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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Interchange of L/lamed with R/resh in Biblical Hebrew
  • Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:05:59 -0400

David,

Yes, but the whole thing is useless or trivial or sheer waste of time. Linguistics requires that the 'linguistic unit' under consideration be first ascertained to be meaningful (and minimal!) to qualify for morpheme status, but it does not tell us how to achieve this knowledge. Once I know the meaning of a certain 'linguistic unit' I don't need linguistics to tell me it is a morpheme. It is what it means to be. This is tautology at its best.
My ideas about the structure of the Hebrew word merit careful consideration, rather than derision. It is pity, but instead of concentrating on Hebrew we waste our time on the barren word inventions and interplays of Indo-European linguistics.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jun 26, 2008, at 2:35 AM, David Kummerow wrote:


Dear Isaac,

I am again baffled as to where you get your ideas from. Again, the view
you espouse below allows you to maintain your etymological fallacies in
the face of being shown that they are in fact wrong. Of course the
classical grammarians weren't using our language of "phoneme" and
"morpheme", but the concepts of "phoneme" and "morpheme" can be found
though.

Still you haven't countered my point that you have attributed morphemic
status to phonemes. Because of this mistake, your work is shot through
with errors.

Regards,
David Kummerow.



Hebrew etymology has nothing to do with linguistics. People have
analyzed the structure and meaning of Hebrew words for thousands of
years prior to the morpheme the phoneme and the phonemic and
morphemic analysis.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jun 25, 2008, at 6:56 PM, David Kummerow wrote:

Dear Isaac,

It seems to me that you are again unable to provide answers to the
critique levelled at your position and do not engage with, or seek to
understand, linguistic methodology proper so that you can still
hold on
to your fallacious view of linguistics, the language of BH, and
etymological reconstructions.

Look, you wanted to converse in "plain" English, so I attempted a
definition of "morpheme" for you that was in plain English. Now you
just
want to nit-pick. Of course I could define "morpheme" more
elaborately,
and also define the words I did use: "unit", "bears", and "meaning".
Comparing the definition I gave and reading the sections I pointed
to in
Joüon-Muraoka and Waltke-O'Connor would, if you wanted to see,
elaborate
the point and flesh out more of what "morpheme" means. The answer's
there if you want it.

If your view of linguistics is that it is "but one big tautology", why
don't you just stay clear of it and stick with mathematics? Why
write a
book on etymology if you do not understand the basics of the required
methodology, viz. phonemic and morphemic analysis (of course, there's
more to than simply this; one also has to be familiar with historical
linguistics, etc.)? I'm sure you would take to task someone who
attempted some algebraic maths without having first come to grips with
how to add, subtract, etc. Similarly, etymological reconstruction
cannot
be done without first knowing some linguistic basics.

I find it quite ironic that someone who does not understand
linguistics
claims that linguistics is "but one big tautology"! My suspicion is
that
claiming that linguistics is "but one big tautology" is but a cop- out
indicating (a) that you don't want to budge from your position, even
when proven wrong; and (b) you will never budge from your position,
even
when proven wrong. I more than willing to be proven wrong on these two
points!

Regards,
David Kummerow.

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