Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros AT iol.ie>]

At 06:51 26/08/2004, Kevin Riley wrote:

> The construct is usually referred to by that name, but I have seen it
> referred to as the 'genitive' in at least one old grammar,

A useful definition of the construct state can be found in:
Waltke, B. K., & O'Connor, M. P. (1990). An introduction to biblical Hebrew 
syntax. Includes indexes. . Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.

>>In the language antecedent to Biblical Hebrew, the genitive relation was 
indicated by a final vowel marker, -i in the singular and [long i ] - in 
the plural. After the loss of the case system (8.1), the noun in the 
genitive was left unmarked. If a noun preceded a noun in the genitive, 
however, that noun often came to be marked; such a "pregenitive" noun 
stands in the construct state. Formation of the construct is a matter of 
sound and rhythm: in order to bind the pregenitive to the genitive, the 
pregenitive may be shortened.<<




Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros AT iol.ie