Biblical Hebrew Forum

[furuli AT online.no]

Dear Peter,

I have often wondered if those who say that a word does not have 
meaning without a context (or is "meaningless without specific 
textual contexts,") have for themselves defined the key word they are 
using, namely, *meaning* . Therefore I ask you.  Is "meaning" the 
same as "reference", or is it "concept", or is it something else?

Would you really say that the bare Hebrew words such as $eleg 
("snow"), )i$ ("man") and QF+AL "kill" are without *meaning*, like 
the word gobbledygook written in Hebrew characters would have been 
for the Hebrew mind?  If these words have meaning without a context, 
would not the same be true with NEPE$?

Best regards

Rolf Furuli

>  about words being "meaningless without specific textual contexts".