Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Lipiński has a little bit of discussion in:

Lipiński, Edward. 2001. Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative 
Grammar. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 80. Leuven: Peeters.

I haven't been able to check the following references, which may be 
worthwhile:

Arad, Maya. 2003. “Locality Constraints on the Interpretation of Roots: 
The Case of Hebrew Denominal Verbs.” Natural Language & Linguistic 
Theory 21: 737-778.
Bolozky, Shmuel. 1978. “Word Formation Strategies in the Hebrew Verb 
System: Denominative Verbs.” Afroasiatic Linguistics 5: 1-26.
Gerber, W. J. 1896. Die hebräischen Verba denominativa. Leipzig: Hinrichs.

As an aside, I see that Lipiński is another scholar who accepts the 
intensive/verbal plurality function of the D-stem in Semitic.

Regards,
David


> Peter & David (et al.),
>
> I have often wondered about this: how can we know that a verb is 
> denominative rather than the noun being deverbal? I have read a fair 
> amount of theoretical and historical linguistics (Hebrew and general), 
> but never seen this discussed.
>
> It seems that the theory of denominativization assumes that nouns 
> precede verbs in the development of a language; has this ever been 
> demonstrated?
>
> I'm not arguing against it, just wondering how sure we can be that 
> things worked/happened this way.
>
> Peace.
>
> Fred
>
> P.S. My students had just read the chapter on the piel, and one asked 
> (to general head-nodding), "So what difference does this make, anyway? I 
> mean, why does it really matter that we know that these verbs are piel, 
> since they just sound normal?" A very interesting discussion ensued, as 
> you might imagine.