Biblical Hebrew Forum

[furuli AT online.no]

Dear Peter,

I note that you do not entirely agree with the saying that a word has 
no meaning without a context. But you did not answer my questions 
regarding the three Hebrew words I mentioned. Such an answer could 
reveal the degree of your agreement/disagreement with the mentioned 
saying.

In many posts the concept "meaning" is in focus, and if it is not 
focused upon it is lurking in the background. In 1923 Samuel Ogden 
wrote the book "The Meaning of Meaning", and after him others have 
discussed the subject.  If we use the word *meaning* without having a 
definite definition in mind, it may be time to study this subject in 
depth.

Please look at the four propositions below (I use "substantive" 
instead of "word" to restrict the issue a little):

1) A substantive has no meaning without a context.
2) A substantive has no reference without a context.

3) NEPE$ has no meaning without a context.
4) NEPE$ has no reference without a context.

I can hardly think that any linguist would equate "meaning" and 
"reference. So my question is: Do 1) and 2) say the same thing or is 
there a difference? And I ask the same question regarding 3) and 4).

Jo Sprinkle gave a list of  how the NASB has rendered NEPE$:
any 1, anyone 2, anyone* 1, appetite 7, being 1, beings 3,
body 1, breath 1, corpse 2, creature 6, creatures 3, dead 1, dead person 2,
deadly 1, death 1, defenseless* 1, desire 12, desire* 2, discontented* 1,
endure* 1, feelings 1, fierce* 2, greedy* 1, heart 5, heart's 2, herself 12,
Himself 4, himself 19, human 1, human being 1, hunger 1, life 146, life* 1,
lifeblood* 2, lives 34, living creature 1, longing* 1, man 4, man's 1, men*
2, mind 2, Myself 3, myself 2, number 1, ones 1, others 1, ourselves 3, own
1, passion* 1, people 2, people* 1, perfume* 1, person 68, person* 1,
persons 19, slave 1, some 1, soul 238, soul's 1, souls 12, strength 1,
themselves 6, thirst 1, throat 2, will 1, wish 1, wishes 1, yourself 11,
yourselves 13

Do these renderings indicate that NEPE$ has different *meanings*, or 
are most of them just *references*?  So again, what actually is 
*meaning* inside the frame of lexical semantics? Which place do the 
mental lexicon play in relation to *meaning*? I think these questions 
are extremely important, because *meaning* i relation to Hebrew words 
so often is discussed, whereas many writers are not conscious about 
the meaning of meaning.


Best regards

Rolf Furuli


> On 25/08/2003 05:18, furuli AT online.no wrote:
>
> > 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".
> Well, actually I was not entirely agreeing with Jim on this. My 
> point was that the meaning of a word like "soul" apart from a 
> specific textual context may be quite unrelated to the meaning of it 
> in a particular context in the Bible. If you ask some people what 
> "soul" means out of context they will refer to a style of music. But 
> if the same people read this word in context in the Bible, they will 
> understand it in a totally different sense. Not meaningless out of 
> context, but misleading out of context, which is potentially worse. 
> If people know something is meaningless, they know they have to look 
> elsewhere for the meaning. If something seems meaningful but the 
> meaning is incorrect, people don't realise that they are 
> misunderstanding.
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/