Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Dear Rolf, Dave etc,

Do you appreciate an Old Master by first examining every brush stroke?
Do you enjoy music only after first analysing every note?
Do you really understand real utterances in your own language, say 
what your family members say to you, on a word-by-word basis?

I don't have time or competence to attempt a proper answer to your 
arguments, but I am quite convinced that you are both wrong! One 
important piece of evidence is that we usually disambiguate homonyms 
in our own languages quite automatically from the context. There is of 
course a case for clause-based and word-based analysis, but the 
meaning of a word cannot be determined apart from the clause it is 
part of, and the meaning of a clause cannot be determined apart from 
the discourse it is part of. So to start with the clause grammar, or 
even worse the word grammar, is what is like reading the mystery novel 
from the wrong end or like appreciating art by brush strokes.

Peter Kirk