Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>]

In support of Peter Kirk, I would like to add a few English examples to his 
discussion
of transitive verbs.  Note the following.
1. He was singing.
2. He was singing a great song.
3. She is graphing.
4. She is graphing a great graph.
5. They are painting.
6. They are painting a great painting.
7. He was carving.
8. He was carving a great carving.

Are 2,4, 6, and 8 transitive?
What is different about 1Ki. 1:40?  "They were rejoicing a great rejoicing."
I don't see any difference between this Hebrew sentence and the ones in 
English
above.  In both cases, the verbs may be either transitive or intransitive.
Lee Martin

Peter_Kirk AT sil.org wrote:

> Dear Bryan,
>
> I'm sorry, but your reasoning is circular. On what grounds do you say
> that the verb $MX is intransitive? Because of its usage in BH, i.e. in
> the Biblical texts (plus, perhaps, Sirach and a few broken pots). So
> when you find an example in which $MX apparently takes a direct object
> you have to find another explanation. Better argue as follows:
> Hypothesis: $MX is intransitive. Test against data: $MX appears to
> take a direct object in  1 Kings 1:40. Conclusion: either the
> hypothesis is incorrect (and $MX, like YR', can be both transitive and
> intransitive); or there is some other explanation of the data; or
> both!
>
> And I am afraid I am not convinced by your alternative explanations.
> Why can Hebrew not have transitive verbs with the meaning
> "be-full-of", "take-pleasure-in" etc? Different languages vary in such
> matters. You might similarly argue that "wait-for" could not be a
> transitive verb - until you remember that we have an English
> transitive verb with that meaning, "await".
>
> Peter Kirk
>
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