Biblical Hebrew Forum

["C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>]

David,

On 9/28/04 4:26 PM, "David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com> wrote:

> Personally, I don't like the resort to "pleonasm". I think it often avoids
> the issue and fails to give an account of a feature of the language. The
> words "I don't know" could often be substituted for the word "pleonastic".

Exactly. It is like saying the pronoun was "dropped" from this clause. The
pronoun wasn't dropped any more than HYH is dropped from a verbless clause.

> 
> As for your examples, note that they are verbless clauses. It has been
> popular in the past to regard this use of hw' as a copula. However, I think
> Zewi and Muraoka argue convincingly that this is not the case.

How can a pronoun function as a copula? No need to answer this, since it
isn't correct but as Hellenist, the notion strikes me as strange.

See also my reply to Peter and Dave W.

thanks,
Clay Bartholomew