Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On 5/11/05 8:32 AM, "Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com> wrote:

> It is simply not true that the binyanim dictate semantic sense.  So to
> say that "Piel [is] a heightened action of some kind," or that "Piel
> [is] the imposition of a state (adjectival)..." is to do everyone a
> disservice.
> 
> In both modern and ancient Hebrew, each binyan tends to cluster around
> a set of meanings, but the clustering is not absolute.  Some people
> therefore conclude that there are "rules and lots of exceptions," but
> I don't find that approach helpful or accurate, both because the rules
> tend to be complicated, and because the exceptions outnumber the
> non-exceptions.

Yes yes, and while your at it could you please post something for the Greek
students/scholars along the same lines. This is what I have been harping on
for eons while getting nothing but abuse from the advocates of traditional
grammar.  

 
> Furthermore, the belief in semantic rules that accompany the binyanim
> leads to (sometimes severe) misunderstandings of the Hebrew words,
> because people try to force their wrong notions of the semantic import
> of the binyanim onto the words.

Again yes. 



Clay Bartholomew