Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 12/11/2003 09:54, Trevor Peterson wrote:

> > ===== Original Message From Naama Zahavi-Ely <nxzaha AT wm.edu> =====
> > Speaking as a native speaker of (Modern) Hebrew, this is not actually
> > true.  Native speakers of Hebrew -- and I assume other Semitic languages --
> > regularly invent inflections of verb roots by stems to convey new meanings
> > and nuances.  So do children who grow up speaking Hebrew, as a natural
> > stage in the learning of speech.    Such inventions are readily understood
> > and sometimes enter the regular spoken language.
> >    
>
> Interesting. This doesn't seem to agree with what I've seen from others. ...
>
>  
There are major differences between different native speakers of English 
about how productive such processes can be. For example, Americans 
commonly verb nouns, but we British don't, for us "verb" is not a verb.

There may be similar differences between Hebrew speakers about the 
productivity of binyanim.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/