Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Karl wrote:-

>While I'm consistent in claiming that each
>word within its linguistic semantic domain
>has one meaning,

I'm curious how your theory handles situations where
the writer is deliberately creating double-meanings,
ambiguities, and puns. We discussed one very recently
about David and Uriah where a list member quoted Sternberg
to suggested the writer of the text was intentionally
creating a story where it is possible to understand it
with Uriah knowing David had gotten his wife pregnant
and also with Uriah not knowing of David's wrong doing.
Here the ambiguity is result of good writing not sloppiness.

If my memory serves me correctly (I don't have a Hebrew text at
work) another is Gen 16:2 where Sarah is wanting a son through Hagar,
yet the text does not explicitly say so. That meaning comes from
understanding the word play, which I recall as depending on a single
word. In one sense it means to be built up, but it also means Sarai
wants a son through Hagar.

If lexemes only have one meaning how, in your theory, does Hebrew create
these double meanings, particularly in the case where the double meaning
depends on a single word?

Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
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