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  • From: "George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Boring grammar again
  • Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 15:50:26 +1000

The Piel certainly has a causative idea. I tell my students to think of the
Piel as indicating a heightened action of some kind, whether that be
intensive (eg, 'smash' rather than 'break') or causative (eg, 'grow' rather
than just 'be big'). Of course, some actions have a naturally heightened
concept, and therefore do not have any regular equivalent in the Qal stem
(eg, DiBBeR - to speak, a heightened form of saying).

It's also helpful, as Peter Kirk has already alluded, to see the Piel and
Hiphil as Hebrew parallels (not equivalents) to the addition of certain
English suffixes. For example, compare the suffixes -ise (naturalise, realise
-- for the Americans amongst us, that's -ize) and -ify (magnify, rectify).

Best Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)




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