Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Søren Holst <sh AT teol.ku.dk>]

You hardly mean D-stem/pi'el is more widespread than G-stem/qal/pa'al *in
general*, do you?? (the statistical appendix to Jenni/Westermann
_Theologisches Handworterbuch_ says 68,8% G-stem and 9% D-stem out of all
verbal forms in HB - it's probably in the English translation _Theological
Lexicon of the OT_ as well).

But presuming you have specific roots in mind, like DBR which certainly does
have the distribution pattern of G-stem participles and D-stem transitives
that you mention, what other stems than DBR were you thinking of?

Your explanation of the phenomenon is interesting. My completely
off-the-top-of-the head and un-thought-through alternative might be that 1)
it was felt that the qal participle pattern has the feel of "the person
carrying out a certain act" (as opposed to other possible usages of a
participle) and therefore fits most of the usages of DoBeR, and 2) the pi'el
participle would be consonantally identical to a widespread noun MDBR =
wilderness, which might look sloppy when the participle has a nominal
function.

yours cheerfully
Soren Holst
Copenhagen