Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Tuesday 31 August 2004 08:33, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:
> Dear Jim,
>
> Perhaps I misunderstand you, because I find it hard to follow some of
> what you say. First of all, not all information in genitive
> constructs is "old information." It can be new information. And what
> you are suggesting, that a clause element has dropped out, has to be
> proved, not simply asserted. In English I can say that a fluffy cat
> played in the puddle. "Fluffy" is new information but represents what
> a genitive construct may accomplish in Hebrew. I can also say, "A cat
> is fluffy." But saying "a fluffy cat" is not a reduction of "a cat is
> fluffy." Rather, "fluffy" is an adjective that can modify a noun in
> this way. If one wants to change an attributive adjective into a
> predicate adjective and add a verb, that is fine, but it does not
> alter the original sentence structure or imply that the clause
> created was part of the original sentence. Or if it does, it seems a
> truism to say that an adjective predicates something about a noun.

Harold,
The problem is that Hebrew doesn't appear to have behaved the same way 
English 
does.  Most adjectival constructions in BH are actually nouns used in an 
adjectival way.  In order to build a linguistic model of BH with explanatory 
adequacy, we have to account for that.  

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No good.  Hit on head."   -Gronk