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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 7:14
  • Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:28:43 +1100

All so-called indefinite use examples of the Hebrew definite article are treated my Müller 1991 and Ehrensvärd 2000a, 2000b: ch 2. These are quite useful reading.

Ehrensvärd, Martin. 2000a. "Determination of the Noun in Biblical Hebrew." Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 14: 301-314.
Ehrensvärd, Martin. 2000b. "Studies in the Syntax and the Dating of Biblical Hebrew." PhD diss., University of Aarhus.
Müller, Augustin R. 1991. "Zu den Artikelfunktionen im Hebräischen." Pages 313-329 in Text, Methode, und Grammatik: Wolfgang Richter zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by Walter Gross, Hubert Irsigler, and Helmut Satzinger. St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag.

Regards,
David Kummerow.


Dear Steve ,
>/
/>>>>/ My last question is about the definite article attached to FSN1. Is
theresome significance to this noun being only the noun to have a definite article?
/>>>>/ />>>/ HH: Yes, it is the subject.
/>>>/ />>/ LF: I.e., "the woman I'm pointing to".
/>>/ />/ [Steve Miller] Thank you for this informative question and answers.
/>/
/>/ What would be the difference in sense if the last noun, ben, had a
definite
/>/ article: />/ - What if both almah and ben had definite articles? />/ - What if almah did not have a def article, but ben did?
/>/ /HH: Liz seems to have treated the definite article here as though it had a demonstrative force, similar to "this woman." That is a possibility for the definite article here. However, there is another theory.

_Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar_ treats the definite article here as special but as an example of a category of usage (section #126 q-r). They say: "Peculiar to Hebrew is the employment of the article to denote a single person or thing (primarily one which is as yet unknown, and therefore not capable of being defined) as being present in the mind under given circumstances. In such cases in English the indefinite article is mostly used."

The go on to speak particularly of this article in Isaiah 7:14: "H(LMH, i.e., the particular maiden, through whom the prophet's announcement shall be fulfilled; we should say "a maiden."

For other examples of this class of usage they give, among others, Gen 42:23; 1 Kings 19:9; Job 9:31.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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