Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

James:

While I can't speak for all lexicographers, I can describe 
my method.

First, because Hebrew has remained in use, often as a 
religious language that all youth were supposed to study, 
many definitions have come down to us from continued use. 
And as the language remained connected to a written source 
that hasn't changed in over 2000 years, that restricted 
though did not prevent change that later users of the 
language could introduce.

Second, we have the writings of early lexicographers who 
gave the traditional meanings as they were handed down to 
them. These traditional lexica also made a practice of 
listing all words according to their roots.

Third, we have the "scholarly" lexica where comparison 
with cognate languages is added. It is my understanding 
that Gesenius was the founder of this method. BDB and 
most modern lexica practice such comparisons.

Fourth, there is the lexica based on semantic domains. 
That is looking at each use and determining what the 
meaning is for that use. (Renier, correct me if I got 
this wrong)

As for me, I never intended to become a lexicographer, nor 
to write a dictionary from Biblical Hebrew to English. In 
fact, it was only by a class schedule mix-up in college 
that I even took a class in Biblical Hebrew, which I 
enjoyed. By the time I took Hebrew, I spoke two foreign 
languages and had studied two more. So to learn the 
vocabulary, I applied a method I had learned to study other 
languages, namely to look for the root meaning of each 
word, what is its breadth of meaning without reference to 
English translation. It is that way that I figured that I 
could learn vocabulary in the same manner as a native 
speaker would use it.

A second aspect of my method is to look at function, what 
is the functionality meant by the words. Functionally, most 
common words have the same meaning even when the specific 
form referred to may be quite different. E.g. the "house" 
built by a Yanomamö Indian in South America looks very 
different from that built in suburban U.S. which differs 
from a log cabin which differs from ... yet functionally, 
they all refer to the same use. By looking at functionality, 
I found that most common words have the same meanings across 
all languages, which make learning them much easier.

A third aspect is to look at synonyms, as it is very rare 
that two words would have exactly the same meaning. I look 
at different synonyms, comparing their usages, looking for 
the nuances that distinguish the use of one word verses 
another. Even here it is rare not to find an English word 
that has a functional meaning very close to that of a 
Hebrew term I was looking at.

Fouth, I accepted the concept from traditional lexica that 
words be listed under their roots, as, at least for the 
time span reflected in Biblical Hebrew, I accepted their 
supposition that derivitives from the same root had not yet 
strayed far from the original, core meaning of the root. 
Particularly when uses of words from the same root were not 
widely used, I make use of this supposition to help find the 
common, root meaning for words.

The reason I learned Hebrew was to read Tanakh, not to be a 
scholar. Part of reading it is to recognize the nuances of 
meaning. So, as I read Tanakh, I keep looking up in the 
lexica to remind myself what exactly I am reading (I have 
a poor memory, I keep having to look up words I looked up 
dozens of times before). When I was just a beginner, the 
first few times I read Tanakh, I accepted the definitions 
(while looking for a unified, single meaning) found in the 
lexica by Gesenius and BDB. But I eventually started adding 
notes first reflecting what appeared to be core meanings to 
help me remember definitions, later to reflect the uses as 
I found them in the text, finally added comparing synonyms 
as I recognized them at the same time as I got more 
systematic where I use the concordance to look up each use, 
then look for a unified meaning that fits all uses, whether 
a broad meaning or narrow.

I pretty much restrict the use of cognate languages as an 
aid to lexicography to words that are used too seldomly to 
be clear on their meaning from an analysis of contexts of 
their uses in Biblical Hebrew. I do not even know Mishnaic 
Hebrew, and only enough Aramaic to read those portions of 
Ezra and Daniel.

This is my basic methodology as a lexicographer. I hope 
this helps.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
> 
> 
> Hi b-he-brewers,
> 
> I have recently been asked by a beginning hebrew student how 
> b-hebrew words have been
> assigned their semantic meanings in lexicons.
> Beyond parallels in sister languages and inferences we gain from 
> LLX translations I
> was not prepared to offer a complete answer.
> Do the list members know what mechanisms were used to build our 
> lexicons and determine
> the meanings of words?
> 
> Further, the student was particularly interested in tracking down 
> the studies of each
> individual word. At this point I really didn't know what to say as 
> it is something that
> I have done myself.
> Does anyone know where records of semantic studies can be found for 
> individual words?
> 
> JamesChristian

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