

Biblical Hebrew lqr't is situated at the intersection of grammatical categories as a content item and a function word. The analysis of any given token is confounded by this diversity and its variously encoded denotations: the infinitive construct “to meet” and the polysemous prepositions, the directional TOWARD and the adversative AGAINST. The usage in Exodus 14:27 (wmsrym nsym lqr'tw) prompts a number of different analyses. Interpretations include: hoi de aigyptioi ephygon hypo to hydor (LXX); wmsry' -'rqyn lqwblh (Peshitta); fugientibusque Ægyptiis occurrerunt aquæ (Vulgate); “the Egyptians fled at its approach” (NJPS); “the Egyptians fled before it” (NRSV); and “the Egyptians were fleeing toward it” (NIV). This study examines lqr't by comparing a range of grammatical methods. These approaches centre evolutionary growth (philology), syntagmatic and paradigmatic features (structuralism), functional usage (eclectic linguistics), and cross-linguistic development (grammaticalisation) in order to explore questions of the origin, development, and usage of lqr't. The combined approaches help to situate and construct an archaeology of linguistic knowledge and a genealogy of philological change of language and text.

Finding Missing Objects in Biblical Hebrew (with an Appendix on Missing Subjects)

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Cook
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Syntactic Status ◽  
Object Marking

Missing object complements are significant for the grammar and the lexicon. An explanation is called for of their syntactic status, the basis for their “recovery” or interpretation in discourse, constrictions on what type of objects may be missing, and their information-structure status in the context of object marking more generally. In this essay I present a taxonomy of missing complements in Biblical Hebrew from the perspective of information structure, focusing especially on the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic bases of their interpretation in the discourse. In an appendix I briefly explore the applicability of this taxonomy of missing objects to explain the interpretation of missing subjects in Biblical Hebrew discourse.

New Directions in the Computational Analysis of Biblical Hebrew Grammar

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Miller-Naudé ◽  
Jacobus A Naudé
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
North American ◽  
Computational Analysis ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
European Database ◽  
New Directions ◽  
African Context

The concern of the paper is to highlight how computational analysis of Biblical Hebrew grammar can now be done in very sophisticated ways and with insightful results for exegesis. Three databases, namely, the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC) Database, the Accordance Hebrew Syntactic Database, and the Andersen-Forbes Syntactic Database,are compared in terms of their relation to linguistic theory (or, theories), the nature and spectrum of retrieved data, and the representation of synchronic and diachronic linguistic variation. Interaction between different contexts, including the African context, are promoted namely between linguists working on Biblical Hebrew and exegetes working on the Hebrew Bible by illustrating how exegesis and language are intimately connected, as well as among geographical contexts by comparing a European database (ETCBC), a North American database (Accordance) and a Southern hemisphere database (Andersen-Forbes).

THE BALANCE OF PROBABILITY: STATISTICS AND THE DIACHRONIC STUDY OF ANCIENT HEBREW

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 927-960
Author(s):  
Jarod Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Large Datasets ◽  
Dual Function ◽  
Statistical Tools ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Diachronic Study

In this article, I discuss three statistical tools that have proven pivotal in linguistic research, particularly those studies that seek to evaluate large datasets. These tools are the Gaussian Curve, significance tests, and hierarchical clustering. I present a brief description of these tools and their general uses. Then, I apply them to an analysis of the variations between the “biblical” DSS and our other witnesses, focusing upon variations involving particles. Finally, I engage the recent debate surrounding the diachronic study of Biblical Hebrew. This article serves a dual function. First, it presents statistical tools that are useful for many linguistic studies. Second, it develops an analysis of the he-locale, as it is used in the “biblical” Dead Sea Scrolls, Masoretic Text, and Samaritan Pentateuch. Through that analysis, this article highlights the value of inferential statistical tools as we attempt to better understand the Hebrew of our ancient witnesses.

Two Candidate Approaches o Text Sequencing: An Addendum to “The Diachrony Debate: A Tutorial on Methods”

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean A. Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Computational Biology ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Reliable Method ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Quantitative Comparison ◽  
Curve Analysis ◽  
Single Feature ◽  
S Curve ◽  
Temporal Ordering

In a recent essay published in this journal, I illustrated the limitations one may encounter when sequencing texts temporally using s-curve analysis. I also introduced seriation, a more reliable method for temporal ordering much used in both archaeology and computational biology. Lacking independently ordered Biblical Hebrew (BH) data to assess the potential power of seriation in the context of diachronic studies, I used classic Middle English data originally compiled by Ellegård. In this addendum, I reintroduce and extend s-curve analysis, applying it to one rather noisy feature of Middle English. My results support Holmstedt’s assertion that s-curve analysis can be a useful diagnostic tool in diachronic studies. Upon quantitative comparison, however, the five-feature seriation results derived in my former paper are found to be seven times more accurate than the single-feature s-curve results presented here. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document