Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Reinhard G.Lehmann" <lehmann AT mail.uni-mainz.de>]

Dear Vince and all,

the common root DBR is no good example at all. Sure you have nearly the same number of participles G (39 active, one passive, and one Infinitive!) and D (39), but you have not a single other G-form of DBR, whereas the D-stem of DBR has 1091 occurences, of which are qatal 435, yiqtol 156, wayyitol 263, impt 83, infin 115, and participle 39. So if you want to measure the relations, measure their whole morphological repertoire, i.e.: nominal forms (inf+ptc) at all: D 154 (=14,12%), G 41 (=100%).
The same case mutatis mutandis with a lot of other verbs, par example BRK (only ptc pass in G: 71, except Ps 95:6 which is cohort G and 2 Chr 6:13, which is wayyiqtol G, but both cases BRK means to 'to kneel').

The problem in general is that there are G-participles in roots that are factitive (or resultative), i.e. normally D-conjugated verbs. But it's reason seems to me more the nature of the participle G (qal) than the Tiberians. The G-participle is in great extend no real participle, but a verbal adjective with dominant nominal character and functionally to be divided from the participle of other stems. For the exceptional role of the participle G confer to the existence of a participle G passive (which could not be the morphological rest of an old lost G-qal-passive conjugation at all).

See:
Ernst Sellin, Die verbal-nominale Doppelstruktur der hebräischen participien und infinitive und ihre darauf beruhende verschiedene Konstruktion, 1889,
Ernst Jenni, Das Hebräische Piel, 1968
Jacob Hoftijzer, Überlegungen zum System der Stammesmodifikationen im klassischen Hebräisch: ZAH 5 (1992) 117-134

best regards
Reinhard

       *****************************************
       Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann
       Lecturer for Classical Hebrew and Old Aramaic
       Johannes-Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
       D - 55099 Mainz
       tel: +49 - 6131 - 39 3284
       mailto:lehmann AT mail.uni-mainz.de
       look at http://www.uni-mainz.de/~lehmann/link.html
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