Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Dear Clay,

Your question relates to the analysis of BH as a head- or dependent-marked 
language. The problem is compounded because BH is a so-called pro-drop 
language, ie independent pronouns are not obligatory as apposed to English, 
for example. Perhaps a better way forward than the "appositional" approach 
is the one put forward by Matthew Anstey (pp.24-26):

http://home.hum.uva.nl/fg/working_papers/WPFG77.pdf

The position advanced here is that both the NP argument *and* the verbal 
dependent-marking refer. Have a read also of pp.226-232 of William Croft's, 
Radical Construction Grammar.

One of the benifits of the approach is that in the case of pronominal 
reference, pronouns are then not so much "dropped" but "added". 
Unfortunately, however, there is yet to be a serious study of the syntax, 
semantics, and pragmatics of independent personal pronouns in BH - which is 
why I have chosen it as the topic for my dissertation!

Regards,

David Kummerow.


> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 22:39:57 -0700
> From: "C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Hebrew "Nominative"
> To: hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <BD7CF5BD.18%jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> "It seems to be the agreed interpretation of many languages with pronominal
> representation of all core relations on the verb that any noun phrases
> expressing core arguments are adjuncts in a kind of apposition with the
> bound pronoun and that the bound pronouns bear the grammatical relations."
>
> Barry J. Blake, Case, Cambridge UP, 1993, page 52.
>
>
> Thus, in a Biblical Hebrew clause with a transitive finite verb, the
> "nominative" noun phrase might be analyzed* as "appositional,"  limiting 
> the
> subject represented by the bound pronoun.
>
> What analytical benefits might be realized using this approach?
>
> greetings,
> Clay Bartholomew
>
> *The traditional approach is to view this "nominative" noun phrase as the
> subject of the verb.

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