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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Basic observations on WAYYIQTOL

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Basic observations on WAYYIQTOL
  • Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:42:21 +0100

On 17/08/2005 16:44, Dave Washburn wrote:

...

As we know, Hebrew allowed a whole range of verbless clauses that would be utterly foreign to English. In addition, the behavior of HINNEH could fill several books by itself. So I'm not sure this is a real example of an "abbreviated form" within the context of the ancient Hebrew dialect. Compare the oft-seen response when someone is called to, HINNENI. Considering the extensive use of verbless clauses and the generally verbless behavior of HINNEH, I doubt that this clause is ungrammatical, even in isolation.


I accept that Hebrew sentences can be verbless without being ungrammatical. But what looks ungrammatical here is the absence or elision of the personal suffix HINNEH. But re Gen 18:9 BDB mentions "the suffix ... being not infrequently omitted". So perhaps this is not the best example - it was simply the first possible one that I found.

But now you must get the point of what I am referring to. It is certainly common in conversation in English and many other languages to abbreviate sentences to the extent of them being ungrammatical if taken in isolation. Is such abbreviation attested in biblical Hebrew? I would be surprised if it is not, although it might be hard to prove this of any one example because we don't have native speakers to ask about grammaticality. So I won't spend time searching for any one example which might be torn apart!

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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