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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Different binyan, same meaning?

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Different binyan, same meaning?
  • Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 09:34:09 -0400

1. "binyan" is a, blanket, all encompassing guideword to designate a Hebrew root enmeshed with personal pronouns for the actors of the deed of the root.

2. I think that "originally" the different binyanim corresponded to distinct parallel developments of the Hebrew language, but that later, as the language got amalgamated and absorbed them, they were seized upon to expand the language and shade the meaning of the act. For example, $IYLEM, 'paid', versus HI$LIYM, 'completed, accepted'.

3. "meaning" is a delicate thing and may depend on our distinct understanding (funny word this "understand") of the surrounding circumstances. Some people claim that they understand the piel form $IYBER of Ex. 9:25 as referring to a "strong" or repeated action, while some dismiss this as an illusion.

4. The Hebrew verb is a state, how it got to be such belongs to the expounding imagination and the science of "realistics". The niph'al form starts with the personal pronoun NI. Who is, or are, this NI? In the qal form we contextually understand that NI-DBAQ means 'we (will) cling', for the act DABAQ. In the niph'al form NI-$BAR, for example, means 'it (the body under consideration) is broken'. Is NI-$BAR inherently different from $ABUR, with an internal U=HU? I don't think so.

4. Yet, when I hear about a a person that is נאחז NEEXAZ I understand (as I know what is "going on") that the person is consciously holding himself. For fish, NEEXAZIYM (the suffixed IYM is a condensed HEM, 'they', methinks) merely means (as I observed fishermen netting fish in the sea) that they just get caught.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jul 4, 2012, at 1:04 AM, Pere Porta wrote:

In Ecc 9:12 we have a niph'al participle concerning fishes caught in the
net and we have a qal passive participle concerning birds caught in the
trap.
Namely we have "(she)neeHazym" and "(ha)aHuzot" respectively.





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