Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Steve:

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 5:18 AM, Cosmos<cosmos AT intergate.com> wrote:
>
> …
>
> How does one determine whether a word should be listed as a homograph? What 
> is the process? Is the choice made from the grammar, context, or both. Are 
> there other considerations? Is it an art? Or, is it a science? Also, I am 
> interested in knowing if there is only one answer, or if different scholars 
> might answer the question differently.
>
> If there is some source that a dilettante such as I might access, and make 
> sense of, please note it.
>
> Your responses would be deeply appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Steve Teague

Lexicography is part science, part art. Unlike chemistry, where
measurements can be made to the limits of our technology, human
language is somewhat fluid, making lexicography more dependent on the
understanding of the lexicographer. Below are my thoughts concerning
lexicography as recorded in the introduction to my personal dictionary
from Biblical Hebrew to English (a dictionary I had not intended to
write) that I use for my personal reading of the Bible.

“Definitions come from different sources, though the most common was
by consulting Gesenius, BDB and comparing them to their actual usages
in their contexts consulting Lisowski’s Konkordanz zum Hebräischen
Alten Testament. These definitions were further edited as I read
Tanakh through several times. Wherever possible, I have tried to
determine a single root definition by asking, “What is the action
implied by…?” This is not a translator's dictionary, giving all the
possible renditions of a word into English for each semantic domain,
rather one that gives an idea of the thought patterns and idioms of
ancient Hebrew usage. This leads to some awkward direct translations,
but by indicating the actions involved, a translator should then be
able to use a thesaurus to make an accurate yet fluid translation of
the text into English. (The reason for looking for a single, root
definition per word is from learning modern languages, I found that
technique of learning vocabulary the best way of learning thought
patterns for native speakers of the language and how they differ from
my mother tongue. Hence, if I want to understand well ancient Hebrew
and Tanakh, I should try to learn the thought patterns as closely as
possible to those of a native speaker.)

“I have found in studying languages it is best to assume that each and
every word has one and one only meaning. Unless there is clear
evidence to the contrary, we do not have homonyms. For some words, the
semantic range of meaning is narrow, for others wide. In cases where
the semantic range is wide, while it still has one unitary meaning in
its original language, it may be best to translate it using multiple
expressions in the second language, but that is translation, not
definition.

“Secondly, when we come across an example of a word used in the
context where the meaning is not clear, it is best to go with the
meaning derived from other contexts, unless it clearly does not fit.
Then either adjust the meaning found in other contexts to one that
fits all contexts, or if that is not possible, admit that here we deal
with homonyms. But as long as the actions, either directly or by
inference, are recognized, it is seldom that homonyms are recognized.

“One word of caution: while spoken homonyms may have been rare,
written ones are far more common, as Biblical Hebrew did not have
written vowels to show all the pronunciations that would have denoted
the differences in spoken language. There are many examples of where a
spelling may refer to more than one word, and in most of those cases,
they are listed below with pointers to the words that they refer to.”

I hope this helps.

Karl W. Randolph.