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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ambiguities, doubling meanings and puns
  • Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 12:53:58 -0500

Jack:

No one made either claim that you stated.
That is why when Bill Rea tried to put those
words in my mouth, I accused him of setting
up a straw man argument (Bill, if I
misunderstood your argument, sorry).

Let's look at English as an example. When a
lexeme is used in a pun, does that use
change its meaning? Or does it retain its
meaning but its unusual use indicates that
in this context it acts as a pun?

Just as a complex lexeme combines two words
to make a third meaning, so an idiom must be
taken as a whole. To repeat the example
given before of a politician "running for"
an office. Does the use of "run" in this
idiom change its meaning? Or does it just
conjure a picturesque image in mind's eye
by use of the physical term?

(This feels like reteaching Semantics 101,
which I thought would be unnecessary in a
discussion of this level.)

I assume that the ancient Hebrews were just
like modern man, also in their use and
understanding of language. Therefore the
patterns of puns, idioms and other literary
constructs are just as possible in Biblical
Hebrew as in modern English. The only
complicating difference is that the
grammatical constructs from roots can
sometimes converge, especially when using
an unpointed text, so that one form, one
Binyan, can have two or more roots. In those
cases, one only needs to recognize the roots
and comprehension often follows.

Bill, as far as specific puns you claimed to
find, Peter already answered one as being a
standard usage of the lexeme without needing
to resort to understanding it as a pun, and
the second one is an example of grammatical
convergence of form from two different roots
which again pretty much rules out the pun
argument. Amos 8:1-2 has an example of a
pun, but you didn't mention that one.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Rea" <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>
>
> Jack asked:-
>
> > I am curious, did I understand someone to say that Hebrew
> > words cannot have more than one meaning, hence pun and
> > double entendres are not possible?
>
> The claim, made by Karl, is that lexemes, not individual words, have
> a single meaning. Compound lexemes have more than one word. Examples
> given previously are ``strike out'' as in baseball, and ``strike up''
> as in starting a conversation. Both are compound lexemes and have a
> meaning different from strike and out or up on their own.
>
> I was curious as to how Karl's theory handles puns and other word
> play which generate double meanings. He doesn't think my question
> was genuine saying it sounded like a ``straw man''. Also he did
> not deal with the specific pun I put forward. So there's nothing
> left to talk about and I'm none the wiser about how his theory
> would handle a pun.
>
>
> P.S. Thanks to Harold Holmyard for your helpful comments. I'll check
> what those three authors say about Gen 30:3 and if there's anything
> useful I'll post tomorrow. I thought you owned a copy of Alter's
> translation and commentary so you should be able to see what he
> thinks, if anything, before then.
>
> Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
> E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz </ New
> Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax 64-3-364-2332 /) Zealand
> Unix Systems Administrator (/'

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