Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (reference vs. grammar)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (reference vs. grammar)
  • Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 19:17:39 -0400


----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2001 3:42 PM
Subject: RE: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (was "I AM")

> It's easy
> to say "Because the phrase FUNCTIONS as a nominal, it IS a
> nominal, but it's another matter to prove it grammatically. I've
> already been over this with Peter, and it's clear we're not going to
> resolve it because we're beginning with two completely different
> theories of grammar. My child might use a telephone book as a
> booster chair, but because it FUNCTIONS as a booster chair does
> not mean it IS a booster chair.

It's possible to confuse reference with grammar. Grammatical function and
referential function are not equivalent.

> If I say "Hand me the sky" it is not
> a valid sentence simply because I said it.

Grammatically it is valid, but it's not referential. This is the old thing
with Chomsky regarding the information of a word vs. the reference of a word.
Every part of a grammatically legitimate sentence conveys information, but
its syntactic relationships may negate referentiality in the real world
because those individual pieces of information do not correspond with each
other. Thus, "Ambitious books run brightly," is a non-referential sentence
because the information created by each word does not relate to the
information of the other parts of the sentence, even though grammatically it
is flawless.

In regard to our current discussion, the second and third 1CS verbs function
as a name in a nominal slot, "I-AM," but they can still be referentially
valid as verbs since we have other examples of such ("Jehovah-Jirah," etc.,
but not really YHWH even if it is based on a verb etymologically), and since
we can conceive of the idea of a person identifying himself in terms of
constant activity or the being of something (at least for God). The problem
thus relates more to the grammatical level, since we don't expect a verb as a
name. It can certainly happen, though, so maybe we should consider the latter
two _)EHYEH_'s *referentially* as verbs (in the non-linguistic sphere) but
*grammatically* as nouns (in the linguistic sphere). Does that help?

Dan Wagner




NetZero Platinum
No Banner Ads and Unlimited Access
Sign Up Today - Only $9.95 per month!
http://www.netzero.net



  • Re: _)aSHER_ in Ex. 3:14 (reference vs. grammar), Daniel Wagner, 05/12/2001

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page