Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 25/08/2005 17:50, Karl Randolph wrote:

> Peter:
>
> I think you are confusing idiomatic phrase with compound 
> lexeme. In the English example of "strike out" one has a 
> meaning one would never guess from just the meanings of the 
> individual lexemes that make up the compound lexeme. ...

Well, that sounds to me like a good definition of an idiomatic phrase as 
well as a compound lexeme. I'm not sure what the difference is between 
the two, except perhaps that a compound lexeme is more fixed.


> ... Other 
> compound lexemes are not so obscure, but still share the 
> property of having a definition that is distinct from 
> either word taken seperately. On the other hand, BYT )B in 
> Hebrew can readily be understood even never having seen the 
> term before, when one recognizes that BYT refers not only to 
> a physical house, but also to a family and )B to ancesters. 
> Neither term is used in a way that is unique to this 
> combination. That's equivelant to my pointing to a cousin 
> and saying "He's family". The same is true with tribe of my 
> ancestors M+H )BWT.
>  

I recognised that these are not the best examples.

> Similarly ML) YD looks like an idiomatic phrase referring to 
> filling one's hands with the tools of his trade. I do not 
> see it meaning "to ordain" as I see it as a continual action.
>  

Possibly yes to the first sentence, although in practice it is used 
almost entirely of priests rather than other trades. Certainly not to 
the latter, as this seems to have been done only when priests first came 
into office, and there is no record of repeated or continual action with 
this phrase.

> One of my disagreements with Reinier de Blois' methodology 
> is that he views each context as being unique, whereas I try 
> to look at lexemes wholistically.
>  

I don't think this is fair to de Blois, but the data I was looking for 
is not originally from his work. I will try to find it and post later, 
but I must go now.

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



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