THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOME BIBLICAL TOPONYMS

2002 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-349
Author(s):  
S. Noah Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Long Period

AbstractBiblical Hebrew like other languages exhibits diachronic linguistic changes. One such linguistic change observable in the Hebrew Bible is the use of the definite article in the development of some biblical toponyms. What is behind the different forms of the same place-name, such as 'the Mount Gilboa' ( ) in 1 Sam. xxxi 1 vs. 'Mount Gilboa' ( ) in 1 Ch. x 1? It is observed that the use or absence of the article is by no means an accident but the result of a semantic change over a long period of use by the linguistic community. Furthermore, the use of the article in the development of toponyms shows the relative dates of writing of biblical books. The outcome of the study indicates the archaic character of the books of the Pentateuch and Joshua, and relative late dates of writing of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.

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).

Sickness and Healing

2020 ◽  
pp. 310-325
Author(s):  
Deborah Rooke
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
At Home

Following some methodological remarks the chapter briefly reviews the vocabulary of sickness used in the biblical Hebrew text. It then examines instances of sickness and healing that are described in the Hebrew Bible, in order to establish how sickness is understood and how ritual might therefore relate to it. Aspects considered include the relationship between sickness and sin; whether and how YHWH is involved in causing sickness; epidemics versus individual cases of sickness; and instances of ritual action, broadly understood, that are used to address sickness-related issues. Such instances of ritual action include consulting a functionary such as a priest or prophet, and performing ritual laments and prayers either at home or at a shrine. Two instances of concerns relating to childbearing are also considered, both of which are pictured in the context of ritual action at a shrine.

Biblical Quotations in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls and Their Contribution to the Study of the Babylonian Reading Tradition

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Dorota Molin
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Biblical Hebrew

Dorota Molin’s article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from the sixth–seventh centuries CE for the study of the pre-Masoretic Babylonian reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Biblical quotations within these bowls constitute the only direct documentation of Biblical Hebrew from Babylonia at that time. The phonetic spelling of the quotations provides much information about their pronunciation. In a series of case studies Molin shows that the pronunciation of the quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. She also demonstrates that they reflect interference from the Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants, and that the writers drew from an oral tradition of the Hebrew Bible.

“International” forms of Biblical Hebrew personal names

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
Tsvi Sadan
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Morphological Adaptation ◽  
Personal Names

The present study attempts to examine what presumably guided Zamenhof in choosing “international” forms for Biblical Hebrew personal names when he translated the whole Hebrew Bible into Esperanto. A comparison of these names graphically and phonetically with their equivalents in eight possible source languages, i.e., Hebrew, Latin, Italian, French, English, German, Polish and Russian, reveals a preference for Hebrew, German and Polish forms in descending order as possible etymons ascribable to Zamenhof’s own linguistic background. The morphological adaptation of these names is conditioned by the phonetic characteristics of their etymons.

Anchoring world and time in biblical Hebrew

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
GALIA HATAV
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Actual World ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
The Other ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Reference Time ◽  
Three Components

One of the most puzzling issues in biblical Hebrew has been its verbal system. In this article, I deal with one of the forms, namely wayyiqtol, suggesting that its meaning is compositional, calculated from three components: a verbal base and two morphemes. The verbal base is shown to be modal, involving quantification over possible worlds. The two morphemes prefixed to the verbal base restrict its modal nature. One morpheme functions like the definite article in a noun phrase; it picks out one of the possible worlds, the familiar actual world (Wo), and anchors the event into it. The other morpheme builds a reference-time, locating the event in time.

Phraseme zu Haus und Hof in der deutschen Sprachgeschichte

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-64
Author(s):  
Bock Bettina ◽  
Manerowa Kristina
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Central Element ◽  
List Type ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Language History ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
The One

Abstract Cultural and social change goes hand in hand with linguistic change, especially in the form of semantic change, but also as phraseological change. The following questions are addressed in this article: What happens to phrasemes when a fixed component of them is undergoing semantic change? And what happens when the meaning of a phraseme as a whole changes? Which connections between cultural-social and phraseological change become visible? Using German phrasemes from the semantic field “home” as an example, seven possible cases of the connection between semantic and phraseological change are examined: The components of a phraseme and the phraseme as a whole do not change in essential areas of their semantics and prototypicality A component of a phraseme changes its meaning regarding one or more prototypical features, but the phraseme as a whole retains its meaning A component of a phraseme changes its meaning prototypically and the phraseme gains a new overall meaning The components of a phraseme do not change with respect to their prototypicality, but the phraseme as a whole does A phraseme dies out, although the components survive A component dies out, but the phraseme itself lives on One component changes and the phraseme dies out. Methodologically, the etymology of semantic fields and linguoculturology also play a role in the examination. The semantic field “home” offers itself for the analysis in a special way, as the home has been a central element of human life through the ages, which on the one hand shows a great stability as a concept, but on the other hand is exposed to innovations again and again. Accordingly, the examples cover the entire period of German language history from Old High German to evidences from the 21st century.

“My Thoughts Are (Not) Your Thoughts.” Transposed Second-Order Thinking in the Hebrew Bible

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Gericke
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Twilight Zone ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ways Of Thinking

Following 19th-century distinctions between Hellenism and Hebraism, many popular 20th-century histories of Western philosophy assigned the intellectual world of the Hebrew Bible to a twilight zone between late mythological and early philosophical ways of thinking. Partly in response to this, research in Semitic languages during that time began to include comparative-linguistic arguments hoping to demonstrate radical structural incommensurability between Hebrew and Greek ways of thinking. In the latest trend in the associated research, a multi-disciplinary dialogue has been initiated on the subject of “second-order thinking” within the ancient Near East “before” or “outside” Greek philosophy. In this article, the author aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion by suggesting that Biblical Hebrew as religious language already presupposes an intricate variety of transposed second-order thinking.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document